PILOT PEN TENNIS

August 25, 2001

Butch Buchholz

Mike Davies

Ron Shaw

Anne Worcester

RON SHAW: Folks, if I can get this underway, I would just tell you that, as you know, we have long known where we, the sponsor, belong. This is their tournament. We put up the money so that our name can be on the marquee, but I can only tell you that as a title sponsor, we could not be happier with the way this week has gone. It is really the dreams come true. There were those as recent as three years ago from all walks of life that were trying to convince some of us that there was really no place for professional tennis in Connecticut and that we had just made a big mistake by getting involved here. In some very private meetings with Mike and Butch and Anne, we said, "Do you believe any of that?" And they said no. As long as I've known Butch, he's absolutely the perennial optimist and truly the definition of entrepreneur. That just means if you have a little setback, you just stand up and you dust yourself off, and you go out and do it again. Butch said, "Do you want to hang in with us? We're gonna hang in." I said, "Absolutely." So now, only a few years later, to see those dreams materialize, it's just wonderful. I can't say thank you enough to all of you. You helped to create the image - especially here in this state, to get the people to come out here and understand that this is a marvelous, marvelous entertainment opportunity. And as Butch always says, "This is show business, and my performers just happen to be tennis players." It's a marvelous way to look at it, and that's the way it's been done. We are thrilled. You can understand why we talked about tearing up this agreement, the sponsorship that we had through 2003, and now putting a new one together that will carry us right through 2008, if we all don't retire before then. But we have an agreement that says it will go on anyway, even if we do. My thanks to all of you for what you have done for us. You've been terrific and I mean that.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Ron and I are just now going to have our first disagreement. (Laughter.) The tournament is not about us; it is about Pilot Pen and the support that we've had from, one, a very special person who cares about his community very, very much, and that was, I think, part of the motivation; and, two, he does care about the tournament. But, you know, we couldn't do this without Ron, Pilot Pen, but also the special relationship that the tournament has ith its sponsor. And that is a very critical piece in making it work. There's a lot of discussions, and a lot of thought goes in, you know, all year long. If you've got a sponsor that is unsupportive or just worried about what he's going to get out of it, you're going to end up having conflicts. So from our point of view, we have somebody that's very special here, and we're obviously very proud that he trusts us enough to go on for another eight years - through 2008. I think it has worked. It is going to work. Anne and Mike are two of the best professionals in this business, and we're very fortunate to have them. We were looking at the Titanic at one time, and that boat has turned around. Our investors meeting this past Friday was a pleasant, pleasant morning. (Smiling.) So, again, I echo what Ron said. You all have been very supportive and very helpful. It is appreciated, because you communicate the message out there.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think Ron and I had some discussions back in spring in Florida. Then Mike and Ron have been talking about it for a while. So it was not something that happened this week. It was prior to that.

RON SHAW: But I would tell you that the major impetus was we stood out there the other night for one of the on-court ceremonies, I think it was the night we gave Yale birthday cake and looked around at the crowd that we had even then. That was a new attendance record for that particular night of the week. You just start to feel it. It felt good. It's the right time, it's the right thing to do, to continue to give the confidence to the local people so that maybe when this doubles match is finished you make a bee-line out to that renewal tent and sign up again for next year. hat's what it's all about. I think it was right for all of us to do it.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Well, obviously the product. You've got seven of the top nine players in the world here, and I think women's tennis is really a good product. I mean, when you go and buy a ticket today to a women's tennis tournament, the game has never had more value. e were used to Chrissy and Martina and Steffi and Monica, and it never really got much past four players. Now, you look at the top 16 players, are all pretty recognizable names, they're kids, all pretty young. They've all got some personality. I think it's just a time that women's tennis, the product is good. The tennis that you see is really good tennis. I mean, last night, I mean, I just sat there in awe and watched Capriati and Venus just slug it out. I mean, they were just slugging it out. It was good. Kids were a little nervous this morning, or this afternoon, they started. But once they got into it, the ball's going - going, you know, fast. And they're good athletes. They're really good athletes.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: It turned out as a blessing with what happened with Clijsters, yes. Anne's very good at that. (Laughter.)

ANNE WORCESTER: I get the rainout question. Thanks, Butch.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I don't deal with rainouts.

ANNE WORCESTER: We would have been in a position , a very difficult position, with our ticket holders on Friday because although we would have provided a doubles match, they all came for a singles semi, as well as a doubles semi. When you have rain that late in the week, you have very little flexibility - you know, it's a nice problem to have - but you have very little flexibility to exchange tickets. So the Thursday night rainout gave us the flexibility to offer fans Friday day and Friday night; whereas, a Friday day withdrawal would have left us very little flexibility for Friday night and Saturday. So we never want to have rain, but yes, I used the same exact words, that it was a "blessing in disguise." Because it was a great quarterfinal singles match. I mean, nobody could say they didn't get their money's worth that day.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Well, I think she probably has some confidence. Obviously, she plays well here. The atmosphere, the transition from maybe going from a smaller tournament to the US Open, versus the facility that we have here - I'm talking about the physical facility - and making that transition to Flushing isn't as dramatic or drastic. So I think she looks at that and thinks that that's going to help her next week. Obviously, she's won the tournament a couple of times, so that always helps. Because she's going to look at the preparation here as a plus. So, again, we hope she does well next week. But I think she enjoys coming here. Her dad enjoyed coming the last -- he didn't come this year, but he's always had a good time coming here. I think Anne and Mike really do a great job in communicating to the players how much we appreciate them being here. That's an attitude, and I think we have the right attitude.

