Flushing Meadows Ready: USTA Completes $180M Upgrade Ahead of the 2026 US Open

Flushing, N.Y., Aug. 8, 2026 — The largest single investment in US Open history is now visibly reshaping the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and fans arriving for the 2026 tournament will be the first to see it, even if what they see is not yet finished.

The USTA's $800 million reimagining of Arthur Ashe Stadium and the surrounding campus is being delivered in three phases, with completion scheduled before the 2027 US Open. The association has said the work is sequenced so that it interrupts neither play nor fan access during the tournament itself. This year's edition opens with Fan Week on August 23, and main-draw play runs from Sunday, August 30 through Sunday, September 13.

The project is entirely self-funded by the USTA, with no public, taxpayer or government money involved. New York City, for its part, continues to benefit from what the association puts at more than $1.2 billion in annual economic impact generated by the three weeks of the US Open. Combined with the campus transformation completed in 2018, the governing body has now invested close to $2 billion in the tournament and its home.

The USTA has been candid that 2026 is an intermediate step. Much of Arthur Ashe Stadium has been revamped, including its interior, but a number of areas will remain temporary through this tournament and will not be finalized until 2027.

Three changes are in place for fans this year. The most consequential is an upward extension of the courtside-level bowl, which adds 2,000 seats and expands the courtside experience from 3,000 seats to 5,000. The promenade-level concourse has been increased by 40 percent, adding open space for fans at both the promenade and loge levels. Two new dedicated luxury suite levels have also come online. Arthur Ashe Stadium opened in 1997 and received its retractable roof in 2016; with a listed capacity above 23,000, it remains the largest tennis stadium in the world.

The elements still to come are, in aggregate, the larger half of the project. When the work concludes ahead of the 2027 tournament, the stadium is to have completely modernized concourses with newly designed retail, food and beverage spaces; significantly increased restroom access on every concourse; additional escalators and elevators serving all levels; and all-new club and restaurant areas with expanded dining and premium hospitality options.

Also arriving in 2027 is a $250 million Player Performance Center, to be built on the west side of Arthur Ashe Stadium adjacent to the practice courts. The USTA says close to 2,800 players and members of their teams come to the US Open each year, and the facility is intended to give them indoor and outdoor performance and recovery space of a standard the site has not offered before. The lead architect on the overall project is HOK Rossetti, which designed the original Arthur Ashe Stadium and led the campus transformation completed in 2018.

The tournament returns with both defending singles champions: Carlos Alcaraz, who won the men's title in 2025, and Aryna Sabalenka, who successfully defended her women's title that year. Fan Week, beginning August 23, again bundles qualifying, the Mixed Doubles Championship and Arthur Ashe Kids' Day into a stretch of free grounds admission before the main draw opens on August 30. The women's singles final is scheduled for Saturday, September 12, with the men's final the following day.