$260M remake of Warren County pro tennis site aims for year-round events

Next year’s tourney will run from Aug. 5-18. That’s five days longer than this year’s event, which drew a record 205,068 and is estimated to have had an economic impact of more than $70 million on the region.

“It’s a large project,” Tournament Capital Projects Director Jansen Dell said of the construction, which was about 20% complete before this year’s event. “But the way that the project works — because it’s multiple buildings — it’s able to be broken up into a little bit smaller, bite-sized chunks.

“But what you’ll see are seven different projects around the site, broken up by area, and each of those will have its own superintendent and its own construction team,” he added.

The work will include a 56,000 square-foot, two-story player center, a permanent fan plaza and a 2,000-seat sunken stadium, one of 10 new courts — some of them indoor — bringing the total to 31, tournament officials said.

Expanding the campus will include accommodating a singles field that is expected to grow from 56 this year to 96 for both men’s and women’s divisions with their entourages anticipated to increase from about 750 to 1,500, Tournament Director Bob Moran said.

“The next piece is all about getting large enough and big enough to handle what we’ve become,” Moran said. “We have to make sure they have enough places to practice. They need a bigger gym. They need a bigger dining facility.

“I think the point I want to make (about) that is we have the ability to make it a dual-purpose facility,” he added. “So, it’s not just (that) we’re building it for the tennis event. We’re also building for year-round.”

That will involve incorporating the restaurant and pro shop of the nearby Grizzly Golf and Social Lodge as part of the complex, Dell said.

“We are not modifying the (golf) course at all,” he said, noting the move is a joint effort between the tournament and the city of Mason, which owns the course.

“They would like to move their pro shop into the new player clubhouse to have that more permanent year-round presence,” Dell said. “And since we are developing that year-round restaurant as part of our player dining program, the restaurant that is currently in there will be operated by us out of this clubhouse.”

After next year’s tournament, officials will examine “the possibilities of using the site year-round. And that really could be any type of event,” Dell said.

A year-round racket club featuring pickleball and padel — a combination of tennis and squash — is being considered, officials said.

The $260 million renovation was announced last spring after the decision that the tournament, formerly the Western & Southern Open, would remain in Mason for 25 years.

Renovation funding involves several entities. The tournament is owned by Beemok Capital, which is providing 51%, officials said. Ohio’s share is $50 million, made possible through state legislation.

Warren County committed $45 million, $42 million of which comes out of its general fund surpluses with the remaining $3 million from COVID-19 recovery funds, county Administrator Martin Russell said. Mason is providing the remainder.

“Investing in Warren County and the state of Ohio’s only international sporting asset continues to place us on the global map,” Russell told this news organization.

The tournament adds more than $70 million in economic impact to the region annually, “and will grow as the open moves to two weeks for 2025 and beyond,” he added.

As a county tourism draw “it moves the needle in a huge way,” Scott Hutchinson of the Warren County Convention & Visitors Bureau has said.

County Commissioner Dave Young said at this year’s open there was enthusiasm regarding corporate sponsorships.

Young said business officials “were just so impressed on how they can be part of this. Not just for the two weeks of the tournament. But for entire branding of that facility.”

BY THE NUMBERS

•$260M: Lindner Family Tennis Center renovation costs.

•$70M-plus: Estimated annual regional economic impact of the Cincinnati Open.

•205K: Attendance for this year’s tournament, a record.

•56K: Square footage of a two-story player center to be built.

•14: Length in days of the 2025 open, five more than this year.

Sources: The Cincinnati Open and Warren County.