US Open ticket prices compared to summer sports events as prices soar

As tennis fans prepare for the U.S. Open’s return to New York next week, some are experiencing sticker shock.

Ticket prices for the year’s final Grand Slam tournament have soared, with fans on social media and ticket marketplaces pointing to rising costs for resale tickets—from grounds passes to premium seats—to the competition at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the Queens borough of New York City.

Watching elite sports in person has become increasingly expensive, as strong demand, limited inventory and a booming resale market continue to push ticket prices higher. After a warm-weather season that saw New York-area fans pay premium prices for Knicks playoff games and FIFA World Cup matches, the U.S. Open is now seeing a similar trend. Online, many users are calling out the high prices.

Here’s how tickets to watch some of the world’s best tennis players square off compare to other global tennis events and warm-weather sporting spectacles in New York.

Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) for comment via email on Wednesday.

What Is the U.S. Open?

The U.S. Open is one of tennis’ four Grand Slam tournaments, alongside the Australian Open, Roland-Garros (French Open) and Wimbledon. Held each year at in Queens, New York, it is the final Grand Slam of the tennis calendar and regularly draws a large attendance, often with celebrity sightings.

The 2026 tournament’s qualifying rounds start on August 23, with tickets available August 25 through September 13. The singles tournaments feature 128 men and 128 women, with players competing for one of the sport’s most prestigious titles.

The most recent men’s and women’s champions are Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka captured her second consecutive U.S. Open title in 2025 by defeating Amanda Anisimova in the women’s final, while Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner in the men’s championship match.

The tournament has been won by some of the sport’s biggest names, including Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and many other tennis legends.

Several of the sport’s biggest stars are expected to compete in the tournament, though the final list has not been confirmed as some players continue to manage injuries. The USTA is scheduled to release the tournament’s official entry list on August 20.

U.S. Open Grounds Pass Pricing

U.S. Open grounds passes, which provide general admission access to the tournament grounds and first-come, first-served seating on many outer courts—not Arthur Ashe Stadium—are selling at a premium on the resale market.

As of Wednesday, grounds pass tickets for August 30 were listed at $191 to $344 for resale on Ticketmaster.

TicketData on Wednesday reported an average resale price of $246 for grounds passes, about $4 higher than at the same point last year. The tournament’s average get-in price stood at $292 as of Wednesday, up from $256 a year ago, according to TicketData. On August 9, grounds passes hit $299.

For comparison, grounds pass admission at the other three Grand Slam tournaments is generally lower. Entry-level grounds access costs about $45 at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, and $35 at the Australian Open, based on conversions from local currencies.

Sports journalist Simon Cambers broke down the prices of grounds passes as of Tuesday, writing that they range from $237 to $611, depending on the date. He noted that “the actual face value of a day 1 grounds pass is $65,” adding that they always sell out.

“The US generally has higher prices for all types of sporting events than other countries,” Victor Matheson, College of the Holy Cross economics professor specializing in sports economics, told Newsweek.

He went on to say that the reason the U.S. Open tickets “are so high now as in the past is that event organizers across all sorts of events – World Cup, Knicks, Taylor Swift tickets, Hamilton, etc., are all seeing fans with huge appetites to continue to pay higher and higher amounts for premium events.”

The soaring prices are related to resale opportunities in the U.S., which Cambers discusses in his Substack On Tennis. He writes, “In Australia, if you buy tickets online before the event begins, you can only resell them for a maximum of 10 percent above face value price. At Wimbledon, the only tickets you can officially resell are debenture tickets, which are already incredibly expensive. But grounds passes cannot be resold. At Roland-Garros, tickets can be resold but only at face value.”

U.S. Open Center Court Ticket Pricing

Some of the center court tickets for the final matches have surpassed $21,000, according to Seat Geek and Ticketmaster sellers, as of Wednesday.

Wimbledon posted that its center court seats for the final were around $476. Center court tickets for the men’s singles final at the Australian Open in January are listed around $4,273 on Ticketmaster.

Matheson said that while there are the same amount of courtside tickets at the U.S. Open today as there were years ago, “there are more people in the U.S. as potential buyers,” and people are richer.

“Plus international travel is easier than ever so that further increases the pool of buyers,” he added, saying, “If you have a fixed supply and increasing demand, that is a recipe for higher prices.”

The U.S. Open’s main stadium, Arthur Ashe, has been under renovation with some seating changes, including the addition of court-side-level stands. The USTA allotted $800 million for renovating the entire King center.

Other Sporting Event Pricing

The tennis tournament comes amid an unusually busy stretch for New York sports fans. The summer kicked off right after the Knicks’ run to the NBA Finals, which helped drive some of the highest secondary-market ticket prices of the year, as thousands packed Madison Square Garden for games against the San Antonio Spurs.

The average ticket price for Game 3 at the Garden was reported at about $7,683, according to Vivid Seats, with the cheapest price of $3,940, and most expensive around $65,000, ESPN reported in June.

In June, People reported that a courtside ticket for Game 3 was selling for more than $103,000 on SeatGeek. YahooSports reported the get-in price for Game 3 was $9,130, the median at $17,398 and the most expensive at $109,263. Other games were relatively less expensive, with the Game 4 get-in price around $7,805, median at $16,695 and most expensive at $98,624.

Just as the Knicks were wrapping up, the FIFA World Cup came to the New York metropolitan area, with MetLife Stadium in New Jersey hosting several matches, including the tournament final.

While FIFA introduced a limited ticket category beginning at about $60, ticket prices rose significantly for later rounds, with marketplace estimates placing quarterfinals around $1,188 and semifinal tickets near $3,138. Average prices for the World Cup final were around $7,477, according to TicketData.

Fans and supporters’ groups accused FIFA of pricing ordinary fans out of the 2026 World Cup through high ticket costs, dynamic pricing and expensive resale prices, arguing that attending matches had become far less affordable than during previous tournaments. Some fan organizations, like Football Supporters Europe, called the pricing a “betrayal” of the World Cup’s tradition of accessibility and said supporters were being treated more like consumers than fans.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino defended its policy, saying that demand for tickets remained extremely strong and that prices were consistent with North American sports and entertainment markets.

Michael Leeds, economics professor and director of undergraduate studies at Temple University, told Newsweek in an email, “For all the complaining about the prices of tickets for the WC [World Cup] final and the NBA finals, both events sold out. This effectively reset the market for tickets.”

He added, “It ‘helps’ (the USTA, anyway) that the two earlier events also took place in the NY metro area.”

Despite the steep ticket prices, thousands are expected to attend the U.S. Open.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Edward T. Cummins.