By Jesús Jiménez
Inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday afternoon, thousands of fans cheered on an All-American third-round match between Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton. But as the match stretched into its fourth hour, a throng of thousands more with tickets for the night matches swelled outside the stadium waiting to enter.
The crowd was one of many over the past week at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York, where the U.S. Open has been busier than ever.
With an average of about 31,900 fans per night Monday through Friday, night-session attendance totals broke U.S. Open records. The previous best-attended night sessions were in 2023, according to tournament attendance data.
Combined day and night attendance on Monday through Friday last week averaged 75,012 fans per day, making those days the top five best-attended days ever at the tournament.
The record-breaking attendance is a clear sign of rising interest in the U.S. Open and tennis overall, but fans have complained that the large crowds have also meant longer lines for concessions and gifts, congestion around the grounds and difficulty finding seats on courts open to general admission.
Renee DuPree, 47, of San Francisco, said the lines for concessions in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday were so long that it was easier for her to leave the stadium, buy a drink nearby and then return to watch more tennis.
“There’s just people everywhere,” DuPree said. “To be able to watch a lot of great tennis is a joy. I just wish it were easier to get around.”
Sally Neal, a Long Islander, said she’s seen crowds grow since the 1970s, when she attended the tournament as a child when it was held in Forest Hills. (On average, about 10,900 people would attend a session at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills between 1968 and 1977.)
But this year, Neal said, has been especially crowded, particularly at the gift shops around the grounds.
“It’s like Black Friday at Walmart,” she said.
Fans who show up
Fans have four ticket options to attend the U.S. Open. They can pay for a seat at one of the three stadiums — Arthur Ashe, Louis Armstrong and the Grandstand. Or they can purchase a grounds pass, a general admission ticket that allows fans to bounce around the outer courts and offers first-come-first-served admission to matches in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Some fans, such as Nicole Karagheuzoff, a New Yorker who attended the tournament on Tuesday with Neal, suspect that the tournament has sold too many grounds passes.
Karagheuzoff, who by her estimate has attended the U.S. Open about 30 times, said she had noticed crowding around the outer courts, where she likes to watch doubles matches.
“It’s so hard to get a seat,” she said.
John Chen, 25, of Boston, who attended the tournament Wednesday with his friends, also said that he thought the tournament had sold too many grounds passes.
“They should be more mindful of how many people they should allow to have that general admission,” he said.
But Daniel Zausner, chief operating officer for the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, said in an interview Thursday that the tournament has actually sold fewer grounds passes over the past five to 10 years.
The increased attendance, Zausner said, has primarily come from a drop in no-shows at the tournament.
“The actual percentage of people who buy the ticket and show up has gone up dramatically,” he said.
In the past, Zausner said, tickets, sometimes purchased by companies, would go unused. “Maybe they sat in your desk drawer,” he said, “or you gave them to somebody, and they ended up not showing up.”
Attendance has also been bolstered by the ticket resale market and by international tourism, which has rebounded since the pandemic began in 2020, according to Zausner, who also serves on the board of directors for New York City Tourism + Conventions.
Draw of the outer courts
Not all fans have complained about the large crowds this year.
“I don’t know that it feels any more busy than previous years,” said Trevor Tripp, 39, of Denver, as he waited in the food court Friday.
The difference between the top five daily attendance totals last year and the first five days this year is an average of about 1,900 fans per day, according to U.S. Open attendance data.
But Tripp said he had noticed more crowding around the outer courts, which typically host lower-ranked players and early-round doubles matches.
“That’s probably the biggest downside,” Tripp said.
As the sport has grown, Zausner said, fans are spending more time on the outer courts because they know those players, not just the big names who play in Arthur Ashe or Louis Armstrong stadiums. Someone with a ticket to sit in Arthur Ashe might also spend time outside the stadium to see a lower-ranked player, Zausner said.
“They’re gravitating — whether it’s Court 5 or it’s Court 16 — to go watch a player because they know something about them,” Zausner said. “As opposed to saying, ‘I’m going into Ashe because I know that Carlos Alcaraz is playing.’”
The grounds become especially crammed when matches end around the same time.
On Thursday, a match between Caroline Dolehide and Sara Errani on Court 7, with seating for 1,494, ended almost at the same time as a match between Mirra Andreeva and Ashlyn Krueger in the adjacent Grandstand Stadium, which has a capacity of 8,125. As fans left both courts, they created a bottleneck of bodies looking for bathrooms, refills on drinks or another match to watch.
“That’s just inertia. You can’t do anything about that,” Zausner said. “There’s no question that you create a crowd in that area, but that’s like when you go to Madison Square Garden and then the game ends, or at halftime and everyone rushes to the bathroom.”
Quieter at the finals
As the draws dwindle, the second half of the U.S. Open is typically less busy than Week 1. The grounds outside Arthur Ashe have been particularly quiet on the last two days of the tournament for the men’s and women’s finals.
But this year will be different, with the introduction of what has been called the Finals Fan Fest. Those without a ticket to the finals can still buy a grounds pass for $28 that will allow them to walk around and attend a watch party in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Before the finals, fans will have more action to follow with the men’s and women’s quarterfinal matches Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by semifinal matches Thursday and Friday.
Gerard Santi, 64, of New York, went to the tournament Thursday with a ticket to Arthur Ashe, where he watched Jannik Sinner of Italy win a straight-sets match over Alex Michelsen, an American. Santi said he had tickets to return on Wednesday, but he wasn’t sure if he would make it.
“They’re squeezing the most out of this thing,” Santi said. “It’s a business; I get it.”
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