Wimbledon chief says influencers have a place, with limits on access and equipment

Wimbledon's interim chief executive Richard Atkinson said at Leaders Week London, in remarks reported on 9 October, that the tournament has no accreditation category for influencers. He said creators invited by brands would be tightly chaperoned and portable ring lights would not be allowed at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. His comments follow a debate about spectator behaviour at this year's US Open.

Atkinson also joked that a Royal Marine Commando might intervene if someone began broadcasting during a match at Wimbledon. He said military personnel would, he suspected, like nothing more than to ‘sort out’ an influencer. The remarks were made in a discussion of crowd behaviour; he did not announce an enforcement plan involving the military.

What Richard Atkinson said about influencer access

‘We don't have a category of accredited people called influencers,’ Atkinson told the panel, according to BBC Sport. He drew a distinction between giving creators their own accreditation category and allowing brands to bring them to the tournament. As an example, he said a Wimbledon partner, Polo Ralph Lauren, would have an influencer present, but that such guests were ‘tightly chaperoned’.

Atkinson did not argue for excluding creators altogether. He called influencers a crucial part of building a brand and said it would be ‘nonsense’ to say Wimbledon would have none. His position was that creator work should be managed in a way consistent with the tournament's identity. BBC Sport said sources indicated that Wimbledon was unlikely to change its approach to influencer accreditation in the near future.

Why US Open incidents prompted an etiquette debate

The comparison was the 2026 US Open, where BBC Sport reported that organisers accredited 100 influencers and content creators. The Associated Press reported in September that creator credentials there had doubled from the previous year. That growth brought questions about how people making social media content should behave while play is under way and how organisers communicate the rules.

AP reported two incidents that fed the debate. Chair umpire Kader Nouni admonished people in a suite for recording a video during a point. AP also described a separate photo incident involving a ring light on a Monday night. The incidents illustrate why access for creators and ordinary match etiquette became linked in discussion of the event; they do not establish that every accredited creator behaved disruptively.

Naomi Osaka told AP she could hear people shouting during her first-round match. She said access for creators could help tennis grow if it was managed better and people understood the etiquette. Coco Gauff similarly said brands inviting influencers could explain the sport's norms to them. Her point, as reported by AP, was that spectators should follow those norms while the sport welcomes new audiences.

The US Tennis Association told AP, through spokesperson Brendan McIntyre, that reaching new audiences was essential to the growth of both tennis and the US Open. AP also reported that video screens at the tournament asked spectators to refrain from flash photography and other lighting. Those details show organisers addressing both promotion and conduct, the same issues Atkinson discussed from Wimbledon's perspective.

How Wimbledon says it will balance creators and spectators

Atkinson characterised Wimbledon's crowd as ‘self-policing’, with spectators respecting the action. He contrasted that atmosphere with what he called the US Open's more informal setting. His Royal Marines joke came while describing what he imagined would happen if somebody arrived with a ring light and started broadcasting during a match. It should be read as a joke about behaviour, not as a statement of military duties or a new security policy.