Roof over Arthur Ashe?

I was thinking just the opposite --- rain only one day out of fourteen is pretty good! Was it last year or the year before when no days were rained out? This time of year is usually pretty dry in NYC. And a roof over Ashe seems awfully unlikely if you look at the way the structure spreads out like a squared-off cone in the upper half.
 
El Diablo said:
I was thinking just the opposite --- rain only one day out of fourteen is pretty good! Was it last year or the year before when no days were rained out? This time of year is usually pretty dry in NYC. And a roof over Ashe seems awfully unlikely if you look at the way the structure spreads out like a squared-off cone in the upper half.
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How many days were ruined by wind? How many days was the temp on court near 110°?

There are many reasons for a roof on the main court.
 
No days were ruined by wind --- it's part of the game, as with every other sport played outdoors. Likewise heat. Are you suggesting that all of us out-of-shape weekend players can play in heat or a breeze but pros are too fragile to do so?? How sad.
 
I've heard it's pretty hard to get a retractable roof on the main court, most of the huge arena's with them them are designed with that in mind so it's manageable. I don't think that's the case with the Arthur Ashe stadium.
 
At least provide a roof for the MAIN COURT!!! C'mon, its not as if NYC is a 3rd world country.

Is tennis not that prioritized in NYC? Surely at least 1 court should have a roof for how the weather has been affecting some players mentalities.
 
It is a mammoth stadium. I think it was designed without a roof in mind, so adding one to it would take forever, cost a bomb, and probably be an engineering nightmare.

The atmosphere is great there, but honestly, most of the top tiers are miles away from the action, it is not an efficient setup.
 
Sangria said:
At least provide a roof for the MAIN COURT!!! C'mon, its not as if NYC is a 3rd world country.

Is tennis not that prioritized in NYC? Surely at least 1 court should have a roof for how the weather has been affecting some players mentalities.
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What does NYC have to do with anything? NYC taxpayers will not be paying to put a roof on the stadium.
 
If they ever manage to successfully engineer a roof on the frankly monstrous ashe stadium, I'll be endlessly impressed.
 
All the USTA needed to do was ask and all them 6 *******s would have been more than willing to sew their underwears together to create some Rafa roof.
 
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Feña14 said:
I've heard it's pretty hard to get a retractable roof on the main court, most of the huge arena's with them them are designed with that in mind so it's manageable. I don't think that's the case with the Arthur Ashe stadium.
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Exactly, they probably could have put a standard roof on it with a view to giving it a Rod Laver Arena style roof but nooooooooo they had to put in a massive section of nosebleed seats and have the biggestestestest stadium of the Grand Slams.
 
idj49 said:
What does NYC have to do with anything? NYC taxpayers will not be paying to put a roof on the stadium.
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I was just saying hypothetically, if the demand allowed it, then the owners of the stadium would facilitate an open/closed roof environment.

Not that I'm complaining anyway. Rafa has had great results with the weather, of course excluding the finals delay.

I'm also happy that some people will here may lay off the "Djoker lost because of fatigue" comments if Nadal prevails. :)
 
It's too high. The highest seats are 100 feet above the court, twice as high as the Wimbledon Centre Court distance to the roof.

Plus when you get that high as the highest seats progress further back laterally, the area that needs to be covered by a roof rises exponentially.

Personally, I think it's impossible because there is no existing structure along the side that rises as high as the current top seats like at Rod Laver or Centre Court.
 
Believe me, I completely understand the argument for the roof. Any other day than the final, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But, even though I'm sure the stadium will still be full tomorrow, there are probably many disappointed fans who can't come back tomorrow. Plus, advertisers and sponsors probably would want the match to go ahead as scheduled so there's a bigger TV audience.

But, that's tennis. Weather has ALWAYS been an issue, and I don't know if the answer is to always run indoors, unless it's been determined that there is a good chance that a rainout will happen more years than it won't.

But, again, I understand the call for a roof, since it's such a frustrating thing when the match is not merely delayed, but actually postponed.

Plus, while adding a roof to Ashe Stadium is by no means impossible, I don't think it would be that easy. The USO's best bet would be to have a second stadium built from scratch with a roof. If that stadium were smaller than Ashe, then for the finals, they'd simply sell premium and non-premium tickets. Premium ticket holders would have a seat in the second stadium if the Ashe match got rained out, while the non-premium ticket holders would be out of luck. This would be known to all ticket holders before purchase.
 
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There is no way the extra revenue from not having to give rain relief to CBS could possibly make up for the cost of a $250 million new stadium, and probably not even a $100m+ roof.
 
kendall22 said:
There is no way the extra revenue from not having to give rain relief to CBS could possibly make up for the cost of a $250 million new stadium, and probably not even a $100m+ roof.
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Good point. While we all know the USTA is flush with cash, it's still a lot of money to add a roof or build a stadium. Money that could be spent on programs or other areas of the tournament, or even prize money.
 
USTA has been talking for a number of years about the possibility of a third stadium on the site, with roof, allowing them to sell separate tickets to all three stadiums, a real revenue juggernaut. They've coupled this talk at times with murmuring about whether they should move the whole tournament north to Westchester, perhaps to induce NYC to chip in.
 
Problem with a roof is that physically supporting a massive structure with the surface area equivalent to the current stadium's outermost seats would probably be impossible without supports. I'm going to guess that the area encompassed by Arthur Ashe is significantly larger than that of any of the other GS main stadiums.

Since it's not practical to place supports anywhere near the middle of a theoretical roof since it would have to be retractable, I don't see how they could put a roof on the stadium as it's currently configured; they would have to remove a lot of seats, and reduce the capacity from 23,000 down to maybe 16,000
 
rommil said:
All the USTA needed to do was ask and all them 6 *******s would have been more than willing to sew their underwears together to create some Rafa roof.
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LMAO X 3000.

p.s that's a huuuge stadium to be covered by six undies. But I am sure you've done your calculations right.
 
Roof over Arthur Ashe?


Pardon me, but I thought Sir Arthur Ashe (bless his soul) did have a roof over his head.
 
After the Sunday match was canceled due to rain, we're now in another 2-hour rain delay on Monday :neutral:
 
This is just another example of the USO's unprofessional bullsh*t, which has worn ou its "welcome" over the years; instead of supporting the damn players by preventing the influence of conditions which (in several ways) determine the course or outcome of a match, they are still hanging on to the fumes of the long gone "outdoor," "nighttime," memories of the Connors/McEnroe/Lendl past, when that kind of energy (and public interests) put tennis on the map (in the U.S.), but is something of a bygone era. The PTB need to drop the would-be Vegas/Disneyland theatrics of this open-air stadium and install rooftops, thus putting an end to delays no professional should face.

Further, the players need to stop being so cowardly and/or self-interested and jump down the throats of the PTB to protect their interests.....or continue to suffer through this wholly unprofessional mismanagement of a slam.
 
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