Ticket prices for the first big day of action at the U.S. Open on Monday, Aug. 31, have reached “sobering numbers,” according to Matthew Futterman of THE ATHLETIC. A grounds pass with no guaranteed seat on any court is “going for over $360.” The “face value is $65.” An upper-deck seat in Arthur Ashe Stadium “costs $326.” A seat in the “lower section” is $518. As tennis has “found a groove at the intersection of media, celebrity, sports, culture and high fashion, the popularity of live events has increased.” Arthur Ashe Stadium is halfway through an $800M renovation. At the same time, top players are “seeking reforms that will mean that their prize money takes up a bigger proportion of the Grand Slam tournaments’ revenues.” If the organizers “want to honor that prize-money increase for the players while keeping the same margins, something has to get more expensive.” In the weeks and months leading up to late May, the USTA “sold most of its higher-priced tickets to its subscribers and corporate customers.” Many of them “commit to buying the same tickets for all 27 sessions throughout the 15-day event.” They renewed “at a rate of nearly 100 percent.” The remaining tickets were released to the open market “at face value,” and the vast majority “sold out very quickly.” Most of what is available on the U.S. Open website “now is resale inventory.” The USTA does not control what sellers ask or what buyers pay, but the other three majors “have guardrails in place, from enforcing resales at face value to not permitting them at all” (THE ATHLETIC, 8/20).
