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NASDAQ-100 OPEN

April 2, 2006

Closing Press Conference

MIAMI, FLORIDA

DAVID TRATNER: Let's get it started, Butch.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Good morning. To my right is David Warren who represents the NASDAQ stock market, and Adam Barrett, our Tournament Director, who runs this show daily, weekly, on a year-round basis.
Just a few things. Do you want to say something first, David? Do you want me to go through this?
DAVID WARREN: Sure, go through those.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Just some talking points and some things that we're proud of.
We had equal prize money this year for the first time, and I think everybody pretty well knows that it was never a philosophical issue for this tournament. We started with equal prize money, but in 1989, when the two tours went in different directions, that changed. We also, in our agreement with the WTA, the tournament and the women's side, could never exceed the prize money that was at Virginia Slims in Madison Square Garden so we had the brakes on that.
Also, there was also a financial issue of which the WTA is on its way to correcting. We're not totally there yet, but we are on our way.
We set an attendance record of 272,000, breaking our old record in 2001.
We had five sellouts.
Our retail, our food and beverage went up. Our sponsorship sales up are. Clearly there's an uptake in tennis and certainly here.
We're the first tournament to do the instant replay.
We had some stadium improvements, which took us 12 years to accomplish, but in my mind the stadium is done now. We have the chair backs and everybody can avoid the splinters that everybody's had over the years (smiling).
We had the market open, which was a first - and a first for NASDAQ - to do it here at the tournament. That was fun. It was neat. I understand it came over very well.
DAVID WARREN: And you pushed the button on time.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: We pushed it on time. Was very difficult to open the market (smiling).
Players, we had 37 countries.
As you all know, we've always felt that we were more than a tennis tournament. We're continuing to expand in that area. We had cooking from Michelle Bernstein, who is a celebrity chef. We had a Lanson champagne tasting, we had three fashion shows, raised $300,000 for the Miami Project with Nick Buoniconti, a very good friend of mine, and his son was paralyzed in a football accident. We're happy we can do that.
We had our usual list of celebrities - Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Downey, Gloria Estefan, and Anna Wintour. I'm sure we had more, but it's always nice to have them.
We were in 43 networks, 1200 hours of coverage, 5 continents, and we were seen in over 200 countries. So, the tournament is maturing.
I think we've had a very, very good 12 days. Obviously, the weather cooperated. Disappointing start with the withdrawals, but I think the tournament is so strong now that it is an event and those things happen. We've been fortunate many years where we've had the Williams sisters, and Andre for almost 20 years. Andre hopes he's going to be back. The Williams sisters hope they're going to be back. We hope they're back.
All in all, I thought we had a good tournament. I thought it was a happy tournament. I felt our group all got along very well. We didn't hear too many complaints other than the airplane. The only thing I know I could have done was maybe call the National Guard and shot it down (laughter), but I don't think I would have gotten away with that, and NASDAQ wouldn't have liked that for sure (smiling).
David, a few comments?
DAVID WARREN: Yeah, I'll say a few words. Thanks.
Thanks, Butch. I'm David Warren, the Executive Vice President and CFO of NASDAQ.
We're pleased, this is our fifth year that the NASDAQ QQQQ, the NASDAQ-100 tracking stock has been the title sponsor of this event. As Butch said, we have set some records this year in terms of attendance and in terms of television coverage and some just amazing tennis.
For NASDAQ, we're always looking for ways to take the sport of tennis to a broader audience, but this is also a great opportunity for us to come to Florida and to work, not just on tennis, but on the financial world as well.
We have done some things with the children in the greater Miami area, with Junior Achievement. We had high school students in for a financial services seminar and a job shadowing program earlier in the tournament. We think that that was an event that went over very well and provided some good on-site, hands-on lessons for a number of kids.
As Butch said, we did open the market from here, from center court. NASDAQ is an all electronic market. There's no floor for NASDAQ, so it being virtual, we can open it pretty much anywhere in the world, and have.
This is the first time we've ever opened the market in Florida, the first time ever at a sporting event. So Key Biscayne joins places like Davos, Switzerland; London; Silicon Valley; and Chicago, this being the fifth time we ever opened the market remotely. Generally we do that in New York.
