TMS MONTE CARLO

April 19, 2003

Patrice Dominguez

Francis Truchi

FRANCIS TRUCHI: We're between 96,000 and 100,000 depending on the figures from tomorrow, which is very good. We had 1,700 paying spectators more than last year for the region, Provence and Alpes Maritimes. It's a very good result. Maybe there was a little drop in the weekend, and this is due to the fact that it's Easter and it's a family celebration. Maybe tomorrow people will stay with their families. As Patrice said to the radios, we improved many things after talking with the ATP. Alan Mills, who is the referee, was criticizing the fact that we lacked one or two courts with stands. So after thinking a lot, and on the initiative of Bernard Balleret, who speaks a lot with the players, he was pressuring us. So we took the initiative to do on Court 9 and 11 a separation, so we have two extra practicing courts. These are little details, but we listened to what we are told and we now have a stand of 200 or 300 places. So it's more comparable to the other courts. The panels with the scores have been changed. They are beautiful now. It's better for the public, for the crowd, and yourself because you can see from very far what the result is. The first days it was a lot of wind, but the light was very bright. In spite of that, we were able to see better. We tried with Patrice to do our work properly. Patrice said that after the Grand Slams, in Europe Monte-Carlo was one of the greatest tournaments. This means working all year round. We have people representing us in Italy. We have partnerships with the League of Cote d'Azur. Tomorrow, there will be more than 1,000 young people, weather permitting. With the League of Provence, on the first Monday, we granted a special price for the senior citizens. You know Patrice is an experienced player, and he brings a lot of ideas. We are here to welcome you as well as possible. We are sure that we are doing what we have to do. We are going to beat a record this year. Normally we had 150 buses coming from all over the place. This year we reached a figure of 206. I think I said the major things you need to know. Maybe Patrice can add something, or you have questions?

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: We talk regularly with the other Masters Series people. It's about the same organizations. Within the ATP, the Masters Series are a special group apart from the rest. We have regular meetings. We take advantage of the knowledge of everybody in those meetings. Other Masters Series also have perfect facilities, even in the States - Indian Wells and Miami. Here, we work with a very special environment. It's a unique site. So the combination between the site itself, the Principality of Monaco, the fact that many players live in Monaco, means that it is a completely unique tournament. But you mustn't forget that the club is open the entire year. Francis is the director of the club. We need three months to transform the stadium to prepare it for this tournament. Our objective, our goal, is to be the first tournament in Europe. As Francis said, in the outside courts we added a lot, like the Court des Princes, which did not exist two or three years ago. All the players were very pleased this week about the improvements. We had protections, and that helped a lot because of the wind would have disturbed the game otherwise. These innovations cost a lot of money. But the only reason we're doing that is that we want to be the first European tournament behind the Grand Slams. I believe Monte-Carlo is the sixth tournament in the world, after the Grand Slams and Indian Wells and Miami. So we have to go even further, and we have to show we are able to organize a great event. We have to confirm the value of this tournament. We use for that the experience of the Masters Series organization committees, and we need a good place in the calendar.

