Instead of a roof at the US Open...

R_Federer

R_Federer

Professional
....why not just move the US Open a week earlier? Considering that a roof is apparently impossible at Ashe this seems the best thing to do. If you look back at the last five years the bad weather has almost only happened during the second week. In fact in these 5 years the weather was always good in the first week.

You can pay New Haven or whatever tournaments the money to get a deal done. Wouldn't this be cheaper too? Seems more feasible to me.

The only problem would be that Toronto, Cincy, and US Open would be back to back to back. So 4 weeks straight of tennis.

I guess they could re-arrange the entire hard court season but in the end it would still be cheaper for the US Open to go this route than building a roof no?

Not only are there better chances of good weather by doing this but also kids are still on summer vacation and also the event will no longer clash with the first Sunday of NFL football.
 
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Unfortunately Arthur Ashe is a complete monstrosity of a stadium, and for me it blunts the joy at the USO. I would cost millions and millions to put a roof on that mess; they should start from scratch. Raze it and build a stadium with a roof. Of course I think the 23 thousand capacity is a problem as well.
 
agree 23k is awful, trend is smaller stadiums how is watching in the nosebleeds next to god better than watching at home on your hi def tv?

If it's atmosphere they should create a Henman hill type place with those new screens they have in Dallas and NY and sell concession to all the people that watch. I would not call it Roddick hill tho, but he did win one more GS than Henman...
 
FEDEXP said:
Unfortunately Arthur Ashe is a complete monstrosity of a stadium, and for me it blunts the joy at the USO. I would cost millions and millions to put a roof on that mess; they should start from scratch. Raze it and build a stadium with a roof. Of course I think the 23 thousand capacity is a problem as well.
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Yup. Watching Sharapova now in the semis and they could easily fit everyone there now into ouie Armstrong.

To answer OP, its hot enough in NYC!
 
InvisibleSoul said:
Because the weather in Cincinatti is always the same as the weather in New York?
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Pretty similar is my point. Dude I know it has hardly rained during the first week of the US Open for the past 5 years. The second week has been a different story. For this reason plus the fact the final currently clashes with NFL football and kids are no longer on vacation during the second week makes this a no brainer for me. Pay tournaments the money to get the season re-scheduled. Much cheaper and more feasible than trying to build a roof.
 
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citybert said:
agree 23k is awful, trend is smaller stadiums how is watching in the nosebleeds next to god better than watching at home on your hi def tv?
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It's always good to be closer to God. Maybe they should charge higher prices for the higher seats.
 
^^ depend on it. Already spritzy here in the NYC area, forecast calls for showers, maybe some heavy downpours.
 
Global warming and the impending ice age will take care of teh rain problem.

No rain, but teh ground will be frozen and NY will be worse than Verkhoyansk throughout the year.
 
They could at least have a roof on Louis Armstrong.


NY always has to do things bigger and better then everyone else.. Thus making a life size stadium but don't include the roof and making the event at one of the worst times of the year in NY when it comes to rain. Just stupid thinking. Pretty soon people are going to save their money and quit going to that ridiculous event if its just gonna get rained out every year
 
ollinger said:
^^ depend on it. Already spritzy here in the NYC area, forecast calls for showers, maybe some heavy downpours.
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I also just heard on CNN that there's a tornado warning for the NYC area until 9:00pm tonight. I kid you not!

Tornados in NYC??

So who's the better wind player? ;-)
 
Great Uncle Bulgaria said:
Any chance of them moving the USO to a different city? Which cities would be contenders?
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I've already addressed this before. Just my opinion but there is a greater chance of it being moved OUTSIDE of US than to a different American city. China or somewhere in the UAE are definitely likely. They got the money to make it happen.
 
R_Federer said:
I've already addressed this before. Just my opinion but there is a greater chance of it being moved OUTSIDE of US than to a different American city. China or somewhere in the UAE are definitely likely. They got the money to make it happen.
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Its call it the US Open for a reason. It will never leave NYC they are putting millions into the tennis center.
 
gsuede said:
Its call it the US Open for a reason. It will never leave NYC they are putting millions into the tennis center.
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Obviously if it moved it won't be named the "US Open". I thought that was given :shock:. Anyways, I just wish that China and the UAE threaten the US Open a bit so the USTA can step up their game and be forced to improve this slam. I remember it used to be the best slam after Wimbledon.
 
