{"id":146000,"date":"2025-09-15T22:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T22:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/146000\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T22:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T22:55:09","slug":"inside-the-800-million-gamble-that-could-ruin-tennis-best-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/146000\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the $800 Million Gamble That Could Ruin Tennis\u2019 Best Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Photo: President Donald Trump with Rolex CEO Jean-Frederic Dufour via Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump recently became the first sitting U.S. President to attend the US Open in 25 years. Escorted inside Arthur Ashe Stadium by Rolex CEO Jean-Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Dufour, it was impossible to ignore the conflict of interest. The Swiss luxury watch manufacturer is currently facing a 39% import tariff. If Rolex were to be excluded from those tariffs through a friendly relationship with the President, it would save the company billions of dollars in expenses over Trump\u2019s four-year term.<\/p>\n

But the truth is that Trump\u2019s attendance at the US Open was merely a microcosm of a larger problem. The US Open has become a victim of its own success, generating record revenues while simultaneously alienating the very fans who built its popularity.<\/p>\n

The US Open\u2019s VIP guest list this year was so extensive that it would have made the Met Gala look like a high school house party. Dozens of the world\u2019s most famous and influential celebrities were shown on television throughout the two-week tournament, including Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Curry, Bruce Springsteen, Wayne Gretzky, Hugh Jackman, Ben Stiller, Bob Iger, Adam Silver, and Tommy Hilfiger.<\/p>\n

If that wasn\u2019t bad enough, it\u2019s about to get a whole lot worse. Despite the USTA having nearly $300 million in cash reserves, organizers are now removing thousands of cheaper seats to replace them with higher-priced, higher-margin luxury suites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo: President Donald Trump with Rolex CEO Jean-Frederic Dufour via Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images) President Donald Trump recently became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-146000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}