Reviews

Homage to a Doomed Tennis Landmark

8/26/2016

Once House of Horrors, Now Practice Court for John Isner; Next Year, Gone.

Strictly by coincidence, the Times has a feature on the Op-Ed Page Saturday about the vanishing storefronts of New York, victims of rising rents.

I was already planning my ode to the vanishing landmark of Queens, the house of upsets, the cramped, smoky pit known as the Grandstand.

Once upon a time it was the second court at the United States Open, an afterthought grafted onto the main arena, Louis Armstrong Stadium, itself a tennis improv. But now in the name of modernity, the Grandstand has been phased out. It is serving as Practice Court 6 for this year’s Open but then will be bulldozed, gone, like ancient temples destroyed by vandals.

The Open is one of the two best sporting events in my home-town, along with the one-day phenomenon of the Marathon in the fall. I can look past the money and the privilege and see the Open, with its roots at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, as still very much a Queens event, right off the No. 7 elevated train.

This year the Open has a new retractable roof over Ashe Stadium to keep the show moving when the monsoon hits. The Armstrong will be replaced by a new second stadium. The Open also has a new generic bowl, called the Grandstand with 8,200 seats. I am sure it has more amenities than the old Grandstand but it does not exactly have the feel of an Elizabethan bear-baiting den.

For many years, the players had to inhale the meaty fumes from a restaurant suspended above the west stands. Something was always out to get the favorite at the Grandstand:

In 1985, Kevin Curren, the fifth-seeded player from South Africa, was bumped off in the first round by upcoming young Guy Forget of France. Curren promptly emitted a Hope Solo solo, blaming the site for his troubles.

“I hate the city, the environment and Flushing Meadow,” Curren said. “There is noise, the people in the grandstand are never seated and it takes an hour and a half in traffic to get here. It’s sickening that with all the money they get from TV, the USTA doesn’t build a better facility. The USTA should be shot. And they should drop an A-bomb on the place.”

Curren was not the only player to get bushwhacked in the Grandstand. On Friday I ran into a former player who had benefited from the blood lust of the fans.

In 1981, Andrea Leand, all of 17, met second-seeded Andrea Jaeger in the second round – in the Grandstand.

“Andrea was up a set and 5-2,” Leand recalled. “I could hear a broadcaster saying, ‘That’s it, she’s done.’”

Then again, you could hear everything in the Grandstand. “I heard a man asking his son, ‘Do you want a hot dog?’”

The mob began howling for a new victim to be sacrificed to the Grandstand deities. “The sound went right through you,” Leand recalled with a beatific smile. She beat Jaeger, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3. It could happen to anybody, and often did.

The litany of Grandstand upsets is long – best left to an expert like Randy Walker, who last year wrote a farewell to the Grandstand, well worth reading:

The great thing about the ramshackle center of the 80’s was that reporters could watch Grandstand matches from the back of the press box in the main stadium. One match turned into a heavyweight fight -- Roscoe Tanner, one of the hardest hitters on the tour, and Chip Hooper, a big fellow, trying to drill each other, up close and apparently quite personal.

This being the yappy borough of Queens -- Trump! McEnroe! Archie Bunker! -- the fans egged them on.

Competition was also nasty in the lines as fans tried to get into a match that had suddenly turned epic. I visited the old den the other day – a few fans watching John Isner and a hitting partner whacking the ball around, but no yelps from fans seeking a new victim.

The Grandstand could have served forever as an anarchic, irregular heirloom – a tribute to history. But Open executives can still revive the gritty aura of the old place: pipe fumes from the grille directly onto the court. Kevin Curren would feel right at home.

Madison Keys Practicing Friday; New Grandstand Could Be Anywhere.

Hansen Alexander

8/27/2016 01:21:26 pm

Ah, the George of my heart has returned, exhibiting the humor via overstatement, understatement, and bemusement that I love, that personal whacking of Roscoe Tanner and the other insanely hard servers of the US Open Court. Nothing like the over the top yelp of losers in a very personal game. Actually, it is comforting to know that not only is my Upper West Side neighborhood being deserted by higher rents but Queens as well. There is something comforting in knowing that decline is distributed equally, as Manhattan become Hong Kong and Queens the last outpost of the Middle Class. Or is the US open the last outpost of the Middle Class? LOL

George Vecsey

8/27/2016 02:09:00 pm

Hansen, thanks. I needed a week off to catch up on another project.
Saw your note on Solo/Lochte. Interesting if male athletes would be held to same standard....but Solo has a history. Gulati is a lifer -- I don't know his base-line feelings about Sundhage, but she won for US, and this was final straw on Solo.
I'm no Phelps fan. I find swimmers, and swimming, to be over-chlorinated.
A decade ago, Long Island City was the new Wiliamsburg. Now it's Maspeth. as the new Long Island City. Millennials are swarming with their parents' money.
On to the people's sport -- tennis.
GV

Alan Rubin link

9/1/2016 11:21:38 am

Hansen—I can relate to your concern about the accelerating demise of the small neighborhood merchants on the Upper West Side, as well as the rest of the city.

I ran a family owned retail appliance business for forty years (1966-2006) before retiring to the Berkshires in western MA eleven years ago.

Radio Clinic, later doing business as RCI Discount Appliances, was founded by my father in 1934.

Neighborhood retail rents were fairly stable and affordable on Broadway until the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when foreign money began paying ultra-high rents for stores on Columbus Avenue. These expensive boutique shops came and went, but the excessive rents that created the high turnover of stores continued to rise.

My landlord in a casual conversation on the street in 1979 said that the neighborhood was getting better and he wanted more money. I said fine but I wanted a longer lease. We replaced my existing lease, with seven years to go, with twenty years at a modest increase, which escalated about 2% a year.

