2005 U.S. Open: Admission is Free!

Last time I looked, you didn't need a pass to play basketball in the many city run parks and neighborhood playgrounds you find in the vast canyons of New York City. On any given day, you will find hundreds, if not thousands, of kids playing basketball, many dreaming of a career as a professional, and all the trappings and luxuries that can bring.

I asked one young man, all of probably 13 or 14, how much it cost to play. He looked at me like I had some disease, or if I had just been discharged from Bellevue. Then he laughed, asked me if I was serious, and went back to playing ball. I tried this several places, all with the same result, or similar. So I knew for sure, basketball is free.

Now, I didn't just do this randomly. A reader wrote me last week, and in the course of conversation, mentioned that a tennis pass to play on the courts in NYC cost $100 per year, and play is restricted to one hour at a time. So I did a quick calculation. First, maybe only 26 weeks of any given year here in the northeast are playable. Of those, maybe another two to four are off limits for a number of reasons. So, 22 weeks might be available to play. Now, let's say you are lucky enough to get one full hour each of those weeks. That's 22 hours of tennis, for $100. So, for just under $5 per hour, you can play tennis in NYC. Sounds like a bargain, doesn't it?

I was going to be the great journalist and contact the Parks and Recreation Department, and ask them what goes into the fee, but then I thought that it wouldn't matter. They will have some rational explanation of why it costs that much, It will all sound plausible. But it will really be just bunk.

Let's face it, most tennis courts are the same as basketball courts, and many are paved and built the same time a b-ball court is constructed or resurfaced. Yes, nets can cost way more then basketball nets, but I have seen some creative chain-link nets in high vandalism neighborhoods that have withstood the test of time and are probably cheaper overall to maintain then the hoops on many of the basketball backboards in the city. What I figure, it all comes down to the fact that the City of New York can charge a fee, and people will pay it, so they do.

I would love to see the city charge $5 per hour to anyone playing basketball. It would solve the budget crunches and crises and probably would have enough left over to finance the Jets' new stadium. But that won't ever happen. So tennis will pay the brunt of the bill, and tennis play will be restricted, keeping those inner city athletes the USTA so desperately wants to add to the ranks from getting a shot at our great game.

Now contrast that with the U.S. Open. During the fourth week of August, some of the top players in the world will converge on the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows in an attempt to earn a spot in the main U.S. Open draw. The Open Qualifiers feature players in the top 1,000 in the world, and you often will see some relatively well-known pros. Justin Gimelstob, local New Jersey boy, has played the qualifiers to get in the draw. Other higher-ranked players just outside of the top 100 have also played the qualifiers to earn their way in. It really is great tennis.

Did I mention it's free? Yes, admission to the qualifiers and the National Tennis Center is free. It's a great chance to see some great professional tennis, and to see the Mecca of tennis in the U.S. Oh, and did I say it's free? Quite a contrast to the city, where it costs you to play. One of the best bargains in professional sports.

If you wanted to see any of the top 1,000 players in baseball, you would have to go to a minor league park, and while its still a bargain, it will cost you about $15-20. For football, you will have to go to Canada or Europe, and that isn't too cheap, either. Just about every professional sport has a minor league of some kind, and each costs you admission. Well, not tennis, at least not before the major tournaments. For the cost of a subway ticket to NYC, you can see some of the best tennis you will ever see for free.

Now, doesn't that sound like the best bargain?