Wimbledon Championships
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Court 10 – on the outside courts there is no reserved seating
The BBC's opening theme music for Wimbledon was composed by Keith Mansfield and is titled "Light and Tuneful". A piece titled "A Sporting Occasion" is the traditional closing theme, though nowadays coverage typically ends either with a montage set to a popular song or with no music at all. The majority of centre and show court tickets sold to the general public are made available by a public ballot that the All England Club holds at the start of the year. A ballot for tickets has been held since 1924. The ballot has always been substantially oversubscribed. Successful applicants are selected at random by a computer. The All England Club, through its subsidiary The All England Lawn Tennis Ground plc, issues Debentures to tennis fans
Tickets
every five years to raise funds for capital expenditure. Fans who invest thus in the club receive a pair of tickets for every day of the Wimbledon Championships for the five years the investment lasts. Only debenture holders are permitted to sell on their tickets to third parties, although for many years ticket touts have made a habit of illegally purchasing tickets allocated to non-debenture holders in the draw and selling them for a profit. Demand for debentures has increased in recent years, to such an extent that they are even traded on the London Stock Exchange. Wimbledon is the only grand slam where fans without tickets for play can queue up and still get seats on Centre Court, Court 1 and Court 2. From 2008, there is a single queue, allotted about 500 seats for each court. When they join the queue fans are handed vouchers with a number on it and the following morning when the line moves towards the Grounds, stewards come through the line and hand out wristbands colour-coded to the specific court. The voucher is then redeemed at the ticket office for the ticket. To get into the show courts, fans will normally have to queue overnight at Wimbledon, This is done by fans from all over the world and is considered part of the Wimbledon experience in itself. Those planning to queue overnight are advised to bring a tent and sleeping bag. Times to queue up vary according to the weather, but anyone queueing up before 9 pm on a weekday should be able to get a show court ticket. Queuing for the show courts ends after the quarter finals have been completed.