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PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 19, 2006

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Charlie and Raymond, for coming up for breakfast. Wide open. Go ahead and ask. We'll have a transcript afterwards.
Q. Is it easier to run this year with the financing?
CHARLIE PASARELL: Absolutely (smiling).
Q. You can sleep at night.
CHARLIE PASARELL: You can sleep at night.
Q. Was it worth the struggle? Do you like having new partners?
CHARLIE PASARELL: Raymond has stated many times, I think it's not just having new partners, we have put together what we believe is one of the strongest strategic partnerships, when you take the three legends, Billie Jean, Chrissy, Pete, people from Tennis Magazine, the USTA, a number of other influential, smart businessmen from the local community who are very much involved in this event, really feel a sense of ownership.
I think our best days for this tennis tournament are really ahead of us. We're really excited about it.
RAYMOND MOORE: Absolutely. Just walking around the site on the new days with Billie Jean and then with Pete. It's been a long time since Pete walked the site of a tennis tournament or gone out to watch a match. He and I went out to watch Berdych playing Henman. Pete sat there with Paul Annacone. It was terrific to have him involved.
Chrissy yesterday, Chrissy has been here for four days. She's been here today as well. Just having those people involved has really been a shot in the arm.
I'll say it another time. If you go and you say, who are John, Paul, George and Ringo, everyone knows. Who are Tiger, Arnie and Jack? You know who they're talking about. In our sport, if you say Pete, Billie Jean and Chrissy, you know who we're talking about. No need to say more. Legends, great people, and enthusiastic about the sport, passionate.
Q. Does it open it up more for other legends that might want to take a sharehold in the event or is it now pretty much a closed shop?
RAYMOND MOORE: It's not a closed shop at all. Maybe they've set an example. We did a promo spot, a video we're producing with Billie Jean. Billie Jean suggested in the only manner that Billie Jean can, she said there should be a tithing policy in tennis, everyone should give up 10% of their prize money and invest back into the game.
Q. That will happen.
RAYMOND MOORE: Thank you, Bill (laughter).
Again, just to show you where Billie Jean's heart is. So I think, to answer your question, I think they've set an example. Down the road you will see some players begin to take an equity position in other tennis tournaments once their career is over.
CHARLIE PASARELL: By the way, I wanted to add, while he's not mentioned, also Paul Annacone is an investor in this deal as well. Paul, having his expertise, he's been around, and he's really involved. All of them are.
Q. Is there a sense after so many of these where we've hmmed and looked negatively on things going on in the sport, is there a real sense with the new man in charge of the ATP, new things happening in the WTA, there is a sense of camaraderie, all for one, one for all, that perhaps we haven't had in the last few years in the sport?
RAYMOND MOORE: I certainly get that feeling. I hope it's reality. Certainly I know here to have partners that are truly engaged, the Tennis Magazine guys have been here every single day, Billie Jean and Pete and Chrissy have been here several days, just the buzz that I've got walking around the site. It's seen in our attendance. Everything has spiked.
Hopefully this can translate into better TV ratings and more coverage from the media of the sport and the personalities. I think that's what we need to do in the game.
Q. What's the minimum investment?
RAYMOND MOORE: The minimum investment in this tournament? Bud, we can't disclose that.
Q. I don't mean who did it. I mean, what is the minimum to get in on it?
RAYMOND MOORE: It's not something we can go public with. It's still a private matter. I will tell you it's substantial, I mean, huge checks that those three people wrote. It's not a condescending, "All right, you can use my name, here's a token check." It's a lot of money by any yardstick you want to use.
Q. You did have an agreement with IMG, you were 50/50, were in a stalemate to move forward or backwards.
RAYMOND MOORE: Right.
Q. Do you have any option agreement with the USTA, any of these investors, or did you keep your full 50%?
RAYMOND MOORE: We've retained our full 50%, but the voting structure is different. There's no veto right any more. Previously, two partners, IMG and ourselves, it was a 50/50 arrangement. I think when things are going well, that's a great arrangement. When things are going badly and one partner is vetoing everything the other partner wants to do, then maybe it's not such a great arrangement.
The way we have now, even though Charlie and I have 50% of the shares, we only have three out of the nine votes on the board. We're happy with that because the people that are in there, Tennis Magazine, these other people, we all have one goal in mind, and that's just to promote the sport and to make this tournament the biggest one possible.
