September might mean back to school everywhere else, but in Manhattan, it’s back to the court as a sea of tennis fans swarms into the subways, en route to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The US Open is in full swing, part of the $4.94 billion tennis economy nationwide. Here are the numbers, courtesy of our friends over at WalletHub:
700,000: Overall attendance at the US Open (which runs through September 10)
$800 Million: Economic impact of the tournament on the New York metro area
$1.5 Million: How much the USTA pays New York to host the tournament
$294 Million: Annual revenue generated by the tournament
$3.7 Million: How much the men’s and women’s singles champions will make each (the US Open has been according equal prize money to men and women since 1973, an initiative championed by Billie Jean King herself)
40: Percentage of visitors who come to the tournament from outside New York
$113: Lowest nightly rate in the NYC area (for a three-star hotel) during the US Open
7,000: Seasonal jobs created by the tournament
$40 Million: Annual employee compensation from those jobs
$65: Face-price value of the cheapest tournament seats
$208: Starting price for courtside seats
$2,165: Starting price for an all-session pass
$600 Million: Estimated cost of the BJK Tennis Center renovation
130: Number of hours of live coverage the tournament will receive on TV
4: Rain days expected (one has already been used)
98,000: Number of tennis balls expected to be used (Bonus: That’s 12 times the height of One World Trade Center)
61,839: The record-high attendance at the 2017 US Open on opening day and night (Day: 38,068; Night: 23,771, a sellout). The previous Opening Day-Night record, set on August 31, 2015, was 61,392. Those numbers come straight from the USTA, by the way.
3 Hours, 33 Minutes: The duration of the second-round match between Shelby Rogers of Charleston, S.C., and Daria Gavrilova of Australia, making it the longest women's singles match in US Open history, set on August 31. (Thanks to USTA for this gem as well.)
0: Number of games Serena Williams will play in the US Open this year (she gave birth to her first child during week one of the tournament).
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