It’s always inevitable that the subject of constructing a roof at the venue of the US Open Championships will crop up whenever the Grand Slam hardcourt event takes place. As much as the organizers would like to go ahead and implement this project – there’s a rather big catch – it will cost “over nine figures” to create this. Other Grand Slam events, Wimbledon and Australian Open have already set up a roof with the help of rockland county roofers on its main stadiums.
“I cannot tell you when that will be. I can’t tell you what it will cost, though it will clearly be over nine figures,” said USTA Chief Executive Gordon Smith on Sunday, at the eve of the Grand Slam tournament.
Smith revealed that the organizers have several plans in place – including the expansion of the Billie Jean King Tennis Center and rebuilding of the Louis Armstrong Stadium which could accommodate up to 10,000 people.
The roof has always been a topic of conversation since the past four US Open finals have been contested on a Monday due to rain delays. The delay has resulted to USTA returning an undisclosed amount of money to TV network CBS. However, Smith said this was fine.
“The amount of money we’ve lost by not having a roof and the amount of money we might make by adding a roof is negligible compared to the cost of adding a roof,” he said.
