First time going to the US Open: some questions

First, I apologize if this is not the right section for this subject but I have read similar threads regarding this subject here.
I searched the old threads on this board and I could find some useful info and advices so I will not bother you with the same questions. I also looked at the USO website but I couldn´t find any email to contact and I called the phone number at the Tennis Center but all I got was an answering machine.
I want to purchase my tickets online (it would take a long time to mail my request from Spain) and I want to attend the 2 weeks of the Open so I would get a Full Series Subscription. If I didn´t missunderstood the USO website, with the Full Series you can access every session on every court(reserved seats in Ashe, upper part in Armstrong and first to come in other courts) but I would like to confirm this because it´s not very detailed in the website.
There are 2 kind of Full Series subscriptions: lower promenade and upper promenade (upper is about 400 $ cheaper). I guess the difference between both is refering to the seats in the Ashe Stadium but out of Ashe you can get the same kind of seats with either Lower or Upper subscriptions. Is this right?
For all of you who have been in Ashe Stadium I want to ask you: is there a noticeable difference between lower and upper promenade? I know you are too far away from the court with both passes so is it worth it to pay much more for lower promenade? I also read that you can move to the lower seats when it´s not too crowded but I´m not sure how many days there are free seats in the lower part. The good thing about upper promenade is that you´re not going to hear the yelling watching certain players (or maybe yes) and it´s cheaper.
One more thing: when I submit my request for the tickets I have to choose between baseline, corner,sideline and best available.I want baseline tickets but I don´t understand what is "best available" about. Aren´t baseline tickets supposed to be the best available? What´s the difference between both and what do you advice me if I want to get the best possible tickets on the baseline?
Is there any scoreboard in Ashe Stadium to follow the results from other courts? And where can you get the daily schedule of play in the Tennis Center? Is it for free?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Hi Zaragoza, just thought I should mention, I went to the US Open in 2005. I did not have any tickets in advance. I just turned up each day in the morning and lined up to get tickets. The reason I did this was so that I could see the matches I wanted to see (I checked the schedule the night before to see who was playing). If it was a very important match to me I would get great seats. I experimented with different seats all over AA stadium and most seats are good, but obviously once you get high up it's quite far away.
I can't confirm anything about the website regarding tickets.

^how much did you end up paying for 'great seats,' by just showing up without tickets daily? did you get them from scalpers?

No I did not buy anything from scalpers.
I'm looking at all my tickets, there are quite a few, I payed betweem $0 and $285.
The $285 I think was for Agassi/Malisse courtside. The $0 was because i made friends with some corporate people who didn't really care about tennis anyway and they gave me free tickets (it pays to hustle).
It was about $180 for 'quite good seats' on the corner slightly further up, that was for the day of Federer/Santoro, and further up even more (I think into the next pricing section I guess) was $58 (Agassi/Blake night match and later Federer/Hewitt semis I think - can't be certain which ticket is for which match without checking dates etc). It seems the cheapest I payed for an AAshe ticket was $35... I seem to remember that was a night match, Haas/Ginepri, right at the top lip of the stadium.
By the way my Rod Laver Arena tickets (AO) are like $72 (Australian dollars) and $49, but I was only there until the quarters.

wow, you're quite a fan, I can't ever imagine paying $285 for a sporting event.

^^Hey it ain't all TV, stats, and history! I love to watch it live, I travel the world many times to be at these events and the Masters Series. It's a real pleasure for me. I think in life you find out what you enjoy and then you do it again and again and again

Zaragoza said:

First, I apologize if this is not the right section for this subject but I have read similar threads regarding this subject here.
I searched the old threads on this board and I could find some useful info and advices so I will not bother you with the same questions. I also looked at the USO website but I couldn´t find any email to contact and I called the phone number at the Tennis Center but all I got was an answering machine.
I want to purchase my tickets online (it would take a long time to mail my request from Spain) and I want to attend the 2 weeks of the Open so I would get a Full Series Subscription. If I didn´t missunderstood the USO website, with the Full Series you can access every session on every court(reserved seats in Ashe, upper part in Armstrong and first to come in other courts) but I would like to confirm this because it´s not very detailed in the website.

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That is correct.

