“We cannot accept seeing empty stands like that in the second half”: Roland-Garros is considering “more advanced” solutions

Ce n’est pas une première à Paris. MAXPPP – Arnaud Journois

Très satisfaits de la fréquentation de l’édition 2024 de Roland-Garros, la directrice du tournoi Amélie Mauresmo et le président de la Fédération française de tennis (FFT) Gilles Moretton ont fermement déploré dimanche les tribunes vides lors de la demi-finale Zverev-Ruud, affirmant chercher des solutions.

While the tournament was sold out, the absence of an audience for the second semi-final left a bad image. "I'm starting to have perhaps more advanced ideas to avoid that", affirmed Mauresmo without wanting to go into details yet, while a debriefing is planned in two weeks.

"I'm not going to give you miracle solutions today, but we need to discuss them. We are not satisfied with what we saw for the semi-finals, she added.

Moretton is on the same wavelength. "We can't accept seeing empty stands like that in the second half, that was already somewhat the case last year", he said, while highlighting a certain helplessness. "We sold 670 000 tickets, but we can't force people to return to the field", he noted.

"It’is a challenge that is not easy to solve"

The organizers were all the more surprised by this absence of an audience as "10 %" only Friday spectators had purchased tickets for both matches. The overwhelming majority had only purchased tickets for a half: they were there for the first, but inexplicably those for the second did not come.

"It’s still complicated to say that these people are not going to come. I'm not in their heads. Afterwards, more generally, people no longer sit in their seats for 5, 6 or 7 hours as before. It’s a challenge that is not easy to sort out", commented Mauresmo.

The tournament director, however, underlined with satisfaction the success of the Opening week, this week of qualifications which welcomed "75,000 people" in a festive atmosphere.

A successful Opening week

"On this Opening week, we had spectators who responded almost beyond our expectations, and I don't know if we saw qualifying matches in many tournaments take place in front of 10,000 spectators" as was the case on the Suzanne-Lenglen court, whose new roof was very appreciated, particularly during the first week, which was very disrupted by the rain.

From now on, the FFT will put the Roland-Garros stadium back in the hands of the Paris Olympic Games Organizing Committee. Part of the federation's teams will ensure the maintenance of the courts during the Olympics, then the Central will be transformed into a boxing stadium and once again dedicated to tennis for the Paralympics. "It’it is with enthusiasm and great pride that we will work on behalf of Paris 2024", said Gilles Moretton.