US Open Breaks Records, Viewership Falls for Finals
drop it
Written by Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Thursday, September 12, 2024
Photo credit: US Open/USTA
Tennis proved to be a source of motivation in New York.
The 2024 US Open put forth a mission statement to “Celebrate the Power of Tennis” and recognized a record event the USTA hopes will galvanize retired players to return to the sport in the coming months.
More: Bouchard Jabs Pegula
Major Flushing Meadows is the first US Open to surpass the 1 million fan mark, drawing a record 1,048,669 fans throughout the three-week event.
Each session at Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium ended.
The 1,048,669 fans who attend the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center over the three full weeks, including qualifying play during Fan Week, represents an eight percent increase in 2023.
The USTA reports that participation in 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 all times. As someone who sat in both stadiums for the entire tournament, I can report that those sales figures are true.
Even the morning games at Armstrong were packed with fans. Of course, that’s good news for the USTA foundation (remember they lost an entire year of revenue hosting the 2020 Open with no fans during the violence) and good news for American tennis when you consider the attendance figures at Indian Wells, Miami, Cincinnati and New York this year.
Don’t cry over your beer (or your Honey Deuce) over the USTA’s fortunes. The next time you reach for Gray Goose thinking, the 2024 US Open served 556,782 Honey Deuces, the US Open’s signature cocktail, at $23 a pop. I’m no statistician or bar tender but that’s about $12.8 million in Honey Deuce sales alone.
While pickleball may be taking a backseat to public courts across the country (at least in some near me), attendance at America’s top events remains strong.
However, if you attended the US Open this year during rush hour, then you know that just walking from the fountains into Armstrong was as difficult as trying to get on a full 7 train during rush hour: an overflow of humanity.
Interestingly, while attendance increased, TV ratings for the men’s and women’s finals were down slightly even though both featured American finalists playing their first major title matches. As several readers have pointed out, DirecTV dropping ESPN during the tournament is a significant reason for the decline in viewership as viewers are unable to watch.
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s victory over Taylor Fritz on ABC drew about 1.7 million viewers, down from 2.3 million who watched Novak Djokovic’s victory over Daniil Medvedev in the 2023 final.
It is also the first time since Dominic Thiem’s two-time upset of Alexander Zverev in a violent 2020 US Open final that a US Open final has failed to draw more than two million TV viewers.
On the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka’s 7-5, 7-5 victory over Buffalo-born Jessica Pegula drew an estimated 1.8 million viewers, besting the 3.4 million who tuned in to see Coco Gauff beat Sabalenka. in the 2023 final. In comparison, Emma Raducanu’s victory over Leylah Fernandez in the 2021 US Open final drew 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:
Start of Fan Week Gathers Over 216,000 Attendances
The US Open saw a 37 percent increase in fan attendance during Week 2023, with 216,029 fans taking advantage of the packed, eight-day event of tennis and entertainment that includes free entry venues and a host of signature activities and 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 drew a combined attendance of nearly 40,000. Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day saw a record crowd of 47,875.
Louis Armstrong Stadium officially debuted as a true concert venue and showed 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 tasting food. featured contributions from 10 celebrity chefs. T
The US Open’s Fan Access Pass — a digital service that unlocks a host of benefits for Fan Week and beyond — saw 205,000 subscribers 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; Extended Global Distribution
The USTA and ESPN announced during the US Open an extension of their partnership that will keep ESPN as the exclusive rights holder for the US Open in the Americas until 2037.
Overall broadcast highlights from 2024 include: More than 15,000 hours of US Open coverage from all tournaments aired on more than 60 channels in more than 200 countries and territories.
Highlights of home broadcasts from ESPN and its networks in 2024 include more than 170 hours on TV, via ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC. ABC’s expanded slate includes Sunday’s live broadcast of the main event, and for the first time, a men’s championship. More than 1,000 hours of coverage of every game and court is streamed live on ESPNApp, across ESPN+ and ESPN3. Engaging More People Than Ever Through Digital and Social Channels
Official US Open social media channels received 2.3 billion interactions – surpassing the 2 billion mark for the first time – during the three weeks of the Open, a 39 percent increase over 2023. The official YouTube channel of the US Open registered an additional 110 million views. viewing during the three weeks of the event. The US Open’s digital platforms, powered by IBM, generated a total of nearly 40 million visits from 12 million unique devices in the three weeks of the event.
Tennis Storm, a Minibox PVP Fortnite game created exclusively for the US Open, has seen seven million players play one million matches since the game launched on August 12. US Open: Court Champions on Roblox has surpassed six million worldwide since it first appeared. 2023.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73fFPE31yMs
History’s Champion and Most Successful American Court Player
Aryna Sabalenka won her first US Open title and third career Grand Slam singles title. By 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 hardcourt Grand Slam 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 greeted by fans at Ashe Stadium with great enthusiasm, is the last woman to successfully defend the US Open. Serena won three in a row from 2012-2014 before Roberta Vinci ended her calendar year Grand Slam campaign in 2015. Flavia Pennetta defeated Vinci in the prestigious All-Italian 2015 final.
Jannik Sinner won the men’s 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.
Individual winners Taylor Fritz and Jessica Pegula they held the standards established by the Americans. Fritz and Pegula made the 2024 US Open the first since 2002 to feature an American men’s and women’s singles final.
Semifinals umma Navarro and Frances Tiafoe and made this the first Grand Slam to feature two American women’s singles winners since the 2003 US Open.
Lyudmyla Kichenok postponed her wedding to win the women’s doubles title Jelena Ostapenkowhile the Aussie tandem of Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson they won their first men’s title together.
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori won the mixed doubles title over the American wild-card tandem Taylor Townsend and Donald Young, the dreamer made a run to the final in Young’s final tennis event before retirement. The US Open
The Junior Championships were taken 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 (singles boys’ wheelchairs), Yuma Takamuro (girls’ wheelchairs), Rio Okano and Takamuro (girls’ wheelchairs) and Ivar van Rijt and Benjamin Wenzel (boys’ wheelchairs).