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AMERICAN CENTURY CELEBRITY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

July 17, 2005

Don Marrandino

Jon Miller

Martha Miller

STATELINE, NEVADA

PHIL WEIDINGER: Welcome everyone this morning. What we'd like to do today is take a few minutes to talk about the event this year, how everything has gone thus far. Obviously we have a new host hotel, Harrah's/Harveys and we want to go over some of that, talk a little about how things have been going and where we're going in the future. On our panel today we have Jon Miller from NBC Sports, Don Marrandino, president of Harrah's, and Martha Miller, American Century Investments, and also Patrick Kaler, Executive Director of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority.

Again, what we'd like to do is just discuss how things have been going this week, and Jon, why don't we start with you for a little historical perspective.

JON MILLER: Well, this is our 16th year in Lake Tahoe and I can honestly tell you that we have never been treated as well as we were this year. The folks at Harrah's/Harveys run a first class operation, but the thing that they did is they really went out of their way to do all of the things that make a difference, and we have heard it both from our sponsors and our guests and the players. It's been remarkable. We've always enjoyed a great time and a good relationship with all of the facilities here, but this year, to see a property step up and go the extra mile like they did really showed us a lot. And I must tell you that we have all been to a man and woman very, very pleased and happy with the way the community has come together, but especially the folks at Harrah's/Harveys and Don and his team, Mike Gorman, it's been outstanding. So we're very, very happy with it and look forward to many, many more years with this group.

PHIL WEIDINGER: Martha, would you like to tell us how the week has been going for American Century?

MARTHA MILLER: Sure. Of course this starts long before we get out here in July, but any time you experience a change, I think there's a natural apprehension. And from the start when we met with Harrah's/Harveys folks, they put us at ease with their pre planning and they have done nothing but deliver since we've been on site. We've been extremely pleased. We bring in around 250 guests. We have clients and our staff, and we put them in the hands of the host hotel, and Harrah's/Harveys has been just terrific. We've been very pleased.

PHIL WEIDINGER: Don, why don't you take us through this week as far as Harrah's/Harveys is concerned, how much fun you guys have had.

DON MARRANDINO: Hope you guys are writing that. I'm going up for a raise on my contract. (Laughter).

No, we've had a great time. The most interesting thing that I saw was I didn't meet one guy, athlete, actor, whatever, that just hasn't been a great time. And I think from a community perspective, Lake Tahoe gets behind this like no other city I've ever seen. It's just been a great time.

Last night when you look up on your stage and you see Jerry Rice as your guest disk jockey at the nightclub and Charles Barkley singing at center stage, it doesn't get much better than that.

JON MILLER: The site from the stage is something that I've never seen and I've been coming here for years. I remember when Arthur Herbie played at another hotel and it was always a lot of fun, but last night was something to behold.

The other thing that has us very excited and this is in large part due to the community but specifically to Don and his team is that our attendance yesterday was record attendance for a Saturday. In the 16 years we've been here we've never had as many people on the golf course as there were yesterday.

And one of the scenes that looked great on television was the scene out at the 17th hole, which is already a beautiful hole, but with all of the boats and all of the spectators, it's rapidly becoming the place to be. And it reminds me and a lot of other people felt the same way, of the scene at the Phoenix Open where it's just a tremendous party and people are here having a good time and they get to interact with the players. And for the first time we've actually had associate sponsors, in this case, Verio, who wanted to come out and have their hospitality out there at 17, so we were very pleased by that as well.

Q. Jon, have you heard any comments from any of the players specifically or any of the sponsors in regards to their experiences with Harrah's and Harveys?

JON MILLER: They have all had a great time. They have always been treated well here, and they have come to expect that, you know, good hospitality, but I don't think they have ever experienced anything quite at the level that they have experienced this week. And they are just these little things that you notice; when there's a function, there are dozens of people out there guiding the way, instead of, and I've noticed this, instead of asking someone for directions, the people from Harrah's will actually take and you walk you to your destination. That doesn't happen a lot of places. That's a real step up, and that kind of thing goes a long way. When I have players and guests and VIPs mentioning that, that says a lot to us, as well.

Q. If I'm not mistaken, the contract with American Century is through next year; is that correct?

MARTHA MILLER: That's right.

Q. Any talks at this point about when the next phase will begin being talked about or has that already begun?

JON MILLER: We've had some discussions. It's true the contract with both the host site and hotel, as well as with American Century, runs through 2006, and we have begun discussions with both groups. It's our intention and always has been our intention to keep this event right here. We've been here for 16 years and I'd be happy if we were here for 116 years. I probably won't be around for that one, but you might be (looking at Don). (Laughter).

