US Show time and the fan experience.

It all started in 1881 with the creation of the US National Championships. A hundred years later, the US OPEN is the highest annuel attended event in the world.

The tennis tournament takes place at Flushing Meadows, Corona Park in New York at the Billie Jean King national Center. For the 2019 edition, we were lucky to attend this event where 700 000 fans from all around the globe come every year to watch the best men and female players in the world compete to win the precious trophy (Every year since 1987, the US OPEN trophy is created by the jeweller Tiffany & Co in New York).

Aside from being one of the most important tennis tournaments in the world, the US OPEN is also because the US and New York City showing their showtime culture.

We were very fortunate to see 3 matches at the Arthur Ashe Stadium which is the main court of the center.

This magnificent piece of art is the biggest tennis stadium in the world with a capacity of 22 547 seats and since 2016, has a retractable roof in case of bad weather. The main games are played in that stadium.

We saw the game Djokovic ( number one at the time and won the open in the 2011,) against Wawrinka who won it in 2016. It was a fantastic game until Djokovic got injured and the game had to be stopped.

More than the actual pleasure of witnessing the best players in the world compete in front of us. The show and the experience the US OPEN gives you is truly amazing.

The light show in the building, the music and the sound, interaction with the audience to win gifts, challenges between 2 sets… You can see these kind of animations in other stadiums in the world, but in the US, everyone takes it seriously and is having fun ! The atmosphere is electrifying and everyone enjoys being there and they demonstrate it !

Famous international celebrities are invited to promote the event. So it’s common to see famous people in the stands. In fact, we saw the legendary Tiger Woods during the Djokovic Wawrinka game.

In order for the fans to have a complete experience of the US OPEN, they created an app to download on your phone with all the information of the tournament, results, features… And the possibility to see a 3D map of the center, food, beverages and special offers for the fans.

Even if you don’t know much about tennis or if you want additional information, you can get headphones with live commentary from tennis experts and watch the game.

This connected event gathers around 18 million fan interactions on social media, which ranks the tournament at the number one spot in that field compared to other grand slam tournaments.

The US OPEN fans come to live a full experience and not just tennis games. The whole event is organised in that way for the fan to be in a world of tennis where he's connected around tennis.

That leads us to the fan experience and the entertainment the famous sponsors offers to the fans. (Rolex, Mercedes, Ralph Lauren, Emirates, IBM, Grey Goose, American Express… for the 2019 edition ).

To begin with, this is the highest attended annual event in the world, obviously the sponsors are visible everywhere and all the time, you cannot miss them.

There are more than 100 stands for the sponsors and partners around the Billie Jean King tennis Center in order for the fan to also live a customer experience.

In order to relate to our course in sports business, we spent half of a day discovering to experience and see famous businesses advertise their brand. We had various experiences with digital games with American Express, to analysis and historical moments with IBM or VR experience with Mercedes. We saw that these brands adapted and changed their advertising during this event to fit in and create loyalty with the customers through the experience they gave us.

The hospitality of the US OPEN is a very important part and they create premium offers for clients who want a different experience. We were lucky ,thanks to our professor Deepak Trivedi, to live this experience and have access to a premium hospitality lounge where we had an amazing buffet with food from all around the world, wine tasting, amazing decorations and set up, an art exposition, Tennis games on the big screens… It was the icing on the cake to live that kind of additional experience.

The tournament is about prestige and history that helped to create the personality of the US OPEN. The first sight you get to see when you enter the grounds is the hall of fame wall with all the famous male and female tennis players that won the tournament and references to the best moments of tennis history.

It’s very important for the USTA to inspire and create loyalty for young tennis players and athletes in general. This is why they have their own experience too with the « net generation » stand with different sports available to play for the younger ones. The late Kobe Bryant or Sloane Stephens are famous stars that promote sports for younger kids in order for them to get active and to find what their true passion really is.

This fan experience and show time is specific to the US OPEN and the whole city of New York gets into that spirit during the tournament. And it is a success on multiple parts, not just the attendance but also the most profitable grand slam tournament in the world.

The US OPEN has created its spirit and reputation with the city of New York. They sell the event by selling the image of New York. Sports and culture and truly associated as fans keep the great experience of the US OPEN as the Big Apple, a wonderful city.