The application process was simple, complete and mail a registration form, (they haven’t upgraded to online yet, the majority of volunteers are seniors) the only additional requirement for drivers is that your over the age of 25 and you provide a copy of your license and drivers abstract, (no interview was required unlike Toronto) I couldn’t afford to attend the orientation but the volunteer staff allowed me to arrive for my first shift, no training in hand.
I had some second thoughts driving to the venue, the parking attendant told me there’s no volunteer parking, I was told that will be $20 for the day and the ticket taker asked me if I paid my fee, I was thinking who pays a fee to volunteer?
Thankfully I was reassured on my walk to the volunteer office, the one-time registration fee is $40 and there’s free volunteer parking and most importantly all volunteers have access to the tennis stadiums and grounds up until the final weekend to watch tennis! We don’t have access to quarters, semis and finals. Which I thought sucked, I’ve been driving up to Montreal to catch the semis and finals once in a while with my TO pass, however the Open does provide a guest pass to bring along a friend and they do have a ton of Adirondack chairs on the lawn in front of the big screen which isn’t that bad on a 40 degree day, it definitely beats cramming the Rogers booth or trying to find a seat in one of the restaurants at the Rogers cup, so I’m not complaining.
I share some more of my California trip on here, instead of giving the play by play, I decided to share a couple of stories, you can also check out my California video in the “post when video fails use your keyboard.”
Thanks for reading,
Brian