Q. You have three of the nine votes. Who are the other seven?
RAYMOND MOORE: The other one is Mr. Steve Simon for us. You know, the way the financial structure of this new partnership is, we have A units, B units and C units in terms of shares. The B units are B unit investors and that's pegged according to money involved. They've got three votes. We've got three votes. The USTA have one. One major investor has one. There is another investor that represents about five or six investors, he has one.
Q. What are your visions for this tournament over the next three to five years now that you have the backing?
CHARLIE PASARELL: Well, just, as Raymond said, to make it the biggest event we can possibly make. We believe very strongly in the concept of combined events, men and women playing at the same time, big draws, 96 draws. We'll even take 128 if that was what the tours would want us to do, just to try to build really -- pretty much follow what the Grand Slams have done.
We've made the investment, the initial investment. You're looking at the bricks and mortar that cost an awful lot of money. We're prepared to raise prize money. We're prepared to do all the things that are necessary to really put us maybe right below the Grand Slams. In fact, I think we have already achieved that. I think both the Key Biscayne and our event have achieved that.
Just keep pedaling the bicycle, making it as good as we can possibly make it.
Q. Other than prize money and the draws, is there anything you have in mind for fans, stuff to do?
CHARLIE PASARELL: We most definitely want to try to give the fans a better experience, you know, improve. I think we've done that. I've always said this is really more of a festival, and tennis is obviously the main attraction, but there's a lot more to do than just come and watch tennis matches. There's some shopping to be done, there's some great -- I think our food experience is quite good. People can come at night, have fun here.
We try to also bring back some of the history of the game. Bud here has helped us do that an awful lot with the activities that we conduct in the village. We bring some of the old legends. I understand the other day you had Schroeder and Jack Kramer up there.
Q. Like the Sunshine Boys. They insulted each other. It was a great thing.
CHARLIE PASARELL: Bud, on that, I think we should really be taping all this stuff. You're really getting a great sense of history. I want the people to come over here and know about our sport, watch the best players in the world today, but also learn about the past and have a good time.
We have all the vendors out there that are promoting their goods and wares. It's really a festival.
I also want to say that our attitude here is to really -- it's pretty simple. We want everybody that attends this tennis tournament to leave here saying, Indian Wells, the nicest tournament in the world. That's what we want them to say.
I think you need two things for that. I think you need facilities that allow you to do that, parking, practice courts. When I mean everybody, I mean players, sponsors, media, fans, even the players' guests, guests of guests, everybody that comes over here, to leave with that kind of attitude. You need the facilities to do that. Good parking, good seats, place to move around, enough bathrooms, all of those things.
For the players you need practice courts, a good setting when they play their matches, good restaurants, a good locker room, on and on. For the media, obviously good media facilities, all of that.
I think we've been a pretty good job on that.
Then the second thing, probably the most important thing, and we do this quite -- we take this quite seriously, we work at it all year round, is to get our staff and our wonderful volunteers, we have about 900 volunteers, plus all the ball kids that work with us practically all year round. We have a core of volunteers 12 months a year in our offices. They have an office there. They really work hard on this event. That is to develop a very positive attitude, really try to always answer questions with smile, welcome people, try to get everybody sort of leaving here feeling good. In a way, try to never say no, say, "Let's see what we can do," when a tough question is asked. That is what we try to do here and put on a good show.
Q. The City of Indian Wells under your new agreement, they extended the curfew here to 11:00. You put on a very successful Eagles show here. What other upcoming events are you planning? Would you plan on putting on boxing since the City has decided you can stay open till 11:00 at night?
RAYMOND MOORE: We have a whole menu of events that we will unveil shortly. The entertainment world being what it is, we cannot make an announcement until a contract is signed. But we're in negotiations with some major stars to change this facility to one that's a multi-purpose facility, not just tennis for two weeks of the year.
Those items are in the process of being finalized. As soon as we're ready, we'll make those announcements.
Q. In the WTA constitution, it's written certain guarantees that the WTA makes to a women's event as prestigious as yours. You are to get so many of the top three, so many of the top five, top 20. I don't have a copy of the constitution, but with the field you had, I can't believe that the WTA fulfilled their obligations to you. I'm wondering if they've made any compensation to you?
CHARLIE PASARELL: By the rules, they do.
