Wimbledon Says It Will Use the Military to Stop Influencers Staging Photo Shoots

This year’s U.S. Open tennis tournament was marred by rowdy influencers who conducted impromptu photo shoots that interrupted matches.

Wimbledon, another Grand Slam tennis tournament, says that kind of behavior won’t be tolerated in London and that military-trained security will take care of them.

“If you’ve ever been to the U.S. Open, it’s very New York City, right? It is mad, it is noisy, there’s all sorts of stuff going on,” says Richard Atkinson, the interim chief executive of the All England Club.

“It’s dead easy for someone who just bought a ticket to show up there with ring lights and start broadcasting literally in the middle of the match.

“If you try to do that at Wimbledon, I think you’d probably have some Royal Marine Commando [stopping you]. We do have military there and they would like nothing more, I suspect, than to sort out some influencers.”

Atkinson delivered his comments at the Leaders Week conference, per The Telegraph. British armed forces have long served as stewards at Wimbledon and Atkinson suggests they would soon put a stop to the type of shenanigans witnessed at Flushing Meadows this year.

One umpire had to tell a rowdy group of influencers occupying a suite to be quiet as they interrupted Naomi Osaka’s match while performing a TikTok routine. Osaka said after the game that it is “common courtesy to read up on the sport, especially the etiquette.”

Wimbledon bans ring lights, tripods, monopods, flash photography, and long lenses. Atkinson says while it doesn’t plan to accredit influencers, some are invited by partner brands.

“Clearly influencers are a crucial part of building a brand around the world in the third decade of the 21st century,” he says. “What you have to do is keep them under control. Our partners, Polo Ralph Lauren, will have influencers tightly chaperoned.”

“It’s a piece of the market, I think. We are not a world of just newspapers and television anymore. The world has changed, but it’s just really important that you deal with it in a Wimbledon way,” he adds.

“But, to say, ‘We are not going to be having influencers at Wimbledon’, is obviously nonsense. Our marketing team works meticulously to make sure that they’re doing things in a way that’s consistent with our brand. It’s self-policing, it really is.”

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