US Open backflips after one day over $275m mistake
The US Tennis Association took less than one day to realise a major mistake and two days to take action inside the AU$275 million Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The first day of the US Open saw fans swamp the USTA and ESPN with complains about the sky-high camera angle inside the flash new arena.
Not exactly sure where this camera is located, but I’m sure it’s not in Queens. Most likely Brooklyn … or maybe New Jersey. pic.twitter.com/AovzYnAeoH
— Ken Fang (@fangsbites) August 29, 2018
How high is this camera? Fix this… pic.twitter.com/zExFHQQaDL
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) August 27, 2018
The camera is positioned along a walkway, underneath a big screen and a few metres above the seats on the second level.
When play began on the third day of the tournament on Thursday morning AEST, the main angle had changed to something more familiar to tennis fans around the world.
You GUYS: The US Open changed the Louis Armstrong's main camera! pic.twitter.com/yJWy7JWmSh
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) August 29, 2018
It wasn’t quite a New York miracle, however.
The Wall Street Journal reported USTA and ESPN workers made the change between 12.30am and 4.30am local time – by ripping out the 16 seats underneath the original camera.
“We didn’t want to wait a year, we wanted to make this change in real time,” USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier told the newspaper.
“We believe that this has had a major effect on the television viewing angle and at this point we’re satisfied.”
The WSJ reported that “the change had been discussed since Monday afternoon” – just a few hours after play began – but it took time to organise a temporary camera and the timing of the fix.
The new Armstrong, now featuring 14,053 seats, is the US Open’s No.2 court and had featured some of the sport’s biggest names across the opening two days, including world No.1 Simona Halep, Andy Murray and defending champion Sloane Stephens.
With rain forecast for the weekend the stadium’s new roof is expected to come in handy, but it isn’t a perfect arena.
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Stephens said she was “a little bit nervous” for her opener inside Armstrong, which offered distractions galore.
“It was just loud,” the No.3 seed said.
“There was a lot going on between the airplanes and the subway behind the court, the concessions being in the lower bowl, and people walking in the games at, like, two-all, three-all. There’s just a lot going on.”
with agencies
