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CITI OPEN

August 4, 2019

Mark Ein

Washington D.C.

MARK EIN - Chairman, MDE Tennis

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Mark, congratulations to you. We're telling congratulations to all of the players, but congratulations to you.
MARK EIN: Thanks.

Q. Your first year investing and owning this project. The weather, the players, the crowds, almost nothing could go wrong. And I guess my question is can you think of a better honeymoon for you and the Citi Open?
MARK EIN: And for people who know me and our team, they know that we have really high expectations in everything we do. And we set lofty goals, and it exceeded even our wildest dreams.

And it's a real tribute to this tennis community. I've been part of this tennis community. This tennis community shaped me. As many of you know, I was a ball kid at this tournament. It's been part of my life my whole life. And I've always believed we have one of the best tennis communities in America, and this had the foundation to be one of the great tennis events in America but that it just needed to be elevated in every respect.

And it took a huge amount of effort from a gigantic number of people to do that, and what happened was people responded. We sold out five of the nine main draw sessions. One of the qualifying sessions was this close to a sell out. The hospitality food and beverage was double before. We broke the all-time ticket sales record on Tuesday. By Tuesday, we had beaten the all-time ticket sales record, and on and on and on when we compile it all.

And that's just a tribute to this tennis community. They love this sport. And if you give them a good product, they're going to come out.

And so we can't take any credit for the weather, but the rest of it I'm just so proud of our team that worked so hard that people responded so well to.

Q. I wanted to ask a question about the ATP field and particularly appearance fees. Did the budget change? Did you guys decide to allocate things differently this time? Because there was one person kind of big missing, which was defending champion Alex Zverev. So I'm curious as to how that all worked out.
MARK EIN: Yeah, we did change our strategy on that, which is I'm a real big believer in the next generation players on both the male and female side. I think it's a generation of players who are exciting. They're great personalities. People are drawn to them.

And so rather than making a big bet on one person, we decided to go after a much bigger group of people, and it paid off great. And part of the reason -- I mean, there's so many reasons you want to do that. Part is when people drop out because they're injured, you have a bigger field to make up for it.

But for me the big thing was at so many tournaments, you know, Monday night is kind of like "ehh," and Tuesday is okay, and then the tournament starts Wednesday when your big stars come.

Here I knew from Monday on, from qualifying on, because we got lucky that Coco came, every day there was star power here and every session there was star power. And so that was a conscious change that we made, and I think it worked out fantastically well.

Q. But it's not true that you don't like Alex Zverev.
MARK EIN: I'm a huge -- we've talked about it, and I'm a huge admirer of Sascha Zverev. I think he's amazing. And I would have loved to have had him here and it's a shame that he wasn't, and I hope that he comes back, but also I am incredibly happy with the field that we had. It was incredible.

Q. You have pushed doubles and I'm sure that is a fallout from your success with the Kastles and how everybody and a lot of people play doubles. What were the reactions that you heard from maybe some of your constituents and maybe even you talked to people, fans that were here, what is your reaction to, you know, putting Tsitsipas and Kyrgios on Monday night and all that star power, as you say, in doubles? Because that draw was crazy.
MARK EIN: Yeah. I mean, the players said, you know, for this tournament level, it might be the best doubles draw anyone has ever seen. You think about the unseeded teams of Tsitsipas-Kyrgios, Bryan brothers, Murray brothers, and Sock-Paes, and others, it was incredible.

It was a huge success elevating doubles to a place it isn't normally, time slots and stadium assignments. Not a single person told me they wished that we had not done that. And a gigantic number of people have said well done, thank you, I hope this becomes more the norm.

Like, 80 percent of tennis players play doubles, so that's what they play. It's hard to watch the points and not think they're compelling. And then when you combine it with some great players who are playing both on the singles and doubles side, to me, it seems obvious.

The structure isn't set up for that to be the norm, and we learned that as we went through this, that you have to make some changes and you have to assert yourself at times where that's not the way things are normally done, but it couldn't have worked out better.

And I hope that just not here, but elsewhere, people do the same, and they do. I mean, you go to other tournaments, you go to Indian Wells, they have fantastic doubles, and we've learned that from them. We see the crowds there.

And by the way, it wasn't just the big names that you talked about. The John Harris Court the last couple days, which had doubles matches, was filled to capacity. And so I hope that what we started here doesn't just have an impact in Washington but around the tour.

