U.S. Open Grounds Passes For Sale For $3… (Sorry, It Was In 1975)

By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

Grounds passes to the U.S. Open were first introduced at the U.S. Open in 1975…and they only cost $3!

Due to the increased demand to attend the U.S. Open, then played at the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills, U.S. Open tournament director Bill Talbert decided to experiment with an idea on the second day of the tournament to sell 800 grounds passes to would allow admission to the tournament grounds, but would not guarantee a seat in the stadium.

Wrote Neil Amdur in the New York Times as a review of the tournament after its conclusion, “Two Thursday ago, in a quiet experiment on the second day of the tournament, Talbert authorized the sale of 800 ground‐admission tickets at $3 each to satisfy spectators shut out because of a sellout. The tickets did not qualify for seats in the stadium but allowed the holders to wander around the grandstand and 10 field courts, a practice allowed successfully at Wimbledon.”

The concept of the grounds pass has since taken off at the U.S. Open and has become one of the more popular ticket choices for fans during the first week of the tournament. With the increase in popularity of the ticket choice comes the increase in price, with grounds pass admission not costing at least $350 in 2026 on the secondary ticket market.

Wrote Amdur of the USTA’s decision to open up the U.S. Open and more tickets to more people back in 1975, “Once content to cater to the country‐club set and loyal fans, the world’s richest tournament, in the words of Bill Talbert, ‘now is with the people who ride the subways.’”

The USTA, however, was not the originator of this ticketing concept. It started at Wimbledon, nearly a century before the U.S. Open first started with the concept.

“Wimbledon has had grounds passes in some form since the beginning in 1877, although the courts you can access with them have varied over time,” said Robert McNicol, the Club Historian for the All England Lawn Tennis Club.