ANNE WORCESTER: Well, as you know, we don't even have a letdown here because we go straight to the US Open and continue to talk about the Pilot Pen, but Pilot Pen 2002. It really helped us that all of the players had a very positive experience here. All they're talking about is which restaurant they went to, which restaurants they want to go to the next time they come to New Haven. I think the "Mayor's Passport to Downtown Dining" was a huge hit - much bigger than I ever anticipated. Capriati said last night, you know, "Of course I'm sorry I lost, but it was great preparation for the US Open." That is our advertising campaign with the tennis players. The larger the crowds, the closer the feeling to Flushing Meadow, and that can only help with the players. So we go right into the US Open. We've got tournament meetings and politics of tennis, and the players want to raise prize money and all those machinations. But the number one priority will be player recruiting. And we entertained hundreds of perspective sponsors here this week who all went away saying, "We definitely want to be a part of the 2002 Pilot Pen." Our renewals have been very, very positive, very busy with our week-long box holders. Like I said out in the court, people have been just walking up to us all week long, complete strangers, to say thank you for bringing world class women's tennis to Connecticut. "Thank you for everything you've done to put on this show." I'd like to think those people will be back. In the meantime, they'll be telling all their friends about the experience. Not just the on-court world class tennis, but all the off-court entertainment we added this year. The jazz festival was a tremendous success. We had a lot of very positive feedback. Our vision three years ago was to continue to have women's tennis as the main attraction but to add as many other attractions as we could manage to attract new fans to women's tennis. When you have 15,000 seats, you can't just sit back and wait for tennis fans to buy tickets. So when we see 8,000 people here an hour and a half early listening to Darik and the Funbags on Michelob Light Night and having dinner and juts having a great time, that's what this is all about. Then they got treated to Jennifer Capriati versus Venus Williams. I've never personally experienced that electricity in that stadium last night, and it was really, really exciting.

ANNE WORCESTER: You know, I've thought about that, because throughout the last ten years when you've had Mary Joe Fernandez and Gabriela Sabatini and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, three of the biggest ticket sellers in tennis, there's been much more of a Latino following. It really has a lot to do with the stars at the top. Now, that doesn't mean we can't do a better job of marketing in that niche, but it's driven by the top players. Ten years ago, it was a huge part of every tournament's marketing campaign, and it changes because of the stars of women's tennis.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Also the computer basically selects the entries. You could do something with wildcards, but I mean, we had to save a wildcard for Lindsay. So it's pretty much --.

ANNE WORCESTER: Well, there were a lot of Hispanic players here this week, they just weren't the big names. Montalvo and Virginia Ruano Pascual and Suarez, those are top singles players, but we're not getting ticket phone calls asking when they're playing as much as Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport. I actually heard more Spanish spoken in our player's lounge this year than last year.

ANNE WORCESTER: Magui Serna was here. We had a bunch of Spaniards in the qualifying. It's just all driven by the top players. That's just how it goes.

ANNE WORCESTER: Monica Seles called the other day to say how sorry she was that she wasn't going to come, to be able to play. She played unexpectedly much more than she ever planned the last four weeks after a five-month layoff. She had just received the clips from that day, when she was on the front page of the New Haven Register, and got great coverage in all the press, especially television stations covering their colleagues. And she said, "Can we do it again next year?" (Laughing.)

ANNE WORCESTER: Yeah, so... I said, "Monica," because she really wants to come back and play the 2002 Pilot Pen. So Monica's agreeing with you.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think what you're going to see, the success we've had this year creates new challenges for us. We're looking at the food court and we see the lines; we know that's an issue. We know parking is now an issue. We didn't have those problems a few years ago. So those are good problems. But our job is to constantly keep looking for ways to make the entertainment experience a better experience - that means the food issue, that means the retail areas, how we deal with our sponsors, how we deal with our box holders and ticket holders. That is a constant thing that we need to deal with. And we're going to have obviously more discussions about that because of what happened this year. Everyone will tolerate it for - whatever inconveniences there were - for a year. But next year they're going to expect us to fix this. That's sort of the fun thing about this business. We just need to forecast and design a food court that is going to accommodate the crowds that we have. I think everyone's enjoyed the food, and it hasn't been a problem other than you have to wait to get it. And the parking was an issue. So those are things that we learned, and we'll do a better job next year.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Right.

MIKE DAVIES: Keeps the overhead down. (Laughter.)

