Photo credit: US Open/USTA
Tennis proved to be a dynamic power source in New York.
The 2024 US Open set a mission statement to “Celebrate the Power of Tennis” and realized a record-setting event that the USTA hopes will charge lapsed recreational players to returning to the sport in the coming months.
The Flushing Meadows major is the first US Open to eclipse the 1 million fan mark, drawing a record 1,048,669 fans over the entire three-week event.
Every single session in Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong stadium sold out.
The 1,048,669 fans who came to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center throughout the full three weeks, that includes qualifying played during Fan Week, represented an eight-percent increase over 2023.
The USTA reports attendance for the two weeks of the main draw reached a new high mark of 832,640, and both Arthur Ashe Stadium (25 sessions) and Louis Armstrong Stadium (14 sessions) sold out every session. As someone who sat in both stadiums throughout the tournament, I can report those sell-out stats are accurate.
Even early-round matches in Armstrong were packed with fans. Of course, that’s great news for the USTA’s bottom line (remember they lost a complete year of revenue hosting a fan-free 2020 Open during the pandemic) and great news for American tennis when you consider attendance figures in Indian Wells, Miami, Cincinnati and New York this year.
Don’t cry in your beer (or your Honey Deuce) over the USTA’s fortunes. Next time you reach for the Grey Goose consider, the 2024 US Open served up 556,782 Honey Deuces, the signature cocktail of the US Open, at $23 a pop. I’m not a math major or a bar tender but that’s about $12.8 million in Honey Deuce sales alone.
Though pickleball may be kicking tennis’ posterior on public courts throughout the nation (at least on some near me), attendance at top American events remains strong.
Still, if you attended the US Open this year during peak hours, then you know just walking from the fountains to get inside Armstrong was as arduous as trying to squeeze through a packed 7 Train during rush hour: an overflow of humanity.
Interestingly though attendance soared, TV ratings for both men’s and women’s finals fell a bit flat even though both featured American finalists playing maiden major title matches. As several readers have pointed out, DirecTV dropping ESPN during the tournament is a significant reason for diminished audience as viewers could not watch.
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s victory over Taylor Fritz on ABC drew about 1.7 million viewers, down from the 2.3 million who tuned into Novak Djokovic’s victory over Daniil Medvedev in the 2023 final.
It also the first time since Dominic Thiem rallied from two sets down defeating a skittish Alexander Zverev in the pandemic era 2020 US Open final that a US Open men’s final failed to draw more than 2 million average TV viewers.
On the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka’s 7-5, 7-5 win over Buffalo-born Jessica Pegula drew about 1.8 million viewers, a dramatic dip from the 3.4 million audience that tuned in to see Coco Gauff rally from a set down to defeat Sabalenka in the 2023 final. For comparison, qualifier Emma Raducanu’s victory over Leylah Fernandez in the 2021 US Open women’s final elicted an average TV audience of 2.4 million for ESPN.
Here are some facts and figures from today’s USTA press release on the 2024 US Open:
Fan Week Firsts Include More than 216,000 Attendees
The US Open saw a 37-percent increase in Fan Week attendance over 2023, with 216,029 fans taking advantage of the full, eight-day tennis and entertainment festival featuring free grounds admission and a full slate of activities and signature events. Those included: The new US Open Mixed Madness presented by IHG Hotels and Resorts and the fan-favorite Stars of the Open presented by Chase signature events totaled nearly 40,000 attendees combined. Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day saw a record crowd of 47,875.
Louis Armstrong Stadium made its official debut as a bonafide concert venue and showcased its versatility, hosting ‘Sounds of the Open’ headlined by Dierks Bentley to kick off Fan Week and later the third annual Flavors of the Open presented by DOBEL Tequila food tasting, which featured offerings from as many as 10 celebrity chefs. T
he US Open’s Fan Access Pass – the digital resource unlocking a multitude of Fan week benefits and beyond – saw 205,000 registrants this year, a 20-percent increase from 2023. More than 300,000 unique devices visited the Fan Week Section on USOpen.org, a 30-percent increase over last year.
Twelve-Year Deal with ESPN Inked; Expanded Global Distribution
The USTA and ESPN announced during the US Open an extension of their relationship that will keep ESPN the exclusive rightsholder of the US Open in the Americas through 2037.
Overall broadcast highlights from 2024 include: Over 15,000 hours of US Open coverage from all competition matches were distributed across on 60-plus channels in more than 200 countries and territories.
Domestic broadcast highlights from ESPN and its networks’ 2024 coverage included over 170 hours on TV, via ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC. ABC’s expanded slate included live coverage of the middle Sunday of the main draw, and for the first time ever, the men’s championship. More than 1,000 hours of coverage from all matches and courts streamed live on the ESPNApp, across ESPN+ and ESPN3. Engaging More People than Ever Before through Digital and Social Channels
The US Open’s official social media channels achieved 2.3 billion total engagements – surpassing the 2-billion mark for the first time – during the Open’s three weeks, a 39-percent increase over 2023. The US Open’s official YouTube channel registered an additional 110 million total views over the event’s three weeks. The US Open’s digital platforms, powered by IBM, totaled nearly 40 million visits from 12 million unique devices over the event’s three weeks.
Tennis Storm, the Minibox PVP Fortnite game created exclusively for the US Open, saw seven million players play one million matches since the game launched on August 12. US Open: Champions of the Court on Roblox surpassed six million total world visits since its debut in 2023.
Historic Champion and American Player On-Court Success
Aryna Sabalenka won her first US Open and third career Grand Slam women’s singles title. Winning both the US Open and Australian Open singles titles in 2024, she became the fifth player in the Open Era to win both women’s singles hardcourt Grand Slams titles in the same season.
Sabalenka is the ninth different woman in the last 10 years to win the US Open. Serena Williams, who was welcomed by Ashe Stadium fans with a massive ovation, is the last woman to successfully defend the US Open. Serena won three in a row from 2012-2014 before Roberta Vinci denied her calendar Grand Slam quest in 2015. Flavia Pennetta defeated Vinci in the famed all-Italian 2015 final..
Jannik Sinner won the men’s singles title, becoming the first Italian US Open men’s singles champion and the third man in the Open Era to claim his first two Grand Slam titles in the same season.
Singles finalists Taylor Fritz and Jessica Pegula carried the standards established by Americans. Fritz and Pegula made the 2024 US Open the first since 2002 to feature an American men’s and women’s singles finalist.
Semifinalists Emma Navarro and Frances Tiafoe also made this the first Grand Slam to feature two American men’s and women’s singles semifinalists since the 2003 US Open.
Lyudmyla Kichenok postponed her wedding to win the women’s doubles title with Jelena Ostapenko, while the Aussie tandem of Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson won their first men’s doubles title together.
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori won the mixed doubles title over American wild-card tandem Taylor Townsend and Donald Young, who made a dream run to the final in Young’s final pro tennis event before retiring. US Open
Junior championships were captured by Mika Stojsavljevic (girls’ singles), Rafael Jodar (boys’ singles), Emily Sartz-Lunde and Malak El Allami (girls’ doubles), Maxim Mrva and Rei Sakamoto (boys’ doubles), American Charlie Cooper (boys’ wheelchair singles), Yuma Takamuro (girls’ wheelchair singles), Rio Okano and Takamuro (girls’ wheelchair doubles) and Ivar van Rijt and Benjamin Wenzel (boys’ wheelchair doubles).