In 1997, the USTA unveiled the massive expansion of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which included Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest tennis facility in the world, one that would eventually bring a massive amount of yearly visitors and revenue to the US Open.
Having been in and around The Open (then with the WTA, a few years later with the USTA) it was proud, amazing and quite humbling to see Ashe rise next to Louis Armstrong Stadium, and to see all the attention to detail that went into planning, and accommodating, not just fans and players but the media as well.
One of those massive improvements with the Media Center, a cavernous space with multiple rooms to accommodate the thousands of credentialed media, and a place I was lucky enough to call home every late August and early September from ’97 until I left the USTA after the 2001 Open, but a place I have returned to for work and other reasons almost every non-COVID year since. I have worked with so many homes over the years…The Spectrum, Veteran’s Stadium, legendary Rose Hill Gym, Madison Square Garden, literally in every five boroughs of NYC (try getting a job in sports on Staten Island, that’s a story for another time, lol)…but none has ever felt more like home than the returns to Flushing Meadows, and the people in and around what is now The Bud Collins Media Center.
From when it opened in ’97 through the early 21st Century, the Media Center was a much-needed nerve center for the USTA and all things tennis. The amount of media that descended for two weeks to cover the event was massive, ranging from the largest outlets across the country to hundreds of journalists tracking the athletes of their own nations. The setup at the time was beyond state of the art…monitors for every televised court, this thing that was growing called the internet, feeds into press conferences that were being held in various rooms, transcripts of every press event and on and on. There was also space allotted at the top of Ashe for radio outlets, in those days WFAN, ESPN Radio, WCBS, WINS and a host of other networks would fill those sports watching from above. Media officials from almost every league…NFL, NBA, FIFA, the USOC, would make the trip to see the layout and the way things were run because, in the words of former NFL Head of Communications Greg Aiello, it was like doing the Super Bowl every day for two weeks, and from early morning to the NEXT early morning, the Media Center hummed with an international heartbeat like nothing else.
Now times have changed…the amount of US media outlets that have budget to travel to NY for two weeks has dwindled to a precious few, and while the international media still show up in droves (the Italian media following Jannik Sinner now fill the front row of the media center where the LA Times, the Houston Chronicle, the Miami Herald, the Boston Globe used to be), and online platforms like The Athletic help to fill the void of regional outlets, the USTA has had to adjust to the times as well.
This year, while not yet with space in the media center, there are 50 credentials allotted not to paid influencers, but to people whose interests range from food and wine to fashion and the like, so that they can experience and story tell on whatever platforms they like, what is thought to be a first for a major event like the Open. Everyone has their paid influence strategy, but credentialing without editorial control to tell the story to their community pretty unfettered? Unusual but very progressive for an event the size of the Open.
Also, with those changing times comes the end of a run. The Bud Collins Media Center will go elsewhere after next year, its two massive rooms reallocated for suites and the like. The reality is the space doesn’t fit the physical demand that is needed despite the massive amount of media of new forms and platforms that turn out, and the USTA can better use the space, as we have seen in many arenas, for bottom line revenue generation.
Media accommodations won’t go away, they will adapt to whatever comes next, just like they did when they went from the basement of Louis Armstrong Stadium to this beautiful new facility not that far away.
It’s a sign of the times. Not bad, just a sign of how we have to adapt.
For me, it will be sad not to see the big room, but in many ways it’s sad not to see it bustling with the capacity of years not too long ago. That’s what progress is, and you have to give great credit to the USTA Media staff for keeping the buzz growing and growing, and adapting to the new faces, and new outlets, that now get to call The Collins Media Center home, as well as those that will into the future.
As far as the future, the USTA has always led with media facilities, and has found ways to make things works, and this year’s trial balloon with credentialed media from different genres is the latest, but not the last, step in innovation. More podcasters coming in future years? Sure. Interactive video with AI translations? Could be coming. Outlets cutting on demand highlights not from a desk but from their phone? That too.
Regardless of what’s next when the big room gets sunsetted after ’26 as planned, the memories and the work done will never fade, and what comes next, along with who, will hopefully tip a hat or give a fist bump to those who came before. There weren’t any ghosts in the media center this week, but the whispers of the stories told there in all shapes and forms were plenty, and they stick with those who have been there forever.
The Super Bowl every day for two weeks…the show continues, just in an adapted form for the times down the road.
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