We have had, as Butch said, very good coverage, and it's been a tremendous venue for our listed companies to come here and to meet a lot of their customers. We've been very pleased to have continuing support from companies such as Microsoft, from Starbucks and from Jet Blue.
And finally, I have to get this on the record because David Tratner won't forgive me if I don't, but I always enjoy coming down here and speaking to you because you're so much more forgiving than the hostile financial press that I face every day in New York. So it's good to be here again and looking forward to some great tennis this afternoon (smiling).
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Thank you, David. On behalf of the tournament, we just really appreciate the spirit and the fun times and your contribution to the tournament.
DAVID WARREN: Thanks, Butch. You're great to work with.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Thank you.
Adam?
ADAM BARRETT: First, I just want to say as the Tournament Director, as the person responsible for the day-to-day activities of the event, it is just an honor and a privilege to work with one of the best visions in sports, in the game of tennis, and under one of the best visionaries. It is really that vision that keeps driving us.
Over the last several years, there's been changes with our parent company, and the thing that we look around, when you walk around the event, what you see is IMG has not only embraced but is actively, aggressively continuing to follow the vision that was started in 1985. There are times where we come in at 2000, and then changes later on. What you see this year is a complete commitment from IMG, from Ted Forstmann, from Chuck Bennett, and all the folks in Cleveland, New York, London, with support from IMG Media, to make sure that this event, that they're not just the care-takers, but they continue growing this event long into the future.
I think it shows in everything that's been accomplished this year. It shows in the site. It shows in our staff, in our team that we put together. We believe that we have the finest tennis sports entertainment team and media team in the tennis world and in the entertainment world. We're just very, very proud of it.
We're very proud to be able to service all of our guests and continue defining our guests beyond that of our sponsors and our fans, but to make sure we treat the players as our guests and give them the best place to do their job, which is hitting tennis balls but also having a good time while they're in South Florida, and for the media, the best format, the best working place to do their job, as well be able to enjoy themselves while they're down here in South Florida.
So I'm very privileged to be part of a great organization.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Thank you, Adam. I'll just echo what Adam said. Everyone's talking about the changes at IMG, everything like that but as far as the tournament is concerned, they've been terrific and they're really looking forward. Not many people know this, but Adam's group of people run the Beijing men's and women's event, Philadelphia, Stanford, and to be honest with you, Cliff and I never thought that this office would be basically running tournaments all throughout the world.
Again, that's a compliment to Adam and the staff. It's a great staff. They've been there, well, 22 years, Dagny Potter. How many years?
ADAM BARRETT: Sixteen. Average is probably nine or ten.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: It's good. It's always good to see a friendly face coming back all the time.
Questions?
Q. You know soccer season begins...
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I saw that (smiling).
Q. Nobody mentioned the Luxilon Cup. That's always a joy. I hope you will be able to expand that to 16 players some time in the future.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I heard the quality of tennis was really good.
Q. The quality of player was pretty high. There were local kids here. I want to ask you to react to one issue that I think a lot of people talked about - that's wildcards. There's a general school of thought within tennis that if you pump a certain amount of money into a tournament, you ought to be able to have the privilege of selecting certain wildcards. To be candid, if you're IMG and you've got X amount of dollars for a tournament and you've also signed certain players, you ought to be able to have the privilege of giving those players an opportunity to show case their talent. There's a growing feeling that maybe the wildcard system is not working very well and that there should be a more objective way of handing out wildcards instead of privileging people who happen to have signed with someone who's got money in the tournament.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Charlie, we have been very sensitive to that from the day that we've sold it. I think we have, I think IMG has been balanced. We literally go through the requests, and we do say "Is this an IMG person? Is this SFX? Is this Octagon?" We try very diligently to say what is the best for the tournament. You've got to think down the road.
We deal with the USTA, and we've always given the top junior, male and female, a wildcard. Then we've got wildcards that we give to the Orange Bowl winners. We have wildcards that we give to the pre-tournament.
So it's a little more complicated than just saying, "This is an IMG, SFX." Then obviously you've got everybody from IMG pushing, and all the agents are pushing to get their kids in.
Q. I think the thing that crystallized it was the Donald Young day. He was blown off the court so badly.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: That was a USTA decision.
ADAM BARRETT: No, it was our --
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: But it was their recommendation -- you go ahead.
