NEW YORK, NEW YORK – AUGUST 30: Novak Djokovic and Mariano Navone pose at the net after the coin toss with Sloane Stephens representing the Sloane Stephens Foundation before the match during a Men’s Singles match on Day One of the 2026 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sunday, August 30, 2026 in Flushing, NY. (Photo by Mike Lawrence/USTA via Getty Images)
USTA via Getty Images
The U.S. Open heads into championship weekend, leaving behind controversy over high ticket prices, influencer culture, expensive grounds passes, and players’ demands for more prize money.
Despite criticism over soaring prices, the U.S. Open remains the biggest fundraising engine for the USTA Foundation, a charitable organization incorporated in 1994 as the USTA’s social impact arm.
Often conflated as one entity, the USTA and the USTA Foundation depend on U.S. Open revenue. However, they forge separate missions and operating budgets.
The line between the two non-profits get blurred because tennis in the U.S. is the common denominator. The chatter about U.S. Open prices, is mostly consumer-related. As reported by Forbes.com, first-round tickets cost $197, up 33% from 2025, and seats for the women’s and men’s finals averaged $534, a 19% increase. Grounds passes were being sold for more than quadruple the $65 face value.
Concerned that ordinary fans would be priced out of the event, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani secured 1,000 “affordable” tickets for the tournament, distributed to local residents.
Meanwhile, the USTA Foundation functions as a charity. Like the NFL, NBA, and MLB, the USTA Foundation supports various initiatives, including the flagship National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) program, which delivers year-round free or low-cost tennis instruction, academic support, and college and career pathway programs to impact youth.
Men’s finalist Frances Tiafoe came through the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland. Tiafoe now donates to the USTA Foundation through his Tiafoe Fund.
“The USTA Foundation is a separate 501 (c) (3) corporation,” said Ginny Ehrlich, CEO of the USTA Foundation, in an interview with Forbes.com. “The USTA generously supports our administrative costs, so that we can invest more than 90% of the dollars we raise into community-based programs, the community impact hubs, as well as our core national junior tennis and learning programs across the country, of which we have 273 that we support. . .relative to the fundraising that we do to really invest in these community-based programs, the U.S. Open is very important.”
Every year, the USTA pours millions into programs and grants, including the USTA Foundation. In 2024, the USTA Foundation distributed $11,485,000 to support various programs, according to its annual report. That year, the USTA Foundation awarded $1,025,000 in college scholarships, with 17 first-generation college students among the recipients.
The USTA Foundation’s Impact Hubs, launched last year, support educational programs like Cleveland’s AdvantageCLE, which offers more than tennis to at-risk youth.
Liz Deegan, a former educator and now executive director at Advantage Cleveland , helped expand a tennis program to provide academic support for at-risk kids.
“We said from the beginning that we were battling the summer learning slide that happens when kids aren’t engaged in academic activities in the summer,” Deegan said in an interview with Signal Cleveland. “Kids in the inner city go back to school behind their suburban counterparts because many of them are not engaging in academics during the summer.”
U.S. Open Attracts USTA Foundation Donors
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – AUGUST 30: A guest with Orlando Bloom at the President’s Suite for the USTA Foundation Gala on Day One of the 2026 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sunday, August 30, 2026 in Flushing, NY. (Photo by Michael Le Brecht II/USTA via Getty Images)
USTA via Getty Images
The backlash toward influencers at the U.S. Open overshadowed another group of attendees, donors. Like most non-profits, the USTA Foundation uses its most notable event, a Gala at the U.S. Open, to attract celebrities, the ultimate influencers.
“It’s obviously a gathering place for tennis. We we are able to host our opening night gala on the grounds that happened last Sunday evening. So the dinner and program took place on the ground, and our guests were able to enjoy the opening night matches from the president’s suite,” said Ehrlich. “We raised $2.7 million at our at our opening night gala, so it is a very important event because it draws attention to tennis in the United States.”
From Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn to actor Orlando Bloom, celebrities came out to support the USTA Foundation and to enjoy tennis.
Measuring Success Beyond The Tennis Court
Yonex USA President LaNiece Douglas, USTA Foundation CEO Ginny Ehrlich, Mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, and NYJTL & NYC Parks representatives pose for photo at the Yonex Court Launch with USTA Foundation and NYJTL in Crotona Park on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 in the Bronx, New York. (Angelina Katsanis/USTA)
Angelina Katsanis/USTA
“ So we measure benefits around social emotional well being, and we’re seeing that 92 plus percent of the young people are growing their social emotional well-being skills,” said Ehrlich.
The USTA Foundation Impact Hubs has exceeded expect. A pilot program, the . These hubs support programs like the one Tiafoe participated in.
“Since the beginning of August, 221,000 young people being involved, and 43,000 adults being involved, and our numbers of our projection numbers were lower for young people. Projections for youth involvement for were lower. They we have doubled,” said Ehrlich.
