Rain Delays Force Tennis Officials to Mull Retractable Roofs -- Again

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y., Aug. 31, 2006 — -- A full day-night washout of the US Open this week -- with more rain expected for the weekend -- has tennis officials revisiting the question of creating a roofed stadium for the venerable tennis facility.

The biggest drawback is the immense cost -- probably in the ballpark of several hundred million dollars or more -- of retrofitting the gigantic Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The biggest incentive is the continuous flow of revenue from uninterrupted TV coverage.

The US Open is one of the most prosperous of all the major tennis championships.

Australia led the way nearly 20 years ago by creating the firstof two retractable roofed stadiums.

Teams of U.S., British, and French architects have visited Melbourne to inspect the Rod Laverand Vodafone Arenas.

Only the All England Lawn Tennis Club, home of Wimbledon, has committed to modernization.

Last year, the club announced it had raised $83.7 million for the roof project.

Wimbledon will inaugurate the roofed Centre Court sometime in 2009.

In Paris, Roland Garros proposed a similar stadium as part ofa failed French bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.

The plans are on ashelf.

The U.S. Tennis Association has made no decision, butofficials have repeatedly said they cannot ignore the difficultiesposed by rain, especially after severe weather interruptionsbedeviled the 2003 US Open.

Now, with the 2006 US Open facing gloomy weather forecastsfor several days, the issue has resurfaced as something thatprobably should be done.

In Melbourne, the 2006 Australian Open played out without interruptions -- from the rain or blistering sun.

Most of its matcheswere played outdoors on 19 outdoor courts. Featured matches wereheld in the two covered arenas.

The Rod Laver Arena covers 47 acres and seats about 15,000 spectators; the nearby Vodafone Arena covers 25 acres and seats about 10,000.

The impetus for building Melbourne's original roofed stadium came,ironically, not from the threat of bad weather, but the threatof extinction.

In the 1980s, mired in politics and saddled with agingfacilities at Kooyong, a hallowed suburban tennis club, thetournament faced possible elimination from the world's tennisschedule.