The US Open clears $277.4 million on three weeks of tennis in Queens

Tickets and broadcast rights supplied $353.5 million of the $559.6 million in 2024, or 63.2% of operating revenue ^[1]. Corporate hospitality and related services came to $83.3 million, the smallest of the four lines in Fortune's account of the audited statements and 14.9% of the total ^[7][2]. Sponsorship, reported at more than $130 million across 27 agreements, averages about $4.8 million a deal ^[6][12][14].

Per head, the 1.04 million people who came in 2024 were worth about $538 each, of which roughly $200 was the ticket ^[9][3][4].

The published lines do not tie to the published total. They sum to $566.8 million, $7.2 million above the $559.6 million the tournament reported, because sponsorship is given as more than $130 million and broadcast as approximately $145 million ^[5][6][8]. The margin rounds the same way: $277.4 million on $559.6 million is 49.6 cents in the dollar, which Fortune describes as nearly 49% ^[3][6].

The Honey Deuce is the cleanest read on what premium pricing does at volume. Grey Goose said a record 738,459 were sold during the 2025 tournament at $23 each, roughly $17 million ^[13], which is about two drinks for every three people through the 1.14 million gate ^[10][11] and around 3% of the prior year's operating revenue ^[10]. Fortune's account does not say whether that $17 million lands in the USTA's revenue or a concessionaire's.

Set the roughly $800 million capital project against the surplus and it costs 2.9 years of everything the Open earns above its own expenses ^[11][7]. Revenue grew $45.5 million in 2024 ^[4][8]. The rest of the USTA, meaning everything that is not the Open, ran on $64.2 million of revenue that year ^[9].

So the premium framing is right about the marginal dollar and incomplete about the base. A $23 cocktail and a $130 million sponsorship book are things the tennis makes possible; the largest single line is still admission at $208.5 million ^[5], and the second largest is a media contract priced by whoever buys it, at roughly $145 million or 25.9% of revenue ^[8][15]. The counter-case is straightforward, and it is the one the USTA is clearly acting on: with the grounds already full at 1.14 million people ^[10], yield on premium seating and hospitality is where the next $45 million of growth has to come from, and $800 million of construction is what buying that yield costs ^[11].

In my view the test arrives in a single line of a future audited statement. If corporate hospitality moves well above $83.3 million while ticket revenue holds, the hospitality read on this business is correct. If it stays near 15% of the total ^[2], the USTA will have spent nearly three tournaments' surplus rebuilding seats for a gate that was already selling out ^[9][7].