12/27/2023 0 Comments Us open arena![]() ![]() The stadium has also hosted the first-ever outdoor regular season WNBA game in 2008 the Indiana Fever beat the host New York Liberty 71–55 on July 19. The first official match played on the court was at the 1997 US Open between Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand and Chanda Rubin of the United States. On August 25, 1997, the stadium opened by hosting the US Open, with Whitney Houston singing " One Moment in Time" during the stadium's inauguration ceremonies and dedicating the performance to the late Arthur Ashe. Like the other 32 courts in the facility, it has a DecoTurf cushioned acrylic surface. It cost $254 million to construct, and then had 22,547 seats, 90 luxury suites, five restaurants, and a two-level players' lounge, making it by far the largest tennis-only venue in the world. Opened in 1997, the facility replaced Louis Armstrong Stadium as the primary venue for the tournament. In July 2008, Arthur Ashe Stadium hosted its first professional basketball game played outdoors After suffering successive years of event delays from inclement weather, a new lightweight retractable roof was completed in 2016. The original stadium design, completed in 1997, had not included a roof. The stadium is named after Arthur Ashe (1943–1993), winner of the inaugural 1968 US Open, the first in which professionals could compete. Part of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, it is the main stadium of the US Open tennis tournament and has a capacity of 23,771, making it the largest tennis stadium in the world. Port Washington Branch at Mets–Willets PointĪrthur Ashe Stadium is a tennis stadium at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. Write to Chris Herring at ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. But he added that the network does "see the benefit of a guaranteed finish to the event as scheduled." "So it makes sense that ESPN would step in and find a way to help guarantee that matches would be played each day."Ī spokesman for ESPN declined to comment on any possible pre-contract discussions concerning a stadium roof. "CBS was hurt badly ratings-wise by all those rainouts the past five years," Pilsen said. Open finals, will continue airing the tournament's marquee matches. Until then, CBS, which has long held the broadcast rights to the men's and women's U.S. In 2010, Rafael Nadal beat Djokovic for the championship the day after the event had been slated to end.įor USTA officials, a retractable roof would mean no longer having to deal with awkward questions concerning when they'll devise better provisions for when bad weather arises.įormer CBS President Neal Pilson said he believes much of the funding for the roof would come from the 11-year, $825 million deal that the USTA struck with ESPN earlier this year for exclusive broadcast rights to the tournament. Open's title round an extra day to Monday-a troubling scenario for ratings-hungry TV networks that want to maximize their audiences on weekends.įor the past two years, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have had to wait an extra day to play the final (including last year's historic four-hour, 54-minute marathon). For each of the past five years, inclement weather has pushed the U.S. Players have often complained that bad weather is allowed to throw a wrench in their preparation efforts, and sometimes forces them to compete on consecutive days. The stadium has also been criticized by some for its hulking size-too big, they say, for some spectators to see the action on the court.īut the retractable roof figures to appease tennis players and ESPN, which will be able to rest comfortably knowing that their match schedules are secure. When it opened in 1997, then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani refused to attend the inaugural ceremonies, citing what he believed was a bad contract between the city (specifically, his predecessor, David Dinkins) and the USTA. The roof also figures to be an advancement that nearly every affected group would support, making it different than a slew of other issues the stadium has faced. Rossetti is already heading up a current renovation project that will add two new stadiums to a tennis center that boasts 12 indoor courts, 19 field courts, four clay bubbled courts and three stadium courts.
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