ADAM BARRETT: It's what we call our USTA Developmental Wildcard. We actually make the decision, we talk to the USTA. It's based on a couple factors. The factors are kind of ITF qualified, somebody young enough, so you're not necessarily looking for the 21-, 22-year-old players that are breaking through and should be looking to make the draws on their own. And then you're looking at either the ATP or ITF rankings. And then you're talking with different people.
If you look at Donald Young, he won Kalamazoo, which is always something we look at going back to the Butch Buchholz days. He is recognized as a top American, ITF eligible player. It was really, when you looked at it, it was between him and Sam Querrey, who we were able to take care of both in the end. Donald, who is an IMG player, Sam who is not an IMG player.
It's a funny thing, I joke about it because I get the question all the time, "Well, is it just for IMG?" I have IMG going, "How did you give a wildcard to somebody like a Nicolas Lapentti," who is not an IMG player and "You didn't give it to Robin Soderling."
There's so many factors that come in. You look at so many different elements. You look at the past history of the event. You look at ticket sales. You look at region. Nicolas Lapentti, who is a South Florida fan favorite, we felt that was extremely important for the tournament and for our guests to kind of give them that wildcard.
There wasn't anyone particularly pushing for Nicolas from an agent side, but we know what our fans enjoy and what our guests enjoy. It's important that we include them in the process.
Q. Adam, is there pressure from IMG to give wildcards to "their" players? If there is, can you describe the extent of the pressure.
ADAM BARRETT: There is pressure from IMG, pressure from SFX, pressure from Octagon. I have the conversations with all of them probably starting anywhere between three and six months out.
IMG has a very aggressive team of client agents, and they have a great stock of young players that they are very, very excited about. But, while they push, they push no more than necessarily the other agents, and some on their own. We get requests directly from players on their own, and we try to look at it and make the best decisions for everybody.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Has anybody here ever dealt with Donald Dell when he wants something? I can't tell you how many phone calls I got from Donald Dell.
Q. I'd like to ask you a question about scheduling of matches. How much attention is paid to the needs of overseas media? Obviously, U.S. television I'm sure is a big priority. But in the first week, the British press were certainly disappointed with the timing of Andy Murray's match. It was the worst possible time.
ADAM BARRETT: I apologize for that. We look at a lot of different factors - international media, international broadcast, domestic broadcast, overall scheduling, fans. It's all taken into consideration. An average scheduling meeting can be anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half, as you start to play doubles and singles and trying to get the doubles matches in so they don't conflict with the singles and playing the singles first and giving enough rest, if you need to bring them back the same day to play their doubles.
So it's a variety of factors. I mean, you did see with the Tim Henman match that we did, while we couldn't do it early, the first two days of the tournament, I think it was Thursday night we played him at the 7 o'clock slot because at that -- the Thursday night it was our featured match. It was a great first-round match and we were very excited about it. We did end up playing him early at 11 o'clock so the British press can get it into their papers.
It's one of a lot of factors, but I don't think there are any factors we don't address. We look at all of them and try to make the best decisions. It's a very complicated process, and you're trying to serve many masters.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: It's very difficult to do with EuroSport who wants a women's match, a European, and then you've got ESPN who wants a domestic and a men's. It's not really a way to run the railroad. The sooner we can get to a single broadcaster that will look at the whole picture along with the fact of our fans, and many times the decisions on the television side don't even give any consideration to 272,000 people that are coming here. It's, "I have a women's match and I need it here at this time." So you got ATP, WTA pounding on you, and you've got the two broadcasters pounding on you, hard
Q. What are your initial impressions of HawkEye? Do you think it will become a part of tennis that's with us forever?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Yeah, I do. I think the fans have really enjoyed it. I'm sure it's going to get tweaked. The whole issue about two challenges versus unlimited challenges, the question of the umpire, can the umpire overrule, you've got a whole issue of coaching where now coaches are going to position themselves close to lines and give some sort of signal to challenge or not to challenge.
So, you know, I'm proud we were the guinea pig, you know, because we've always liked to be on the cutting edge. But I think it's got to get tweaked.
But I truly believe it's here to stay. I think it's something the fans love. They really got into it. I think in general, I think everyone's a little surprised that the players were wrong so often. I thought it would have been more 50/50, so clearly you can see a lot of times the players are seeing it from their emotions and what they hope.