There are 2 kind of Full Series subscriptions: lower promenade and upper promenade (upper is about 400 $ cheaper). I guess the difference between both is refering to the seats in the Ashe Stadium but out of Ashe you can get the same kind of seats with either Lower or Upper subscriptions. Is this right?

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Upper promenade is the upper tier of the stadium, I think rows N-Z Lower promenade is pretty far as well just a little closer then the Upper promenade, rows A-M.

For all of you who have been in Ashe Stadium I want to ask you: is there a noticeable difference between lower and upper promenade? I know you are too far away from the court with both passes so is it worth it to pay much more for lower promenade?

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No it's not really worth paying extra for lower promenade.
I also read that you can move to the lower seats when it´s not too crowded but I´m not sure how many days there are free seats in the lower part.

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Yeah this is true, your best bet for moving down is the 1st week.

The good thing about upper promenade is that you´re not going to hear the yelling watching certain players (or maybe yes) and it´s cheaper.
One more thing: when I submit my request for the tickets I have to choose between baseline, corner,sideline and best available.I want baseline tickets but I don´t understand what is "best available" about. Aren´t baseline tickets supposed to be the best available? What´s the difference between both and what do you advice me if I want to get the best possible tickets on the baseline?

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Up in promenade it doesn't really matter what part of the court you are sitting in. It's all far and you will see the entire court.

Is there any scoreboard in Ashe Stadium to follow the results from other courts?

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Yes

And where can you get the daily schedule of play in the Tennis Center? Is it for free?

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I think there is a fee, I usually just download it the night before.

Thanks a lot Rhino and idj49 for your responses. Any other opinion would be appreciated as well.

Zaragoza said:

Thanks a lot Rhino and idj49 for your responses. Any other opinion would be appreciated as well.

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Maybe take the 400 bucks you'll save on upper promenade instead of lower and buy yourself a prime courtside seat in Ashe for some particularly great match you want to see (if tickets are available.)

I've been to the US Open twice now, and am a New Yorker too, and have many opinions on these matters, though I'm not an expert. If there's some more specific questions you have, I'm sure me or someone else can answer them.

For me personally, I'd rather be as close as possible to the action, and would probably prefer to watch, say, Andy Murray or Tommy Haas or Davydenko play on a small side court in the opening days of the tournament than watch Federer from a promenade seat at Ashe. Even the loge seats at Ashe can seem far away...

Armstrong can be great though. Due to some luck, and rain outs, I sat in the third row courtside for Nadal-Youzhny, and also earlier saw some of Federer and Mauresmo too from a courtside seat.

That poster above who said he bought tickets for matches he wanted to see was smart. My gf and I actually had expensive courtside Ashe tickets on the day I was just talking about, and actually left them empty to go watch those other matches. Blake played Berdych in Ashe, and I never even saw one point of their match!

You'd be amazed at how many empty seats there are at these tournaments, as we all see on TV all the time. Apparently you can bribe attendents to let you move down to really great seats, but I've never tried that. But I did move down from promenade to loge for Sharapova-Clisters '05 and no one gave me any trouble or asked any questions.

Zaragoza said:

One more thing: when I submit my request for the tickets I have to choose between baseline, corner,sideline and best available.I want baseline tickets but I don´t understand what is "best available" about. Aren´t baseline tickets supposed to be the best available? What´s the difference between both and what do you advice me if I want to get the best possible tickets on the baseline?
Is there any scoreboard in Ashe Stadium to follow the results from other courts?

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I don't remember a scoreboard to follow the other matches in Ashe, or at least not in the stadium itself while you're watching the match. Maybe I missed it?

"Best available" to you (and me) would be baseline, but I bet other people would prefer to be on the sideline at the center of the court, and I'm not sure what a computer would give you for "Best available".

But if you want baseline seating no matter what, just put that as an option. Is that possible?

One wrinkle here is that maybe a lower sideline seat would is better than a baseline seat further up, but I'm sure you'll figure out what you want... And sometimes you can refuse the tickets offered when buying online and re-submit a request for other ones.

There are big video scoreboards which show scores on other courts at changeovers although you can never be sure when/if they will, it's a bit random.
One thing to think about with sideline seats is where you sit in relation to the umpire. If you are low down at court level on the sidelines on the umpires side, sometimes he can obstruct the action a bit, so try and be on the opposite side to him.
I personally think baseline seats are better for watching the points.