Q. Do you think that this grand experience was a failure? I don't mean to use such an extreme word, but let's take it for that, because there were two teams that we would consider doubles specialists in the finals?
MARK EIN: Not at all. I think that's what makes it compelling. I think fans love to see two singles play. I mean, the drama of seeing two great singles players play two doubles players who are a great team I think, to me, is part of what makes it compelling.

And, you know, they both beat some of the -- I think Mike and Raven, didn't they beat -- did they beat Andy and Jamie, I think? And then Horia and Jules beat the Bryans. So that's great. Good for the doubles guys for making the finals and winning the tournament.

Q. Regarding your visible and obvious commitment to American tennis, what is the long-term security of one of the great institutions of American tennis, which is the WTEF, of which, of course, you are an active board member. Is their position as the owner of the sanction and the beneficiary of the tournament secure in the long-term in your view?
MARK EIN: It's a lot more secure after what we did. I mean, they got a very large -- it worked out very well financially doing this, which was a great pleasure. I'm not a board member anymore. I was many years ago.

But I'm a big believer in what they do. I think that organization and others in our community that use tennis as a hook to get kids to study is kind of the intersection of the things in my philanthropic life, so I believe in it. It was a pleasure to do. I think we gave WTEF, we secured it's long-term future by doing this. And the fact that the tournament has only grown and we've had these results is only going to help it even more in the future. So it worked out great for everyone.

Q. What role would you say Coco Gauff's presence played here in maybe attracting fans and generating some attention and buzz, and what do you think is the root of that appeal that she has?
MARK EIN: Yeah, I mean, she was a huge part of the success, clearly. I mean, on Sunday, the qualifying tournament, to almost have the Sunday of qualifying be a virtual sellout has a huge amount to do with Coco coming.

And when you saw her around the grounds and the crowds she drew, she's captivated people's attention. Her run at Wimbledon really has just captured people's imagination, both tennis fans and non-tennis fans, and that's what is so cool.

For me, that's why it's so important to have pro events in a community. You know, I've said this before. When I was a kid, there were 45 or something ATP and WTA events in tennis and America was thriving. Today, there's 12. The other five major sports, including soccer, are in the 30 biggest U.S. markets for four to six months of the year. So if you have a young boy or young girl who is a good athlete, they're inundated for most of the year by the other sports, and they only get tennis a little bit if they're in one of those 12 places.

And so what I think is pro events are an amazing way to inspire kids and give them something to aspire to. And there's no better example of that than Coco Gauff at 15, what she's done. And she's also just an incredible person. She is so mature and so precocious off the court and has such a good system of people around her, support system of people around her, that her impact was felt on the court but throughout the grounds and on the tournament, and in our city, frankly. And it's going to be great to see what she does.

And, by the way, Caty McNally too. She got a last minute wild card into singles, and they both got -- ten minutes before the doubles draw, and Caty made it to the semis and won the doubles. She's another one. Again, more proof of why I believe the future of the sport is really incredibly promising because we have these incredible athletes on the male and female side who I think are going to make the sport popular for a long time.

Q. What would you like to do, what kind of goals do you have for the tournament here in the next few years? Obviously you have given doubles a great focus. The Market Square, by all accounts, seems a very popular and needed addition here to the tournament.
MARK EIN: Yeah.

Q. Can you discuss what you would like to see happen here in the future?
MARK EIN: So a couple things. For this year, we didn't use the excuse of not having a lot of time as a reason not to do things, so we got a lot done that we wanted to get done. You mentioned a lot of them. And I think a lot of the reason that it was such a success this year. There are things that we have planned that we can do next year and we will do, and I'm excited to implement those.

The long-term vision is I want this to be America's summer tennis tradition. I want it to be the place that people from around the United States come if they want to come with their families to watch professional tennis.

The US Open is great. I love it. I've been on the USTA board. You know, it's after school starts, New York is expensive, and so it's great if that works for you. If it doesn't, I think this tournament is the place that people should want to come if they want to go see a pro tennis tournament and then, by the way, go see the monuments and the Smithsonian. Washington, in August, already is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. And if you combine that with this tournament, and this tournament as it grows and gets better and better, that's the ultimate vision.

And that's why I'm so confident that we have so much -- as much as it grew and improved this year, there's so much growth in front of us.

