NEW YORK — The US Open’s Arthur Ashe Stadium will get an overhaul as a part of an $800 million challenge introduced Monday that the U.S. Tennis Affiliation is touting because the “largest single funding” within the historical past of its Grand Slam event.
The USTA mentioned it’s funding the enhancements on the Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart in Flushing Meadows with no assist from the town authorities.
In accordance with a class-action antitrust lawsuit filed in federal court docket in New York in March by a gamers’ group co-founded by Novak Djokovic, the 4 main tennis tournaments — the US Open, Wimbledon, French Open and Australian Open — “generated over $1.5 billion collectively in 2024, whereas solely paying between [10% to 20%] 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 looking for extra prize cash and a larger say in what they known as “selections that immediately affect us.”
The USTA mentioned there is not going to be interruption to scheduled play or fan entry for the following two editions of the US Open. Play in the principle draw this 12 months 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 US Open, contains setting up a $250 million participant efficiency heart.
The brand new participant space shall be subsequent to the apply courts and embrace extra courts, locker rooms and lounges.
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 just like what it’s now, round 23,000 to 24,000, the most important 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.