Q. They have compensated you?
CHARLIE PASARELL: Yeah. In a way, we got unlucky with Clijsters getting hurt, Mary Pierce getting hurt. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that the WTA is an organization that's happy with the field they delivered here. Certainly we would like to get a better field.
But, you know, these things happen. We certainly are working very close with them in trying to make sure that it doesn't happen any more.
Q. Apparently the WTA has made next week's event a hard sort of event in which their players are --
CHARLIE PASARELL: -- mandatory.
Q. Why can't they do that for you next year?
CHARLIE PASARELL: We are the next in line to do that. It really involves the level of prize money, it involves a number of other things that we are in discussions with the WTA to see how we can do that.
They have the desire to do that. We have the same desire to do that. It's just a question of trying to put all the pieces together.
Q. Did you say they did fulfill their field or they did compensate you?
CHARLIE PASARELL: They did not. We got unlucky. They will compensate us.
RAYMOND MOORE: They're supposed to deliver six out of the top 10. They delivered four. There's a mechanism whereby they kickback some money to us when they don't deliver, and that's been done.
Q. They seem to make a habit of this, if I may say so. They acted similarly at La Costa and didn't compensate them.
RAYMOND MOORE: It's in the constitution. I think they have to. I don't know what the rules are when they're applicable to La Costa. I know what they are pertaining to us.
But, you know, what you bring into focus is the bigger issue. I think the WTA are aware that changes need to be made and attitudes need to be changed within the WTA to embrace the bigger tournaments.
I think Larry Scott is acutely aware of that and is doing his best to change that. The one way he's already changed it is he's made Miami a mandatory event. As Charlie said, we think we're next in line to be a mandatory event for all the players.
Q. How would you feel if they made Miami a mandatory event again next year?
RAYMOND MOORE: I think it's mandatory now.
CHARLIE PASARELL: Forever. I mean, forever, as long as the conditions are there.
RAYMOND MOORE: We're happy they did that.
Q. It seems to have deleted your field.
RAYMOND MOORE: No, not necessarily.
CHARLIE PASARELL: No. Why do you say that?
Q. Because I think there's a number of players who don't want to play in one part of the country one week and another part of the country the next.
CHARLIE PASARELL: But you got it wrong. Remember, the girls played yesterday, and they probably won't have to play Miami until Saturday. There is a week in between.
Q. Mauresmo, is she injured?
CHARLIE PASARELL: No, she was not one of the designated players.
I think what Raymond mentioned about attitude, look, it happens in the men's. Women are no different than the men. We got all the best men players here, and Miami will, too. As Raymond said, Larry is aware of that and they're trying to move along the same lines of what the ATP has already done.
That's the beauty of the format that we have. Even though Miami and Indian Wells are back-to-back, there's almost a week's period of time for the people that are in the semifinals and finals before they have to play over there. They have lots of time to travel, rest, practice, get used to the conditions in Miami, do all the things that are necessary to get ready. Really, they have a week in between, if you think about it.
Q. So how do you explain then getting only four of the top 10? You just got unlucky?
CHARLIE PASARELL: As I said, we had a couple of injuries. Not for a moment do I believe Kim Clijsters wanted to miss this tennis tournament. Obviously, she's injured. That's a very complicated question. It has nothing to do with Miami. I think it really has to do with how the WTA Tour is organized, what are the rules, obligations of the players. The ATP addressed that some years ago. You see it working most of the time. There are some events at the end of the year that are having some problems with the ATP.
You know, it's always a work in progress. If we always had the perfect solution, I guess there wouldn't even be a need to have ATPs and WTAs. I think they're moving in the right direction.
Q. You say misfortune. Thinking of the shell-shocked faces in Shanghai in November, then Richard Krajicek trying to put a major event in Rotterdam, has half of his field taken away from him through no fault of his own, there has to come a time surely when the sport comes to grips with the calendar, scheduling, so many things that are so vital to it where we don't get the situation where you have four of the top 10 women, where you have all the top 10 on both sides, and the event is, therefore, what it should be, one of the biggest events in the world.
CHARLIE PASARELL: Absolutely, you're right.
RAYMOND MOORE: Absolutely. We certainly are working towards that. I think the ATP has achieved that. The WTA are lagging behind. I think certainly Larry Scott is aware of it. It's almost like an education process, where he has to educate the top players in the WTA, that for their own benefit they should embrace the bigger events and play them and not be going off globetrotting and picking up guarantees elsewhere that threaten the major events.