R_Federer said:
I've already addressed this before. Just my opinion but there is a greater chance of it being moved OUTSIDE of US than to a different American city. China or somewhere in the UAE are definitely likely. They got the money to make it happen.
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The USTA will never sell the US Open. It doesn't matter how much money the buyer has, the seller has to be willing to sell.
 
I'd be shocked if they did ever move it.
Maybe in 100 years the four majors will be tournaments in China and India.
 
R_Federer said:
I've already addressed this before. Just my opinion but there is a greater chance of it being moved OUTSIDE of US than to a different American city. China or somewhere in the UAE are definitely likely. They got the money to make it happen.
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Ok. We get it. You are bitter and jealous of the US. Carry on.

It's not our fault the Maple Leafs suck.
 
gsuede said:
How about Montana LOL. NYC is only place to have the open they just need a roof. They did play this for 70 years with no problems.
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Why? :confused:

Most pro tennis players train or live in Florida or California. NYC is not exactly a city conducive to playing tennis.
 
Media capital of the world. It's about making money for the USTA but I am sick of this every year. Plus watching tennis in the wind is really boring. Get a roof or move it to Hollywood CA.
 
R_Federer said:
I've already addressed this before. Just my opinion but there is a greater chance of it being moved OUTSIDE of US than to a different American city. China or somewhere in the UAE are definitely likely. They got the money to make it happen.
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Would you point me in the direction of your thread please?

Apologies if I misunderstood your post but I would expect there would be more to consider than money. The host nation of a GS should have a tradition of playing tennis - not just producing top tier pros but generally amongst the public. I can't think of many countries outside Europe which fit the bill.

Within USA how about Washington DC/Baltimore area?
 
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Sentinel said:
Global warming and the impending ice age will take care of teh rain problem.

No rain, but teh ground will be frozen and NY will be worse than Verkhoyansk throughout the year.
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Here is a long list of links to things supposedly caused by global warming. An ice age is of course among them.

http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm

Of course we ARE already inside an ice age, and have been for the last 2.5 million years. But this is seldom noticed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_glaciation
 
gsuede said:
Media capital of the world. It's about making money for the USTA but I am sick of this every year. Plus watching tennis in the wind is really boring. Get a roof or move it to Hollywood CA.
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They do have TV cameras in other parts of the U.S. too.

The Super Bowl is always in other parts of the U.S. outside of NYC and they don't suffer from lack of media attention.
 
Boy the rain related threads are amusing.

"They could at least have a roof on Louis Armstrong."

No they couldn't for many reasons. I'll give you one. Armstrong is being taken down after 2013. It has been there long before the USO move to flushing meadows and is structurally passed due.
 
mike84 said:
They could just move matches to Madison Square Garden.
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Great idea, and there is literally a train that goes directly from there to MSG on the LIRR. I like it... but no doubt the Dolan's would charge top dollar for the venue and cost to change the layout and match the surface in flushing somehow.(I don't think it's the same surface there when they play Exhibitions) It would set the USTA back literally millions, no way they do this, also MSG has their own TV network which causes even more issues. That being said this is the best short term idea i've heard, at least for the fans and viewers
 
Really? Thats a better idea than mine? Of having the USTA or whoever owns this tourny pay New Haven or something to move it up a week in advance?
 
Should hire two cranes and get them to pull a sheet over the stadium. Tough for people if they can't breathe.
 
idj49 said:
Two words...Labor Day. They won't move the Open simply because of that.
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I always thought the US Open would be successful if they did start a week earlier. And held the Men's Final on Labor Day. With Women's Final the day before. Men's semis Saturday. Women's semis Friday.

If the CBS Open had decided long ago to make the US Open conclusion a Labor Day tradition, then watching the men's final every year would have become an event for Americans.

And of course the scheduling of the semis and finals for men and women - every other day - makes perfect sense. And matches what other majors do.

But making sense was never what the USTA was about. It was always about making money!

I am thrilled that for the last 5 years the USTA has had to eat some very messy eggs off their faces due to the rain delays, the juggling of the schedule at the very end of the tournament, and the total letdown that the conclusion of the tournament has been postponed. With officials scrambling to figure out revised schedules and TV time.