Make sure you get best seats for centre court R16 and Q because those will be Nadal's last two matches there.

I have a grounds pass for Sept. 3. That means any match but in Ashe, right? So I can still see some good matches?

Rhino said:

There are big video scoreboards which show scores on other courts at changeovers although you can never be sure when/if they will, it's a bit random.
One thing to think about with sideline seats is where you sit in relation to the umpire. If you are low down at court level on the sidelines on the umpires side, sometimes he can obstruct the action a bit, so try and be on the opposite side to him.
I personally think baseline seats are better for watching the points.

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Yeah, the umpire's chair, and other assorted sideline junk, can be a problem if you are right at courtside on the west side of the courts. On the flip side, it's shady on that side for a lot of the day, and that can really make a difference on a hot and sunny August day in New York, so that complicates the picture a bit on where the best sideline seating is. At night or on a cloudy day, no question east side is better though.

That said, I agree that baseline seating is better than sideline.

emcee said:

I have a grounds pass for Sept. 3. That means any match but in Ashe, right? So I can still see some good matches?

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Yes, you should be able to see some good matches in Armstrong that day, and maybe in grandstand as well. I heard it can be crowded on Labor Day though, so maybe get there early.

Also, I would think that if any of you guys are going alone, it's easier to find a good seat for one person than for two or more people.

Rhino said:

^^Hey it ain't all TV, stats, and history! I love to watch it live, I travel the world many times to be at these events and the Masters Series. It's a real pleasure for me. I think in life you find out what you enjoy and then you do it again and again and again

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True dat..

Rhino said:

^^Hey it ain't all TV, stats, and history! I love to watch it live, I travel the world many times to be at these events and the Masters Series. It's a real pleasure for me. I think in life you find out what you enjoy and then you do it again and again and again

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Well said truly

8PAQ said:

Make sure you get best seats for centre court R16 and Q because those will be Nadal's last two matches there.

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Thanks for the "advice". Aren´t you giving Nadal too much credit? He needs to win 4 matches to reach the QF. I will keep my eyes on Cañas as well

This is the tournament I really want to go to but work in a college and it clashes with the bginning of the fall smester and there is no chance of me taking time off, have fun Zara and drink a Heineken for me!!!

Rhino said:

Hi Zaragoza, just thought I should mention, I went to the US Open in 2005. I did not have any tickets in advance. I just turned up each day in the morning and lined up to get tickets. The reason I did this was so that I could see the matches I wanted to see (I checked the schedule the night before to see who was playing). If it was a very important match to me I would get great seats. I experimented with different seats all over AA stadium and most seats are good, but obviously once you get high up it's quite far away.
I can't confirm anything about the website regarding tickets.

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I have been lining up for tickets every year to the Open. While this is true to most sessions, I'm afraid it will be much harder to score tickets on the Labor Day weekend so if you plan to go that day, good idea to buy tickets in advance. The US Open box office hold a number of tickets and sell them for that particular session/day. Just make sure you get in line early. Never ever forget to check the practice and the outer courts. AA stadium in the first week is a bit dull since they usually feature the top players against a low ranked player. Also check the Louis Armstrong stadium and swing by the Grandstand next door. Have fun.

rommil said:

I have been lining up for tickets every year to the Open. While this is true to most sessions, I'm afraid it will be much harder to score tickets on the Labor Day weekend so if you plan to go that day, good idea to buy tickets in advance. The US Open box office hold a number of tickets and sell them for that particular session/day. Just make sure you get in line early. Never ever forget to check the practice and the outer courts. AA stadium in the first week is a bit dull since they usually feature the top players against a low ranked player. Also check the Louis Armstrong stadium and swing by the Grandstand next door. Have fun.

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Just remember that with last years rain outs that there are some sessions that will be very hard to get tickets to if you wait until the day of.

Ive been going for years and agree with most of whats written above.
One piece of advice...Never scalp at the open its illegal. There are plainclothes cops there to arrest you for buying within 1500 ft of the grounds.

Groundspass outside courts work great through labor day, after that most of the mens singles matches start heading toward Ashe.
My opinon upper promenade isnt worth watching at Ashe so I'd pay more for the lower...still far away, much worse than outside courts.

Have fun. Its a great tournament.

callitout said:

Ive been going for years and agree with most of whats written above.
One piece of advice...Never scalp at the open its illegal. There are plainclothes cops there to arrest you for buying within 1500 ft of the grounds.