We are the second largest prize money event on the women's tour. Personally, I was very disappointed in the field that the WTA delivered. Not disappointed in the four ladies we had in the semifinals. Very, very happy about that. We had four great players in the semifinals. But they carried the event. That was great. We were lucky. Anything can happen.
CHARLIE PASARELL: Plus Lindsay.
RAYMOND MOORE: Plus Lindsay, yeah. Lindsay and Martina ended up in the same section. Only one of them would have got through.
CHARLIE PASARELL: I just didn't want you to make the statement that Lindsay didn't matter (laughter).
RAYMOND MOORE: Of course not.
Again, the WTA have to focus. I agree with you. I think the whole thing is a larger issue for the politicians in that they've got to get the calendar right, what you were referring to towards the end of the year, and Charlie also referred to. Even in the men's tournaments in Madrid, Paris, they had a diminished field, Shanghai, players were injured. These are issues that hopefully the ATP and the WTA are going to address successfully.
CHARLIE PASARELL: You know damn well that we're really working hard on trying to figure out what is the "magical formula," shorter season, what do we do with events at the end of the year. A good thing, I will tell you this, the real positive, positive thing about it is that the ATP and the WTA are working together on this. It's not ATP is doing this and WTA is doing that. They are now working close together.
It's going to take a little bit of time to sort it all out. It's easier said than done. It's a very complicated issue that deal with calendars, numbers of tournaments, shortening the season, who plays where, what plays what. They're working together on this and trying to find a better system.
Q. Are you still satisfied with the format in which you award 32 seeds and 32 byes in a 96-field women's event, thus one of every three players in the tournament has a bye and is not seen till the event is a couple days along?
CHARLIE PASARELL: Yeah.
Q. You like that?
CHARLIE PASARELL: Yeah. I do, because I think it allows -- as I said before, we'd like you to have 128 players, we would take that, too. But I think it's actually quite good because in theory the top 32 players which in theory are the guys that are playing the most matches, you know, have a bye. At the same time you're creating a lot of opportunities for the guys that are lesser ranked that probably don't play as many matches as the top players, and you give them an opportunity to compete in the event and break through.
RAYMOND MOORE: I think it's a good system.
CHARLIE PASARELL: Very good system.
Q. How crucial to you was it and how surprising to you was it that the USTA stepped up and got involved in your financial situation?
RAYMOND MOORE: We weren't surprised because the USTA, Franklin Johnson, talked about supporting this event a year ago here at the tournament. He went public, in fact, in a newspaper called the LA Times. We weren't surprised that they wanted to support us.
But the USTA, this was sort of a new step for them in becoming involved in the tournament in a minority position. That has difficulties that they had to overcome. But they did. We're very happy that they're part of our group. We're, in fact, excited about it. We're going to have our first board meeting with the USTA the day after the Davis Cup, which happens to be here in the valley. We're looking forward to it.
Q. I ask the question in the frame of reference, we all know the slams have all the money and they're not particularly generous with it.
CHARLIE PASARELL: I don't think -- well, I think the USTA and the US Open have actually, if there's one Slam that has turned around and said, "We've got to help the rest of the game," I think it's the USTA. Their involvement here is a perfect example. Was it two years ago now, we're going into our third year of the US Open Series or second year?
Q. Third year.
CHARLIE PASARELL: Two years ago they decided to really help all the events in the summertime to help leverage television to cover some events, like the Countrywide in Los Angeles, UCLA, now has ESPN coverage. For many years they didn't have any kind of coverage.
Q. Never sure about that. That does help, but it helps the US Open. This is a little different.
CHARLIE PASARELL: There is no better deal in the world that works for both sides. When you have a win-win situation. I don't think they did it necessarily out of a form of charity, but they realized that investing in these events in the summer was in the best interest of the US Open, and therefore in the best interest of tennis in America. That attitude started changing in the USTA a number of years ago, six years ago. Now they are really doing it.
As many of you know, both the ATP and the WTA are encouraging other Slams to help the events that precede the French Open, to help the events that precede Roland Garros. Australia, while I don't think they have the same coffers that the other three Slams have, are trying to help out as well, their attitude.
I applaud the USTA and the US Open for being the first ones to step up and help out. We need to help each other always.
