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Back in 2019, when the Miami Open first moved to Hard Rock Stadium, the tournament unveiled a Pride event with fanfare. “Out at the Open,” created through partnerships with local LGBTQ groups, featured DJs, a cocktail reception, and even a Q&A with Miami Open director James Blake.
“Through the new location of the Miami Open, we wanted to create an event and a space that would not only be welcoming, but additionally would unite the LGBTQ community,” Blake said during the session, according to LGBTQ sports news site Outsports. “Sports is a great equalizer, in terms of class, gender, sexual orientation, everything…it can bring people together.”
For the next few years, a Pride event appears to have returned to the tournament, alongside other theme days that sometimes varied: Brazilian Heritage Day, Hispanic Heritage Day, Women’s Empowerment Day, and College Night, among others. Local groups like Pridelines helped promote it. But there is no Pride event on the Open’s 2026 schedule, even though other theme days, including Italian Heritage Day, which was not held in 2025, are on for the event that runs March 15 to 29.
The loss of the event honoring the LGBTQ community, at a time when Florida is tearing out Pride crosswalks and the Trump and DeSantis administrations are mounting a war on DEI, drew concern among some that it had fallen victim to politics. Matt Feinberg, President & CEO of the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Association, says his organization received several emails asking what happened to the Miami Open’s Pride event. He was disappointed to find out it was off for this year, and although he acknowledges not knowing the reasoning, says he doesn’t find it surprising.
“Given everything that’s happening in the world, I think I said in my head, ‘That tracks,'” Feinberg says. “I think ever since January 20, 2025, our community has felt like a bit of an outcast, whereas in prior administrations, our participation as spectators in professional sports and participants in the greater sporting community was something that was sort of celebrated. And now we are at most an afterthought — and in some places, pariahs.”
A spokesperson for the Miami Open did not address New Times’ questions about why “Out at the Open” did not return this year or whether it will be back in the future. The tournament says in a statement that it is “an inclusive place for tennis fans, the community and people of all backgrounds to enjoy world-class tennis, entertainment, and food and beverage offerings.” It continues, “We always have and will welcome the LGBTQ+ community to be a part of the vibrant fanbase that brings the Miami Open to life each and every year.”
Several groups that partnered with the Miami Open on the event in past years did not respond to requests for comment.
Charlie Franchino, a member of Sobe Hot Tennis who has attended “Out at the Open” over the years, said his group realized it was not returning for 2026 when they got in touch, as they do every year, to ask that their group discount be applied on the day of the Pride event. He then wrote to the tournament, trying to figure out what happened.
In response, a representative from Hard Rock’s Guest Experiences team said in an email: “That was an event that was held by a group that had reached out to us that year. This year, the group did not reach out, I hope that was able to answer your question.” Franchino blasts that explanation as “ridiculous.”
In years past, he says, the event included a special bar area and a message on screens “for everybody to see it’s Pride day.”
“It just made you feel like you belonged,” says Franchino, a Miami Beach resident. “There was a sense of camaraderie — ‘This is the way the world should be.'”
Losing that, he says, “is such a kick in the teeth.”
Jamieson Cox, president of Sobe Hot Tennis, says that in recent years, “Out at the Open” has been halfhearted and hasn’t lived up to promises. His group offered to help in the past, but after years of disappointment, told the Open the day before the event last year that the group didn’t really plan to promote it in the future, unless something changed.
“I think the bottom line is if you’re going to do it, do it,” Cox says. With the event now quietly gone, he adds, “it sounds like no one is taking responsibility and it’s just not a priority for the Open.”
Feinberg, of the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Association, says these kinds of events generally “either get bigger, or people don’t invest in them, and then they slowly die away.” He says he plans to talk to the Miami Open to see whether the event can be brought back in 2027, because “the community isn’t going anywhere.”
