Beemok Capital plans to make Cincinnati one of the tour’s premier venues, while the Lindner Family Tennis Center is being “built to host events year-round.”
Video: Everything you need to know about the 2024 Cincinnati Open
The Cincinnati Open tennis tournament will take place again in Mason from August 11 to 19. Here you can find out everything you need to know.
MASON, Ohio – On a sunny afternoon at the north end of Center Court, Cincinnati Open Tournament Director Bob Moran joked with the media after being asked about the rapid implementation of the next phase of modernization at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
“You know my boss?” Moran laughed. “His motto is: ‘What’s next?'”
While there is plenty of exciting action to watch before the Cincinnati Open kicks off on Sunday, there is still a sense of curiosity, optimism and anticipation about what this tournament and venue will become.
More: What’s new about the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament (apart from the name)? Check it out
This is a complete turnaround from last summer, when fans flocked to Mason for a tournament with an uncertain future.
Less than two months after Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff won titles in Cincinnati, Beemok Capital and Benjamin Navarro announced that the tournament would remain in Cincinnati for another quarter century.
The “what’s next?” talks began with a $260 million investment, 51% of which came from Beemok Capital and the remainder from the State of Ohio, the City of Mason and Warren County.
“We are getting bigger and big enough to handle what we are becoming,” Moran said.
Cincinnati in the spotlight
The Cincinnati Open is an ATP Masters 1000 and WTA Tour 1000 event that represents the highest level of each tour and is one level below the four Grand Slam tournaments.
In recent years, the tournament has been seen as preparation for the US Open, which is held every year at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York and which this summer offers the highest prize money in tennis history.
As Beemok pushes to modernize Mason, the goal is to make Cincinnati a standout stop on the star-studded tour.
“We changed our marketing plans last year. It’s all about Cincinnati. It’s about the event coming (staying) here. And I don’t mean that in a negative way, but it’s not a stepping stone to the US Open,” Moran told Peter Bodo of Tennis.com.
More: How to get autographs (and those oversized tennis balls) at the Cincinnati Open
Cincinnati Open has big plans – on and off the court
In 2023, the tournament is “heavily focused on the player experience,” Moran told The Enquirer. This year, the first phase of the $260 million campus renovation project focused on fan upgrades, but that’s just a small piece of the pie.
“It’s only 20% of the project,” Moran said.
The larger piece of the puzzle will be added shortly after the conclusion of the 2024 Cincinnati Open on Monday, August 19.
More: Defending champion Novak Djokovic withdraws from the Cincinnati Open tennis tournament
In 2025, Cincinnati will host six other ATP Masters 1000 tournaments as 12-day events. Expanding the tournament to a two-week event could generate a total economic output of $152 million, according to the University of Cincinnati’s Economics Center.
Next year, the number of singles players at the Cincinnati Open will increase from 56 to 96. Moran estimates that in 2025, the tournament will serve a total of nearly 1,500 players, coaches and support staff.
To accommodate this growth, the final 80% of upgrades include a two-story, 55,000-square-foot player center that includes a lounge and restaurant for players and their traveling party, wellness and recreation rooms, and coaches’ locker rooms. The tournament is also renovating existing player facilities on the first three floors of the Paul Flory Player Center.
Also being built on the south side of campus is a brand new 2,000-seat sunken stadium, the fourth largest of the facility’s five permanent stadiums.
“With our expansion in 2025, everything doubles for us from a participant perspective,” said Moran. “Everything just gets better.”
“Bigger and better” in 2025 and beyond
Beemok Capital also owns the WTA’s Charleston Open (a WTA 500-level event) and the company has similar plans to provide Mason with year-round operations such as Credit One Stadium in South Carolina.
The dining facilities in the new two-story players’ lounge will be converted into a year-round restaurant. The venue will be able to host tennis, pickleball and padel tennis year-round, with 14 courts planned for completion in 2025.
“We did that in Charleston and we’re going to do it here,” Moran said. “How can we make it versatile for everything we love to do? Tennis year-round, special events and professional tennis. We can take the opportunity to build something special that not only serves this event, but the rest of the year as well.”
The multi-purpose facility has 31 tennis courts and six pickleball courts in daily use. One can speculate whether the Ohio High School Athletic Association will bring its state tennis tournament back to Mason after it was forced to move there in 2023 due to construction.
More: What’s next for the Cincinnati Open campus redesign? “The Midwest’s Pickleball Destination”
“This property is being built to host events,” said Moran. “The whole team is excited about what’s to come. We plan to be bigger and better in 2025.”