Q. This tournament is a combination of a golf tournament and then your more typical celebrity deal where it's an excuse to get stars to be around, the beach scene you've got going, are you going to move more in that direction in the future?

JON MILLER: I think that what we have to do is we have to balance, because it's become such a big event. You know, when we came here 16 years ago, we were talking about this earlier this morning, we had 48 players in the field, we were desperately trying to get people here. We couldn't even fill the Pro Am. We didn't sell tickets, we had, you know, the entertainment for the opening night party was Mike Schmidt's wife who came up and sang a couple of songs, did a great job. (Laughter).

So we've really kind of come a long way to where we are now, and I think that while you have great golfers and guys who really excelled at their game, who is more impressive than a guy like Rick Rhoden who has qualified for a USGA Championship next week in Dayton, and the Dan Marinos and Michael Jordans and Jerry Rices, and then you have your people like Donald Trump and Ray Romano and Don Cheadle and even Brad Garrett; you have such a wide range. Our challenge in the broadcast is to sow good golf, but also show the entertainment side of it. What makes this such a tremendous event is that the people come here and their access built to these players and these individuals is so good.

I think that our job is to try to strike that balance. We try to refresh the list with some new players every year. We have a team led by Gary Quinn back in New York, and they start working on it from the time they hit the ground this week. They have been looking at the field for next year and they do an unbelievable job, and it's a lot of hard work. I have to really credit Gary and his team, and also the production team led by, Tom Randolph and Doug Grabert and our NBC Sports golf team because it's not easy to do this broadcast.

You know, when you do a PGA TOUR event, you basically follow the field of play and the leaders as they get down to the back nine and it all kind of funnels together. When you're doing this event, you want to show as many stars and as many different players as you can. Obviously you never want to embarrass anybody, and then at the end of the day on Saturday and Sunday, there's also a golf tournament to cover. So we have to strike a balance there.

Q. I've got a question for Mr. Marrandino. How is this looking from your point of view this weekend as far as being the new host properties with both Harrah's/Harveys, how is it working out?

DON MARRANDINO: The crowd have been unbelievable. Our business levels have been terrific. You know, I always try to sell tomorrow, not tonight. I think when people say, I went out to a casino, how did you do, I had a nice meal, whatever, this week, like Jon just said, the access to the celebrities, they have been terrific, talking to people, walking through, not sneaking around the back way. It sells tomorrow, and I think it sells the destination, and we've got to do more of that stuff up here. It's been great.

JON MILLER: We really felt, and this is not to denigrate anybody we've worked with in the past because we've always had a good experience, but we felt for the first time in 16 years we really had a partner as our host hotel. And they went out of their way to help promote before we got here, little things, putting banners up on Route 50 and the things they did inside, all the different posters and signage and stuff like that to make everybody feel welcome by the time you came to town.

Q. What was it that led to the sponsorship change, just Caesars, it didn't fit in their plans anymore?

JON MILLER: Well, when the property, when Caesars Tahoe was sold to Harrah's, Harrah's became the parent company. And Harrah's I think looked at what the opportunity was and we've always tried to figure out a way to do more with Harrah's out here, but we were somewhat constrained by the old agreement because Caesars Tahoe was the host hotel at that time. When the change came over, the Harrah's folks said we really want to do this and we're very excited.

Look, it's no secret, Caesars is the leading company in gaming and hospitality in this entire country when it comes to this kind of stuff. So for us to be partnered up with the best company in the business was great for us, so we were thrilled to be able to do that.

Q. Patrick, as the Executive Director of the LTVA, from your view, you've got about $700,000 into this over the years, investment in this tournament, how is everybody feeling about it from your point of view?

PATRICK KALER: We are really excited about the way the whole week has run this week, especially with Harrah's stepping in and all that they have done to enhance the tournament.

I think we have seen that obviously with the increased attendance yesterday and just the number of people that are here over this week, driving through the town last night, being in the village, it was packed with people, being in the casino corridor, lots of action going on. Driving home at last night, just about every of our hotels and motels had a "no vacancy" sign.

So that's really good for us because we've got people coming, we have the national exposure on NBC, which we could not buy that type of exposure for two days on NBC and the day on Golf Channel; and to have that kind of exposure and to see the destination in that light and have the crowds out there. So it really excites people to come back that are here, and you have people come back in the future that are watching it on TV as well.

Q. Do you have any numbers for yesterday?

PATRICK KALER: I believe the numbers that I saw were about 21,000 for the attendance yesterday. But, you know, that's the gate attendance, but there are also the other credentials that are out that are given out through the sponsors, as well as the casinos as well.

Q. About 21,000 paid?

PHIL WEIDINGER: That's through the week so far. So today we are about 4,000 away from setting the record. That's what we're hoping for to break the all time attendance record.