I think it's here.
Q. Along those lines, it seems only reasonable that at some point in the next few weeks you and Adam and Larry Scott and Etienne will sit down at a table, and others, Gayle Bradshaw, whoever needs to be involved, with a lengthy discussion about what you've seen these 12 days. Is that going to happen? If so, is there a date set to do that?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I don't think we have a date set. I know I'm seeing Etienne in London on the 26th of April, he's seeing Larry the day before.
My feeling is that any changes will not happen just after these 12 days. They're going to try to do this all through the summer. I think at the end of the summer, that's when I think you're going to see whatever changes are going to be made. I think there will be some, a lot of discussion about it, and you might see some minor changes on the summer circuit, but I would say probably at the end of the Open or during the Open is when you'll see changes.
Q. Your thoughts are fresh now. Wouldn't it be a good idea to try to get people together now, or at least sit down and write some sort of position paper what your feelings are?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think they're going to have to collect all this. They're going to have to get it from the players. I think there's still some mixed emotions about it. I think Roger is not 100%.
I don't know where Sharapova is. It was interesting, I don't think it had any challenges yesterday.
Q. There was one.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: There was one. But, I mean, what's happening now, they're starting to get, "Maybe the umpires aren't so bad after all," you know?
Q. Tim Henman thought it was fantastic and he was 0-8.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: 0-8 and he liked it.
Q. He thinks it's great.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: The thing is, from a tennis player's point of view, if you got this thing in your mind that you've a bad call, that thing can sit there for a lot longer than it should. Now, you thought you got a bad call, you find out you were wrong, it's gone, let's play.
Q. It's impossible to know, until you have a shakedown of things like this, the questions that can occur. One of the things that was a little disturbing was the chair umpires in general, not all of them, seemed to have taken the attitude of, "I'm not going to overrule, you've got the challenge, you take care of it."
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Charlie, I think that's an area where it can change. I think you can give the umpire, the chair umpire, you know, more leeway and he should use that thing. If he sees something that he's not sure, he can check it. Doesn't have to be challenged.
Q. There is that mentality.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think that's one of the things they ought to look at, that maybe the umpire -- going back to the old days, where you yield to the chair. It was basically a message to that linesman, you've missed it. Sometimes he didn't do it.
Now, the guy's got the tool. He can sit there, look at it and say, "The linesman is wrong, I'm going to overrule." The idea, I believe, is to not have any bad calls.
Q. I didn't mean, Butch, that the umpire should check the replay himself, but what we have seen, for example in the Mauresmo match when she lost, Kuznetsova hit a ball that was two to three inches out, very clear overrule. Mauresmo looked up at the chair, he was pointing out, waiting for the overrule, that normally would have come and probably would have come if he didn't have electronic line calling. Rather than spending time asking for the replay, why can't the chair umpire --
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Charlie, I agree with you. I totally agree with you. I think that will be something that will get tweaked.
Q. On a change of subject, just remind me, when you had the bleachers in the upper seats, what was the total number of seating possibilities there?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: 14,000. We lost 600, I think.
Q. Is there any opportunity in the future, many tournaments have been generating extra revenue with a Saturday night session. I was thinking, would you have a women's match Saturday night or separate the singles from the doubles championships, have two doubles championships so you can generate a Saturday night revenue in the second week?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: We could possibly do that if a singles player wasn't involved, but then how do you announce that, then if a singles player is involved, pull it away? You're going to have a default, or they won't play.
I think everyone's happy. I think the players are really happy they have that day off. I do really do.
ADAM BARRETT: We're not going to make a decision that affects the competition based on the need to drive revenue. The need to drive revenue will continue to be done through the creation of entertainment value not only through the competition, but across the entire site.
But the main thing is when we go back to our guests in the best place for the players to do their job, is put the competition together, what makes it best for the players over the 12-, or 11-day period in which they play. That's why we play halves of the draw, so the players have some sort of idea what days they're going to play. It allows them X amount of days of rest over the period which they know, with the exception of rain or adverse weather, they can almost stick to and do their weekly schedule.
So competition will always be first because we were developed in 1985 through the eyes of a tennis player, two tennis players. Those eyes are still watching. So no matter how much commercial I want to add and how much revenue I want to drive, I have to watch out for those watching eyes - and they're always there.
