Yearly, the US Open brings in stars together with Mariah Carey, Fat Joe, Queen Latifah, and, final 12 months, Alicia Keys from her Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen, to amp followers up for the match. Through the free Fan Week’s Arthur Ashe Youngsters’ Day, performers together with Justin Bieber, Rihanna, The Jonas Brothers, and Britney Spears have supplied the soundtrack.
And transferring ahead, the Open is trying to proceed to hit the appropriate notes with followers.
This 12 months, with Mustard on the beat remixing Ace Frehley’s “New York Groove,” the US Open is giving its match two stadium exhibits to entice followers: Placing Odesza in Louis Armstrong Stadium on Sept. 6 and the Swedish Home Mafia in Arthur Ashe Stadium after the Open on Sept. 11. Each exhibits offered out practically instantly.
The Open first began holding exhibits earlier than and after the match in 2024, and the most recent live shows proceed the technique to create cultural gravity across the occasion—from its opening, free-to-the-public Fan Week to the finals and past.
Attendance spikes
Through the Open itself, which takes place this 12 months from Aug. 18 to Sept. 8, there’s little doubt that followers will embrace something the USTA throws their manner. The Open trustworthy endure five-and-a-half-hour matches, 95-degree heat, and the occasional weather delay regardless of the addition of lined surfaces lately. Because of this, attendance in Flushing Meadows reached 1,048,669 in 2024—in comparison with 737,872 in pre-pandemic 2019.
The crowds throughout Fan Week alone surged to 219,000 final 12 months, practically double the 115,355 who got here via the gates within the final US Open earlier than COVID-19. An obscure freebie when it first launched eight years in the past, Fan Week is considered by the USTA because the second when the Open is most accessible to new audiences.
“We have a look at the info of followers attending throughout Fan Week, and half of the folks, in line with our most up-to-date analysis, establish as folks of shade,” stated Nicole Kankam, managing director of professional tennis advertising and marketing and leisure for the USTA. “The US Open is already pretty various, however Fan Week itself is much more various, and we’re bringing in a complete new crop of followers who’re getting the possibility to see the perfect tennis gamers up shut and private. There’s nothing else like that.”
