Abolish US Open Tickets

A manifesto against the commodification of tennis tournaments

Day 2 of Left Open, Club Leftist Tennis’ daily leftist coverage of the 2022 US Open.

---

Everywhere tennis leftists look, the old world is dying, and a new one is struggling to be born. Socialists have just expanded their political control of the East River, the left has pressured darkness upon Brandon who has in turn dropped some student debt. On the court, the US Open has arrived and the decaying bodies of the once-dominant old guard are still weighing heavy on an impressive uprising of young talent. The tennis left must seize this moment to push a new world into existence.

To do so, we need a new demand, ambitious yet achievable, bold but strategic. It must be a north star to guide our movement, unswayable by reformist half-measures. It must take the fight to our enemy, capital, and unleash the radical potential of the working class. Today we offer that demand: abolish US Open tickets. 

The US Open is the premier tennis event in the imperial core of the United States, which means that observation of it is key to understanding the development of capitalism in our sport. That being said, it’s not always easy for working class tennis leftists to watch these crucial matches. If our bosses don’t have us under strict surveillance to prevent the leftist spirit of tennis from inspiring collective action in the workplace, the only options are watching through the lens of capitalist media, overlaid with the bourgeois commentary from the likes of Jim Courier or the McEnroe brothers, or attending in person, which remains the only unmediated encounter with the sport available under the current social relations. 

Of course, what seems to be a simple means of entry, the ticket, is not as accessible to the working class as it may appear to be. As the great theorist of tennis leftism Karl Marx once said, “A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood. Its analysis shows that it is, in reality, a very queer thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.” Not content with simply controlling the means of observing tennis, the ruling class has transformed attendance at a tournament into a grotesque commodity which would be completely unidentifiable to the working class people who first built the sport. Today, seats can cost as much as $10,000, and include perks such as decadent food and drink, a meet and greet with once great players, or photos with trophies. The people that acquire these seats? Crypto bros, finance elites, and big corporate spenders. Not the working class who call public courts home.

To be clear, we will not settle for weak demands such as “make the US Open cheaper” or “means test tickets for ‘deserving’ fans.” Rip out the rotten ticketing system, root and stem. In this manifesto we will show why this must be the unified call of the tennis left, and how it will ultimately lead us to revolution. No gods, no masters, no tickets—just a completely free tournament, by and for the working class.

Even the most reactionary tennis capitalists in $10,000 seats would admit that the Open is plagued by a crisis of, well, openness. The tournament knows it cannot fend off the rise of fascist pickleball with only its narrow country club cadre. Accordingly, in recent years the tournament has deployed various pricing, outreach and charity programs to slightly broaden its audience. It’s even constructed massive new stadiums, following the twisted market logic that adding more density alone, without price controls, will bring down prices (it hasn’t). This anemic change is not progress, even of the incremental variety. These market mechanisms are not truly opening matches to the people, they’re simply a liberal co-option of the left’s radical demands, meant to divide and dismantle our growing power.

We cannot let that happen. While abolishing tickets is certainly radical, it is no naive utopian vision. We are fully serious about creating a world without tickets. Many who cast doubt are simply class enemies. Whether this criticism arrives from liberals or reactionaries, we make no distinction—a capitalist is a capitalist, just as each doubles partner represents their team, regardless of standing on the left or right side of the court.

These enemies claim that a ticketless tournament would be impossible, that ticket sale revenue is necessary to run such an event. This capitalist lie is laughable. To step foot upon the hallowed grounds of the US Tennis Center is to be drowned in a sea of advertisements for American Express, JP Morgan, Chase, Deloitte, Rolex and the like. Should this massive wealth prove insufficient for funding the tournament, expropriating a few country clubs hoarding private courts could do the trick. 

These enemies also claim that a ticketless event would be thrown into disarray, as if strict financial hierarchy is all that between a pleasant 5-setter and and chaos. In response, first we would caution against indulging too many of these technocratic discussions of pragmatism, meant only to impede the progress of our movement. We instead learn from radical prison abolitionists—abolition is not only a process of destroying old structures, but of creating the conditions which make them obsolete. We are building a community, and uprooting the underlying causes which force people to be extorted for tickets in the first place.

However if that answer proves too abstract, just look at the qualifying rounds, where tickets have already been abolished. There’s none of the chaos, disorder or injustice threatened by our opponents. No financial crisis looms. There are simply tennis fans, enjoying a beautiful, decommodified game. In place of elite meet and greets are fans observing the top players in the world practice their craft. But the qualifiers are not enough. We have a world to win.

We admit, abolishing tickets at the US Open will not bring about an overthrow of capitalism on its own. But we believe we have made the case that it attacks capital in a moment of weakness while expanding the organized tennis proletariat, and perhaps even striking a blow against the value form itself. What begins at one grand slam can spread to the others, germinating global revolt through the ATP & WTA tours. For this reason, in this once-in-a-generation moment, we believe it strategic to affix our movement to this ticketless horizon. Join us.