French Open: But only 5,000 fans - in the best case scenario
The organizers of the French Open (September 27th to October 11th) suffered a major setback when the fans returned to the stands. As the police prefecture of Paris announced to the AFP news agency on Thursday, only 5000 viewers per day are allowed on the system, not the 11,500 originally planned.
by SID
last edit: Sep 18, 2020, 08:17 am
The reasons for this are the worsening corona situation in the country and the current regulations of the French government that limit public gatherings to 5000 people.
The organizers of the French Open initially announced at the beginning of September that they would allow a total of 11,500 spectators per day on the facility. The tournament should be divided into three independent clusters around the Court Philippe Chatrier (capacity: 15,000), the Court Suzanne Lenglen (10,000) and the Court Simonne Mathieu (5000). On Lenglen and Chatrier, 5,000 spectators should be allowed each, on Mathieu 1,500.
In total, only up to 75,000 fans will be able to come in the course of the 15-day Grand Slam - a fraction of the 520,000 who were in the stands in 2019. The French tennis association FFT initially did not want to comment on AFP's request.
The association will rent two hotels near the facility in Bois de Boulogne, which will be exclusively available to the players and their coaches. "Everyone must stay in these hotels, there will be no exceptions," said Jean-Francois Vilotte, the association's general manager, at the beginning of September.