US OPEN

August 23, 1997

Harry Marmion

HARRY MARMION: Good afternoon, I'm Harry Marmion. What I'd like to do is ask you to please ask a question and let me have your affiliation and in case I need you to repeat the question.

HARRY MARMION: You're absolutely correct. There has been a filing with the New York State Attorney General's office. We're pursuing it; we're giving them the information that they want. What happened is we decided we needed to build luxury suites in the new Arthur Ashe Stadium. The reason for that is the cost of the facility was $254 million, and the debt service is $1,200,000 a month. So we need to pay that off. This is privately financed by us, by the United States Tennis Association. As a result of the two floors of luxury suites, people that were behind the court-side boxes have now been moved above the luxury suites. In fact, they are further away from the court than they would have been. We believe that the excellence of this facility in every way is going to offset that criticism. We think when people come and see their seats, the width of their seats, the fact that the seats are very comfortable, the fact that there are more restaurants, more restrooms, more courts outside. People think we just built a stadium. We built a 45-acre complex with courts outside that will seat 10,000 people. So we're aware of it. We're going to take a very careful look at it at the end of this two-week period. We have a new stadium coming on line next year, which is the refurbished former big stadium. We think that we'll be able to answer these questions in more detail in the later time.

HARRY MARMION: It's not an investigation. A group of people wrote the Attorney General's office in New York and asked them to look into our ticket policies. We are providing the information, and we will continue to discuss it with them. We don't consider it trivial; we don't consider it serious.

HARRY MARMION: We're sincerely sorry that the Mayor has taken this approach. We understand how busy he is. Our invitation is still open to the Mayor to come Monday night. We believe that the actions of the Mayor have indicated to us the prudence of having the contract and the lease provisions in the contract that prevents a mayor from acting unilaterally. We're pleased with the contract as it is stated. It's a very important provision to us. As a matter of fact, it's a deal-breaker, was a deal-breaker for us, when we wrote the contract. We'll be willing to talk to the representatives of the Mayor. I have people working on possible alternatives right now. But at the moment we see no way of doing what the Mayor wants.

HARRY MARMION: No.

HARRY MARMION: See, that's the problem. A lot of people don't understand the lease provisions. The lease provisions say that the City of New York will go with us to the FAA in the event there are planes flying over for other than safety reasons. Planes fly-over all the time when it's cloudy and the wind is the wrong way. That doesn't count in this situation. We are a 501-C3 and 501-C6 organization. We have no standing to deal with the Federal Government. The Municipality has to go in our behalf. All we ask is the borough president of Queens to come us, to the FAA in the event that there's a fly-over, there are significant fly-overs. I personally do not believe that the fines will ever be levied. But we're not in a position to take the advance. Right now the FAA says that it is just as safe to fly a few degrees one way or the other to avoid the stadium during that two-week period. It's as simple as that.

HARRY MARMION: Next Thursday morning there will be a press conference in this very room. We're going to announce a major grass-roots effort over the next five years, and I assure you we'll respond to that question.

HARRY MARMION: The process is slim to none. But it's there, and it's real. Let me tell you something. Let's say there are fines. These fines do not come to the US Tennis Association. They go to the Recreation Department in New York City, and the City Council of the City of New York determines who gets the money. We don't want the money. That's not our objective.

HARRY MARMION: That's correct. What it leaves to me, whoever the advisors are, haven't read the contract.

HARRY MARMION: Yes.

HARRY MARMION: No, I didn't say that. I said under the current circumstances, it's a deal-breaker. But one can always talk. One can always seek modification. We're not going to do it with a gun to our head during an Open. We'd like to sit down with the Mayor and his advisors in a more temperate climate after the Open.

HARRY MARMION: We have been talking to the Mayor's office for a long time.

HARRY MARMION: I have no comment on that.

HARRY MARMION: No, no.

HARRY MARMION: The worry about the fly-overs has to do with the quality of the play in all our facilities. It's unfortunate that planes can fly over baseball games in Mets stadium. That's not an issue. Tennis is a different game. The player must be able to pick up the sound of the ball. The planes coming over are a distraction for the players and a distraction for the fans.

HARRY MARMION: Whom am I speaking to?

HARRY MARMION: We just are now so busy opening this new facility, with all of the grand opening ceremonies to take place on Monday evening, with Whitney Houston and others, and tennis play, it's not the right climate in which to discuss. But, yes, I would like to sit down with people from the Mayor's office after this is over.

HARRY MARMION: I didn't hear you.

HARRY MARMION: I wouldn't quite put it that way. That's fairly close.

HARRY MARMION: We have studies from Allen Hevesi from the borough of Queens, who is the comptroller, treasurer of the City of New York, that say the impact is over almost $300 million on an annual basis to the tri-state area. Many, many thousands of people come from all over the world to this facility, not just people from the tri-state areas. People use hotels. We take 900 hotel rooms in one hotel in New York for the two-week period. People come from all over, they spend money. There's an economic multiplier. The City of New York gets more than a million dollars in fees for a two-week period. The facility reverts to the City of New York for 11 months. It's a public park. This facility is turned over to the City of New York. All we have is a lease for 60 days a year. This is a $250 million investment. We'd like very much to have the planes not come over for this two-week period. We don't think it's asking too much, especially when the FAA says it's legal -- not legal, safe.

HARRY MARMION: I think the general exuberance of the crowd is a fair reading of how we feel. It's a very powerful symbol, very important in New York City, very important in tennis, very important in the world to honor this man, not only for what he did in tennis, but he was a great and distinguished humanitarian.

HARRY MARMION: Thank you, very much.

End of FastScripts….