At a press conference in midtown Manhattan on Monday afternoon, four-time US Open men’s singles champion John McEnroe, dressed in a pale blue suit and black Nirvana smiley-face socks, spoke frankly—and, yes, fondly—about a newly announced $800 million reimagining of the US Open’s facilities.
“I’m a New Yorker, and I played some of the most memorable matches of my life at the Open,” said McEnroe, who appeared with Brian Vahaly, Lewis Sherr, Stacey Allaster, and Kirsten Corio of the United States Tennis Association, along with fellow tennis legend Kim Clijsters. “I fed off the energy there—for better and sometimes for worse. So when I see something like this”—by which McEnroe meant the plans to renovate Arthur Ashe Stadium and build a completely new, state-of-the-art, four-story Player Performance Center at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center—“there’s a twinge of jealousy and envy, but also pride.”
He went on, “New York City is the greatest city in the world—go Knicks!—so it only makes sense, but [when I played there as a pro] we used to have beer kegs in the men’s locker room…I mean, it wasn’t all bad. We thought that was recovery.”
Alas, players today would think otherwise—and so the new Player Performance Center will feature two stories of player parking beneath two more stories of lockers, lounges, dining options, as well as spaces for training (both indoor and outdoor) to make the experience of the Open vastly more player-friendly.
As for the fans? The main thrust of the reinvention of Arthur Ashe Stadium involves moving the two suite levels up one level, creating a new mezzanine and increasing the courtside seats from 3,000 to 5,000; adding more space on the Promenade level, including a new outdoor bar overlooking the Unisphere; adding more low-level suites and clubs (and expanding the size of the existing suites); and adding more food and beverage options, more retail stores, more restrooms, and facilitating easier entry. (There’s also going to be a dramatic new sculptural entrance at the main gate to Ashe, designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind.)
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Why now? There’s a practical answer, and a second answer more based on trend and vibes: Practically, Ashe Stadium was built for both the fan and player experience of 1997, when the tennis audience was happy to be served their favorite sport with fairly little in the way of trimmings. More recently, though, with tennis enjoying a rather spectacular five-year growth spurt by virtually every measure (people playing, people watching, social media, revenue, etc.)—call it the Challengers effect, or something more prosaic, perhaps—there’s an ever-growing new audience looking for more of a lifestyle experience.
While things won’t look much different at this year’s Open, the project will be started behind the scenes and in largely invisible ways—aside from some groundbreaking on the Player Performance Center, which will be built on what is now the parking lot closest to the stadium—with the entire project set to be completed by 2027.
The famously straight-talking McEnroe, a New Yorker through and through, admitted to one very real worry about the massive project. “I’ve gotta be honest,” he said. “I’m a little nervous about the parking situation.”
