Yes, seriously! Wimbledon takes fans back to 80s for immersive screening of epic Björn Borg and John McEnroe final
The All England Club is launching an immersive cinema experience where Londoners will be transported back to the epic five set 1980 men’s Wimbledon final between Björn Borg and John McEnroe.
The tennis club said it wanted to engage younger audiences and encourage those who had never been to Wimbledon to fall in love with the championships.
They said Wimbledon Rematch 1980 will be a “ground-breaking” combination of sport, theatre and cinema, where the on-court drama between “ice-cool Swede” Borg and “American super-brat” McEnroe will be re-lived.
It will take over the new Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre for the experience, the first of its kind launched by the tennis club.
Fans will be asked to dress in appropriate Eighties clothing for finals day. They will enter in to a room with live actors playing TV reporters, players and paparazzi, projections of archive images and films, plus period props.
Half of the area will be dedicated to Wimbledon, with a commentary box, press conference zone and umpire’s chair, as well as SW19’s famous green benches and ivy-decked walls.
Underneath a Wimbledon clock from the time there will be a long bar decorated with key Eighties players, such as the year’s women’s finalists Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, the first mother to win the competition, and Chris Evert.
The other half will be dedicated to the era, with a living room playing VHS footage detailing Eighties history, a video games arcade and jukeboxes.
After about an hour of exploring, fans will proceed through to “Centre Court” where they will watch a recreation of Borg’s battle with McEnroe.
The 90-minute performance will be part theatre and part film and will “re-tell the story of the match and its drama”. Wimbledon Rematch 1980 was created in partnership between the All England Lawn Tennis Club and events business Rematch.
Alexandra Willis, head of communications at the tennis club, said: “We recognise that we can’t welcome everyone into our grounds, so we wanted to provide an alternative opportunity to engage with Wimbledon — and hopefully fall in love with it.
“The folklore around the rivalry between Borg and McEnroe doesn’t need introduction in tennis circles, but for modern-day fans it’s a throwback to the days when an ice-cool Swede held off an American super-brat. Not only did they bring drama on the court, off the court they had their own fan bases. They were icons of the time.”
There will be five showings of Wimbledon Rematch between June 28 and 30, the weekend before the start of the championships on July 1. Tickets cost £49.50 per person, plus booking fee.
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