In 2000, I approached my landlord, now his son, with seven years to go on the new lease to renegotiate again. He said that the values were rising so quickly and that I should came back during the last year of the lease.

In 2000, the rent more than doubled to about $14,000 a month. I told Jack that the store did not merit the increase. He agreed but said that he could get it and it would have been $16,000 if we were not a reliable long term tenant.

This store was on the corner of 98th and Broadway. We gave up our other store on Broadway between 82nd and 83rd about 1990 when the rent was increased from $3,000 to $10,000. The new tenant paid $20,000 per month.

In 1985 I was appointed to a small business committee by City Council member Ruth Messinger. Its purpose was to evaluate retail rent stabilization options She represented the district in which I both lived and worked. We had previously worked together on other issues.

Most of the committee members wanted to sock it to the landlords. This made no sense as they had a right to earn money on their investment. The problem was that the runaway increases were forcing long established businesses to close. They could not easily or economically, continue in another location.

Baseball was going through its “binding arbitration” phase of salary negotiations. I convinced the committee to recommend the same approach for retail rent negotiations. The merchant and the landlord would each make their best offer. The hope was that an arbitrator would recommend a fair middle ground and each side would have made a reasonable offer in case the ruling went against them.

The NY Real Estate Board was actually considering it. At a general meeting on commercial rents and other issues, I was talking with three members of the NY Real Estate Board at the back of the room. They did not like the idea of “binding arbitration” but preferred it to something that could be much more restrictive.

In the middle of our discussion, someone whispered to them and the discussion ended. It was learned that polls indicated that Ed Koch would be elected for a third term. This would have eliminated any chance of any commercial rent reform.

Real Estate rules NYC.

In the unlikely possibility that commercial rents could eventually be stabilized, there would probably not any small businesses left to benefit.

pankaj karnwal link

9/9/2016 05:47:09 am

this is nice article for readers.

Brian Savin

8/28/2016 08:55:23 pm

I saw a lot of great matches on the Armstrong Court over the years, forsaking seats in the big stadium for the more intimate setting and often greater competitiveness. However, I have always wished I had gone to Forrest Hills. Just missed. A kid in my freshman dorm, who's family belonged to the Club, was the head ball boy for the Open that year and was told to line up extra ball boys. I told him I'd do it. Last minute, he was told they had enough. Crap! Before long, the tournament moved to Flushing and everything changed, including dropping the name "Lawn" from the Association name.

George Vecsey

8/28/2016 10:32:00 pm

Brian,: it was so small in early 50's when my dad got me a press pass, first 9 days. Players signed autographs. Grass. Hedges. One tiny clubhouse. It is still the template for "my" Open. We saw BJ King first time, circa 1961, whacking herself on the leg with her racquet, berating herself on back court. My wife and I became instant fans for life. I always tell her that.

Roy Edelsack

8/30/2016 06:28:20 am

As I might have mentioned before, I have gone to at least one session at the US Championships/US Open since 1959. I went again yesterday and the new "Grandstand" is simply not a grandstand. It's an 8,000-seat stadium where, consistent with the philosophy of the USTA, the lower bowl is reserved seating. So much for intimacy.

So let's talk about the old Grandstand court. First match I saw there was Rene Richards over Mary Carrillo. Best match however was 16-year-old amateur(!) Aaron Krickstein's 1983 come from behind 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory over 15th seed Vitas Gerulaitus. Trailing 2-4 in the final set Krickstein came back to pull off what Neil Amdur in The Times
called a "stunning" victory and made him the youngest player to reach the round of 16 at The Open. That's the Aaron Krickstein match that they should have shown during rain delays.

The only ball I ever caught in the stands was a "framer" off the racket of Billie Jean Moffitt in the original wooden grandstand at Forest Hills. Caught it on the fly and fired an accurate peg back to the ballboy. My arm was much better in those days.

George Vecsey

8/30/2016 09:01:22 am

Roy, great memories. I gather there was a belt of empty seats around the court, and lines to squeeze into the upper reaches. Sounds like the Olympics, with the empty official seats up close.
Wimbledon also had a grandstand next door to Centre Court -- reporters could slip down there for a developing match, sit right alongside the court. Until, what, 10-12 years ago.
I miss the ball-returning dance -- the delay as the patron figures out protocol, then, belatedly, the ball flying on to the court. There was something old-fashioned and frugal about it, like the old Grandstand itself.
But someday, "purists" will miss this Grandstand.
GV

Joshua Rubin

9/1/2016 10:17:13 am

Hi, George,

Just catching up with your blog after a hectic up and down month. I have nothing to add about the grandstand, but I have enjoyed the tennis center in Flushing at quieter moments. My daughter is a sub on her HS team, which has been in the PSAL finals eachof the last few years, and they play the finals in the side courts (usually courts 10 through 17 for the girls' and boys' finals combined, though now the two are in different seasons). I also enjoyed the side courts one year many years ago when I attended the Open with a friend during the early rounds. The side courts are a congenial way to take in some excellent tennis -- the top PSAL singles players are quite good and enjoyable to watch, with some fully formed on court personalities, as well. Though my daughter has not gotten to play in a finals match -- her team is too deep, which is why it is always in the finals -- I really enjoy watching the finals there.

Also, we had our own Olympic moment. We were traveling in Jamaica and managed to catch all of Usain Bolt's races in public places (i.e., outdoor bars and jerk centers with large screens and lots of locals on hand). Bolt is beloved in Jamaica. He has given tons back to build schools and such. It was easy to put our own national pride aside and root for him. We also took a short detour with our group to visit his hometown. Not much up a bumpy road, but a rebuilt elementary school, a Bolt mural in front of the post office, etc. But locals we met after that detour were extremely impressed and proud that we'd made the trip. Bought us a lot of street cred. As they say in Jamaica, Respect!