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USTA BILLIE JEAN KING NATIONAL TENNIS CENTER QUICK FACTS T O U R I N N Groundbreaking Ceremony: October 6, 1977 F A O Grand Opening: August 29, 1978 M E Arthur Ashe Stadium Groundbreaking: March 1, 1995 N Arthur Ashe Stadium Dedication: August 25, 1997 T Louis Armstrong Stadium Re-Dedication: August 30, 1999 USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center Dedication: August 28, 2006 F First US Open match at USTA National Tennis Center: Bjorn Borg, Sweden, d. Bob Hewitt, G A R C South Africa, 6-0, 6-2, August 29, 1978, in Louis Armstrong Stadium O I L U First US Open match in Arthur Ashe Stadium: Tamarine Tanasugarn, Thailand, d. Chanda Rubin, I T N Y D Lafayette, La., 6-4, 6-0, August 25, 1997 & S FACILITY STATISTICS Total acreage: 42.0 acres Courts: 45 (4 stadium, 13 tournament, 16 practice, 12 indoor) A E C V Doors & locks: 1,762 T E I N Public toilets: 566 V T I T S I Restaurants: 5 E & Kitchens: 14 S Food concession stands: 59 Arthur Ashe Stadium: 20 Louis Armstrong Stadium: 8 Grandstand: 8 Food Village: 15 H I South Plaza: 6 S T East Plaza: 2 O R Y Portable concession carts: 71 Trash receptacles: 1,380 (660 for recyclables) Water fountains: 42 Merchandise stands/stores: 28 Elevators: C Arthur Ashe Stadium: 10 plus 3 handicap lifts H A P M Louis Armstrong Stadium: 2 plus 1 handicap lift A P S I T Indoor Training Center: 2 O Grandstand: 2 N S South campus: 4 SEATING CAPACITY Stadium Courts Seating Capacity Field Courts and Practice Courts Courts R S E Arthur Ashe Stadium 23,771 T C Court No. 4 1,066 A O T Louis Armstrong Stadium 10,103 Court No. 5 1,148 I R S D Grandstand 8,125 T Court No. 6 1,032 I S C S Court No. 17 2,800 Court No. 7 1,494 & Court No. 8 336 Court No. 9 624 Court No. 10 1,104 Court No. 11 1,704 Court No. 12 1,704 R P E L Court No. 13 1,104 C A O Court No. 14 502 Y R E D Court No. 15 502 R S Court No. 16 336 Practice Gallery 672 37 ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM Distance from the court to the top seat in the stadium: 105 ft. T N Luxury Suites: 90 (Club Level: 44 Mezzanine Level: 46) E Escalators: 6 M O A F Number of broadcast booths: 20 N N I R Number of camera positions: 16 U O Media workstations: 347 T ROOF STATISTICS Opening/closing time: 7 minutes (approx.) S Size of opening: 62,500 square ft. & D Y Total area: 236,600 square ft. N T I U L I Area of the fabric panel: 191,400 square ft. O C R A Weight of gliding panels: 800 tons G F Distance from the top seat to the bottom of the roof: 15 ft. Height from top of the roof when closed: 205 ft . Distance below the surface reached by steel and concrete-filled pilings: 180 ft. Height of steel support columns: 150 ft. Catenary trusses supporting the roof: 4 S & E I Length of a catenary truss: 460 ft. S T I T V Structural beams in superstructure: 1,700 N I E T V C Bolts in superstructure: 115,000 E A Weight of steel superstructure: 6,500 tons Winches used to open and close the roof: 4 LED sports lights used to light the roof: 360 Motors used to power the roof system: 600 hp Maximum wind speed that the roof can still be operated: 50 mph Maximum speed that the panels travel: 25 feet per minute Y R O Amount of the sun's energy that can pass through the roof's PTFE T S I (Teflon-coated polytetrafluoroethylen) fabric panels: 73 percent H Thickness of the roof's PTFE fabric panels: 0.03 in. A T S U S N O T I S P A M P A H C & S C S I T D S R I T O A C T E S R S R D E R Y O A C L E P R Arthur Ashe Stadium 38 THE US OPEN AND NEW YORK T O The US Open and the City of New York have enjoyed a special relationship for more than a U R I N N century. In fact, the US Open has a longer association with the City of the New York than such F A O New York City institutions as the Empire State Building (constructed in 1930), The Tony Awards M E (first held in New York in 1947), Rockefeller Center (created in 1928) and Lincoln Center (opened in N 1966). The US Open also has a longer association with New York than some of its