All because the money grubbers at the USTA only wanted big, bigger, BIGGEST! when it came to a new stadium. So they built the world's largest tennis stadium - by leaps and bounds! Big Deal?! 23,000 for a tennis stadium?! Some pro baseball parks aren't that much bigger. Why didn't the USTA consider a roof back in the mid 1990s when they were planning Ashe Stadium? The Australian Open already had their successful roof?

USTA officials, were as usual, blindsided by the money! More seats, more seats, more seats!!!!! More money, more money, more money!!! That's all they cared about. Of course no USTA fatcat official has ever sat in the upper echelons to watch a match! So how would they even know what a terrible decision they made to build Ashe Satadium so frighteningly large!
 
Blindsided by tournament money, but shortsighted about television money.

Wimbledon has a roof because then they can guarnantee a product on time, all the time.
 
Bartelby said:
Blindsided by tournament money, but shortsighted about television money.

Wimbledon has a roof because then they can guarnantee a product on time, all the time.
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I would think CBS & other TV partners get killed when matches are postponed or delayed. They sell commercials based on day & times each match is supposed to be played. That Murray/Berdy match being played early I would think cost them a pretty penny. Maybe the networks can put more pressure on the USTA to come up with a solution.
 
citybert said:
agree 23k is awful, trend is smaller stadiums how is watching in the nosebleeds next to god better than watching at home on your hi def tv?

If it's atmosphere they should create a Henman hill type place with those new screens they have in Dallas and NY and sell concession to all the people that watch. I would not call it Roddick hill tho, but he did win one more GS than Henman...
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Armstrong is much better for atmosphere than Ashe, i go every year, and every year i ask myself "what is the point of Ashe" - you can see nothing from the nosebleeds and it's not much better from the loge. Demolish, rebuild a 12k intimate stadium with a retractable roof.............wait, isn't that what they did at Wimbledon?
 
R_Federer said:
....why not just move the US Open a week earlier? Considering that a roof is apparently impossible at Ashe this seems the best thing to do. If you look back at the last five years the bad weather has almost only happened during the second week. In fact in these 5 years the weather was always good in the first week.

You can pay New Haven or whatever tournaments the money to get a deal done. Wouldn't this be cheaper too? Seems more feasible to me.

The only problem would be that Toronto, Cincy, and US Open would be back to back to back. So 4 weeks straight of tennis.

I guess they could re-arrange the entire hard court season but in the end it would still be cheaper for the US Open to go this route than building a roof no?

Not only are there better chances of good weather by doing this but also kids are still on summer vacation and also the event will no longer clash with the first Sunday of NFL football.
Click to expand...

I just basically posted the exact same comment on tennis.com article about the lack of roof at the US Open.

I agree with you 100%. I've been saying this for the last few years.

Another plus is that if the men's final get's pushed to Monday, it would be the Labour Day holiday Monday. These Monday finals on a work day just flat out suck. I'm going to miss a big chunk of the match.

The fact they won't be competing with the NFL is huge as well. It just makes sense. Do it already.
 
R_Federer said:
....why not just move the US Open a week earlier? Considering that a roof is apparently impossible at Ashe this seems the best thing to do. If you look back at the last five years the bad weather has almost only happened during the second week. In fact in these 5 years the weather was always good in the first week.

You can pay New Haven or whatever tournaments the money to get a deal done. Wouldn't this be cheaper too? Seems more feasible to me.

The only problem would be that Toronto, Cincy, and US Open would be back to back to back. So 4 weeks straight of tennis.

I guess they could re-arrange the entire hard court season but in the end it would still be cheaper for the US Open to go this route than building a roof no?

Not only are there better chances of good weather by doing this but also kids are still on summer vacation and also the event will no longer clash with the first Sunday of NFL football.
Click to expand...

Something's definitely got to be done.
This event is fast becoming a joke.
They either have to re schedule, as you suggested, a week earlier where the weather is proven to be better or move the tournament to a new venue in a new city with more reliable weather.
And get rid of Super Saturday and the unfairness to certain players eg Djokovic and Ferrer.
Murray has been the victim of this many times in the past but this year it's worked out in his favour.
We know it's impossible to have a perfectly level playing field but the USO is far too skewed.
 
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