By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
“You want some tradition. We’ll plant some ivy.”
No, Stephen Ross, the billionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins, did not say this about moving the Miami Open from the traditional and magnificent postcard location of Key Biscayne to his Hard Rock football stadium. Mark Shapiro, the co-President of IMG, the owners of the event, didn’t say it either. James Blake, the new Miami Open tournament director, also can’t lay claim to the quote.
This was what was said by W.E. “Slew” Hester, the president of the U.S. Tennis Association back in 1978 when he moved the U.S. Open from the beautiful and cozy West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills to the new USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.
At the time, there was great controversy in moving the U.S. Open from this private club to a new, untested, un-seen, not-yet-built USTA National Tennis Center after Forest Hills had hosted the event for six decades – double the time that Key Biscayne has hosted the Miami Open. Now, as the USTA is about to celebrate its 40th year in Flushing Meadows, not one tennis fan or observer thinks that moving the event was a bad idea. It’s absurd to think otherwise.
Forest Hills had the charm, the amazing views and vistas that tennis fans and TV viewers enjoyed. They were nostalgic about the route they took to Forest Hills – by train or subway – and the neighborhood that surrounded the courts. Tennis fans have been saying the same thing during the last staging of the Miami Open in Key Biscayne this year. They will miss the stunningly beautiful scenes of ocean and beach and sky on the Rickenbacker Causeway that leads drivers from downtown Miami to the island paradise of Key Biscayne. Like Forest Hills, the Tennis Center and Crandon Park and the public officials that represent it became embroiled in politics over the future set-up of the event. Cindy Shmerler presents the story in her New York Times story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/sports/tennis/miami-open-key-biscayne.html
The event was in jeopardy of leaving the Miami area – and even the country – but Ross stepped up and had the vision to move the event to his stadium, located on the other side of downtown Miami as the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne.
The U.S. Open’s move from Forest Hills to Flushing is probably the most significant – and controversial – move of a major tennis tournament in the sport’s history. The event moving from Newport, Rhode Island to Forest Hills in 1915 was almost as shocking. In 1988, the Australian Open followed suit and moved from the quaint Kooyong Tennis Club to the current Melbourne Park facility. We don’t hear many people saying “I wish the event was back at Kooyong” while standing in the shadow of the impressive and accommodating Rod Laver Arena or any of the other futuristic and modern facilities Down Under.
Many people forget, or don’t know, that Wimbledon faced a similar dilemma of the USTA, Tennis Australia and IMG starting in 1919 with the emergence of an immensely popular champion named Suzanne Lenglen. Back in those days, Wimbledon was played on the grass courts at Worple Road in Wimbledon Village since the tournament’s inception in 1877. However, more and more fans came to watch The Championships – and in particular Lenglen – so the tournament had to be moved to a different location just down the road and the current Wimbledon site debuted in 1922.
Moving the Miami Open to Hard Rock Stadium will make the event more accessible to more fans. Rather than driving down the narrow and crowded Rickenbacker Causeway to the stadium, fans will have an easier time accessing Hard Rock Stadium via the Florida Turnpike, which spills out to the stadium. Being north of downtown Miami, the new location makes driving from tennis hotbeds like Naples, Florida and West Palm Beach easier, as in 45 minutes less driving time easier. That makes it possible for fans to make a day trip to Miami to see the tennis as opposed to thinking about having to stay the night in a town which does not always have the best and most economical deals on hotel rooms.
During the first U.S. Open in Flushing in 1978, Hester had a sprig of potted ivy at the facility’s entrance with a handwritten sign underneath it proclaiming “Watch Tradition Grow!” It will be interesting to see what Ross, Blake, IMG and the rest of the Miami Open staff will have in store starting in 2019. However, it won’t be long before new traditions and memories are made. Fans will begin to “watch tradition grow” starting in March of 2019.
