The U.S. Open Tennis Championships aim to have full and centralized replay functions available for future events by 2018.
The expanded service compared with what exists now would eliminate a competitive inequity in tennis, which gives some players access to replay but not others, based on where matches are played.
Most major league sports, including MLB, the NBA, NFL and NHL, have adopted some form of centralized replay, with either officials in a headquarters office making the call or doing so in conjunction with an on-field official. Tennis, however, has no such system. What’s more, all but one of its more than 100 annual events does not have replay available on every court. (Larry Ellison’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., is the exception.)
Consider the ongoing U.S. Open, the sport’s most lucrative event by prize money. Five of the 17 courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center have replay, allowing players to challenge line calls. The players who compete on the other courts — typically non-stars and lower-ranked competitors — have no redress for calls they think are in error.
Standing high above the tennis center last week under the new roof structure for Arthur Ashe Stadium, Danny Zausner, managing director of facilities, said the goal is for all courts to have replay by 2018, when the venue refurbishment is complete. The U.S. Tennis Association, which owns the Open and the tennis center, is moving forward on that plan, though it has yet to identify the technology to get there.
A representative for Hawk-Eye, the Sony-owned company that operates the replay system in New York and throughout tennis, declined to comment. A source close to the company, however, said three years is plenty of time to create a centralized replay system.
The current system raises several issues for tournaments. First is cost, which is about $80,000 per court for three weeks (allowing for set-up and tear-down time before and after events). Each court also needs a small booth where a technician and assistants are stationed to handle the replay functions. But that accommodation is not always possible in tennis, where less-prominent courts are clustered together, and most also do not have the giant video boards necessary to display the replay as the players and fans watch.
Those replays on primary courts provide a central piece of the in-venue experience at matches.
By next year, as part of the renovation of the National Tennis Center, all on-court scoreboards, which are far smaller than video boards, will be equipped to handle replay images. The idea is that by 2018, replays will be shown on these boards, Zausner said, while a decision is made in a centralized replay office.
The USTA is planning another major change at the tennis center, as well: a second stadium roof, this one over the No. 2 court, Louis Armstrong Stadium. As part of the $500 million renovation of the facility, the plan has been to tear down Armstrong after next year’s event and build a new structure. Those plans always described the new stadium as being “roof-ready,” meaning if the USTA were to choose to install a roof at a later date, technologically it would not be as tough as it has been to do for Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Zausner said plans are now in the works for Armstrong to open with a roof, with the USTA currently reviewing how to finance the extra cost.
Part of the Ashe roof is complete and is in place for this year’s tournament, with the final canopy slated to be installed in time for next year.
