	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ROLAND GARROS

May 30, 2016

Guy Forget

Paris, France

An interview with:

GUY FORGET

THE MODERATOR: We will start with English after Guy's statement.

GUY FORGET: At least someone's got a press conference today. (Laughter.)

I'm coming in front of you tonight just to express my frustration, in a way, because it is rather hard when you've been dreaming of that tournament for so long, and, you know, you decide so early to send the players back to the hotels and they all have been warming up in the morning and waiting and waiting and asking you, Do you think we're going to go on? What are you going to do with scheduling?

You suddenly realize that at other places, they would play on center court. You guys would be working. You know, people that don't have a ticket would be probably watching on screens.

You know, we have again to send the players back and hope that tomorrow, you know, play will resume. You know, once again, I think having a roof is a necessity. We have been joking around with John, as you have seen on the web, and through a couple of interviews, but, you know, for those in our country who are still doubting on the necessity to expand, to modernize our stadium, I think right now the fact, you know, there is proof that it's a necessity and we have to do it.

We can't be like that for many years. And although we have, you know, very good hope that it will be done by 2020, you know, I hope everything will go on in between now and then so that no one can just stop the process, because once again, it is a necessity. And, you know, I'm, you know, a bit annoyed today, to say the least, although I kind of smile sometime with the players. You know, it's hard.

So now I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I'll be very happy to answer.

Q. Could you please tell us if you know more or less how much it cost, a day like this when you have to reimburse all the tickets? And I don't know if there are special policies with the TV rights, if one day it's left out? And if there is any chance to evaluate how much is a day like this?
GUY FORGET: I don't know the exact figure. We can measure it, of course. The main thing is, first of all, our spectators. We have seen hundreds, thousands of people waiting with kids with umbrellas, and, you know, all the people will be reimbursed. You know, we have insurance for that.

Our main concern is going to them. Some of those people we know flew, took the fast train from the north of France, south of France, been waiting for weeks and months to be here, some of them for years because it's their first time here. You will have met some of them. The least we can do is to, you know, give their money back and hopefully they can come in the future.

I mean, the money that you might lose, once again, is irrelevant. You know, our concern now is not to lose money. The concern today is to give a good image of our sport, and by doing that today, and, you know, we have had struggle in the past, you know, I think it's not a good sign. You know, I'm glad to speak in front of you today to carry on that message.

You know, we might talk to some politicians sometimes, to some presidents, but I think, you know, you guys carry out the word because you, like me, I guess are frustrating today not to see Novak on the court, Serena, and everyone else.

I mean, the world is moving fast, and, you know, we have these ideas. You know, we have talked about that roof in Paris 15 years ago already. It's a long process. You know, once again, I have joked about it the other day, saying things were slow, a bit slow in France. But, you know, today I think is the day to just say, you know, Stop. Everyone has to realize that people will take the decisions at a high level. Not only in the media when some of our politicians will say, No, we support the process and the future expansion and of the stadium. The people that actually are making the call, I mean, they are the ones who have to realize, you know, what it is and how big that tournament is and what it should be and what it can mean to the young people in our country.

You know, for that matter, you know, I just want to express that with you today.

Q. I remember I was here already I think 2005 when there were big discussions of you building a totally new Roland Garros for the Olympics 2012. Do you think maybe when the Olympics went away it was an excuse, okay, leave Roland Garros like it is? How is it possible that it takes so long? What is the final point why it's not happening?
GUY FORGET: I guess you have a lot of French friends with you that are here with you. I would tell you a lot of details, because obviously our tournament is just a minor thing that we have in our country. I could name a lot of different projects that are great today, but when they were thought about in the past, you know, people, Oh, no, no, no, we shouldn't be doing this, it will be ugly, it will take too long.

But eventually those things happen, and now everybody thinks it's great. I mean, the pyramid at Le Louvre Museum is one of the examples. I think everyone is proud today to have something like this. When it was first created or drawn, I'm sure they went through a lot of problems to actually make it go through.

But, you know, once again, I think this is a necessity. Hopefully if we get the Olympics in 2024, that will, you know, make the process go faster, not only for our stadium but for all the other projects around France.

