Friday, August 16, 2013

Arthur Ashe stadium to get a roof


From CBS New York:

After years of U.S. Open weather woes, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens is ready to serve up some major changes.

As CBS 2’s Tony Aiello reported Wednesday, engineers have finally figured out how to mount a retractable roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium – the main venue for the U.S. Open. It is considered an overhead smash against Mother Nature.

For the last five years, rain has pushed the U.S. Open final from Sunday to Monday.

“The players are very upset about the finals’ being postponed to Monday. They have Davis Cup the next week — that’s interfered there. The fans are unhappy,” said Dan Kaplan of SportsBusinessDaily.com.

The obvious solution is to design and build a retractable roof over center court, but as recently as last summer the United States Tennis Association said putting a roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium was an engineering impossibility and couldn’t be done.

The USTA said the stadium was built on swampland and could sink under the weight of a roof. But Kaplan said the organization has figured out a fix.

“What they’re planning to do is rip out a lot of the very heavy seating in the upper decks,” he said. “That will reduce the weight.


Since they can put a roof on it, why not make it permanent so that the community doesn't have to deal with the noise from re-routed planes?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about storm-water run-off?

What about increase in impermeable surface?

Anonymous said...

$400 million for a roof???!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
What about storm-water run-off?

What about increase in impermeable surface?
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Shhhhhh!!! You're making too much sense. That's not allowed in Queens' development!

Anonymous said...

There's a recent invention called a "sewer" to handle storm-water run-off.

Anonymous said...

Spoken like so done who has never been to Flushing Meadows. Sewer overflow band standing water everywhere...

Anonymous said...

*and not band

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
There's a recent invention called a "sewer" to handle storm-water run-off.
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Sorry. Who are we to cast derogatory comments on your home?