The "already extravagant" cost of going to the U.S. Open
tennis championships will get an "expensive jolt," next year when
it moves to its new 20,000+seat stadium, according to Richard
Sandomir of the N.Y. TIMES. Fans in courtside boxes will "bear
the brunt of the tennis inflation," and the USTA sent out letters
on August 14 to all individuals and corporations that own
courtside boxes, informing them of 50-100% price increases. Some
occupants are sponsors, and get their seats with their
sponsorship fees, but other boxholders said the USTA is imposing
even larger increases that come to two-and-a-half times the
current '96 rate, making the "most costly" premium seating nearly
$50,000 for the two-week event. The new stadium will also have
90 20-ticket luxury suites valued at $85,000-100,000 each for the
tournament only which are sold out. The USTA admits that the
$234M being spent to build the new stadium and renovate the rest
of Flushing Meadows tennis center required the price jumps, but
they declined to sell PSLs. Other increases: $100 front-row loge
seats up 11%; the remaining $75 loge seats up 7%; reserved seats
in the rest of the stadium will increase 6% from the current
price of $32-39 per session (N.Y. TIMES, 8/28).
