Did you get a chance to go to the
U.S. Open this summer? Well, if you didn’t, you
should have made plans. Maybe next year. I suggest it because it is a relaxing
comforting public sporting event. Yes, you never hear of the words relaxing or
comforting associated with any sporting events. When you get tickets to attend
any football or baseball or basketball or hockey game,
you are surrounded by worriers wearing shirts with the number and name of
people like the drug enhancing Baseball player Rodriguez
or the wife beating Football player Rice. Chances are that these so called fans
of the sport is also on drugs, drunk and ready to beat you and your wife up too
if you are not wearing the right shirt that day.
Going to the U.S. Open has the
same frustrations of highways under construction and too many people trying to
get parking at the same time but once you are inside the stadium you can relax,
move about and certainly not be in fear of getting into a fight over spilt beer
on you or over devotion to a team. In fact there are no teams in tennis, more
like rich celebrity athletes who more often spend their Millions earned on
product lines and not on just fast cars and fast women. They are great athletes
and business folk.
The U.S. Open is more lucrative
than even the highly publicized Superbowl. The Tennis Tournament that take
place in late August every year in New York is an event filled with good wine,
great food and polite people. The sport is polite. People are quiet during play
and when the ball accidentally goes into the stands, people politely throw it
back onto the court. During other sports, the players are spit at and are told
to go do awful things to themselves and if a ball happens to stray your way,
watch out, you will be mugged for a simple ball.
It is not uncommon to be sitting
next to celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Jessica Alba, and Bradly Cooper who
are tennis fans cheering on the best of the best. Yes, the fans are not bad to
look at either. This year featured Roger Federer who is a five time U.S. Open
Champion. He made $ 56 Million dollars
in just this past year. The winning purse at the Open has gone up to $3 Million
dollars just for this tournament. In 2013 the U.S. Open brought $720 Million to
the New York economy and more than 700 thousand fans attended. That is almost
as 9 times as the Superbowl this year. The reason must be relaxing and
comforting especially with beauties like Maria Sharapova to look at. This
beautiful woman is now the highest female paid athlete in the world.
With her supermodel looks and
killer strokes who sailed through her opening round has been number one on
Forbes list of top female paid athletes for 10 years in a row. Now that is a
constant woman. She usually makes $24 Million a year. She is also a fashion
icon who designs and sells her tennis outfits and owns Sugarpova products.
American superstar Serena Williams took in $22 Million dollars last year thanks
to big brand endorsements and her own clothing line. The players have their
very own beauty salon called the player salon where they get on their playing
face and nails for the tournament. Julien Farel is a celebrity hairstylist and
provides his services at the Open.
The players are provided with a nutritional kiosk since some of them require 5,000 calories per day. For the fans, you can buy vintage wines served in wine glasses, sit down restaurants with a view of the court serving 12 ounce steaks. The average tennis fan salary is $150,000 per year so they are used to filling up with good food. The average football fan brings home $94,000 in salary that is $56,000 less and they enter the stadium burping and shitting from their tail gate parties of beer and hot dogs.
For $125 bucks you can have a
three pound porterhouse steak between matches grilled by a famous chef. Chef
David Burke said he grilled 1,500 this year at the Open. The fillet minion has
no salt on it and melts in your mouth. This year’s favorite was Burke’s Bacon
on a Clothes Line. People were snaking on salty smoky sweet thick crispy bacon
slices during the matches. Something very different. If you are really rich or
famous, private suites are provided but not necessary. People are really
respectful of other people’s space.
You don’t even have to like
tennis to have a great day. The U.S. Open has become the place to eat like a
king, star gaze at celebrities and maybe even see a
famous player move on to the next round. Who can’t love a game where love is one of the point in the game.
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