Q. Given your expertise in improving tournaments, you talked about that number of 45 to 12 tournaments. So I'm headed to Cincinnati on Friday and this always comes up there. What can we do not just to improve tournaments but to bring some back to the heartland? Because when I go to Cincinnati, people come from Wisconsin. They come from Tennessee.
MARK EIN: And I should add that Cincinnati is a great example. For that part of the country, a lot of people come. It's a great event, and the other tournaments are great and attract people regionally. I just think there's a place for a summer Indian Wells-ish, kind of thing. It's not going to be that big, but sort of that kind of thing.

Yeah, it's a hard problem because these tournaments are coveted all over the world by individuals, companies, cities, countries. People want them and they're not giving them up. So I think a couple things. One, when they come up, we should be aggressive in trying to get them back. I think that's the first thing.

Secondly, I think you need to find more individuals like Larry Ellison, and Ben Navarro in Charleston, and Steve Ross in Miami, and hopefully what we're doing here, people whose lives have been touched by the sport, who believe in it, who also have the resources and interest in creating great events. So I think that's something that's important.

You know, if people love basketball, they know what to do. You go invest in a basketball team and so on and so on. That path has never really been made clear for people who love tennis, and I think we can do a better job of that. And I've talked a lot at the USTA and others about trying to recruit people who want to do that. So I think that's an important piece so you have the resources to do it.

And then I think because you're not going to get 40 back, there just aren't ever going to be those spots, you need to elevate other kinds of pro tennis. So great that the Laver Cup was in Chicago where they don't have a pro event. Made a huge impact there.

Obviously, I have an interest in world team tennis, which I think can be a great source of growing pro tennis, because you can expand cities in the same three-week period. And so that's now in ten place, so make that better.

I think college tennis, and the USTA has really focused and done a good job elevating that with college game day. I think you can make college more interesting to a broader number of people. And you just need to fill the ecosystem with a bigger presence of high-quality, hopefully pros, but even high-quality college tennis and amazing experiences.

That's the thing. The thing about tennis is people don't just come for the tennis. They'll stay for six, seven hours, but they need nice places to go, good food, nice, comfortable places to rest in between. And if you do it, you see what's happened here. You go to the US Open, Indian Wells, et cetera, and that's the vision, and we just need to try to create more of that in the United States.

Q. So Arthur Ashe is the person who started this and he wanted this tournament to be in a public place, and this is a public park. And you want to make it grow and make it big and a place where people come, your vision. There's some real conflicts here because of it being in a public park and probably the restrictions on -- parking is a huge problem. Can you make the venues, the stadiums bigger? So I know those are weighty questions that you'll have to go through over the next few years, but there does seem to be quite a big conflict there and would you consider moving the event to another public area as a result of those conflicts?
MARK EIN: Good question. So I love challenges, and so I'm not afraid of them. But in all seriousness, when we inherited this -- or not inherited. When we got involved, there was so many things that we asked, Why are things not different? And I was told, Because this can't change and that can't change and this person is not helpful and that organization is not helpful.

And our experience over the last four, five, or six months has been the opposite. Everyone wants to make this -- they all recognize what this can be. They all think it can be much better. They all have their own things they have to manage and deal with, but everyone, including the people or organizations that I heard were part of the problem, have been part of the solution.

And so if we're ultimately going to live up to the vision I said, we're going to have to get some support to make some changes to the facility, for sure. But I really believe there's a path to do that. It's not a certain path, but I believe that there's a path to do that.

And I think it would be a shame if it left this site. As you said, Arthur started it here. It's in a public park. I think that's good for everyone. I think its location is a good location, not just because I grew up ten minutes away, but because it's central for people in D.C., Maryland. It's not hard for people from Virginia to get here. And it's fantastic that you've got a stadium and a set of courts that kids can come play on the rest of the year.

So if there's any possible way to keep it here, which is the first, second, and third choice, that's what we're going to do. As I said, we've had a lot of conversations with people who seem to want to also help figure it out, and so I'm really hopeful we'll be able to.

An I say thank you to you guys too? You're a big part of the tournament. And I really believe that any great event has to be good for all of its stakeholders. And here we think about fans, players, sponsors, the park, the city, but also you guys. So we really appreciate what all you guys do. And hopefully if you have ideas how we can make it better for you, let us know too. So thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thanks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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