$100 Chicken Nuggets: How the US Open Became So Expensive

It takes an extraordinary crisis to put billionaire Bill Ackman and democratic socialist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on the same side. Yet this month, both found a common reason for dissatisfaction: the price of attending the US Open.

Ackman objected to a $363 ticket for the tournament complex. Mamdani responded to the wider anger by securing 1,000 tickets for New York residents at $100 each. More than 336,000 people applied, The Guardian reported.

That gap captures the awkward economics of today’s US Open. A $65 grounds ticket does not guarantee a seat on any court, yet it can sell for more than five times that price on the tournament’s resale platform. New York law allows tickets to be resold at whatever price someone is willing to pay.

For generations, the US Open built its reputation as a tournament for ordinary people. Fans could take the No. 7 train to Queens, buy a grounds pass and spend the day just a few metres from the world’s best tennis players. But that democratic ideal now faces a basic problem: more people can no longer afford the ticket.

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This is going to become Tennis Disneyland.

Demand has exploded, but so has what the USTA sells. Over the past decade, the US Open has become something closer to a three-week New York cultural festival, mixing sport, fashion, celebrities and conspicuous spending. A $23 Honey Deuce cocktail is no longer just a drink. It is a souvenir, a status symbol and a prop for social media.

Celebrity guests fill the suites, influencers occupy sponsor boxes, and Arthur Ashe Stadium can sometimes feel less like the event’s central court than an aperitif for fashion week. Attendance surpassed one million for the first time in 2024, with little sign that it will fall below that mark again.

The tournament’s new USTA chief executive, Craig Tiley, has spoken expansively about its future. Asked how the US Open could continue growing, he offered a striking shorthand for his vision: "This is going to become Tennis Disneyland." He said growth would come from creating more content and experiences for players, children and adults, calling the public’s "insatiable appetite" to visit Flushing Meadows a "beautiful problem." But he also said, "We’re not going to be one of those events that just wants to fill the space for the sake of filling the space." For many longtime visitors, however, that demand is already changing the tournament’s economics.

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We’re not going to be one of those events that just wants to fill the space for the sake of filling the space.