New York City residents will get a shot at 1,000 discounted 2026 U.S. Open tickets after Zohran Mamdani and the United States Tennis Association announced a city-only program on Tuesday. The tickets cost $100 each, and each resident can buy up to two when sales open Wednesday, August 26, at 10 a.m.
The sale is aimed at Main Draw matches from August 30 through September 8, with access to Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium and grounds passes. The listing sits far below the prices many fans have been facing elsewhere: grounds passes have been reselling for $360 or more, upper-deck Arthur Ashe Stadium tickets for late-round matches have been going for $300 to $400, and a single courtside seat for the men’s final was listed at $29,000.
For many city residents, the appeal is not just the lower price but the chance to get into a tournament that has become brutally expensive even before a seat is chosen. Grounds passes alone range from $65 to $150 depending on the day, while the U.S. Open’s American Express pre-sale can still offer better deals for some buyers, including semifinal tickets for $150 to $200 and quarterfinal packages as low as $50 apiece.
There is, though, a small puzzle in how the program is being described. It is being called a lottery, but the tickets are also set to go on sale at a fixed time, which suggests the real contest may be between eligible residents trying to move quickly once the window opens. The system does not change the fact that the pool is tiny: 1,000 tickets for a city of millions.
The city has used the same playbook before. Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in June, the Mamdani administration secured 1,000 reduced-price tickets at $50 each for New York City residents across seven matches at MetLife Stadium, and free round-trip bus transportation was included for winners. This U.S. Open offer is narrower, pricier and tied to a shorter window, but it follows the same logic of reserving a limited number of lower-cost seats for local residents.
That leaves the key question for Wednesday morning: whether eligible buyers reach USOpen.org/NYCTickets fast enough to claim one of the 1,000 seats before they disappear. For anyone in New York City who has been priced out of the tournament, this is the first real opening of the season, and it is over almost as soon as it begins.