Q. The forecast the rest of the week, tomorrow in particular, isn't great. Are you still confident that the tournament will finish on Sunday?
GUY FORGET: Well, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to say, Oh, it's going to be great, everything's fine. Tomorrow looks better than today, so I'm positive we will be able to play, which is a good start.

We knew today was going to be horrible. It went beyond what we imagined. That's why we sent the players back so early.

You know, we have made another, you know, scheduling that you said you saw. You know, we are not that far back on schedule. It's still reasons to be optimistic, and we are. You know, players in the past have had these issues many, many times. We talk about Grand Slams and of course the other three slams now have a roof, but most of the ATP events throughout the year are played outdoors, and the players, you know, are faced with these bad weather things and have to go back to the locker room and wait and wait and wait.

So, you know, once again, we are confident, and, you know, hopefully we will be able to play tomorrow as much as we can, and we will speed it up, start earlier. You have seen the schedule. We are supposed to start at 2:00. We start at 11:00. We will play on more courts. There will more showcourts tomorrow. We will be adding Court 1 and Court 2 just to speed up the game and hopefully we will be right on time in two days.

Q. We all know the discussions about the roof and the renovation, but do you think that you can change it faster? Why don't you call the president or the prime minister? (Laughter.) It's France.
GUY FORGET: Actually, our president, he's a very nice man. He's open to any discussions, and we know he's actually supporting our project.

I mean, but, you know, the justice and people who actually make the call, the president doesn't make the call. He can suggest, he can say, you know, I'm supporting it.

But in the end, you know, people like you and me basically are going to say, you know, we think the project is not a necessity or, you know, we don't need to do that, and that's -- you know, I'm addressing in a way and you are going to talk to these people.

People go out in the street and complain and want things to change, because deep inside they feel it's a necessity.

So in our own little world, you know, the tennis world, you know, for a tournament of that magnitude, we really believe this has to move forward as quickly as possible.

Q. Is there a limit to the number of matches you would ask the men to play on consecutive days? A worse-case scenario, would you ask them to play four best-of-five-set matches in four days, or is that perhaps when you look to delay the tournament?
GUY FORGET: That's looking at the really dark scenario. We're not that bad yet. But eventually if they have to play two matches in a row, they will do it. If they have to, I guess they will do it, as well.

We can postpone the finals. Talking about bad weather, I think the US Open, if I'm wrong, I think moved the finals on a Monday, what? Two or three years in a row? Four years? Four years. They will have their roof finally this year.

So, I mean, we're not the first tournament to be hurt by really extreme conditions. I mean, the US Open, players for many years played the semi and the finals Saturday and Sunday.

So they are physically able to deal with it. Now, you know, our role being in the organization is to prevent these things, and we have good reasons to believe that it will not be the case. But if they do have eventually at one point to play two matches, then I guess the fittest guy will be rewarded for it.

Q. Can you just explain again, why is the roof dependent on the rest? Why can't you just build a roof and leave the rest till later?
GUY FORGET: I don't know if you have seen the project, and probably someone can give it to you. To put a roof on that court, actually, we need to break a lot of things here. The weight of that roof, we need to completely change the structure.

So basically we almost need to renew the whole Philippe Chatrier court, and that can be done not over the course of one year. So like in Wimbledon, I don't know if you remember, they chopped off the top. One year it didn't look appealing, but they eventually did it.

Here, structure is probably even bigger. We have to do a lot more work, especially that stadium where we are now, we will probably be double in size. The whole stadium will be a lot bigger.

And when that construction will be solid, then we will be able to put the wings on the top. That's the last step of the process. I'm sure there are people here that can give you, maybe if you need precise details, could answer your questions.

But that's would be the last step. The whole stadium, the whole Roland Garros will be renewed, and this will be the last step of the puzzle.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. I'm going to ask again the same question but in French. What's the cost? I think that Axa (phonetic) is your insurance company. What are you going to do with them, financially speaking?
GUY FORGET: You're talking about the tickets?

Q. Yes, the tickets and the loss, the financial loss for the tournament.
GUY FORGET: I don't know if Jeremy is here to answer the question. He could give you more details. Once again, I can tell you I don't know if it's 2 million Euros. I don't exactly know the amount, but this is a secondary topic for us.