FRANCIS TRUCHI: I believe that if the players want to come, they reserve their place a long time in advance so it doesn't have a real impact. The players, of course, can be tired. They start with the Australian Open, they have two Tennis Masters, the Davis Cup. One or two players maybe have physical problems or mentally are tired. Now, if Rome has 49 players out of 50, there still can be some abandoning, some giving up. Monte-Carlo is really the beginning of the clay court season. So being before or after Barcelona, maybe next year we'll be one week after. But when you watch the results of Monte-Carlo and the French Open, when you compare both, there is an affinity.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: It's difficult to give a very short answer to your question, but if a player is playing Davis Cup in Valencia, he's going to go to Barcelona. If a player has a tournament in Australia, he's going to stay in Australia. The problem is the place of the Davis Cup in second round. We don't know where to place the tournaments because the ATP vote against my own opinion and against the advice of the representative of the European players about the number of weeks between Miami and the French Open. We know that 2004 is a very difficult year, because there are the Olympics. There's a change in the calendar. If you look at the beginning of the year, it's going to start on the 4th of January. So everything has changed its place. We understand for that particular year, but we won't understand it a second time. Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and Hamburg will not understand that a second time. They will draw the consequences. You have to be extremely careful because we cannot touch the most historical part of the tour. If you touch that part, four tournaments, 100 years old, it won't be accepted. We won't let that be done. So we agree to make a compromise for 2004 because, as someone was saying in the French Tennis Federation, the calendar makes everybody "a little bit unhappy." We can understand. If it happens another year, it will be a little more than a "little bit unhappy." Mark Miles wanted to put Barcelona the week of Easter. In Spain, it's a very bad thing for the tournament. So I proposed that Barcelona be after us; that's why. But once again, it's a transition. Otherwise, there's no reason that the other European tournaments be penalized in the calendar to save tournaments in America, although they're very big. I don't believe people believe more in Indian Wells than in Rome, Hamburg, Monte-Carlo. For the players, we need to prepare them to be ready for major events. If it's not possible, then the Masters Series will no longer be compulsory for the top players. Otherwise, they'll be too tired. So for 2005, we have to reestablish a mutual respect. We'll put $250 million on the table to have the best players. But if the situation is bad, we won't put that money up anymore. So at a certain stage, we have to learn not to go too far. I remember the ATP, and I'm saying as such that we should understand each other. Europe, today, represents more. We are one of the major tournaments in Europe. We represent 54 percent of the tournaments, four Masters Series out of five. So the question is not to have Europe against other continents, but what we must do is recognize that the situation is different from ten years ago when the American players were deciding when they wanted to play and where they wanted to go. In '98, we were told that in 2000 we wouldn't exist anymore, and we said, "It's not possible. This tournament is 100 years old and will continue to exist." We fought for the tournament. We succeeded. So we have the same problem now. We are not afraid. Recently, we learned that some players were not suitable for this tournament, and that's all. Europe, today, needs to be recognized in the world more than it is presently. Maybe some exist tomorrow; some others not. But us, we make all possible efforts to adapt to modern tennis.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: Well, the calendar was proposed by Mark Miles to the ATP. For the calendar to be accepted, you have to go around the table. It's a vote. But in order to refuse it, you have to have a majority - two players out of three, and two directors out of three, two tournament directors. I'm part of those who voted against.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: Yes, between 15 and 20 percent are Italians coming.

FRANCIS TRUCHI: Thank you very much for the suggestion.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: Thank you. It's a very good idea. Plus, next year, we are one week later. So we are week 17, so it's even shorter.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: That has always been so, as far as I can remember.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: On the poster from the tournament, we have the picture of the one who's playing the finals, so we didn't make any mistakes. That was done in September. This is also important because it gives me the opportunity to explain something. The whole year, I'm thinking about how to communicate about the tournament. Well, we chose to have a poster with only one player. It's risky. It's 500,000 Euros for advertising, for putting the posters everywhere. So we have no lessons to be given. The ATP asked us to promote the players. At a certain time, there was a racquet. In the middle of the racquet there were photographs of Panatta, many players, but it's risky. If you have pictures of several players, you take less risk. But we decided that player, that particular player, would be there because we've seen him play during the past two or three seasons, and every time he has a good place. It's important to say that today. There is participation in the promotion of the players. We will ask the question about the question of the doubles. We spoke about the doubles in the program. We scheduled four doubles on center court, which we never did before. If the weather allows for it, we'll do it next year, too. We want to make the players comfortable. When we set up a program, we have to take into account the television obligations. Everybody's fighting for his own timing. One year we had a French player, one year we had an American, one year we had Srichaphan.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: In fact, we were surprised by him.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: Today, the thing is that out of 18 results, he had zero. Since there's no longer a bonus, the players really wanted to play because when they didn't play a tournament, one-third of the bonus was escaping them. The players are even wiser than we are. They all think, "None of us among the Top 50 will play the nine tournaments, so we're going to play eight." But if we change the rule to eight, they will play seven.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: If we say, "If you play eight out of nine, we're happy," it won't work because they will play seven. You will see what's going to happen next year, given the calendar. They will register everywhere and at the last minute they will pull out, because they will have one week less between now and Roland Garros. So they will calculate even more precisely their schedule. So we have to come back to something more reasonable, better organized, which is more suited to the interest of the players.

FRANCIS TRUCHI: We have our agent, IMG France. They told us to respect the contract. I suppose they are trying to be logical. As far as we are concerned, the contract has been respected and we'll know more about it later.

FRANCIS TRUCHI: No. Sometimes we hear it's difficult. One of your colleagues last night was saying to me, "We might have a contract, I don't know where."

FRANCIS TRUCHI: Well, people want to wait in 2003 to see what partners will be involved. There's a subsidiary of Benetton, who signed up for three years. They made an offer. We didn't accept it. We are in the process of doing something with SBN and ourselves.

