All England Lawn Tennis Club CEO Sally Bolton was “surprised and disappointed” to hear that a group of top tennis players plan to exit their contractual media obligations after 15 minutes during the first week of Wimbledon as a protest against their level of compensation at the tournament.
“Players are always right at the heart of our decision-making,” Bolton, who is leaving the AELTC in late July, said in a pre-Wimbledon interview with SBJ, pointing to the tournament’s announced 20% increase in prize money in 2026 and an ongoing, multimillion dollar renovation of player facilities on-site. “We invest really heavily in not just getting [players] a great share of the spoils of the Championships but also investing behind making sure they’re having the best possible experience. It’s a bit surprising that we are where we are. We’ll have to see how that shapes up over the first week.”
Bolton and Debbie Jevans, chair of the AELTC, which operates Wimbledon, have been negotiating with the player group for more than a year in meetings that Bolton said have included, from the player side, former WTA chief Larry Scott (who is advising the group), agents and athletes. The player group has also staged talks with organizers of the other three Grand Slams as they seek:
- A greater share of each tournament’s revenue (the group contends each Slam pays below 15% of its revenue in player compensation, and that they should raise that to 22%, in line with ATP Masters/WTA 1000 tournaments).
- Contributions by the organizing bodies to player welfare benefits.
- The formation of player councils to consult on tournament decision-making.
Bolton said a source of frustration for AELTC leadership is the player group’s proposed revenue share structure as the mode of deciding the total prize money pool.
“It doesn’t take account of all the investments we make in many things, the costs of delivering the Championships to the standard that we deliver it to -- which, of course, builds a value in our brand, which, particularly for the top-10 players, they’ll see the benefits of when you look at the kind of contracts that they will have personally,” Bolton said. “Our business model, really carefully balanced over 150 years, has delivered that value -- yes, to us, yes, to British tennis -- but also back to the players.”
The AELTC reported £423.6M ($559.1M) in revenue attributable to Wimbledon in 2025 and a £52.7M ($69.6M) operating profit, which netted £6.7M ($8.9M) pre-tax after a nearly £50M distribution to the Lawn Tennis Association, Britain’s national governing body for the sport. (The AELTC and LTA signed an agreement in 2011 that entitled the LTA to an up to 90% share of the surplus generated by Wimbledon, beginning in 2013.)
Bolton claimed the AELTC has requested to see the basis of the player group’s revenue share calculations for the ATP/WTA events the Slams are being compared to but “haven’t been able to get access to those figures.”
“We are very much engaged in conversations, very keen to continue conversations,” she said. “But we really need a bit more transparency.”
Of the player group’s other focus points, Bolton said the AELTC wrote to the players last year suggesting the formation of a player council and seeking a meeting to discuss the process for doing so, but the proposal was rejected.
“The rejection was based on, ‘Well, we need to see more money before we’ll [agree to] a player council,” she said. “They can approach this whichever way they wish to approach this. What I would say is, they’ve asked for us to respond on three areas. In the latest [press] release, we’re being criticized for not responding on the other two -- player welfare and player council. We have. We’re really keen to get that going.”
She added that the AELTC would prefer to discuss how benefits contributions are split within the larger athlete compensation pool “in a player council environment.”
“There’s no lack of willing to engage on welfare,” Bolton said. “It’s just we think the players should have a voice in that.”
Conversations between the two sides are expected to resume after Wimbledon.