The USTA Foundation relies on the community-based organizations, including its Impact Hubs, to tailor their programs to meet the needs in their neighborhoods.
“So every every hub is doing it a little bit differently,” said Ehrlich.
U.S. Open Fan Week Helps Fuel USTA Foundation Funding
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – AUGUST 27: Arthur Fils poses with USTA Foundation kids Amaris Williams and Jacob Joseph alongside Alex Michelsen at the net after the coin toss before a Stars of the Open match against Alex Michelsen during Fan Week as part of the 2026 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Thursday, August 27, 2026 in Flushing, NY. (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/USTA via Getty Images)
USTA via Getty Images
Fan Week, which now includes the revamped mixed doubles, also helps the USTA Foundation’s fundraising efforts.
“We’re able to really draw attention to the work of of the USTA Foundation throughout the tournament. The USTA also donates a portion of the proceeds of the Fan Week to the support foundation events program,” said Ehrlich.
Proceeds from Fan Week and the gala fund Impact Hub programs around the country.
“With our current hubs, this pilot is through 2027. So, for example, in Memphis, there’s a very large public tennis facility within just a few miles of a lot of schools in Memphis. Yet the young people in those schools didn’t know, you know, it was there until they started incorporating and offering tennis programming in the schools as a part of the community hub and impact initiative,” said Ehrlich.
Tennis Memphis provides youth programs after school and during the summer, including a comprehensive year-round Junior Development, Tennis and Tutoring (TnT), free tennis clinics and outreach programs. Now, according to Ehrlich, Memphis is considering adding tennis as an official middle school sport because it’s been so popular.
“So that’s like a an institutional change that we’re seeing,” she said.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – AUGUST 30: Lindsey Vonn poses at the President’s Suite for the USTA Foundation Gala on Day One of the 2026 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sunday, August 30, 2026 in Flushing, NY. (Photo by Michael Le Brecht II/USTA via Getty Images)
USTA via Getty Images
“The community impact hubs we believe accelerates that impact because we’re able to not only provide the core programming that happens in all of the hubs, but also surround it with family engagement to surround it with increased access to courts in the community and safe places to play,” said Ehrlich. “We’re able to combine it with the kind of outreach into the schools, so more young people are able to not only play tennis but start to develop the life skills that tennis so naturally offers as a sport.”
On the eve of this year’s U.S. Open, Mayor Mamdani and New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL) unveiled 10 newly resurfaced, professional-grade NYC Parks tennis courts in Crotona Park, the only public tennis courts in the Bronx with lights so kids can play at night. The NYJTL’s programs and events include the Mayor Dinkins Cup, the nation’s largest free junior interscholastic tennis competition.
As one of the USTA Foundation’s 10 nationwide Community Impact Hubs, NYJTL received a grant of approximately $500,000 from the USTA Foundation and Yonex, the official equipment sponsor of the Community Impact Hubs initiative, to improve and expand no-cost school and family play programs at sites across the city.
“The Crotona Park courts are ready to host the fiercest matches as tennis season peaks in New York City,” said Mayor Mamdani in a statement issued by the City. “In just three weeks, these 10 NYC Parks courts have been transformed into professional-grade public spaces for play, learning and connection. This partnership reflects what we have seen time and time again this summer: every New Yorker, no matter their age, experience or skill level, deserves a beautiful, welcoming place to play the sports they love.”
The 10 Impact Hubs, which include Sloane Stephens Foundation in South Florida, have exceeded expectations, according to Ehrlich.
“They’re all exceeding expectations in different ways,” said Ehrlich. “I think that’s that’s the beauty of what we’re learning from this. That for some in the Midwest, in Cleveland and Cincinnati, they’ve been able to really leverage this program to support broader infrastructure needs that they had. . . tennis is harder in the Midwest because of the climate.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 01: A detail view of USTA Foundation branding on a shirt before a Women’s Singles match on Day Three of the 2026 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Tuesday, September 1, 2026 in Flushing, NY. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/USTA via Getty Images)
USTA via Getty Images
“Across all of our programs, including the hubs, we are not keeping score by how many games are won or lost on the tennis court. We’re keeping score by how many the percentage of young people who advance from grade to grade on time, the percentage of young people who graduate from high school on time, the percentage of young people engaged in the programs who matriculate into postsecondary education,” said Ehrlich. “We are measuring the percent of young people who grow their social and emotional well-being skills. . .Tennis is the catalyst, not the outcome.”
So whether it’s the $23 Honey Deuce or skyrocketing ground pass prices, the U.S. Open is probably not going to get cheaper. The USTA also has to satisfy players who seek a larger share of the revenue. However, the U.S. Open remains the financial engine funding USTA Foundation programs like the Impact Hubs, which may produce the next Tiafoe, or school teacher.
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