New York City —
It makes sense that the most attractive audience to any money-making venture is whatever one is still relatively untapped. We’re living in an era where success is measured not in sustainability or even sheer size but nothing short of endless, indefinite growth.
For a tennis tournament, that tantalizing market of maybe-future customers means people who do not currently know or care all that much about tennis. There’s no moral judgement to that characterization. Ignorance or even disinterest about tennis is a perfectly fine way to be as a person. Provided you’re not attending a high profile — and increasingly prohibitively pricey — tennis match in cushy, comped seats.
The US Open would like to believe those people are either fans who just don’t know it yet or that such a disposition does not preclude enjoying themselves at a tennis match. It probably doesn’t.
The weather this week in New York has been mostly glorious. The grounds of the US Open are buzzing with beautiful people. The food options are decadent. The Honey Deuce is dangerously delicious (based on a single, very professional sip taken by this serious journalist). And yet, the discourse around the tournament centers on the “close to 100” credentialed influencers creating tennis-adjacent content a little too close to the tennis itself.
