Game on.
The U.S. Open is increasingly the boardroom-away-from-home for NYC’s power players, but Arthur Ashe Stadium has historically lingered on the baseline when it comes to luxury spaces.
Now it’s charging the net. A massive, $800 million renovation will transform the venue, adding eight clubs — each with a bespoke scent and accessible only to those with premium seats — several bunker lounges and 2,000 new courtside seats. For the first time in the stadium’s 25-year history, the luxury hospitality suites will be directly inside the bowl, ensuring fans don’t miss a point.
“It’s a stadium that was purpose-built for 1997,” Kirsten Corio, chief commercial officer at the U.S.T.A., told NYNext. “The expectation of consumers has evolved.”
The overhaul borrows from the playbook of New York’s other power venues, such as MSG and UBS Arena, where sushi and lobster are never more than a few steps from the action.
Renovating Ashe has not impeded play in 2025 — only Alcaraz, it seems, could stand between a Sinner-Djokovic heavyweight showdown in the finals — nor will it in 2026.
By 2027, the full suite of amenities will be open to fans.
A select few will enter through the President’s Entrance, which leads directly to two hospitality lounges, seven of the bunker suites and the Bunker Club.
The latter, an underground hideaway, will connect to 74 seats, all within the first two rows. Inside, the club will feature an in-house sommelier, all-inclusive carving stations and plated dining service.
The Courtside Club will be adjacent to the Bunker Club. Set to be the largest hospitality space in Ashe with 464 seats, guests here will have access to a speakeasy, chef’s tables and dessert bar.
Full-tournament packages in the Courtside Club will start at $48,000 for the full series of 27 sessions and are on sale now for 2027. (Pricing information was not made available for the other new hospitality spaces.)
Bunker Suites will deliver the best of both worlds: prime baseline seating and a private indoor lounge steps away via an exclusive tunnel. Six of these suites will hold 20 guests each, with one larger 30-seat suite anchoring the block.
In designing the new spaces, Corio and her team took inspiration from across the parking lot and across the Atlantic.
At Citi Field, in the Hyundai Club, a carving station and flat screens are located within earshot from premium seats behind home plate. At Wimbledon, Roland Garros and the Australian Open, fine dining is integrated seamlessly with premium hospitality.
“The client has come to expect things like pre- and post-match meals — to expect a combination of tennis and so much more,” Corio said.
At $800 million, the renovation’s budget is greater than the combined cost of constructing the stadium in 1997 — $254 million — and adding the retractable roof in 2016 — $500 million.
High-rolling fans aren’t the only ones who will benefit from the renovation. It will also include a new player performance center, wider concourses, expanded restrooms and upgraded food and beverage options for various ticket levels.
USTA
“We were very deliberate in ensuring that there’s something in this transformation for every fan,” Corio said.
The promenade level — long-maligned for bottlenecks and sparse amenities — will see its footprint expand by 40%. More concessions, restrooms and a new open-air terrace overlooking the grounds are also coming to Ashe. Overall capacity of the stadium will remain at 24,000.
“Once you’re inside the stadium, every square inch is going to be redone, Danny Zausner, the U.S.T.A.’s chief operating officer, told NYNext. “Whether you’re on the club level, or the loge and the promenade, everything about it will be brand new.”
While the hospitality overhaul promises to elevate the Open and bring it in line with its global peers, the most stubborn challenges — parking and traffic — remain outside the gates.
A new double-height garage will add a few hundred spaces and ease congestion for players and staff, but it’s hardly a salve for the 24,000 fans in Ashe, much less the 50,000 others roaming the grounds each day.
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Most will still lean on the 7 train and the LIRR, while cars will be funneled into revamped and repositioned rideshare lots serviced by shuttle buses.
Corio concedes the “traffic gods” remain beyond her control.
When asked what miracle she’d conjure if given the chance, she didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Some sort of Jetsons-style skyway connecting Midtown Manhattan to Arthur Ashe Stadium,” she said. “That would eliminate any conversation about traffic.”
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[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
