Television Ratings, Website Visits up Significantly
The 2006 US Open set several records in attendance and website traffic and generated significant television ratings:
Attendance:
- Ticket sales for the US Open reached an all-time high, prior to providing for ticket exchanges due to cancelled sessions. Net attendance, after taking into account ongoing ticket exchanges, is expected to be approximately 640,000; the second-highest in US Open history (second to last year’s record of 659,538).
- The daily total attendance record was set on Monday, September 4, topping 60,000 for the first time in the history of the event (60,506).
- The all-time night session attendance of 23,736 was set on Opening Night.
- For the first time, all Night Sessions were sold out, or were at 99% of capacity.
Television:
- The national overnight rating for the Men’s Final on CBS Sports was 4.1, the second best rating for the Men’s Final since 2002 when Sampras defeated Agassi.
- The Women’s Final rating of 3.2 was a 3% increase over 2005 and a 28% increase over 2004.
- The Agassi-Baghdatis match on Thursday night equaled USA Network’s highest rating in four years.
- USA Network earned its best Opening Night rating in its 23 years of US Open coverage.
Website:
- Traffic on USOpen.org, the official tournament website, attracted 26.0 million visits, an all-time record and an increase of 24% over the 2005 record.
- Unique visitors increased by 43% to reach 6.5 million in 2006.
- The first-ever live webcast, on Monday, September 4, was streamed 261,000 times.
Tennis Participation:
- One million more people played tennis in 2005 vs. 2004, and, according to the 2006 SGMA Superstudy, tennis is the only traditional sport to have seen participation growth since 2000.
- For 2006, tennis racquet sales and ball sales are up 5% and 10% respectively. Youth tennis racquet sales are up 40%.