RAYMOND MOORE: Let me add to that. When we went to the USTA, we weren't looking to tap into their largesse. What we wanted them to do was embrace the concept that they've got a big event on the East Coast in September, and six months away we have another very big event on the West Coast. That's the concept that we sold to the USTA, is to become involved in this event so that this event can maybe one day be referred to as the Grand Slam of the west, truthfully. They bought into that concept. That's what we've done.
It's very early days yet. We're hoping over the next year to combine with the USTA and do joint promotions for both our event and theirs, talking about joint marketing of the US Open, the Pacific Life Open, et cetera. That's really what we've done. We did not go to them cap in hand and say, "Please give us money."
Q. You talk about being fan-friendly. Yesterday you had a situation where you had your men's semifinal end early, then empty everyone out for two hours before you play the women's championship. How frustrating was that? I know TV dictates everything. Big buzz going. Fortunately people seemed to come back. Two hours so ESPN can show a first round NCAA women's tournament is weird.
CHARLIE PASARELL: You answered the question. Television dictated that. You program this way in advance. We didn't anticipate -- the men's semifinal could have gone on for two and a half, three hours, and it would have been perfect, the timing. You have to do these kinds of things.
Again, I know that they had to wait a while. The fans had to wait probably longer than we wanted them to wait for the next match. But they went out, got lunch, walked around. I walked around the tennis garden to see what people were doing. It was great to see.
Again, it's a festival. They were waiting for the next act, so to speak. Certainly I think they got a pretty good one. The weather didn't cooperate with us too well. I thought it was very tough conditions for the women's final. Then the wind died down. I don't see a better match than what you saw, first with the girls. They really were challenged by the conditions. Then when the weather subsided, I think Blake and Nadal put on a show.
RAYMOND MOORE: I think that in the future there are things we have to learn. I think what I learned yesterday is that we could have had a real opportunity to showcase the men's doubles final. Everybody wants to promote doubles. Charlie is on the board. I hope we would have been able maybe in the future, if that happens -- firstly, the women's match was dictated by television, couldn't start before 2:30. They didn't want to spill over into the men's match in their time slot. That's why you have to start the first men's at 11:30. It was a quick match. Srichaphan, I thought they were going to be long rallies, it was going to be a better match, but it wasn't. It was completed in an hour and five minutes, so we had two hours to kill.
In the future, and I'm only saying maybe, if the men's doubles final is on-call or ready to go.
CHARLIE PASARELL: Standby.
RAYMOND MOORE: I think it would have been ideal to put the men's doubles final there. They would have had 16,000 people to watch. We want to promote men's doubles. Again, we just didn't have that foresight. I think it's something we will think of down the road if that happens again. It would have been great to have that.
The reason I think the people all came back is we had two great matches. We have Dementieva and Sharapova in the final, which really had some pizzaz, then you have Blake playing Nadal. Even for the Nadal match, I thought people might leave, it's getting a little cold. When Blake won the first set, nobody left. It was a great match. We ended up with a good program - not perfect, but a good program.
Q. Were you surprised at the exodus of fans after the second semifinal before the doubles?
RAYMOND MOORE: You know what, actually the Bryan brothers and Knowles and Nestor commented in their acceptance speech, they were happy. A lot of people did stay, a lot of people, more than normal. I think it's a testament to both teams that they have a following. They both actually thanked the fans for staying.
CHARLIE PASARELL: We have to deal with so many scheduling issues, television, women, TV, men, who played last. This happens every day. I stopped going to scheduling meetings 15 years ago because, trust me...
I'll tell a story. I remember one day I got home. My wife, I said, "Here is tomorrow's schedule."
"Why did you schedule that match?"
I said, "I didn't schedule the match. The scheduling committee did it."
"Well, you should be in there."
I said, "Look, honey, don't bug me."
This is a few years ago. The next day she happens to be in my office about the time of scheduling committee. "You have a minute, let's go in the scheduling office."
I'm standing in the back with her. They're going on, "We have to do this, we have to do that, European television, domestic television."
I looked at her and I said, "Have you seen enough?"
She said, "Yeah, I'll never question the schedule again."
Q. I wasn't questioning the schedule.
CHARLIE PASARELL: It's complicated. It's a jigsaw puzzle. You have Steve Simon over here, maybe he can answer that question because he's been doing it for 15 years.
