{"id":60849,"date":"2020-09-05T04:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-05T01:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/longtime-fans-missing-the-in-person-us-open-experience\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T04:25:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T01:25:00","slug":"longtime-fans-missing-the-in-person-us-open-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/longtime-fans-missing-the-in-person-us-open-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"#Longtime fans missing the in-person US Open experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Longtime fans missing the in-person US Open experience<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Mark Kaufman and Ned Dorman each saw their 58-year streaks broken during this fan-less U.S. Open fortnight.<\/p>\n

Kaufman, a former Cornell tennis player, and Dorman have attended every year since 1962. They don\u2019t know each other, but have something in common, along with more than a dozen other Open diehards. They all have seen their Open streaks of more than 40 years busted because of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Looking at the bright side, Kauffman said he has saved $36,000 \u2014 not including gas. In another moment, he became despondent, as it was the No. 1 family outing of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks,\u2019\u2019 Kaufman told The Post. \u201cOne of the annual things in your life. It\u2019s like missing Thanksgiving. You go with the same friends \u2014 some who would fly in.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Kaufman, who just turned 70 and grew up blocks from Ebbets Field, turned into a tennis nut. When the Open moved from Forest Hills to Flushing Meadows in 1978, he bought a box that seats six and paid $1,800. After two seat upgrades, Kaufman, a manufacturer of \u201cterry towels,\u201d renewed his box in 2019 for $36,000.<\/p>\n

Now Kaufman is watching the Open on ESPN for free \u2014 and still enjoying it. The Post reported ESPN is situating its cameras in lower spots because of the empty seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cTennis more than any other sport is able to show angles we haven\u2019t seen before on TV,\u2019\u2019 Kaufman said. \u201cI wonder if some may wonder next season it\u2019s better on TV\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Dorman, who attended Game<\/a> 7 of the Knicks-Lakers NBA Finals in 1970, can emphatically say it is not better. ESPN\u2019s ratings are down 48 percent from last year\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy immedia<\/a>te reaction was to call it off,\u2019\u2019 Dorman said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have Wimbledon. Now that it\u2019s on, I\u2019m watching and I\u2019m into it, but I\u2019m trying to work my way into the tournament. It doesn\u2019t feel right. It feels funny. It\u2019s weird.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love about the Open more than anything \u2014 and I\u2019ve been to Wimbledon and Australian Open \u2014 they are special but nobody has the energy of the Open and karma of the night crowd. I miss that. To hear a couple of people clapp<\/a>ing, I\u2019m struggling with it. I\u2019m not sure it was the right thing.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The first baby steps of his daughter, Maddy, were taken 36 years ago at the 1984 Open and she has gone every year since.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s part of my life,\u2019\u2019 Dorman said. \u201cOn the other hand it\u2019s COVID and you don\u2019t mess around. They made the right call. We need to be vigilant to kill this thing. It\u2019s still tennis matches, not life.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Daniel Prine has attended the Open since the 1960s and has been an usher in the President\u2019s Box at Arthur Ashe Stadium since 1998 \u2014 annually dealing with celebrities of all types, political figures, athletes, Fortune 500 executives, even astronauts.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only the fans that are missing, but several hundred ushers a day. Prine once had to tell Mike Tyson he didn\u2019t have a box seat for his daughter \u2014 and lived to tell about it.<\/p>\n

\"ned<\/img>
Ned Dorman with his wife Ellen (l.) and daughter Maddy Purcell.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prine would work 200 hours during the tournament \u2014 doing day and night sessions. In the box he once hooked up former Braves teammates Hank Aaron and Joe Torre, who hadn\u2019t seen each other in dozens of years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s strange not being there,\u2019\u2019 Prine said. \u201cI am enjoying the tournament coverage on TV though. I can turn off the blow out matches. I can\u2019t do that at the stadium.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Wendy Grant hasn\u2019t turned off a match yet despite her 47-year Open streak ending.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been going to the U.S. Open my whole life,\u2019\u2019 said Grant, who attended her first Open at Forest Hills in 1973. \u201cI look forward to the Open as a summer highlight every year. It\u2019s like a home coming \u2014 seeing a lot of the same ticketholders faces and catching up. While I have been glued to the television watching each and every match, it\u2019s disappointing to not be there. I understand and appreciate the protocols in place. I just hope that things will get back to normal for next year\u2019s event.\u2019\u2019\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

If you want to read more Sports News<\/a> articles, you can visit our General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Longtime fans missing the in-person US Open experience” Mark Kaufman and Ned Dorman each saw their 58-year streaks broken during this fan-less U.S. Open fortnight. Kaufman, a former Cornell tennis player, and Dorman have attended every year since 1962. They don\u2019t know each other, but have something in common, along with more than a dozen…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64945],"class_list":["post-60849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-longtime-fans-missing-the-in-person-us-open-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}