Should Shanghai hold a Masters?

[Moxie]

Moxie wrote:
I will say 2 things about the early rounds of the USO on Ashe, and they likely apply to other tournaments: the prime seats are often held by corporations, and can go empty in early rounds. That’s what you see in most shots from the court. However, I usually attend the first few days, in order to see all the players, and I can tell you that the grounds and the courts are teeming with fans. I’ll have a seat in Ashe, which gives me access to all of the other 17 courts, which means I won’t spend all of my time in Ashe, if that’s what you’re judging. I’d seen Roger play several times, so I only stayed long enough to see how the SABR was working, then I moved on to the outer courts to check out the youngsters and other players. In the early rounds on the biggest court, a seasoned observer knows that the conclusion is usually a given, and s/he looks for the more competitive matches on the outer courts. I didn’t get into any other match without standing in a line this year, this on a very hot day with a record number of retirements. The question is really how well-attended a tournament is in the last 3 rounds, when you’re really only looking at the show court. The Majors are all packed. I checked the 2014 attendance records: USO: 713,642; AO: 643,280; W: 484,391…I couldn’t find the numbers for the French, but I doubt they were higher than the USO, since they have a capacity problem. But please don’t tell me that the US Open is not well-attended. (Sorry, I have to defend the home-town major.

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Interesting stats – and good explanation on why the USO “seems” to be poorly attended at times, when in fact it isn’t. Wimbledon is usually teeming, so I guess it’s got a bit of a capacity issue in comparison. The French footprint (land wise) is pretty tiny compared to the other majors.

Also, I think people are pretty happy to sit at Centre Court, at Wimbledon, if they have the chance, so why wouldn't that always look filled up?  And the venue is considerably smaller.  (I looked it up.  Ashe seats 8,200 more than Centre Court, Laver and Chartrier, each, which all have a capacity of about 15K.)  As to the French Open, there is a lot of talk about moving it, because it is basically at capacity.  Not sure where they are on that.  Anyway, NY is very centrally located compared to the other Majors, and so gets Europeans and So. Americans in droves, as well as New Yorkers, and otherwise folks from the US and Canada.  It is surely not under-attended.