RAYMOND MOORE: At the end of the day, I thought we had a superb Saturday. The weather cooperated. I think the women were a little unlucky because it seemed to blow only during the women's final. It stopped when Nadal came out. Earlier, there was no wind when Federer was playing. It was difficult for the girls --
CHARLIE PASARELL: Very difficult.
RAYMOND MOORE: -- to play the precision tennis they're famous for. I still thought the schedule yesterday was superb. What a treat for fans to be there yesterday.
Q. Charlie, you mentioned "festival." When you were at the old site, you had dead men's tennis played, over 35s, all that. You have a bigger facility now. Why not bring in Jim Courier's tour, have this as a stop on that?
The second point, talking about promotion, the US Open Series, why not bring in all these late winter and spring tournaments in a similar series, have a greater promotion between this event and Miami as well, with the other tournaments leading up to these two crown jewels?
CHARLIE PASARELL: Interestingly, both of those things are things we're seriously considering. On the first one, absolutely, it's always been our hope to bring more tennis than just the best men and the best women, perhaps bring in a senior event. We've done that in the past. Junior events. Even inter-club events, a number of other activities that can fill the day, so to speak.
On the second topic, most definitely those discussions, in fact, we have had just those discussions with the USTA. The USTA also is looking into the ability to really create sort of a second season for US tennis, so to speak. Whether that's part of the whole US Open Series, whether it's two seasons, those are very positive discussions we're having with them.
We're moving in the right direction.
Q. I know in the past you made it very clear that you've never begged players to come and play. What I'm getting at is Venus and Serena. Let's say you do get the mandatory entry for next year, and they don't play again, for whatever happened in history, which should be water under the bridge. There are penalties, sure. What would your reaction be to that?
CHARLIE PASARELL: Well, we remain hopeful, positive, and hope they come back, as we've always said. Those are things that are out of our control. We'd rather have them here than not, of course.
I don't know how to answer that question.
Q. Coming back to the USTA's involvement. If circumstances were to change, you and Ray wanted to phase yourself out of the tournament, is there any guarantee this tournament will not be put on the market, shopped around the world? Does the USTA have a hold on it in the US?
RAYMOND MOORE: There are no guarantees in life. I think they say that about Viagra. We've signed a contract we're going to be here for 20 years. That's our contract with the city. We're obligated to be here for 20 years. Charlie and I have no intention of ever putting this tournament on the market. If ever we wanted to do that, then we should have taken the two or three offers we got, which were very lucrative, in the last 90 days. We've made our statement. We plan to have this event here forever.
But, again, who knows what will happen in the future. But we are contractually obligated to be here, aside from the emotional issue.
Q. Does the USTA have any contractual agreement to keep it here, too?
CHARLIE PASARELL: Their obligated to the city.
RAYMOND MOORE: The USTA, as I said earlier, are a minority partner in here. I think they're going to be a very key partner for us going down the road.
The USTA would never be a party of selling this tournament to China or Qatar or Dubai, I wouldn't think, unless they wanted to move their offices out of the USA.
Q. Are you still very happy with where you are in the calendar? Is there a flexible element to where Indian Wells is stationed?
RAYMOND MOORE: I think we're very happy with our dates. The only thing that may be, and we've talked about it a lot, is we would like to go one week or two weeks earlier. The reason for that are purely television considerations in that we happen this weekend to go up against March Madness, which is an American peculiarity where college sports are huge. March Madness, aside from the Super Bowl, is the highest viewed television sport in the United States, and we compete with them.
I was looking at the television schedule last weekend. I saw there were some events that I thought we wouldn't mind competing against. The weather is not a factor. It should be nice. It certainly would never be colder than it's been here. In history, I don't think it's ever been that cold this week. That would help us from a television viewpoint.
Now, the bigger issue, and someone mentioned it earlier here, do you want to keep Miami and Indian Wells back-to-back or do you want to separate them with a week or two. That's an issue for the WTA and ATP boards to resolve.
Is it good or is it bad? I don't know. I don't know. As Charlie says, right now, because you have such a huge international participation on a player viewpoint, for them to come to the United States for one month and play Indian Wells and Miami, is very positive.
CHARLIE PASARELL: Convenient.
RAYMOND MOORE: And convenient. Otherwise, they would come Indian Wells, go back to Europe, Australia, Asia, wherever they're coming from, for a week or two, then come back, I'm not so sure that would help American tennis. As Charlie said earlier, you've got those four or five days in between.