At present we have a profit, and a profit that's big enough, and therefore, we will be able to offset this. Once again, the biggest frustration for us is that we have the impression that in France, if you want things to change, you need awareness. Sometimes you need a drama, and then people think, have we done that before? It will be better?

And it's today. This awareness is today. People are realizing today that things must change.

Covered courts is a standard nowadays. We don't have this. We saw that at the beginning of the week and today. So we should say, Stop. Stop. Let's stop bickering about it. And people saying, oh, that's quite bothering. What do you think about this? What so-and-so will be thinking about this?

No, we should welcome all of the media, the best players and the crowd, as well, the fans, people who want to live huge emotions. The people who come here, they are not into politics. They are ready to pay the right price to watch a tennis match. Some people came today and they had to walk away. They didn't see anything. People in front of their TV sets, they couldn't watch anything. They're going to look at a TV series or something else and we could have done that.

Well, of course, the date is 2020. But the stadium is not just the roof. It's much more than that.

I think it's so frustrating today to say, Okay, yet another day. Same old story. But we are optimistic. We think we will be able to just think about it. If it's again appalling weather conditions tomorrow, what are we going to do? We should say, No, we can't continue like this. And do you agree with me?

I love sports. You love sports as well. You are doing your job because there are all of these nice vibes. Irrespective of the prize money that Djoko has and others, and Richard who was on his back yesterday. That's what we live for.

And without a roof, you can't live this. No, this is something that moves me, touches me.

Q. Now, let's say it's going to continue to rain. What are you going to do then? Would you open up practice courts to play matches or would you say it's better for the players to play every single day?
GUY FORGET: Tomorrow we're going to use two showcourts, Courts No. 1 and 2. These matches have been initially scheduled for Suzanne Lenglen and the Chatrier court so as to catch up.

As I told you before, in case of emergency, some players, men and women, would have to play two days in a row. For women, it's not really a problem, they do this throughout the year with the WTA Tour. For men, it's more of a problem. Might be five-setters. And Djokovic and Murray, incredible athletes, they can do this.

But these are the things we like to try and avoid, and this is why we have scheduled things differently. We're thinking about this very much with the Federation and the referees.

Q. What about Jean Bouin?
GUY FORGET: No, we don't need to go to Jean Bouin. We can organize the tournament here. We have all the facilities.

Q. What's going to happen tomorrow if there is still more rain? Can you still meet the deadlines that is end of the tournament? Because we are looking at the weather forecast, and this is a nightmare. Well, first, because there is no roof, but in terms of organization, what's the biggest problem ahead of you that you're faced with?
GUY FORGET: Well, there are always problems, but we have solutions. We are prepared for that. For the time being, it's not a catastrophe even though there are problems. We'll see which matches can be played. At the end of the afternoon, you know, what we do, we think about the following day and in two days what's going to be played, how many matches, as you know.

There are TV channels here that broadcast all over the world, and we have to give all of these countries a broadcast.

It's a nightmare today, but for many, many years, we have always managed to overcome these uncertainties connected to the weather conditions.

Q. Could we think about a provisional roof for the years to come? Not the final roof, but another one for the time being. Why can't this be the last part of the jigsaw puzzle?
GUY FORGET: I think I answered this question in English. The roofing is very important. It's the last piece in the puzzle. What we need to is to give you something that's bigger and more comfortable. More and more journalists are here. People who had one coach in the past have teams of eight now. When it's raining, look at the players restaurant. It's crammed with people, crammed with people.

It's not just about having a tarp on the court. As you know, more than 350 million Euros have been earmarked to modernize the stadium. It's not just about some type of temporary roofing. We want to do things well. We want to welcome you to Roland Garros that's going to be much more pleasant, and therefore we need to work on this till 2020.

Q. You have said that decisions have to be made and the president will not make the decision. Is it the prime minister, yourself, the head of the French Tennis Federation?
GUY FORGET: No, in democracies the presidents never decide. There are many things we can think of, which is a good thing. It's typical of democracies. If you have ideas, you have to file for permits, authorizations, judges look into the case, will say if this is okay and accept it or not.

And then permits are evaluated and then accepted or not. It takes a lot of time. In the end of the day, people must realize this project is extremely important. You are convinced, I am convinced, the president, as well. But this is not enough.

Some of the people who were against were very vocal about it. We were perhaps a bit too shy, as well.

