Wimbledon tournament director shares what he finds ‘frustrating’ about players threatening to boycott over prize money

With the French Open having been embroiled in boycott controversy, there are fears that such threats could spill over to Wimbledon.

After all, it is part of the four Grand Slams, all of whom have come under fire from the players for their perceived underpayment.

They are arguing that, for all the money these tournaments make, the revenue distribution is wholly disproportionate given they are the big draw.

And, led by Aryna Sabalenka, plenty of players actually threatened to boycott Roland Garros before the tournament began.

Well, on the day that Wimbledon have announced their prize money for the 2026 edition, the tournament director has now emerged to battle these claims further.

Wimbledon tournament director responds to boycott threats

Speaking on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, Jamie Baker, the tournament director of The Championships, was discussing the players’ argument.

He began by insisting: “It costs money to stage a championships. It costs money to develop the brand over many, many, many years.”

Baker then explained why this is important: “Now, that money and that investment, and I would look at it in two ways: the annual staging of the championships, and then the major infrastructure projects, the two things combined, look at that as the engine that allows us to drive revenue, that then does two things.

“We can distribute massively to the players of prize money, and then we also have the distribution to the grassroots game. That is our business model. There’s no leakage. There’s no shareholder; we don’t exist to deliver a return to anybody. All our money stays in tennis.

“Now, the reason why we would want to be really clear about using this revenue metric just doesn’t make sense for this business, is because revenue only takes into account money coming in. It does not take into account costs or investments, and that has to be part of the conversation.”

Baker finished by admitting: “The thing that’s frustrating about this conversation is that we are on the side of the players.

“We want them, the players, to share in the growth of the championships, and there is a path to doing that.

“But, we do have to take a step back and recognise what it is about this business that works, that allows us, on average, to generate ten times the amount of revenues as a 1000 event, and then also distribute up to five times as much money.”

Wimbledon have done enough to avoid protests with prize money release

As noted earlier, Roland Garros have released their prize money for the upcoming event.

Fortunately for the players, it sees a sizeable increase from last year, and therefore should be more than enough to stave off more protests at this major.

In Paris, whilst boycotting was floated as a possibility, in the end the top players settled on a 15-minute walk-out from their media day press conferences.

The consequences were little, but it got the conversation going.

With Wimbledon set to offer £64.2m as total prize money this year, a whopping 20% increase from 2025, the pressure has now been heaped onto the US Open to avoid upsetting the players in the final Grand Slam of the season.