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: We started setting the foundation a few years ago. I think what we've done, we've done a really good job of penetrating the state. We kept saying, "Look, this is a statewide event," and there are a lot of tennis clubs out there, a lot of tennis clubs. Anne and Mike and the group have done a great job of banging on doors and putting packages together and getting the word out. When we came here, we used to say the line stops at Westport, and anybody south of Westport, no one's going to come here. That's all New York. Well, I think we've infiltrated that. We've gotten past that. We have people from Stanford.

ANNE WORCESTER: Twenty-five percent of our ticket sales come from Fairfield County.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think it's several things. One, there's confidence now that we're not going to disappear. What Ron did today and last night really assures that; that we can go and we can build. So our customers are going to trust that we're going to keep putting out a good product. That's our job. We can't let them down. But I think the word's out that this is a good experience. It's a fun experience. We're going to try to treat people well. We're going to try to feed them well and have a good experience. And that's our job.

RON SHAW: Absolutely. I had predicted that was going to happen this year; I really did. I think maybe if it weren't for the rainout Thursday, it would have. I really do. Whether or not we will ever fill this place with all 15,000 seats, we may be a few years away from that. But it's contagious. This bit of success is very contagious. People have been responding beautifully to it. We had some people that didn't come back a couple of years ago. All of a sudden, what you guys have helped us with in creating an image is going to get those people to come back. They're going to go, "Maybe I really ought to get a box again." So, yeah, I think we can do those kind of numbers.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: It's his vacation time. Give me a break. (Laughter.)

RON SHAW: I think, Dave, you know that my older son is a journalist, who talked me out of -- I had my line for today. I did have my line to go out there in front of all the people and just ask, "Is anybody here from Hartford?" Of course everybody would have answered. "By the way, if you know any guy up there by the name of Rowland, would you let him know that we play tennis here." And Steve talked me out of that. So I didn't do it. But I don't understand it. I really don't understand it. When Butch first came to town, we went up there, and the governor was -- we were told by his two secretaries that we had ten minutes, because he really squeezed us in that day. He had a lot of people waiting to see him, and they were there already. So we knew that we had ten minutes to sit with the governor. We came out one hour and five minutes later. We offered a few times to leave. He wanted to go on. He was just as gracious, he was as pleasant, he sounded like he just wanted to be as helpful as he could. I don't know what it's going to take for him to come down here. I really don't know. I am really mystified by it - not angered. But I just don't understand it. We'll keep trying. Is it what happened up at the Meadows that time when he accepted a couple of free tickets and everybody jumped all over him? I don't know. He can come as -- we offered to --.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: He could buy a ticket.

RON SHAW: I personally asked him to come out and stand on the court with us, be in the line of dignitaries. Let him come and speak. He can certainly do that. And yet he just has not come. So I thought your column on that subject was absolutely right on; it was perfect. And yet that didn't seem to change things. So I don't know what to do next.

ANNE WORCESTER: I was hoping Ron's answer would be enough for you, Dave. (Laughter.) You know what, I guess we would love for him to come, but for me it's just not that big of an issue. We had 92,600-and-some-odd fans this week who had a wonderful experience here, and it's his loss.

MIKE DAVIES: You don't want to give another comp ticket away.

ANNE WORCESTER: Yeah, right. No more comp tickets. We'll keep inviting him. We invite him every year. We'll keep working with the state on a "You Belong in Connecticut" campaign, because there is no better vehicle for that campaign which tries to attract professionals to Connecticut to live in this state, and it also tries to keep professionals that are here to live in Connecticut. There's no better example of making Connecticut a more interesting place to live than seven of the top nine players in the world coming and competing at the Connecticut Tennis Center the week of the Pilot Pen. But I can't say that I stopped this week to worry about that. You guys kept me way too busy.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Well, I think we had a little luck this year. To do this every year, I think we probably can't do that. But, again, I think it's the presentation and how we treat people, how we treat our sponsors, how we treat the players. If we keep doing what we're doing, I think we're always going to put a very quality product out there. I really believe that. The other thing I want to tell you, I see a big difference in New Haven.

ANNE WORCESTER: Yeah.

BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: There's a different attitude in New Haven right now than what there was three or four years ago. I just feel it. Talking to people going to restaurants and the hotel, there's a different feeling there, which kind of reminds me a little bit of Miami, when we took the tournament down there. I mean, everyone used to think if you got south of Fort Lauderdale you needed a machine gun. Miami's a great, hot city right now. I'm not saying the tennis tournaments do it, but I think the tennis tournaments do contribute to quality of life, and I think people are proud of what has happened here - and they should be.

ANNE WORCESTER: Many of the players remarked this week unsolicited that they've seen New Haven improve, the downtown, year by year, but especially this year. They liked to go to the stores like Urban Outfitters and Origins. They were excited to know that a J.Crew will be here when they come back next year. They had no idea that we had such world class dining in downtown New Haven, which is the whole point of why we created that program. But even where the Omni is, there's all kinds of trendy restaurants and bars that are going to be opened up right there, the new Temple Garden, the whole kind of feel of downtown New Haven is definitely enhanced, and the players have mentioned it unsolicited. So I think that's pretty important.