So the time has come, I think, to say, No, we want the project to hatch. This is our objective. There are negative aspects, that's true, but they are so minimal compared to all the benefits, emotion given to many, many children and those who are sports lovers, millions and millions of people who want to watch these matches.

Q. I suppose you've discussed with players, you have had the feedback from them. You are former player. What do you feel? People don't know if they are going to have to play or play three days in a row. Can you tell us more about that?
GUY FORGET: The players are great. The players are the first to suffer from that. Sometimes they are nagging, but they are sorry, as well, for us. They're saying, Oh, Guy, it's the first for you. You're not very lucky, are you?

And then they wait and wait and wait. We said, You can go home. Some of them said, Oh, thank you, thank you for doing that this early, because there is a lot of stress on them before they go on the courts.

You know, when we see that it's really very cloudy and it's going to rain from dusk till dawn, we'd rather send them back. They can't even play 15 minutes.

So I think that on the contrary, the players take it well. They take it really well.

Now, I'm on the other side. We're on the other side. So we have to give them the right, too. We have to give them something, thanks to which they can express themselves without having any stress.

Q. Now, this is a mishap. Would you say that this would have a negative impact on Paris when Paris wants to host the 2024 Olympic Games?
GUY FORGET: I don't know. You should ask people around here. What's for sure is that this is not positive. I think that if we manage to finalize our project, this might have an impact on the Olympic Games.

You know, the Olympic Games, the committee, what do they look for? The stability of a country, economic impact, safety for the population, for athletes, feasibility of the projects, and of course the infrastructure, I suppose, part and parcel of their criteria when they choose a town.

Q. Another question about the roof. Have you ever thought about a roof that would be a temporary roof? Because we did that with a swimming competition in Russia. There was temporary roofing above the swimming pool. Is that something you've been thinking about or not?
GUY FORGET: Well, I think you know that the structure we have on the Philippe Chatrier court is not watertight. We thought we could have a room like the Accord Arena (phonetic) with air conditioning. It's the case for the Australian Open. We thought we could perhaps have the Davis Cup there. But it was so complicated. The cost was so high. And also you'd have to have a lot of equipment for air conditioning, so the footprint would have been too big.

Well, of course the structure is really good, but it is "a light structure." So, as I said before, look at how huge this thing would be.

Q. (off microphone.)
GUY FORGET: Well, you've said it, and, well, I don't know what people were thinking about 10 years ago. I was not a member of the team at the time, but I know that of course the structure is big, but it's not totally airtight with air conditioned rooms.

Q. Let's think about the worse-case scenario, the nightmare scenario, if we can. Let's say you have to play quarterfinals on the Friday or Saturday on the Lenglen. Will you have to change the tickets, or will the tickets we have sold so far be enough?
GUY FORGET: I have not yet thought about this, but I suppose the teams I work with are familiar with this type of situation, and they have probably been thinking about this tomorrow.

And as we speak, there are tickets being sold, that's for the general public, and therefore the spectators can buy tickets for Courts No. 1 and 2 tomorrow for these matches that have been initially programmed for the Lenglen and the Philippe Chatrier courts.

So "unfortunately" due to what happened today they will be able to watch matches they couldn't watch before. We are very responsive, and we will find solutions.

Q. Let's think about the worst-case scenario.
GUY FORGET: Please. Well, if we must (laughter).

Q. Well, think that the players may have to play three days in a row, will you be working on the scheduling yourself or will you have to discuss with Djokovic or Murray to know what they think?
GUY FORGET: No, it's going to be our call, our call, our decision. The tournament committee will meet, and they will make the fairest decision, the most equitable decision.

We will listen to the umpires, as well. Of course if the players have managed to have a little rest and the other player couldn't because he played a five-set match, we are not going to ask them to play again on the next day.

We saw some finals that were played on a Monday. I know it's complicated, but we have done that. In the worst-case scenario, we can think about doing that again.

Q. You said we need to do something so that things change. Now, the stadium will be bigger in the future. Do you think we have to speed up or should we stick to the deadlines we have? When will the roof be ready?
GUY FORGET: The roof will be ready in 2020. We'd like to meet the deadlines. We'd like the process to continue and to develop at normal speed. We hope there is going to be nothing that's going to slow us down.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297