15/06/2012 11:45 CEST - Clippings

Il Tennis Center potrebbe avere un nuovo stadio, ma non un tetto (New York Times)

The United States Tennis Association will spend an estimated $500 million through the coming decade to build a new Louis Armstrong Stadium, a new grandstand on unused land at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and a double-deck viewing area for fans to watch players practice during the United States Open.

But the plans do not include a roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium or the new Armstrong facility.

Rain delays have caused the United States Open men’s final to be played on a Monday for the past four years, increasing calls for the Open to join the other three Grand Slam events in adding a roof on at least one showcase court. Melbourne Park, site of the Australian Open, has retractable roofs on two courts and plans for a third; Centre Court at Wimbledon gained its retractable roof in 2009; and a new center court with a retractable roof is expected to open at Roland Garros in 2017.

U.S.T.A. officials said that Arthur Ashe Stadium, which was built on a swamp-like ash dump, could not physically absorb the weight of a roof that would cover its expanse.

“It’s five times larger than the span that covers Wimbledon,” said Gordon Smith, the U.S.T.A.’s chief operating officer.

Despite years of consultations with engineers, the organization has not found the lightweight, cost-effective technology that is needed. One rejected idea for a roof included resting one on columns surrounding the stadium.

“This issue has been given significant attention,” Smith said. “It’s very important long term to us.”

The new Armstrong Stadium will be able to support a roof, but it will not get one until Ashe does.

“The tournament does not function with a single roof being anywhere but the main stadium,” said Daniel Zausner, managing director of the tennis center. If rain halted a match at Ashe, he said: “You can’t tell 23,700 people to move to Louis, which will have 15,000 seats. That leaves 8,000-plus without a seat.”

The U.S.T.A.’s plans for the tennis center are expected to be announced by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Thursday morning before the Queens Chamber of Commerce. Public hearings are expected to start in July.

A spokesman for Queens Borough President Helen Marshall said she has been briefed on the plans, but would not speak until after Bloomberg’s announcement. The tennis association hopes to get the required governmental approvals in time to start construction in the fall of 2013.

Smith said the renovations were required to sustain the tennis center’s prominence in light of changes at Wimbledon and the plans to modernize Roland Garros; competition for luxury suites from new and upgraded stadiums and arenas in the New York area; and the need to improve pedestrian movement around the tennis center.

“We’ve got to maintain our presence as a sporting event, as a great advertisement for tennis and as a great economic driver for the city,” Smith said during an interview Wednesday.

According to the U.S.T.A.’s plans:

¶ Armstrong Stadium, which seats 10,000, will be replaced on its current site with a building that can fit 15,000 people.

“Louis is 50 years old,” Smith said. “It’s served its useful life.”

Zausner said the new stadium might not be ready until 2018.

¶ The grandstand, which abuts Armstrong Stadium in the northeastern part of the tennis center, will be torn down. Its new home will be on a teardrop-shaped piece of land in the southwestern corner of the property. Capacity will expand to 8,000 from 6,000, and the stadium could be open in 2015. A building with retail, office and storage space — and clay courts on top — would replace the grandstand.

¶ An area west of Ashe Stadium with seven tournament and practice courts will feature a covered, two-level viewing deck. It will let fans look one way to see players prepare for their matches on five practice courts and look the other way to watch them play on three tournament courts. There will be about 800 seats in each of the tournament courts.

¶ To enhance fan movement between the new grandstand and the 2,800-seat Court 17, which opened last year, a walkway will be created by moving seven courts on the southern border of the tennis center 30 to 50 feet further south. To do that, one lane of an exterior three-lane roadway, United Nations Avenue North, would be eliminated to take about three-quarters of an acre. That is the only land outside the tennis center’s leased property line needed for the project.

The city would pay for the diversion, a little bit southward, of a Grand Central Parkway connector road, which currently goes through the land where the grandstand would be built.

The construction project will be financed by the U.S.T.A. The group financed the construction of Ashe Stadium, which opened in 1997. Debt from that and other construction at the tennis center is still being paid off. Through 2014, total debt payments will be $19.5 million, but they will drop to $6.7 million through 2023, allowing the tennis association to borrow more to pay for the new construction.