NYC's Traffic-Stopping Sport
Tournament of Champions brings world-class squash to Grand Central
New York City commuters put up with a lot: unpredictable trains, snippy transit employees and traffic-halting snowstorms. For one week in January, Grand Central Station travelers will face a different, more unusual obstacle: a world class-grade squash court.
For the 14th year, the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions will take a space usually filled by merry commuters and populate it with sweaty, grunting, racket-wielding jocks -- and the fans who love them. Billed as the largest squash spectator event in the world, the action takes place in Vanderbilt Hall in a 32' x 21' Lucite-wall box that looks less like a sports venue and more like Hannibal Lector's prison cell (if it were set in the Louvre and surrounded by bleachers).
If interrupting commuters for the sake of men's championship squash seems frivolous, consider this: the 32-player tourney will award $115,000 in prize money. Not so frivolous now, is it?
J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions; January 21-27; Grand Central Terminal, Frontcourt views are free; Bleacher seats start at $5
