Renovated Louis Armstrong Stadium will seat 6,600 in the lower bowl, for which a specific ticket is neededUSTA
The new 14,000-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium will be the largest naturally ventilated roofed stadium in the world, the USTA said Thursday on a tour of the under-construction venue. Fourteen large fans will blow air into the $200M venue, which will have duct opening in seats and even air chambers beneath the court. The court is the No. 2 court for the U.S. Open; Arthur Ashe Stadium is the main one. Detroit-based architecture firm Rossetti CEO Matt Rossetti said there were some smaller venues in Australia that had natural ventilation, but Louis Armstrong by far will be the largest. The sides of the stadium will be covered with 14,250 terra cotta louvers, which will allow air but not rain to come in. The retractable roof is made of a fabric that is less than one inch thick. The completion of the venue, expected by the start of this year’s tournament in late August, is the final chapter of the five-year, $600M renovation of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The new venue will seat 6,600 in the lower bowl, for which a specific ticket is needed. The upper bowl is available to anyone with a general ticket to the Open for that day and night. For the first time, the Open this year will schedule night matches on Armstrong (Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer).
BIGGER IS BETTER: The AP's Brian Mahoney notes the new Armstrong Stadium fits "almost entirely in the footprint for the original Armstrong and Grandstand." The restrooms and concession stands at the new venue "will be four times bigger, and fans will be able to see the action on the court from the expanded concourses." The 14,000-seat capacity is up from 10,500 "in Armstrong's final years." National Tennis Center COO Danny Zausner said, "We've got so much more open space, so the days of seeing maybe 500 people standing in line outside to try to get into the stadium should hopefully go away, because we have that many more seats" (AP, 5/17). The old Armstrong was "full of history, but was virtually devoid of the modern aspects of the fan experience" (NEWSDAY, 5/17).
