NEW YORK — The U.S. Open’s Arthur Ashe Stadium will get an overhaul as a part of an $800 million venture introduced Monday that the U.S. Tennis Affiliation is touting because the “largest single funding” within the historical past of its Grand Slam match.
The USTA stated it’s funding the enhancements on the Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle in Flushing Meadows, with no assist from town authorities.
In keeping with a class-action antitrust lawsuit filed in federal courtroom in New York in March by a gamers’ group co-founded by Novak Djokovic, the 4 main tennis tournaments — the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, French Open and Australian Open — “generated over $1.5 billion collectively in 2024, whereas solely paying between (10 per cent to twenty per cent) of income to gamers.”
Individually, in April, Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff had been amongst 20 main tennis gamers who signed a letter despatched to the heads of the Grand Slam tournaments in search of extra prize cash and a better say in what they known as “choices that immediately affect us.”
The USTA stated there won’t be interruption to scheduled play or fan entry for the subsequent two editions of the U.S. Open. Play in the primary draw this yr begins on Aug. 24 — shifting to a Sunday begin for the primary time within the Open period, which started in 1968, and including a fifteenth day of competitors.
The USTA’s work, which is predicted to be executed in time for the 2027 U.S. Open, consists of establishing a $250 million participant efficiency centre.
The brand new participant space shall be subsequent to the apply courts and embrace further courts, locker rooms, lounges and an open-air warmup space so gamers be acclimated to the circumstances earlier than they go to the courtroom for his or her matches.
USTA executives didn’t say if ticket costs would enhance because of the venture.
Ashe’s courtside-level seating capability will enhance from 3,000 to five,000, whereas some seats in different sections shall be eliminated, leaving the world’s complete much like what it’s now — round 23,000 to 24,000, the largest in Grand Slam tennis. The stadium, which first opened in 1997 and has had a retractable roof since 2016, additionally will get a brand new “grand entrance,” two new luxurious suite ranges, extra membership and restaurant areas, bigger and up to date concourses and restrooms, and extra escalators and elevators.