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Actually NYS just got rid of scalping laws.

idj49 said:

Actually NYS just got rid of scalping laws.

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No they didnt, they changed the law; its still illegal to resell tickets within 1500 feet of the stadium.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has signed legislation ending New York's limits on how much scalpers and brokers can legally add to the face price of tickets they are reselling for events held in the state....Some old regulations stay in place under the new law, including the ban on scalpers selling tickets within 1,500 feet of the larger arenas and within 500 feet of smaller venues.

http://www.1010wins.com/pages/530386.php?contentType=4&contentId=565365

Is it true that the hotdogs and drinks there are like 5 bucks a piece? Also, i heard you can't even bring your own drinks?

callitout said:

No they didnt, they changed the law; its still illegal to resell tickets within 1500 feet of the stadium.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has signed legislation ending New York's limits on how much scalpers and brokers can legally add to the face price of tickets they are reselling for events held in the state....Some old regulations stay in place under the new law, including the ban on scalpers selling tickets within 1,500 feet of the larger arenas and within 500 feet of smaller venues.

http://www.1010wins.com/pages/530386.php?contentType=4&contentId=565365

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Don't know much about such laws, but I just ordered tickets by phone for the Open from a broker. The first place I tried, ticketsnow.com I think, said they could not sell me tickets because I was a New York state resident and they would need a non-New York billing address. The second place, stubhub, sold me the tickets without question and said they sell tickets to New York residents all the time.

inquisitive said:

Is it true that the hotdogs and drinks there are like 5 bucks a piece? Also, i heard you can't even bring your own drinks?

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Well, since I've never tried to bring my own cooler of beer to the USO, I have no direct knowledge of their policy on this, but common sense would suggest that bringing your own drinks would be prohibited.

What's next, bringing your own tennis players to watch so you don't have to pay for that, either?

Oh, and I don't remember specifically, but yeah, I'm guessing the hot dogs and cokes are indeed pricey -- I'm pretty sure I would have remembered if they were selling for 50 cents each or something and I had thought "what a bargain this is!"

Rhino said:

^^Hey it ain't all TV, stats, and history! I love to watch it live, I travel the world many times to be at these events and the Masters Series. It's a real pleasure for me. I think in life you find out what you enjoy and then you do it again and again and again

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Can you elaborate on buying expensive courtside tickets the day of the match at the USO? Where did you get them, what time, etc. Did you get the impression they were always available, or that you got lucky?

heycal said:

Don't know much about such laws, but I just ordered tickets by phone for the Open from a broker. The first place I tried, ticketsnow.com I think, said they could not sell me tickets because I was a New York state resident and they would need a non-New York billing address. The second place, stubhub, sold me the tickets without question and said they sell tickets to New York residents all the time.





Well, since I've never tried to bring my own cooler of beer to the USO, I have no direct knowledge of their policy on this, but common sense would suggest that bringing your own drinks would be prohibited.

What's next, bringing your own tennis players to watch so you don't have to pay for that, either?

Oh, and I don't remember specifically, but yeah, I'm guessing the hot dogs and cokes are indeed pricey -- I'm pretty sure I would have remembered if they were selling for 50 cents each or something and I had thought "what a bargain this is!"

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when i went to the french open this year you could bring a backpack and put as much food/drinks in there that you could fit. and people did it. i can't believe they won't even let you bring in a backpack into the the US Open grounds.

If you have bad seats at Arthur Ashe you can usually just move down a couple of rows at a time if nobody's coming. I plan to move right above the luxury boxes even though my tickets are high in the nosebleeds!

emcee said:

I have a grounds pass for Sept. 3. That means any match but in Ashe, right? So I can still see some good matches?

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just walk into the top of Ashe if there's actually a match going on in there that's worth watching from the stratosphere. They don't check up there. But yeah, I doubt anything going on in Ashe would be better watching from the stratosphere than something on an outer court from front row.


And lower prom is noticeably better than upper. Upper you can barely tell Monfils from Karlovic.

Upper prom is for those who want to see a one-for-the-ages match, simply to be able to say they were there, and by the time they're 80, the story will be embellished to the point where they've moved up to the front row.

Other than that, I'd personally avoid it.