FRANCIS TRUCHI: We are more modest than that. We would like to have a building with 1,000 square meters - 400 square meters underground, 200 square meters first floor, and a terrace with 200 square meters. But for the time being, we have no news. We have the permit to build, but we have no other news. It's on standby. The locker rooms, we had less doubles teams, so it was more comfortable. But the locker rooms are a bit old, too small. So for us, it's a priority. Of course to answer you, there are projects between the French state and the Principality to use St. Roman and to have more space behind the Court des Princes, and under a tunnel there would be other courts. But this is long-term, 20 years. But we're talking. Things can become faster maybe. But the main thing we would like to have is that new building.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: I don't have the figure in my mind, but six years ago, we asked ourselves questions about the development. We thought we would never be able to develop the tournament. In five or six years, we improved a lot the attendance. Maybe because there were rumors, we had a new court, the Court des Princes. Every year, we increased the size of the stands. It works. So we have to develop, but we have to do it according to our financial possibilities. Maybe the state, as it has done for other events in Monaco, would have to help us. For the time being, the only way of extending the club is going towards France. It's a bit difficult. It's difficult to have wider staircases, but we improved by 25,000 spectators in the space of five years. It's a very good result. With all those operations, the tournament is surviving. We are offering a product called "Monte-Carlo," which is unique, and which will bring resources. We are the only ones able to offer those characteristics. Financial security depends on our development while we are waiting for more sponsors. Today we were broadcast live for a whole match. That's important because this television didn't come for four years, since Pioline. Last year it was raining. So today, they are coming back. So if there's more television coverage, we're going to be -- today we were broadcast in 65 countries. If we can improve on that, we could have more sponsors and more marketing rights, and this will give us money to invest more.

FRANCIS TRUCHI: I think it's the first time we are broadcast in China. Thanks to our manager, Mr. Mathieu, from the club, we developed packages and we doubled figures of last year. Mr. Mathieu can stand up. He's talented, he's young. He has good ideas adapted to the situation. So what we are doing is being close to the companies. I would like to underline the very strong partnership we have with Nice Matin. Our partnership is continuing year after year, and for the Mediterranean area where we are it is very important. Now, we are turning to the League of Provence, they are our clients. People come from Genoa, from Italy, from Marseille in two hours or less than two hours. So this is the type of clients we want to attract to discover the best European tournament. We are doing our best to welcome them. So we are saying, "We are going to increase our size," but I believe the young generation is coming up, is fighting. Sometimes their name is not well-known yet, but their personality is getting better known tournament after tournament. Anyway, as we say in sport, "They make their shirt wet," meaning they make many efforts.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: We like women. We're not against it. We need good dates, good conditions, two or three, four days more. We said we were ready. This means the calendar has to be reorganized. Why not? But we said for men we already want extra days. The Masters Series all want to have nine days because during the first days, the players could play every other day instead of playing every day, like the Grand Slams. Here, we play at 10 o'clock in the morning. Since we have been starting at 10 o'clock, we had no injuries - let's touch wood or cross our fingers. Starting at 10 o'clock, the players have to wake up very early, at 6:30 or 7. But if we play late here, it's becoming more humid, the balls are heavier, and the matches are more difficult to finish. Very often, the players are very tired at the end of the week. Now starting at 10 o'clock with only four matches, we finish a lot earlier. This is also one of our concerns, is to preserve the health of our players. The raw material is the players. It's our first concern. For the show, it's great. People arrive at 10 o'clock in the morning, and they leave at 5. If they were able to watch, with a 15 Euros ticket, six or seven hours of tennis, it's enough. This was our state of mind, because this made everybody happy. Like yesterday, we had three quarterfinals here and one quarterfinal on the other court. We didn't want the players to get tired, so this is the reason why we scheduled at 2:30 a match on the other court. Of course the players prefer to play on center court rather than on the Court des Princes. But when we ask them, "Do you prefer to play at 10 o'clock, or do you prefer to play at 2:30," well, they prefer to start at 11:30 on center court and 2:30 on the other court. So our concern is to have the players being as healthy as possible.

PATRICE DOMINGUEZ: No. It's the problem of Davis Cup. He was here last year. No, he got injured when he played against Enqvist the first day. One Swedish person told me the first day he was injured, he's not going to take any risks. It's Federer we regretted. We could understand him - he played 28 matches since the beginning of the year. It's enormous. So at one stage he has to rest.