Q. Can you talk about charity? It's become a much bigger focus.

JON MILLER: I'm glad you brought that up, and this is really in large part due to American Century's efforts.

The tournament, for the first several years, we always donated some money to charity, with players winning who choose to stay amateur and stuff like that. But when American Century came on board one of the mandates they gave to us is that they really wanted to make sure that charity became a focal point.

I'm very excited and proud to say that this event has now contributed in excess of $2 million in the 16 years that we have been doing this, but the majority of that $2 million has gone out since American Century came on board. The first two years we were involved with the Fire Department Widows of New York Fund after 9/11; and the past two years we did the Fallen Patriot Fund, helping out those families who have been severely affected by death or serious injury over in Afghanistan and Iraq; and this year the Autism Speaks folks came on board with us.

We think what's so important about it is you really use an event like this, which is a lot of fun and entertaining and gives a lot back to the community, but also raises an enormous amount of awareness and funds for a very, very serious disorder that is affecting one in every 166 children who are born now; that's up from one in 10,000 just ten years ago. So for us to be able to use this forum and use this event to raise that awareness really is important, and a lot of the credit for that goes to American Century for pushing us in that direction. We've had several different activities this weekend, whether it's the silent auction or the live auctions we did, whether it's American Century matching their guests contributions, whether it's the players donating a portion of their purse, whether it's the million dollar hole in one, of which 50 percent of that would go to the charity, I mean, that's pretty good stuff.

I think that the folks in Lake Tahoe and the players and American Century should really be congratulated for all they do to make charity such a focal point of the event.

Q. Don and Martha, let me ask you a two part question. Following 9/11, with the dramatic downtown in economy especially tourism economies like here, Vegas, Reno, and it's kind of come back, but there are a lot of people who re assessed their investments and marketing, etc. Has that changed? Was there a time that American Century considered maybe they could not continue with this? And the second part is on the PGA TOUR, the neighboring Reno Tahoe Open here still cannot find a title sponsor. A number of PGA events may drop off in the coming years because they can't support; what do you make of all that period of economy and is this a more attractive place to sponsor than, say, a Reno Tahoe Open?

MARTHA MILLER: I think the Tahoe community just really embraced us. And I have not been up in Reno as much, but I don't know that they have the beautiful lake that Edgewood sits on and looks out at. So we are very pleased to be here.

Of course, we analyze this tournament every year, but we've been extremely pleased. It is our premiere client entertainment event for us that we hold annually. So we just focus on one and we try to do it well. We're very pleased to be in Lake Tahoe and hope to continue that.

Q. What about you guys? As you assess how to use your resources, how are those decisions made on what to get involved with?

DON MARRANDINO: In Lake Tahoe, our main competitor is Indian gaming, and we try to differentiate ourselves from the Sacramento, San Francisco based Indian casinos. They don't have Michael Jordan cruising around the golf course or Donald Trump eating in the restaurant. We view it as something that differentiates a player's guest experience here in Tahoe, along with all of the natural attributes.

Q. Just wondering if you could comment on what changes or growth you see for the future of the tournament?

JON MILLER: Well, I think the one thing that we always are challenged by is keeping our field and keeping event as fresh and contemporary as we can and we use a lot of different avenues for that.

I think the thing that we have found this year is that when you have a partner like Harrah's and Harveys on the ground really helping you to promote tickets sales and entertainment, you can make this event an even bigger fan interactive experience than we ever had before, and I think that's a real growth opportunity.

We've also seen for the first time several other sponsors who are coming in who want to come and utilize the events for hospitality and exposure for their clients, so those are the kind of things that we continue to build on.

But my feeling is that as good an events as you might have on the PGA TOUR with the Phoenix Open, which everybody talks about as a party, they are pikers compared to Lake Tahoe.

MARTHA MILLER: I just want to say that NBC does a great job for us every year bringing in a new aspect, and while we're sitting here right now, golf professional, Jim Flick, is out on the range giving a clinic for our clients. They always deliver and bring a new aspect to the tournament for us every year, and we're very appreciative of that.

Q. Charles Barkley expressed some concerns that he was not allowed to bet as much as he wanted to, some new table limits; have there been some changes and how does that work and has there been a change since last year?

DON MARRANDINO: I can't speak to last year, we weren't involved, but we were in everything very consistent. One thing you never talk about, gaming, but we're consistent with what will be tomorrow and November 27 and probably March 10 of next year.

So I have not I mean you always hear people talk about different things, but Charles Barkley was on center stage last night raving about what a great time he had, so I don't know what exactly you're talking to.

JON MILLER: He's a happy camper. He's a happy camper. (Laughter). Thank you. Thanks very much.

End of FastScripts.

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