Practical but Not Pretty. That’s Pro Tennis at Miami’s N.F.L. Stadium.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Nobody actually needed to maneuver the Miami Open 18 miles north from the idyll setting of Key Biscayne to a suburban N.F.L. stadium and its car parking zone.

Not match organizers, or gamers, or county officers, or longtime followers. They so beloved the Key Biscayne location that they tolerated the visitors from downtown Miami throughout the Rickenbacker Causeway and confines so cramped at Crandon Park that gamers typically stretched and warmed up on the stadium’s concourse.

Trekking throughout the crystal waters of Biscayne Bay made a day at these old-school grounds really feel like a mini trip to tennis Shangri-La, with the coastal breezes by the coconut palms and dense vegetation easing the South Florida humidity. For a lot of, a tennis match, even one as vital because the Miami Open, is much less a sporting occasion than a novel method to expertise the most effective of what a area has to supply, whether or not it’s the seascapes past Monte Carlo Nation Membership, or the desert mountain views of Indian Wells, Calif.

However Crandon Park badly wanted an improve. And whereas I.M.G., the sports activities and leisure conglomerate that owns the match, was keen to spend some $50 million to renovate the primary stadium, which seated roughly 13,000 spectators, and assemble three new everlasting stadiums with greater than 10,000 seats mixed, native opposition arose within the type of Bruce Matheson.

Matheson’s household had donated the land for Crandon Park to Dade County in 1940 beneath phrases that didn’t embody non-public enterprise. A mediated settlement in 1992 allowed for one stadium, however he drew the road at three extra, returned to courtroom and gained, stopping any enlargement.

With few choices in South Florida, I.M.G. minimize a cope with Stephen Ross, the proprietor of the Dolphins. He agreed to wedge a short lived tennis area within the nook of Exhausting Rock Stadium every March and construct a everlasting grandstand, together with greater than two dozen different courts, in his car parking zone.

It was the polar reverse of Crandon Park attraction, with its bandbox stadium that felt like a tennis model of a beloved nightclub. Roger Federer was not completely satisfied.

“Proper now it doesn’t really feel nice to maneuver away from Key Biscayne to be sincere,” he mentioned throughout the match’s closing 12 months on the seashore in 2018.

5 years later, Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Greek star, is amongst these nonetheless pining for the previous neighborhood and adjusting to the brand new setup — a stadium-within-a-stadium for the primary courtroom, a tennis advanced MacGyvered into a parking lot. There generally is a “don’t search for” high quality to all of it, lest the vacancy of the soccer stadium or the development for a coming F1 race become visible.

“It’s one of many only a few tournaments of the 12 months that I’d say is soulless,” Tsitsipas mentioned after he misplaced to Karen Khachanov of Russia within the spherical of 16. “It has zero vibe, zero vitality.”

Tsitsipas, who has by no means made it previous the quarterfinals right here, mentioned he loves Miami as a tennis vacation spot however that he believes that tennis tournaments ought to happen in venues the place gamers and followers can join with the historical past of the game. “I guess any participant would nonetheless select to be on Key Biscayne,” he mentioned.

Not everybody. Carlos Alcaraz, the world No. 1 and defending champion, is a serious fan of the brand new location.

“A tennis courtroom is at all times the identical measurement,” Alcaraz mentioned after beating Tommy Paul in straight units on Tuesday. “I really feel nice right here.”

The expanded grounds and simpler entry to residents north and west of Miami allowed attendance to develop to a file 388,734 in 2019, 62,603 greater than the Key Biscayne file. The match is more likely to break that file this 12 months. Joshua Ripple, I.M.G.’s senior vp for tennis occasions, mentioned the match is financially way more profitable on the new web site and may give gamers a office crammed with facilities.

“It was once extra about the place you had been going, how cool is the city, and the place can me and my pals exit to eat,” he mentioned. Now, he mentioned, it’s about a lot of observe courts, loads of balls, good meals on web site, an enormous fitness center and respectable transportation.

At Exhausting Rock, I.M.G. can promote 50 lush company suites as a substitute of 25 at Key Biscayne, and the 75-acre footprint, in contrast with 32 acres in Crandon Park, has allowed for 100,000 sq. ft of pop-up retail and competition house. Mark Shapiro, the president of I.M.G.’s guardian firm, Endeavor Co., referred to as it “a day get together” minus the pool.

James Blake, the previous professional who has been the match’s director since 2018, mentioned he now has extra alternatives to say sure to participant requests. On-site ice baths. Personal therapeutic massage rooms. Personal suites for the highest eight gamers and defending champions. A sprawling restoration room. Shaded seating for gamers and their entourages on the soccer subject, plus corn gap and spike ball. Even bathe heads excessive sufficient to accommodate N.F.L. linemen — and tall tennis gamers like Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev.

It beats filling buckets from the lodge ice machine to refill the bathtub within the room lengthy after a match. Or a participant eating space with out sufficient seats.

“There may be room to develop right here,” Blake mentioned. “It felt like in case you put yet one more particular person at Crandon Park, it was going to be Armageddon.”

And but, Crandon Park nonetheless has its pull.

Late Wednesday morning, Jorge Fernandez, the daddy of the U.S. Open finalist Leylah Fernandez, was loading up a automobile after a observe session along with his different daughter, Bianca, who can also be attempting to make it as a professional, on their favourite courts at Crandon Park, a world away from the motion at Exhausting Rock Stadium.

“No comparability,” he mentioned, when requested concerning the previous and the brand new match websites. “You bought the seashore, you bought the golf course, you’re near downtown.”

Contained in the previous Crandon Park stadium, the place Federer and Rafael Nadal performed their first match in 2004 (Rafa gained) two middle-aged locals had been having a recreation. Federer and Nadal they weren’t — and that didn’t matter one bit.