Q. I know location is everything, but what is the secret in this day and age of running a successful, profitable tennis tournament? Everyone wants to do it and there aren't that many that do do it. You, obviously, do and have done for many years. What's the secret?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Adam (smiling)? Well, I mean, Adam is running the money.
I honestly believe that we're in the entertainment business. That's what we're in. Tennis is a part of it. What we try to, and have tried to say, the food and beverage, it's marketing. The retail tents, it's marketing. We want the 272,000 people that come here to have a good food experience, a good retail experience. We want our volunteers, staff, to treat people the way they would like to be treated, treat people in your home. We don't always bat a thousand at that, but we do it pretty well.
The whole design of the building was based on that the press are partners, the players are partners, our fans and our sponsors, and we designed that building, we could have just taken the whole circle and made them, you know, corporate suites and probably made more money - for sure would have made more money. But you guys have the same seats that he does (referring to David Warren), and he pays a lot of money for his (laughing).
I think that worked. Thankfully, IMG and Adam, everyone, still feels that's the best way to do it.
Q. This is a continuing issue, but you're very fortunate this year in a sense that several high-quality players have dropped in the rankings and were forced to play first-round matches. We've talked about this before, but the possibilities of expanding the draw to 112, for example?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think it's a great idea, Charlie.
Q. Have those ongoing discussions been broached again lately? Can you give us an update on where things stand with the men and the women on that possibility?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I don't think it's been discussed lately.
ADAM BARRETT: We're always open to the conversations. It kind of flows into all the other conversations that are continually happening at the tour level.
We're always open to the conversation. Once again, is depending with Indian Wells and Miami back to back, and looking at the need for the additional day of rest for a lot of the players that play deep into the Indian Wells' draw. There is a lot of factors that come to play. But we've always opened it. I think we would love to entertain a 112 draw and take the seeded byes down from 32 to 16 to try to create better quality tennis on Wednesday and Thursday.
Q. Do you have any reason to believe either tour is interested?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: No.
ADAM BARRETT: Probably not, but, I mean, there is a lot of conversations at the tour level to try to continue to build and grow the project.
Q. I'd like to ask a question about that plane yesterday. Was there any attempt to --
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Shoot it down (laughing)?
Q. -- get it away? Do you have any fears that it might happen again today? Have you done anything to avoid it?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: The county, obviously, was very upset. They sent a helicopter. But if a private plane takes off from Opa-locka, God knows where, it's pretty hard to stop them. They'll just have to chase him off again.
Q. Are there restrictions about flying over the stadium?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: No, we're in a flight pattern.
Q. But to be up there circling around with 12,000 people below?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Unless there is, what is it, a Super Bowl or Olympics, where you can move the flight patterns, that's...
Q. No fly zone?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Yeah, no fly zone.
ADAM BARRETT: He was outside of the bowl of the stadium. They know what the rules are. Now, was he too close or not high enough? That, I don't know the exact rule.
The county should have been in contact. We've been in contact with the FAA. We've been in contact with the police. We've been in contact with the -- the county has also been in contact with the pro soccer league that ran the advertisement. So everyone's on alert.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: They were told to be in the County Manager's office Monday morning (laughing).
Q. Butch or Adam, this being the first tournament where the WTA had imposed the mandatory entry system, Venus, Serena not here, Lindsay not here, injuries, for whatever reason, would you guys be pressing the WTA for compensation, or have they already put up their hand and said, "We'll pay the compensation"?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I can't imagine them giving us money back.
ADAM BARRETT: The WTA has a system in place in which there are automatic compensations to and from the tournament and the tour based on the player commitment being met or not met.
To better understand the full system and the philosophies behind the Sony Ericsson WTA bonus pool system, you should probably talk with Larry Scott or Stacey Allaster from the tour.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: It's a little unlucky. The sisters, as we all know, you know what's going to happen there. Davenport did try. She stayed in Mission Hills - Indian Wells - stayed there, tried to get treatment. She tried. She hasn't always played here.
We lose Hardenne, you lose Clijsters, maybe Clijsters wasn't ready to play. I think, in general, over the years, we've been pretty lucky with the fields. We were just a little unlucky this year.
Thank you.

End of FastScripts...

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