USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is the National Tennis Center of the United States and is located in Flushing Meadows , in New York district of Queens . The center is owned by the United States Tennis Association (USTA). The fourth Grand Slam tennis tournament , the US Open , takes place here every year. The Arthur Ashe Stadium , the largest pure tennis stadium in the world, is the landmark of the facility.
On August 28, 2006, the tennis center was named after Billie Jean King , a former American tennis player.
history
The idea for a new tennis center came to WE Hester (the future president of the USTA) in January 1977 when he was flying over the Singer Bowl in Queens on his way to LaGuardia Airport . The stadium was built for the 1964 World's Fair and has not been used since then. Hester asked the city if they would give the USTA the site for the new home of the US Open. The site opened a year later in August 1978. The old Singer Bowl was converted into two tennis stadiums. The main square was named after Louis Armstrong and offered 18,000 spectators. The second stadium was named Grandstand and has a capacity of 5,000 spectators.
In 1995 the site was expanded. A new Center Court was built next to the old Louis Armstrong Stadium . With the Arthur Ashe Stadium (capacity: 22,547 spectators) the National Tennis Center has the largest tennis stadium in the world. The old stadium has been renovated and reduced to a capacity of 10,000 spectators. It is now used as Court 1.
On August 16, 2013, the USTA published plans for the construction of two new stadiums and a roof structure for the Arthur Ashe Stadium. These renovation measures, which have a volume of 550 million US dollars, should be completed in 2018.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Renaming of the center ( Memento of February 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), August 29, 2006
- ^ Roof On Way For Arthur Ashe Stadium
Coordinates: 40 ° 44 ′ 57 " N , 73 ° 50 ′ 48" W.