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This was from January, but still seems relevant JANUARY 24, 2011

U.S. Open Left in the Rain as Competitors Look for Cover

By TOM PERROTTA

As another tennis season gets under way in Melbourne, Australia, the U.S. Open finds itself in a once unimaginable position: It's losing ground to its rivals on the Grand Slam circuit and might request financial assistance from the city to improve its facilities.

The National Tennis Center in Flushing sits on an unstable ash landfill that makes the construction of new stadiums, and especially a stadium with a retractable roof, difficult and expensive to execute. Arthur Ashe Stadium, the venue's largest stadium, can't support a roof because of the soft ground beneath it, and the U.S. Tennis Association is reluctant to build a roof over a smaller stadium, which wouldn't seat enough fans if rain interfered with the singles finals, as it has done the last three years.

Those finals have produced the tournament's three worst television ratings since 1992, when Nielsen Co. began tracking such data.

The combination of poor land quality and ambitious remodeling plans by the other Grand Slams in Melbourne, Paris and London has forced the USTA to consider asking New York City, which owns Flushing Meadows Park, for aid. In dire circumstances, the organization said, it would contemplate moving to another venue, including outside New York.

"We have a great relationship with the City of New York," Jon Vegosen, the USTA's chairman of the board and president, said in a statement given to The Wall Street Journal. "New York provides a one-of-a-kind locale for the U.S. Open, and our preference is to remain in New York. However, we are in a hyper-competitive marketplace, and to remain the No. 1 tennis event in the world, we will need significant investments in the tournament's infrastructure. The National Tennis Center is an aging facility, significant upgrades are needed, and we'll have to consider all options to maintain our position."

The USTA hasn't approached the city with any plans. It signed a 99-year lease with the city in 1993 and all work on the property must be approved by the Parks Department and the city's Public Design Commission.

"Once we determine what it is that we want to do, we will work with the city on all fronts, including any necessary approvals and, if needed, creative funding solutions," said Chris Widmaier, a spokesman for the organization.

Andrew Brent, a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg's office, said in a statement: "The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and the U.S. Open are great New York City traditions. The City's budget issues are well-known, but we'll work with the USTA to help it continue to thrive in New York."

Sports fans all over the country have grown accustomed to teams hinting at a move as a way of bargaining for municipal support. The U.S. Open could use the city's own estimates to bolster its case. The tournament brings in $420 million a year in direct revenue to the city, according to a 2001 report from the Comptroller's Office. Current USTA estimates peg the number at $450 million. Mr. Vegosen called the tournament an "unparalleled economic engine" and said nearly half of the Open's visitors come from outside the New York metro area.

However, the relationship is symbiotic. If the Open were located elsewhere, chances are not as many outside travelers, who are lured by everything else the city has to offer, would attend the tournament. Corporate sponsorships likely wouldn't be as readily available or as lucrative, and luxury boxes could be a tougher sell. The Open has revenue of $200 million and is the highest-attended annual sporting event in the world. The USTA financed Arthur Ashe Stadium, which was opened in 1997, by selling tax-exempt bonds.

The stadium, which seats nearly 23,000 people, is the largest in tennis. It also has proven to be a headache. Fans have never taken to it, as it offers mountaintop views from its most affordable seats. And it can't withstand modification. To build the stadium, contractors had to drive pylons 200 feet into the ground to reach bedrock. To cover it, the USTA would have to build a canopy that would rise up from the ground.

"That site is the equivalent of Jell-O," said Matthew Rossetti, president of Rossetti, the architecture firm that designed the stadium and remains the USTA's chief architect.

"We've analyzed it dozens of times. Because of the soil's condition, [a roof] requires its own structure—it wouldn't touch the stadium at all. Once you get into that, you're talking huge dollars."

Estimates put the cost of a canopy roof at $175 million to $225 million.

Last fall, the USTA revealed a more modest plan that could cost $300 million. It would demolish the nearly obsolete Louis Armstrong Stadium and the Grandstand, the second- and third-largest stadiums in the facility, and replace them with a 15,000-seat stadium. Though the stadium would not have a retractable roof, it would be sturdy enough to support one. But the stadium wouldn't be ready for at least eight years and would be too small to host a final.

So far, the USTA's board has approved only $30 million, which would fund a small stadium that would hold 3,000 people and wider walkways in Arthur Ashe Stadium. No work has begun on these projects.

The tournament recently renewed its broadcast contract with CBS through 2014. CBS declined to comment on the need for a roof, the tournament's remodeling plans or whether its new contract, for about $20 million to $25 million annually, includes a rain clause.

"One possibility is that the rights fees are adjusted depending on whether CBS is able televise the final," said Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS sports who now runs a television consulting company, Pilson Communications.

The U.S. Open is not accustomed to second-class status. From the time it was held at the West Side Tennis Club, a private club in Forest Hills, the tournament has been the most innovative in the sport. It was the first to offer equal prize money to men and women, in 1973. It was the first to use hard courts, play matches at night, host a final in prime time, use instant replay and paint its courts blue, a trend that has taken hold all over the world.

This has begun to change in the last few years. The All England Club, the private club that hosts Wimbledon, is about to finish a 17-year renovation that put a roof on Centre Court, built new courts and rearranged the layout of the tournament to ease traffic. It uses a personal seat license, called a debenture, to raise funds. The French Open, which next month will vote on whether to leave Paris, perhaps for a site in Versailles, could have a retractable roof by 2014 if it decides to stay, and by 2016 if it leaves. Paris recently agreed to give the French Tennis Federation 11 acres of land to expand the tournament, which suffers from overcrowding and outdated facilities.

"Paris did a good job under pressure when they realized we were serious about moving—they gave us a very good offer," said Gilbert Ysern, the general director of the federation. "If you want to remain in the highest standards of professional tennis, you have to have a roof now."

It's the Australian Open, though, that has left the rest of the Grand Slam circuit in awe. The tournament is in the midst of a state-funded, $363 million renovation that will put a roof on a third court, build a new indoor practice facility, add a parking garage, install a rain-capture system, and upgrade outdoor gathering spaces. In the next 10 years, the Victorian government could spend as much as $800 million on the facility, according to Steve Wood, Tennis Australia's CEO.

"We had some interest from other cities around Asia and Australia, primarily because of the economic impact that Grand Slams bring to their host cities," Mr. Wood said.

In exchange for the investments, the Australian Open renewed its lease until 2036 and promised to deliver more than $4 billion in economic impact to the state of Victoria.

"We've got to hit our numbers, we've got to get people from interstate and overseas to visit us and to stay longer than they've stayed in the past," Mr. Wood said.

Craig Tiley, the Australia Open tournament director and a former college coach in the United States, said the that the U.S. Open could get away with a lesser facility—for a while.

"When you are a top dog like the U.S. Open, there are a number of things that will be forgiven," Mr. Tiley said. "But if they don't do anything for 10 years, sure, they'll fall behind." http://online.wsj.com/article_email/...jEwNDYyWj.html

Medium term, I think Armstrong and Grandstand should be replaced. Long term, I think they should tear down Ashe as well.

From an architectural/engineering perspective, this doesn't seem to be an easy site for developing on though. And from those numbers above, it's going to be very expensive.