Wimbledon, Here We Come!

We finally pulled the trigger!  Jer and I just bought tickets to the Wimbledon Ladies Final match next month.  I had no idea how hard it was to get tickets to Wimbledon! The majority of Center, Court No. 1 and Court No. 2 tickets are sold in advance through a public ballot.  There are always more entries into the ballot than tickets available, and successful applicants are just chosen at random.  You don't even get to choose which day/match you want to apply for; that is also chosen at random.  And the even bigger kicker?  The ballot is open from August to December of the preceding year!  Sweet jeez.  I definitely did not have all my plans finalized last year to know that I would have wanted to apply.  The other way to get tickets is to participate in the Debenture process every five years.  With a debenture, you get a Center Court ticket for every day of the championship for the five year period.  The cost is about $34,000 USD.  Debenture holders can use the tickets themselves, or sell them in the secondary market, if they so desire.  This is where I came in!  We had to search for debentures in ticket exchanges.  There really aren't that many available, and they are super pricey.  Tickets to the Men's Semifinal and Final matches are astronomical.  They run about $3300 - $5000 apiece.  APIECE!  We quickly abandoned our hope of seeing one of those matches and instead opted for the Ladies.  Might as well use the gender inequality to our advantage, right?  It's not "cheap" to watch the Ladies either, but at least it's not as much as the Men's.  Besides, this is a once in a lifetime experience.  I think we can make the sacrifice. 

I'm beyond excited about the prospect of watching this match live.  I've been watching Wimbledon (and all the Grand Slams, for that matter) on TV since I was a kid.  My hubby is THE BEST for agreeing to buy these tickets, considering it's a much bigger deal to me than it is to him.  I think he'll still have a great time though.  It's kinda crazy since I don't even know who will be playing in the Finals at this point, but I will definitely be following intently when the tournament starts on June 21.  Luckily Wimbledon doesn't have camera restrictions, so I will be taking about a bazillion pictures while I'm there.  I can't wait!!