FLUSHING, NY – The 2026 US Open is going on over at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens and unless you got money to burn, then stay away.
The cash cow starts in the parking lots, where for 80 bucks, you leave your car in an unattended parking lot at your own risk. As you walk into the complex, you will immediately know where you fit in. It comes down to two classes, the rich and the riff-raff. Most of the native New Yorkers who are here are the employees, and it seems like they’ve been trained to treat the riff raff as the riff raff.
While New York has rolled out the red carpet for the rich and the foreigners, the U.S. Open has followed the lead. It’s clearly evident that the natives who don’t have dough to blow, do not belong here. You’ll need more than your wallet to attend this tennis showcase, you’ll need your bank book, or better yet any IRA or CD account in your name.
I sarcastically state that the food vendors charge cuisine prices, which you hope will lead to a golden shit when it exits your digestive system.
The grounds are like an outdoor shopping mall where you can find 600 dollar Polo jackets and tennis related jewelry that will set you back four figures.
The minimum wage staff will humiliate you if you are seated in an unassigned seat. You’ll notice the looks and glances that you’ll get from the so-called tennis elite which spell, “Go back to your ghetto.”
Yours truly was at the Ben Shelton/Denis Shapovalov match which went on till after 2AM. As the audience exited Arthur Ashe Stadium, while the match was being played, the empty seats in the prime sections were embarrassingly visible to the television viewers.
Staffers scrolled the fans sitting in the cheap 300 dollar seats and decided to upgrade them upon their looks. If one looked the part, they moved down.
I couldn’t help but think of the time when NY Yankees COO Lonn Trost, who is part of the face of The Evil Empire up in Da Bronx, when he basically implied that wealthy patrons should not have to sit near lower-income riff-raff. Trost was justifying the insane ticket prices at Yankee Stadium’s Legends sections. Trost made those comments back in 2016 and ten years later, his words are the reality of the U.S. Open.
