It's a wonderful venue and experience overall. Very friendly and engaged staff (most are volunteers). Immaculate and lovely grounds and stands and courts. We had one serious issue where my wife's purse was 1/2 inch too large and the gatekeeper (rear gate) refused entrance and said we basically had to go home. We went around to the front (main) gate and her bag passed inspection. An easy thing to fix - have some clear plastic bags available and a stand where a purse can be checked in and held. That would be a lot better than sending people home. And the vaunted "In Seat Ordering" feature on the app did not work for any Samsung phones. But we'll be back regardless !
Loved watching on tv, hope to attend next year
This is a great event. The only small snags involved parking. The first day the names of the lots were changed from am to pm. The bus took a different route and let us off in a different spot from morning so we weren’t sure where we were or if car was there. Another day the signs were marked wrong and took us to valet parking where we waiting 40” only to find it was the wrong lot. The app was a bit slow to work, but overall it was a great experience.
We attended the tennis last Tuesday and Wednesday and enjoyed the tennis thoroughly. It is a super event. All the volunteers were excellent too. I can report on some concerns on the Tuesday where we had to leave our seats, exit and have tickets for evening verified for which we were given a bracelet. This was a chaotic arrangement and as a result we missed the first hour of the evening session as there was a huge queue. I also noticed some serious safety seating issues where two attendees fell while moving seats in a very dangerous way. Each of them were very lucky not to be seriously injured! Another issue related to a drain cover unsecured that was a really dangerous hazard. I have a picture and I actually tried to fix it myself! I am not an expert but some more careful public safety checks need to be done. I did not see any signs regarding safety in the venue.
The Charleston Open is a fantastic event. The quality of the tennis goes without saying, and the organization and effort made it a truly exceptional experience. The valet parking worked flawlessly, the event staff were friendly, courteous, knowledgeable, and always looking to help, and the variety of food added to our enjoyment.
The only problem we had was with the digital ticketing. I downloaded the Credit One app, but linking to my TicketMaster account was problematic. When that was finally accomplished and the tickets appeared, the Add to Google Wallet function just would not work. Then, a couple of days before we were scheduled to get on the plane to Charleston, our tickets and valet parking passes simply disappeared altogether. Working with the ticket office, the problem could not be resolved, and the solution was printed tickets waiting for us at the box office when we arrived. Thank you, Nicole! You went above and beyond to take care of this for us.
Facility is awesome! Not a bad seat in the house. Parking was close by & free & free shuttle provided. Would def go to CHS Open again.
The lack of numbered seating in the M sections led to avoidable disruption with spectators having to arrive up to 2 hours early to get a good view and then upon leaving their seats for refreshments returning to find someone else sitting there.
It made the tournament staff's lives unnecessarily difficult also
A wonderful venue as always with a casual relaxing vibe. Spectator experience is made fantastic with open seating throughout the venue.
The venue needs additional support from vendors such as Dunlop and other partnerships. Spectator activities needs to increase massively with the likes of interactive games or knowledge based quiz tasks.
The temperature is always an issue for international spectators and I highly recommend the TD review how they support/aid spectator comfort.
Good tournament with lots going on within the site. Seating good allowing clear views of tennis matches. Extremely helpful to have free pick up from railway station to site, but not well published. Would be helpful to have more information about being able to watch from other courts. Would be helpful to have dates of tournament confirmed earlier
.Maria Sakkari questioned line calls so many times playing Astra Sharma. Not once did the latter do that. Speaks volumes about each.
Had an amazing few days! Everyone pleasant, grounds beautiful, lots of food/drink options. For Sinner's quarter final, a lot of people bought general admission tickets only to be told they can't use them for the quarter finals. This was apparently not clear, or not the case in the past; these folks were very disappointed. Otherwise, an A+ event.
I was very disappointed with how the tournament was run. I bought tickets to Thursday, March 14th a few months back and at that time the tickets included all unreserved seating in Stadium 2. Apparently because Sinner and Coco were playing in Stadium 2, the organizers decided to make all those seats reserved which meant My friend and I could not see two of the players we anticipated seeing. We had to wait in line for over an hour to upgrade our tickets. This required us to give up our Stadium 1 seats and pay the difference for seats in Stadium 2. This was so ridiculous and infuriating, We upgrade but because it took so long to upgrade, we did not see Sinner and because we had to forfeit Stadium 1 we were not able to watch Alcarez. It was also ridiculous that the times for the matches on the weekend were not listed in a timely manner. The tennis was great but the experience was terrible
Wonderful stay in the area of Palm Desert and Indian Wells. Tennis Paradise is not over rated. Just keep the price of tickets reasonable for the ordinary tennis fan.
Excellent structure.
Overall the tournament was well run. Stadium 2 needs better crowd control and the people working at 3 need to stop being seat nazis. They need to allow people to go to the bathroom and get food.
I went for the WTA 500 week. It was a great experience. I originally purchased advance stadium tickets for the first round and quarter finals but to be honest there is no need as you can easily buy tickets at the venue for any of the rounds.
We sat in the west side seats which had the sun to one side during the day and then behind during the afternoon which seemed better than the east side which had sun in the faces of the spectators all day. All seating was free seating, so sit where you like. We tried various seats, high, low and to the sides and all provide a really good view of the court.
The Irish village is where the tournament is held and courts 1,2&3 are a minute walk from the main stadium. These courts are free to watch, so you could watch tennis all day for nothing or just pay to enter the stadium. The Irish village has loads of eateries and a large pub so plenty of choice when you are there.
It was a great experience
Minus: Unpleasant, sometimes even disrespectful behavior of some members of the security, the Czech flag was missing (perhaps not visible) on the Grandstand, insufficient assortment offered by sellers of sports goods, t-shirts (only small sizes) and advertising and souvenir items.
Plus: Pleasant environment in the area, plenty of opportunities to refresh and relax.
A great event, super atmosphere, excellent staff all around. Will be back again!
Amazing organisation nothing missed...even small details is perfect....thanks a lot.