Tennis

Wimbledon Tennis Championship – Food by Numbers

Illustration chapeau / vue generale court - 30.06.2015 - Wimbledon 2015 Photo : van den Berg / Photoshot / Icon Sport

When people think of sporting events and food, the Super Bowl springs to mind. Chicken wings, nachos, pizza, BBQ’s, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. Wimbledon is where the “prawn sandwich brigade” gathers for a fortnight annually to enjoy their strawberries and cream, but there’s much more to it than that. 2 sporting events, lots of food, and it’s all in the numbers.

Pizza

Pizza is a favourite at both events, but the quality is vastly different. Super Bowl Sunday is the busiest day of the year for pizza. Dominos sold 12 million slices, whilst Pizza Hut sold over 2 million pizzas for the event. On the other hand, Wimbledon doesn’t deal in takeaways, but instead in stone baked pizzas. 30,000 are sold across the Wimbledon fortnight each year. The Super Bowl is more popular but unhealthier in the pizza stakes.

Main Meals

The type of meal certainly differs between the events. Americans love their burgers, and Super Bowl Sunday is one big barbeque. 14 billion burgers are served up across the USA. Wimbledon sees more tourists enjoying the atmosphere, and visitors love trying out some traditional British fish and chips. Wimbledon serves 16,000 portions each year.

Snacks

It’s all about bar snacks in America. Crisps are the third most popular Super Bowl snack, with 11.2 million pounds consumed during the event. On top of this, 4 million pounds of pretzels and 2.5 million pounds of nuts are also consumed. Wimbledon sees more jam and scones being devoured. 25,000 scones are eaten each year. Popcorn is another popular one in America; 3.8 million pounds of popcorn are enjoyed during the game. It wouldn’t catch on at Wimbledon though; such is the silence of the crowd.

Fruit and Vegetables

Americans do eat fruit in the build up to the Super Bowl and yes you read that correctly. Americans were expected to eat approximately 278 million avocados in the build up to the Super Bowl. Wimbledon is renowned for its strawberries and cream. 140,000 portions are sold every year and they’re many people’s highlight of the tournament.

Alcohol

Sport and beer are synonymous with each other and the Super Bowl is no different. 51.7 million cases of beer are sold on Super Bowl Sunday every year. 110,000 pints of beer and lager are sold at Wimbledon, but the classic summer drink is Pimms. 320,000 glasses of Pimms are enjoyed on Henman Hill which gives the whole tournament a distinctively British feel, even if we are rubbish at tennis.

Words by @DominicTrant