US Open makes historic change to schedule

For the first time in the tournament’s history, dueling night sessions will be waged for the first five days of the Open because of the new $150 million, 14,000-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium.

The regular Arthur Ashe Stadium night session will go on as usual, but 6,000 separate tickets for the lower bowl have been sold for a special two-match night session at Armstrong.

Those Armstrong night session ticketholders will not have access to Ashe’s night session. However, Ashe ticketholders for the evening can sit in the general admission seats of the upper bowl of Armstrong.

The USTA said the first five days contain enough marquee matches to go around, and it gives the ESPN telecast more options. It obviously creates a new revenue stream, as the USTA has just completed the final step of its $600 million revamping of its Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, including two roofs.