Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, site of U.S. Open, to undergo $800M reconstruction, USTA says

The United States Tennis Association, flush after record-setting attendance at the 2024 U.S. Open, will spend $800 million over the next two years — the largest single investment in Open history — to remake Arthur Ashe Stadium at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and build a state-of-the-art player performance center overlooking the practice courts west of the stadium.

"This project enables us to maintain the greatest stage in tennis — Arthur Ashe Stadium — which was constructed more than 25 years ago, and modernize it in a way that will set it up for the next 25 years," said USTA CEO Lew Sherr, in a statement. "It also provides us the opportunity to give the players that compete in that stadium an unparalleled space that will enable them to perform at their best and enjoy a higher level of luxury and comfort while they are off the court."

Between the end of this year’s Open in September and the start of the next tournament in August 2026, workers will rebuild the courtside and suite levels at Ashe in the tennis center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. They will grow the courtside-level bowl to bring the number of courtside seats from 3,000 to 5,000 and replace existing suites with two dedicated luxury suite levels at the stadium, which hosts the tournament’s marquee matches as well as concerts.

The stadium's 24,000-seat capacity will drop by about 100, with seats pared from mid-level loge. The top-level promenade — known in some circles as the nosebleeds — will gain seats. 

A second phase of work on Ashe, starting next year and finishing before the start of the 2027 Open, will include a new entrance designed by Daniel Libeskind, the architect for reconstruction of the World Trade Center site, along with new loge and promenade levels, new escalators and elevators and new hospitality lounges.

Architect Matt Rossetti, whose Detroit firm designed Ashe's first incarnation and the 2018 rebuild, said in an interview Monday that Ashe's original upper concourse had been designed as a transition space for thousands of fans on their way to and from stadium seats.

"Nobody thought they would actually hang out up there — we just thought they'd rush in, rush out because there's so much on the grounds, food and retail," he said.

That prediction turned out to be wrong, with lines for concessions and bathrooms longer than comfortable. The redesign will address those lines and add amenities like a bar overlooking tennis center grounds to Flushing Meadows — Corona Park's Unisphere sculpture.

"It's just going to be mind-blowing," Rossetti said. "It'll be something that no other sport has."  

The Performance Center, scheduled to open to players and coaches for the 2027 Open, will relocate and expand many of the player facilities now housed under Ashe, partly in response to player requests for more quiet areas and more space for the top players' growing entourages. About 2,800 players, coaches, practice partners and physiotherapists attend the tournament each year.

The center will include new and expanded indoor and outdoor fitness and warmup areas for the players featuring turf, track and hard court surfaces identical to those used for tournament matches.

The facility will also include a dedicated player entrance, dining room, courtyard and bigger locker rooms and player lounges intended to provide what USTA officials described as a "spa-like" experience. It will span the top two floors of a four-story building to be built in what is now Parking Lot A, used for player drop-off and pickup during the tournament.

"When I look at something like this, there's a twinge of envy but there's also pride," John McEnroe, the serve-and-volley great who won his last Open in 1984, more than a decade before Ashe was built, said at Monday's unveiling. "It only makes sense to have the biggest and best at the Open, no offense to the other majors."

Preparatory work, scheduled to finish before this year’s Open, will include structural reinforcement to Ashe and construction of the first two stories of the Performance Center, which will contain parking. USTA officials said few changes would be noticeable to fans attending the 2025 Open.

"They have observed excess demand every year for tickets and they want to accommodate it," said Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Zimbalist described the Open's existing luxury boxes as "modest" compared to those elsewhere in the United States for sports like football, baseball or basketball. 

USTA officials said that pricing for the suites has not been determined but that they hope to recoup their $800 million investment in about 10 years.

According to Suite Experience Group, a resale marketplace for luxury suites, suite prices now range from $15,000 to $120,000 per session. Suites come with a dedicated attendant, an air-conditioned lounge and an en suite bathroom, along with 20 tickets, according to the Open's webpage. 

For the first time in history, the Open last year drew more than 1 million fans, partly on the strength of its Fan Week, which takes place before the tournament, offering family-friendly expo events and a qualifying tournament where players who are world-class but below the elite tier compete for entry to the two-week, 128-player main draw. 

The Open is the biggest source of revenue for the nonprofit USTA, generating $559 million in 2024, up from $514 million in 2023, according to USTA's year-end financial statement. Much of that money comes from the tournament's ticket sales and broadcast revenue, both of which nudged up from 2023. The USTA plows much of its tournament profits into developing tennis in the United States.