The center court will ring hollow this year for Roland.
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FRANCK FIFE / AFP
Paris is now, like many other large French cities, placed in a bright red zone (aka "scarlet zone" or "reinforced alert zone"), the maximum level for major events will be lowered to 1,000 people, against 5,000 up to 'here.
This is what Minister of Health Olivier Véran announced on Wednesday as part of the fight against the spread of Covid-19.
In this regard, little or no chance that the Roland-Garros tournament, which begins on Sunday, is an exception to the rule.
This new gauge will apply "from Saturday at the end of a consultation between the prefect and the local elected officials".
These measures, decided on for a period of two weeks, concern the metropolitan areas of Bordeaux, Lyon, Nice, Lille, Toulouse, Saint-Etienne, Rennes, Paris and its inner suburbs, Rouen, Grenoble and Montpellier.
Towards a total closed door?
Last week, the Parisian tournament of Roland Garros, postponed to the fall due to the Covid-19 epidemic, had already had to reduce its gauge from 11,500 (announced ten days ago) to a maximum of 5,000 spectators per day.
"To date, we have no confirmation on the conditions of organization of the tournament," responded the French Tennis Federation.
The FFT should raise this question with the health and political authorities in the coming hours but now the question arises: will the organizers decide outright to go into total closed doors, as is envisaged for example by PSG for these matches in Princes Park ?
What is certain is that these new restrictions should inflict a big blow on the finances of the federation, which essentially lives (about 80%) of the receipts of the grand slam on clay.
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