Roland-Garros: the spectators finally drawn!

You had to be lucky in the draw ... Faced with a real headache after the announcement of the drop in the gauge to 1,000 spectators by Prime Minister Jean Castex Thursday evening, the organizers of Roland Garros have decided.

This Friday morning, the FFT left it to chance (under the control of a bailiff) to allocate the precious sesame for each day among all those who had already bought a ticket.

Those who fail will obviously be reimbursed and will benefit from preferential access to booking for the 2021 edition.

“We regret this new constraint, explains President Bernard Giudicelli.

Since the start of the crisis, we had only to praise the work we had done with the state services.

We thought that the 5,000 was already a minimum gauge, the government authorities decided otherwise… ”

"It is better to have 1000 people rather than zero"

48 hours before the first exchanges of the big picture, we had to deal with the most urgent.

With 145,000 seats already sold to be processed… “In recent weeks, we had already gone through reimbursements, reassignments, confirmations, breathes Stéphane Morel, deputy general manager of the marketing and economic development division.

Taken by time, we had to adapt again.

We will be contacting the lucky and the less fortunate in the next few hours so that they can come on Sunday or get a refund.

We don't have time to do a sit-in with distancing and seat assignments.

On the Central, the

will all be placed at the bottom and the hosts will ensure distance between people.

"

Therefore, wouldn't it have been easier to go in camera?

“Financially, we are in the process of costing and tens of millions of euros have gone up in smoke,” answers Morel.

But it is better to have 1,000 people rather than zero.

For the millions of viewers who will see the tournament across 222 countries, having an audience, even a very small portion, around the players is not the same sight as going fully closed.

We could see it between the final of the US Open and that of Rome.

There is a real difference in terms of rendering.

This is part of our decision to make every effort whatever the financial consequences… ”