An American man who is currently visiting Wimbledon for the first time has been left stunned by one aspect of his trip. Tennis fan Kobie Jordan, who now resides in the UK, took to YouTube to offer an insight into his experience at SW19.
In a clip recorded outside the All England Club, he admitted: “I don’t know if this is common knowledge here in the UK or it’s just me – but my mind is lowkey blown as I’m in the process of getting into Wimbledon.” Kobie went on to explain that there are two methods for gaining entry – the “very difficult” ballot, or simply by enduring the lengthy queuing system.
“I’m so shocked, I’m going to have to ask others about their queuing experience,” Kobie continued as he introduced another attendee on his clip.
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“I’ve been queuing since 4:20am,” the man said. “It was dark, it was cold and the hardest part of the queue is the toilets – everyone coming out of them looked shellshocked.”
He continued: “Around every two hours there is a big shift. When the guy comes over with the wide hat, he says, ‘You’ve got to go’ and we just have to pick up our stuff, grab our loved ones and move on.”
A second man approached Kobie, meanwhile, revealing a ticket confirming his place in the queue was a whopping 11,005.
A female tennis fan in the queue also told Kobie: “We’ve suffered exhaustion, deliriousness, but we’ve been laughing a lot.”
Responding to the video, one YouTube user joked: “Only in Britain is a queue a tourist attraction. I worked there for eight years myself and it’s sophisticated because everybody will get in and if not they will close the queue.”
A second person pointed out: “To clarify this isn’t to get into Centre Court or Court 1 where the big matches happen, this is just getting into the grounds. You might catch some of the earlier rounds on smaller courts around but for serious business they’re queueing to sit on the hill outside centre court with the big screen.”
A third revealed: “It was super busy yesterday and the day before. They stopped letting anymore people coming in in the afternoon two days ago onwards because the ground was so full!”
Whilst a fourth YouTube user confessed: “Not gonna lie, I had no idea it was like this. I knew the queues were long, but I’ve never actually seen the scene. Craziness. You have to know you are doing a good job with your channel when you are managing to show even brits new sides of British life.”