Arthur Ashe Stadium

122-02 Roosevelt Avenue | also 8 Meridian Road, 56-01 Grand Central Parkway | Flushing Meadows-Corona Park | built 1997

Open on the map8 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1964

    The United States Pavilion of the 1964 World's Fair stands on this ground until 1977

    Before the stadium, this part of Flushing Meadows held the United States Pavilion, put up for the 1964 New York World's Fair and torn down in 1977. Long before either, the land had been the Corona Ash Dumps, the setting F. Scott Fitzgerald turned into the Valley of Ashes in The Great Gatsby, and earlier still a natural wetland. The poor soil left by that past later shaped how the stadium's roof had to be built.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1997

    August 25

    Whitney Houston sings at the opening of Arthur Ashe Stadium as the US Open moves in

    The stadium opened with the 1997 US Open, taking over from Louis Armstrong Stadium as the tournament's main court. During the inauguration Whitney Houston performed "One Moment in Time," dedicating it to Arthur Ashe, the winner of the first open-era US Open in 1968, who had died in 1993. Built for $254 million, the arena opened with 22,547 seats, 90 luxury suites and five restaurants, the largest tennis-only venue in the world.

    “On August 25, 1997, the stadium opened by hosting the US Open, with Whitney Houston singing "One Moment in Time…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1997

    Tamarine Tanasugarn beats Chanda Rubin in the first official match on the Ashe court

    The first official match on the new court came at the 1997 US Open, pairing Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand against the American Chanda Rubin. Tanasugarn took it in two sets.

    “The first official match played on the court was at the 1997 US Open between Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand and Chanda Rubin of the United States.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 2008

    July 19

    The New York Liberty host the first outdoor regular-season pro basketball game here

    The stadium's first event other than tennis was a WNBA game billed as the Liberty Outdoor Classic, the first regular-season professional basketball game ever played outdoors. The Indiana Fever beat the home New York Liberty 71 to 55. Part of the proceeds went to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 2016

    A $150 million retractable roof is finished over the open-air stadium

    Rain had delayed the US Open men's singles final five years running, from 2008 to 2012, and in 2013 the USTA announced it would roof a stadium never designed for one. The finished roof uses two 800-ton fabric panels of lightweight PTFE membrane that glide open or shut at up to 25 feet per minute, carried by eight columns each resting on 20 piles driven 150 to 200 feet deep. Rossetti Architects designed it and WSP Global engineered the structure.

    “The roof, which cost $150 million, was part of a $550 million renovation of the National Tennis Center. The retractable roof project was completed in 2016.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2019

    July 26-28

    The stadium hosts the Fortnite World Cup, a three-day esports tournament with a $30 million prize pool

    For three days the stadium hosted the Fortnite World Cup, a video game tournament with a total prize pool of $30 million. The winner of the Finals took home $3 million of it.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2021

    September 22

    All Elite Wrestling stages its first New York City show, Grand Slam, at the stadium

    All Elite Wrestling broadcast special editions of its weekly Dynamite and Rampage programs from the stadium under the name AEW Grand Slam. It was the promotion's debut in New York City, and no professional wrestling had ever been staged at the tennis complex before. Grand Slam came back to the stadium in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

    “The event marked AEW's debut show in New York City and the first professional wrestling show ever held at the tennis complex.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2023

    The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show makes Arthur Ashe Stadium its main ring

    Pushed out of its usual February dates and its Madison Square Garden home by COVID-19, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show moved to the tennis center for 2023 and 2024, with Ashe as its main venue. The show went back to the Garden in 2025.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 12 buildings with stories in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park