Federer and Blake will play their match today, fly out tomorrow morning, and they won't have to play till Friday.
CHARLIE PASARELL: Or Saturday.
RAYMOND MOORE: It works from a pure convenience and scheduling viewpoint currently having us back-to-back. I think it works pretty well.
CHARLIE PASARELL: As you know, there's all kinds of talk that has been going on for a number of years about revamping the schedule, should the Australian Open go later, should they stay where they are. We are absolutely in total cooperation with all the powers that be, the slams, about how we do that. It's the kinds of things that, once again, the WTA and the ATP are working together, they're in conversations with the slams and the ITF. Can we come up with a better calendar for the game of tennis where it helps everybody? We haven't found the absolute where everybody goes, "Yea, this is the perfect one." I believe there are going to be some changes. Whether we're going to be the ones changing, I don't know.
Q. Is attendance up at this point?
RAYMOND MOORE: You know what, I haven't been keeping pace with attendance. Maybe Dee Dee has the latest figures.
DEE DEE FELICH: We're not up where we were last year. That was because we were low over the weekend. We had a canceled session on Saturday evening. As far as projections, I'll let Charlie speak about that.
CHARLIE PASARELL: We're actually above projections.
RAYMOND MOORE: We're significantly ahead of our financial projections.
Q. We're doing all this questioning based on the assumption that all the Is are dotted, Ts are crossed, escrows are closed?
RAYMOND MOORE: Yes, it actually closes on Tuesday. Just a very, very minor legal issue, no deal points, lot line, adjustment, the city had to move two feet. Those are the issues. In fact, we were trying to close it on Friday. We just didn't finish it. All the monies are in escrow. On Tuesday, the very latest Wednesday, the full transfer takes place.
Q. Do you know how many of the Masters Series events make a profit?
CHARLIE PASARELL: I think most of them have pretty much -- I don't know about some of the European events. Mainly due because of our debt service in the past, we were the only ones who, once we had to cover our debt service, were in the red. Miami, Cincinnati, Tennis Canada is in the black. They had a couple pretty rough years.
I don't know what the European events are doing, how Rome is doing, Monte-Carlo.
Q. Given ISL was only four or five years ago, is tennis recovering financially? Is the prognosis good?
RAYMOND MOORE: I think it's recovering and I think the prognosis is good. I think every single tournament has seen increased attendance over the last couple of years. Again, I want to go back to your first point, and that is from our viewpoint, with the single exception of one year, being 2002, six months in the wake of 9/11 and the ISL bankruptcy, if you except that year, we have always taken in more revenue than we've spent.
Our particular problems related only to the financing of this facility. Now that we've been able to do our deals, selling the real estate, have paid our debt down by 60%, it's no longer a factor.
With our new syndicate, we've established something that's a new concept for Charlie and I, it's called working capital reserve (laughter), which is a huge relief from capital calls.
CHARLIE PASARELL: We're in very solid financial shape.
RAYMOND MOORE: We're very happy.
CHARLIE PASARELL: The first domino of this whole thing had to do with we had to get the facility refinanced. There's no way that Raymond and I would have been gone through or gotten anybody interested in investing here if we didn't come up with that solution. City of Indian Wells stepped up. It's great. It's great that they have. We're very grateful for that.
Q. You mentioned the "lucrative offers." Doha, Dubai, China were the three you mentioned. Were they the three? And where in China, if that was the case?
RAYMOND MOORE: I think it's public knowledge.
CHARLIE PASARELL: Shanghai.
RAYMOND MOORE: Shanghai made an offer. The others also.
Q. What kind of feedback have you gotten from Pacific Life? Have they given you any indication about renewing their title sponsorship?
CHARLIE PASARELL: I think it's very positive. We're going to be sitting with them the next 30 to 60 days, talking to them about an extension to the agreement.
Obviously, until all these issues were resolved, it was kind of I don't want to say fruitless, but we kind of needed to know, they needed to know, everybody needed to know whether there was any point in talking forward. This and the announcement just prior to the tennis tournament that the deal was done was very important because we have now a lot of enthusiastic sponsors that are saying, "Great, we're happy." That's why we're feeling very good about this year's event and about our future.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everyone.

End of FastScripts...

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PACIFIC LIFE OPEN

March 19, 2006

Raymond Moore

Charlie Pasarell