The Miami Open drew record crowds in its first week at the Hard Rock Stadium venue, contrary to what many people were led to belRoger Federer christened ieve when they saw swaths of empty seats during televised matches from the main stadium.
388,734 fans showed up for the event, which crushed the best number ever recorded at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne by more than 50,000. 326,131 was the previous best at the old site.
Here is what the tournament posted on its website:
The 2019 Miami Open set numerous attendance records: 15 of its 24 sessions had higher attendance than the previous records, including an all-time singles-session attendance mark of 32,831 during the Saturday, March 23 day session. Overall, the tournament’s two-week attendance was 388,734, breaking the old record of 326,131 set in 2012. It also marked the 10th consecutive year the tournament recorded more than 300,000 in total attendance.
The tournament plans to work to fix what it calls “a few hiccups” that occurred in the new site. Among the changes we can expect are larger seating sections on the outside courts and a better overall presentation of the Stadium court, which is housed inside the 65,000 capacity Hard Rock Stadium and tended to look very strange when showed from certain vantage points on television.
Camera shots often picked up empty sections of the stadium, but the seats that were empty were some of the many that were not even sold for tennis because of the limited or obstructed view. What the tournament hopes to do is clean up the visuals in 2020.
The goal is to create a more intimate feel that is cherished in so many smaller tennis stadiums around the world.
Here is what tournament director James Blake told the Miami Herald about the situation:
“We are definitely going to address the camera angles. I had people text me or call and say, `Hey, it looks like it’s empty, what’s going on?’ and I’m sitting in the stadium at the same time and I say, `It’s packed.’ And they send me a screen shot of their TV and you see empty seats.
“We have to figure out how to make the product look better on TV because if you’re in the stadium, you see people are still excited. I was there for Ferrer-Zverev, and the energy was palpable. Same with Ferrer-Tiafoe, anytime Roger plays, Novak and Roberto Bautista Agut, so we’ve seen there are passionate diehard tennis fans who are still enjoying it but it doesn’t translate on well on TV, which is a huge issue we will fix.”
The good news is that people are coming to Miami in large numbers. More than ever before, in fact, and the event has quickly won the favor of the players because of its expanded grounds, super-sized locker rooms and training facilities. All in all it was a great debut at Hard Rock Stadium, and it certainly didn’t hurt that 20-time major champion Roger Federer christened the new stadium by winning his 101st title on Sunday.
There was also an issue of a strong glare on the stadium court early in the day session matches. After the glare faded the court was in complete shade for the remainder of the day session—also a bit strange for an outdoor tournament that had eight other courts playing in bright sunlight.
“The shadows, they didn't bother me,” Federer said. “The glare was very short. Other than that, yeah, it's a big place. I mean, the side stands are huge. It goes far away. It's unusual to have it that way. I would have thought maybe they would put it in the corner, the stadium, instead of on the long side. Still it was a good atmosphere. It's steep on the three sides.”