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Wimbledon’s answer to the influencer problem is already on site, in uniform and, according to the man now running the All England Club, quietly hoping for the chance to intervene.
Richard Atkinson, the club’s interim chief executive, was asked at the Leaders Week conference at Stamford Bridge how Wimbledon would handle the kind of disruption that halted play at the US Open in August. His response drew laughter from the room.
“If you try to do that at Wimbledon, I think you’d probably have some Royal Marines Commando [stopping you],” Atkinson said. “We do have military there and they would like nothing more, I suspect, than to sort out some influencers.”
The joke lands because the threat is real. Roughly 500 armed forces personnel from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, the Army and the RAF work the Championships as service stewards each year, checking tickets, directing spectators and policing the silence between first and second serves. The tradition began in 1946, when military personnel helped secure a bomb-damaged site, and marked its 80th anniversary this summer. In 2026 the club received a record 1,400 applications for about 500 places.
What happened at Flushing Meadows
The incident Atkinson was alluding to occurred on 31 August, during Naomi Osaka’s first-round win over Anastasia Zakharova on Arthur Ashe Stadium. In the second set, a group in a luxury suite stood recording themselves, talking loudly into a camera and posing with portable ring lights while the point was live. The chair umpire stopped play and told them to take their seats. Osaka went on to win.
The clip went viral, and the context sharpened the backlash: the USTA had credentialed around 100 content creators for the 2026 tournament, up from 54 in 2025. The federation was quick to point out that none of the people involved in the Monday-night disruption were accredited by it at all — they were suite guests. It responded by increasing signage around the grounds and messaging ticket and suite holders directly.
“We have increased signage on the grounds, in stadium, and messaged ticket and suite holders to remind everyone to refrain from any activity that could disrupt the game,” USTA communications head Brendan McIntyre said.
Players were measured but unimpressed. “I think obviously if you come to a sporting event, you have to respect the sport,” Osaka said. Jessica Pegula called the behaviour “a bit disrespectful” to competitors trying to work. Andy Roddick was blunter on his podcast, noting that ESPN is barred from using set lighting during live play precisely because it distracts players, and asking why paying spectators should be held to a looser standard. Daniil Medvedev took the other side: “The more we try to raise awareness about tennis, the better it is.”
Wimbledon’s position: chaperoned, not banned
Atkinson was careful not to turn a one-liner into a culture war. Wimbledon does not accredit influencers or content creators, and he does not expect that to change. But creators will still be inside the gates, brought in by commercial partners — Polo Ralph Lauren among them — and those guests, he said, will be “tightly chaperoned”.
Banning them outright would be “nonsense”, Atkinson argued, given that influencers are now a crucial part of the marketing mix for any global sports property. The club’s preference is to deal with it “in a Wimbledon way”: control rather than prohibition. Practically, that means:
- no accreditation route for influencers or content creators
- portable ring lights banned from the grounds
- partner-invited creators supervised while on site
- service stewards enforcing court-side etiquette as they always have
Why this matters beyond SW19
Atkinson is a transitional figure making a durable decision. The AELTC’s finance director stepped up as interim chief executive after Sally Bolton, who was appointed in December 2019 having joined the club in 2016, left following this year’s Championships. A permanent successor is still being recruited. Whoever arrives will inherit a policy already set in public.
That policy is a bet. Every major sport is now chasing attention from audiences that discover events through phone screens, and the US Open’s creator programme — doubled in a single year — is the aggressive version of that strategy. Wimbledon’s calculation is that its scarcity is the product: the queue, the whites, the hush, the uniformed steward who will tell a duchess to sit down. Loosen that and the broadcast looks like everywhere else.
The risk is relevance. If tennis’s next generation of fans is recruited on TikTok, the tournament that refuses to accredit TikTok creators is choosing to be covered rather than to court. Atkinson’s joke suggests the All England Club is comfortable with that trade — and that if anyone tests it next July, the enforcement will not be metaphorical.
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Sources used to verify the story and its details: [AOL/PA report on Atkinson’s Leaders Week comments](https://www.aol.co.uk/articles/wimbledons-military-security-love-sort-163753000.html), [BBC Sport copy](https://www.shango.media/bbc-wimbledon-boss-jokes-military-would-love-to-sort-out-influencers-11929231), [ESPN: separating fact from fiction on the US Open influencer row](https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/49825071/us-open-2026-tennis-etiquette-social-media-influencers-content-creators), [PetaPixel on the umpire halting the Osaka match](https://petapixel.com/2026/09/03/umpire-tells-influencers-to-stop-photo-shoot-during-us-open/), [France 24 on the 80-year military stewards tradition](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260701-love-it-wimbledon-s-military-stewards-tradition-turns-80), [Sportcal on Bolton’s departure and Atkinson’s interim appointment](https://www.sportcal.com/news/bolton-announces-aeltc-departure-after-2026-wimbledon-tournament/).
One correction worth flagging against the brief: the quote is from **Richard Atkinson**, the AELTC’s interim chief executive, not Sally Bolton — she stepped down after the 2026 Championships. The Marines/influencers line and the ring-light ban are accurately reported.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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