Where were the fans??

[heycal]

I had tickets for Tuesday's US Open day session in Ashe, which was rained out after Jankovic-Dementieva, so I got a rain check for Wednesday's day session. On Tuesday night, on the US Open website, and in Wednesday morning's New York Times, there was mention that they were offering 20 dollar grounds passes for Wednesday's session,which would permit one to enter Armstrong and everywhere else but Ashe. (As an Ashe ticket holder, I was allowed to enter either stadium.) I was not thrilled about this news, since I figured the cheap grounds passes offered would draw thousands of fans that would take up all the seats in Amstrong and generally create long lines and headaches.

The schedule at Armstrong that day? Murray-Davydenko, Mauresmo-Safina, Federer v. What's-his-face, Nadal v. Youzny. So, for 20 bucks, one could see some of the greatest players in the world in an intimate stadium. Basically, one of the greatest bargain's around for tennis fans.

Now, I thought there was little chance I would be able to get into Armstrong due to the throngs of tennis fans I expected to flock to the Open to take advantage of this incredible, once in a lifetime deal. I figured it would be a zoo, a mob scene, lines around the block, and so on, so I was prepared to settle for my perfectly fine Ashe seat and be happy with that.

What did I find instead when I ventured over to Armstrong? A seat in the third row for Fed and Nadal and Mauresmo, and about 5000 empty other seats a little higher up. The place was half empty! Where the hell was everyone? 20 bucks to see the greatest players in the world up close and personal in a grand slam and no one comes??

 

[pound cat]

What did I find instead when I ventured over to Armstrong? A seat in the third row for Fed and Nadal and Mauresmo, and about 5000 empty other seats a little higher up. The place was half empty! Where the hell was everyone? 20 bucks to see the greatest players in the world up close and personal in a grand slam and no one comes??[/QUOTE]

You answered your own question by listing the players. There weren't any Americans playing.

 

[Jack the Hack]

You answered your own question by listing the players. There weren't any Americans playing.

Somewhat funny story on that note...

I was at the US Open last week, and I was watching Richard Gasquet's first round match. I got into a conversation with the folks next to me, and was surprised when they told me that they had never heard of Gasquet... but they were there to watch Phillip Simmonds because he is an American!

 

[idj49]

People have jobs and unless you planned ahead of time to take Wednesday off $20 ground passes don't mean much if you can't get the day off. If I remember correctly Wednesday morning was still pretty overcast and maybe some people didn't want to risk another rain out. As for the non-Americans playing I'd have to differ. Since I saw that the Nadal-Youzney match seemed to be a packed house. I attended Armstrong matches on Sunday and on Monday and the lines to get in for those matches were ridiculous. It was actually the worse I've ever seen it. I was there for Safin-Nalbandian and people actually sat for 4 hours to watch. A seat was hard to come by and that was with Agassi playing in Ashe. I have been going to the Open for a few years and this year I found it to be the most crowded in quite some time.

 

[heycal]

People have jobs and unless you planned ahead of time to take Wednesday off $20 ground passes don't mean much if you can't get the day off. If I remember correctly Wednesday morning was still pretty overcast and maybe some people didn't want to risk another rain out. As for the non-Americans playing I'd have to differ. Since I saw that the Nadal-Youzney match seemed to be a packed house. I attended Armstrong matches on Sunday and on Monday and the lines to get in for those matches were ridiculous. It was actually the worse I've ever seen it. I was there for Safin-Nalbandian and people actually sat for 4 hours to watch. A seat was hard to come by and that was with Agassi playing in Ashe. I have been going to the Open for a few years and this year I found it to be the most crowded in quite some time.

Perhaps you are right about it being a weekday and without anyone having the ability to plan ahead, given your account of your experience on weekends, so perhaps it was just a freak occurance due to weather and cancellations and whatnot. Still, I would have thought there were enough people in the huge City of New York and its enivirons to have come out for that star studded line up and packed the house.

To the poster who suggested the place was less than full because there were no Americans playing, well, that's just silly. I'm an American, and I completely blew off watching my fellow American James Blake -- hell, he's my fellow Westchester County, New York native -- in order to see Mauresmo, Nadal, and Federer. (I would have liked to check out Blake, but the day was so full of marquee matches and famous star players that I had to make some tough choices between matches... For example, I choose to sacrifice 2 sets of Safin-Haas to see Mauresmo and Federer, and then had to walk out on Federer after one set in order to catch Hardenne-Davenport before scurrying back for Nadal-Youzny -- a fantastic match to be in the crowd for. Very exciting stuff.) And judging from the tape I saw later, I wasn't the only American who deserted Ashe or didn't even show up to see Blake play.

Anyway, I think that most true tennis fans, regardless of their own nationality, prefer seeing the best players, regardless of THEIR nationality.

But if there is indeed any favoritism shown by some fans, TV networks, or the other media toward American players, it is only natural and not evidence of some *******ed sense of patriotism or whatever. I"m sure every country's tennis fans and media give more attention to "their" players, and I'm sure the the Brits a Wimbledon, the French at Roland Garros, and the Aussies at the Australian Open get more attention/favoritism at those events from the home crowd. And if people in Moscow have a chance to see the US Open televised, I suspect they'll have more interest in seeing Youzny and Davydenko than Blake or Roddick. So what is is that Americans are doing that's any different or worse than what every other nation is probably doing?

 

[arosen]

Heycal, you are making a mistake assuming that everyone stays just as well informed and as prepared as you are to make it to enjoy an accidental schedule. When rainout happens a lot of people lose track of things, we are talking mob behaviour that follows predictable factors, this was not predictable. You are one lucky SOB to get to see all those guys in such a small stadium. Fed would probably never play there again.