Mamdani secures 1,000 discounted US Open tickets

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani has struck a deal with the US Tennis Association (USTA) to make 1,000 US Open tickets available to city residents at $100 each, as concern grows over soaring resale prices for the tournament.

Adam Crafton reports for The Athletic that the tickets, covering main-draw matches from 30 August to 8 September, will include seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium as well as grounds passes, and go on sale from 10am ET on Wednesday 26 August to buyers with a certified New York City postcode.

None of the tickets will be eligible for resale on Ticketmaster, the tournament's secondary marketplace, where grounds passes have reportedly been fetching between $240 and $478 against a $65 face value, with courtside seats on resale sites topping $1,000.

Sources close to the negotiations, speaking anonymously as they were not authorised to comment publicly, said the USTA is absorbing the gap between the $100 ticket price and market value.

Mamdani said the initiative builds on a summer of opening major sporting events to residents, adding: “If the world's best tennis players are coming to our city, New Yorkers should be able to see them play.”

USTA chief executive Craig Tiley said the offer reinforces the organisation's commitment to broadening access to the sport, alongside its existing free grounds-admission days and Fan Week programming.

It follows a similar arrangement Mamdani secured with Fifa earlier this year, offering New Yorkers $50 tickets to World Cup matches at MetLife Stadium.