most storied T sports franchises, including the New York Knicks of the NBA, who started in 1946; the New York Giants of the NFL, who started in 1925; and the New York Mets of Major League Baseball, who began play in 1962. F G A R o C s O u I L U m a I T N C Y D m i & S T / A T S U A E C V T E I N V T I T S I E & S H I S T O R Y C H A P M A P S I T O N In 1915, the men's singles tournament for the U.S. National Championships moved from the S Newport Casino in Newport, R.I., where it had been held for 34 years, to Queens and took up residence at the newly constructed West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, N.Y. The club had been situated on Manhattan's Upper West Side since 1892, but the growing popularity of tennis demanded more space. The Queens location, a few blocks from the Long Island Railroad Station, R S E T C with a Tudor-style clubhouse, gave the tournament an accommodating new home in the midst of A O T I R a world-class tennis center. S D T I S According to Wright and Ditson’s Lawn Tennis Guide , the first tournament in New York was an C S instant success: “The externals and business side of the tournament surpassed anything ever & attempted in this or any country. Courts, schedule, handling of matches, umpiring, accommoda - tions for players and spectators were perfect and the galleries throughout were not only large and enthusiastic, but truly appreciative as well.” The men’s singles championships continued at the West Side Tennis Club until 1920, when the R P event moved to the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia in a short-lived attempt (1921-23) E L C A to rotate the championships among different cities. In the absence of the men’s championships, O Y R E D the women’s championships moved to the West Side Tennis Club in 1921. The men’s singles R championships returned to New York City in 1923 upon completion of the 14,000-seat horseshoe S stadium at the West Side Tennis Club. The men’s and women’s singles events were played along - side each other in Forest Hills for the next 53 years. 39 USTA BILLIE JEAN KING NATIONAL TENNIS CENTER T N In 1978, the US Open moved across the borough of Queens to the newly constructed USTA E M National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. Relocating from the private West Side Tennis Club to a O A F public facility in the largest park in Queens provided the US Open with a more spacious venue N N I R U that could accommodate more fans. US Open attendance increased by 26 percent in the tourna - O ment’s first year in Flushing Meadows, and the number of attendees continued to rise steadily T over the next four decades. By the turn of the 21st century, the US Open was drawing on average three times as many fans as it did in Forest Hills. s e g a S & m I D y Y t t N T e I U G L I O C R A G F S & E I S T I T V N I E T V C E A Y The sweeping transformation of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is creating a R O tennis facility that sets a new standard for spectacular—and enhances the US Open experience T S I for players and fans alike. H RISING FROM “THE VALLEY OF ASHES” New York City Park Commissioner and master builder Robert Moses literally got the ball S rolling in Flushing Meadows by converting acres of marshland and a mountainous garbage N O T I dump—memorialized by F. Scott Fitzgerald as “the valley of the ashes” in his 1925 novel The S P A Great Gatsby —into the site for the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair. Moses planned to turn the M P A reclaimed wasteland into a vast park at the Fair’s conclusion, but a lack of funds stalled the park’s H C development. A quarter of a century later, Moses was hired to organize the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, and he again selected Flushing Meadows for the fairgrounds. A stainless steel Unisphere weigh - ing 900,000 pounds and standing 12 stories high—the largest replica of the world ever built—was constructed at the center of the site as the symbol of the Fair.