Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 10/07/2026 04:21:00
Featuring the first retractable roof on a tennis venue in the world, the current Louis Armstrong Stadium opened for the 2018 US Open as a 14,000-seat replacement for the 1978 structure of the same name. Located within the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York, the arena serves as the tournament's second-largest court behind the 23,771-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium and ahead of the 8,125-seat Grandstand. The stadium's namesake, jazz musician Louis Armstrong, lived in the nearby neighborhood of Corona until his death in 1971. The original Armstrong Stadium was itself a conversion of the Singer Bowl, a venue built for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. That structure was heavily renovated in the late 1970s and served as the US Open's primary court from 1978 until Arthur Ashe Stadium opened in 1997, at which point the upper tiers were removed and capacity was reduced from roughly 18,000 to 10,200. The original building was demolished after the 2016 US Open. For the 2017 tournament, a temporary 8,800-seat facility served as a bridge while construction continued on the current arena. Built by Rossetti Architects on roughly the same footprint, the new stadium seats 14,000 -- 6,600 reserved in the lower bowl and 7,400 general admission in the upper bowl. The retractable roof, the largest of its kind on a number-two tennis venue at the time, ensures uninterrupted play during weather delays. The stadium's completion capped a five-year, $600 million transformation of the National Tennis Center that also added the retractable roof to Arthur Ashe Stadium and the new Grandstand. The playing surface is Laykold hardcourt. The venue is served by the Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch and the 7 train at Mets-Willets Point station, placing it within easy reach of all five New York City boroughs and Long Island.
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