New York, a metropolis that ranks in the bottom 20 percent of major U.S. cities in tennis courts per person, turns into the game’s capital each August when the U.S. Open begins.
The best-attended Grand Slam tournament generates an estimated $450 million boost to the city’s economy and makes fans even out of residents who don’t know love from a foot fault. The Big Apple, in turn, puts its mark on what once was a country club sport.
“If you try to describe Wimbledon, they’re all supposed to be gentlemen and ladies,” Marshall Happer, former executive director of the United States Tennis Association, said in an interview. “In New York, it’s been like a street fight, which New Yorkers really do like.”
Players battling the traffic from Manhattan to the National Tennis Center in Queens arrive to find a hard-court surface that enhances ball speed and creates higher temperatures, and night matches that produce a different personality than Wimbledon and the French Open, played in daylight, said Stephen DeVoe, the tournament’s director in 1992 and 1993.
“It’s just the whole New York, in-your-face, fast-paced lifestyle,” DeVoe said. “You start out fighting your way out there just to get there to play, and then you take the New York crowds, particularly the evening crowd when they’ve had a good dinner with wine and some adult beverages, and it’s a tough crowd.”
Three Slams
Roger Federer, the 28-year-old Swiss with the No. 1 ranking on the ATP World Tour, won the French Open and Wimbledon this year and is going for his sixth straight U.S. Open crown. Serena Williams, the 27-year-old American ranked No. 2 by the WTA Tour behind Dinara Safina, also is aiming for her third major title of 2009, having won the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
Federer said New York fans helped propel him to the title last year after he had fallen to No. 2 in the rankings behind Rafael Nadal.
“I was lucky enough that when I got to New York, the fans were really there trying to push me back to No. 1 right away,” he said after winning the Cincinnati Masters tournament on Aug. 23. “All the cab drivers and everybody were stopping to wish me luck. It was something that I’ve never really experienced before in New York.”
Solid Sales
The worst recession since the Great Depression hasn’t diminished interest. The USTA said it sold all 84 of its luxury suites and forecast ticket sales to exceed 700,000, probably falling short of last year’s 720,227 record.
“People here absolutely get excited for the Open because we’ve had some pretty exciting tennis played here,” former New York City mayor David Dinkins said. “Tennis is such a wonderful sport that if it were played on the street like stickball among kids, it would draw a crowd.”
The $450 million annually the tournament generates for the city’s economy is more than the four major professional sports teams based in New York combined, said Arlen Kantarian, the USTA’s chief executive officer for professional play until last year. Kenneth Podziba, the city’s sports commissioner, said the tournament draws more people from outside the city than the four sports teams, the Yankees, Mets, Knicks and Rangers.
Last year, the Open earned more than $100 million on revenue of more than $200 million, according to the SportsBusiness Journal.
“The USTA has done wonders for us, and they’re a money- making machine for themselves,” Podziba said. “I wish we could have two or three more U.S. Opens each year for our economy, and we especially now could use it.”
Court Demand
Jerry Elman, club manager of Yorkville Tennis Club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, said his courts are always fully booked during the Open, with 50 percent more calls than a normal week. New York ranked 67th out of 77 of the nation’s largest cities in tennis courts per 10,000 residents, according to a 2008 study by the Trust for Public Land.
Revenue at Grand Central Racquet, a tennis retailer, doubles in the four weeks surrounding the tournament, owner Woody Schneider said.
“To us, the U.S. Open is Christmas,” Schneider said. “I see a lot of people coming back to the game. I have more and more people coming in and saying, ‘I haven’t played in 10 years, but I’m thinking of restringing my racket or buying a new racket.’”
The tournament started in 1881 and has been in New York continuously since 1924, moving to the National Tennis Center from the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills in 1978.
Jet Noise
By the early 1990s, the USTA considered moving the event to the suburbs or other cities, including Atlanta and San Diego. The biggest problem was planes taking off from LaGuardia Airport often passed over the courts at low altitude, interrupting the matches with the roar of jet engines.
“You couldn’t play tennis, you couldn’t talk to the person next to you,” Happer said.
Dinkins, an avid tennis fan, and other city leaders convinced the Federal Aviation Administration to change the takeoff routes during the tournament and helped the USTA secure financing for a new stadium. The USTA signed a 99-year lease in 1993, and in 1997 opened 22,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium. Since 2000, the event has added blue courts, video boards and almost doubled its revenue.
“People now think of New York as a tennis town because of the U.S. Open,” Podziba said.
(Source: Bloomberg)
