It's been like this. And expensive once you get there, as mentioned. The signature Honey Deuce drink that everyone gets with the "commemorative" cup is $23.00 bucks.
When I was living back there I could easily afford to buy a ticket, but didn't. I am a big tennis fan but I wasn't spending that much to be there live. I went once back in 2017 with a friend who goes every year and had an extra ticket. Got the tee shirt.
I am currently on my couch with a cup of coffee watching Alcaraz play.
Did I just buy a number of Honey deuce drinks tonight and have an amazing time….yes I did. The matches ended at 1 AM tonight which is insane but so much earlier than last night. They definitely have to figure something out but unfortunately TV is a driving factor
Sadly, so many things are being done wrong. The US Open is becoming more about drinking Honey Deuce cocktails and being the "in" thing to do than a tennis tournament. Then there is the greed factor of building more suites in Ashe Stadium and taking away "cheaper" seats for tennis fans. If you bought a ticket for day session on Ashe Stadium years ago, you would get three matches, now it is only two. The women's matches in the early rounds have good chance of being under an hour. Then if the men's match is a blowout, you barely get three hours of tennis on Ashe Stadium. Sure, you can still go to outer courts to watch matches but good luck finding a seat. The seat prices for Ashe have really gone up a bunch the last couple of years.
As for the night sessions, women's match should always be first. Their matches rarely go over 2 hours especially the first week so men's match will start at reasonable time (9-9:30).
Tennis has always been an "elitist" sport, IMO so I get costs being high. There was an article in the NY Post (yes, sometimes I like trashy news) about influencers at the Open, and that a match was stopped because an influencer stood up during a point to get content. I feel like in today's world where everything costs so much, and people don't have a lot of extra income, the strategy of making everything extravagant, exclusive, and elitist has become the way to go. Get those influencers in, and make people want to be a part of something. Its like that SNL sketch about New Yorkers waiting in a line for a food item or product just because there is a huge line and not really caring about the doughnut at the end of the line.
.jpg?format=auto&width=300)
