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SONY ERICSSON OPENApril 1, 2007Adam BarrettButch BuchholzKEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: We set some records. This year we're going to have over 287,000 people. We're breaking a record right now because I think there are still lots of grounds passes. We beat it by 15,000 from last year. Of the nine sessions, we set records in nine sessions and had seven sellouts. We had our biggest crowd ever; it was 18,910 people; that was on Saturday. We also had a Saturday night sellout, which we've never done before. We made a major effort in the VIP area and tried to get celebrities that are here, and we had Gloria Estefan, Ludacris, who I don't know, Tiger Woods, Kristin Davis, Naomi Campbell, Hilary Rhoda, Dwyane Wade became a big fan. He spent a little time with him yesterday. He said he loved tennis. He actually said he played. He said, I'm an athlete so I think I'm good at everything, and I'm not so sure I could do this. He's a really good guy. Terrell Owens, George Hamilton, and Jeb Bush. I don't know if anybody knows this but he was a walk-on player at the University of Texas, always trying to get shots from me on the golf course, and Christian Fittipaldi. We had credentials for 728 people in 35 countries. I'll talk about the site a little later. We had five fashion shows with, I guess, some very famous designers, Roberto Cavalli and Diane von Furstenberg, Etro. We had celebrity chefs. We did 97 hours of domestic television, with CBS, ESPN and the Tennis Channel. We were in over 200 countries, and I think you all know we have a long-term agreement with CBS through 2011. We still continue to work with the charities here. I think this is our 11th year for Feed The Children, and if I remember right, our shelf value on a wholesale basis has been over $4 million. We fed millions of families here in this community. We did Buoniconti Fund, which is the fashion show, Habitat for Humanity, Miami Children's Museum, Baptist Children's Hospital and Special Olympics, and night tennis, which was something new that Dee Dutta and his group put together. We had 17,000 requests for that. I think we had like 1,700 people. That was kind of a big thing. The Sony Ericsson title sponsor came in with a concept that we want to try to present a tennis tournament in a different way, and we as a tournament embraced that. We've always felt that we were in the entertainment business, and we would like to push the envelope a little further. Some things worked, some things people raised their eyebrows about so we can all talk about it. For one, the court, the purple court. I'm a little bit of a traditionalist and I wasn't quite sure how that was going to be, and Adam asked me to go out, hit tennis balls on it, and I said I think it's going to be okay. I think it's okay. It was not a decision for better visibility; it was a branding decision, which is all part of the color and everything that we're doing. It's turned out that the players like it. They can see the ball better, certainly our fans in the stands can see the ball better, and I think it's worked very well on television. So that's one of these things that you might not be sure of, but it turned out to be a plus. We've had a really fun time with the Sony Ericsson people. We've been through a few sponsors and sometimes there's some difficult moments, but we shared this vision. We were willing and Adam was willing to spend some money, and Sony Ericsson was willing to spend some money, and I think that we have improved the fan experience. Hopefully the players have felt that we're trying to step it up. I know the ATP and WTA both have felt it's been a positive thing. I just want to say, to finalize, just to congratulate Adam and our staff. We got this -- basically announced it in September, and to make all the changes and do all the things that have been done in a very short period of time takes a very professional staff, a very committed staff. And Adam got the whip out a few times, but it worked. And I think everybody feels that we've accomplished what Dee Dutta wanted to accomplish. We changed the way tennis tournaments are presented. Adam, do you have anything to add? ADAM BARRETT: It's been very interesting, it's been a very fun year. One of the unique things was when Dee came to talk about thinking out of the box, thinking entertainment, changing the way tennis is viewed both live and on television. The challenge was that following that, while maintaining the integrity of the sport. So a lot of challenges when you look at other sports or other entertainment vehicles, they're not worried about a court, they don't have a net, they don't have players, they don't have a matches that go on every day. In a lot of sports you have a start time and an end time and a halftime. We don't have any of those things. But one of the things that was great about Sony Ericsson was it wasn't just them throwing creative marketing people or public relations people at us and saying, try this. Always we came back to the fact that the integrity of the sport had to be maintained. So one of the things I had said to somebody the other day is, well, you may not have liked everything we've done, and I think most of it, 98 percent of it, I think has been very well-received. This was actually following one of the shows and they weren't a big fan of the Friday night show, but, I said, we hit every walk-on. So it did not affect from the time the players walked onto the court and hit their first warm-up ball to the time they hit the last ball of the match, the integrity of the game was at the highest level that Butch has set. So the game itself is the standard that Butch has set back in 1985 in that the players have to have the best venue to play the sport to do their job. We had to work around that, and it was a unique challenge, but it was embraced by all of our team, and they really started thinking differently and then having fun with thinking differently, and that is what I think really created the success is just the buy-in. Then when the tours came and the players came and the media came, I think everybody started to buy into the vibrant colors, the energy, just looking at it differently and making it about having fun. So hopefully everybody had a little bit more fun than they had in the past and a little bit more fun at a tennis event because it's always been fun here, there's always been energy, but I think it definitely stepped up to another level. The video boards, we brought the video boards in last year, and we used them mainly for the official challenge. This year we used them both inside and outside to bring the fans closer to the players, closer to the events, and really used them as another entertainment vehicle. Once again, without affecting the forehands or backhands on the court. BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: And Sony Ericsson was 100 percent supportive of that. They said we're not doing anything to change the forehands and backhands, but let's see if we can't raise the level entertainment-wise. Q. On the purple court, I'm not sure about this, but I believe the ATP has the standard blue court, which is part of their Masters Series approach other than clay courts, which that was going to be. Is that an issue you had to deal with, or can you just unilaterally -- BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: We went to the ATP and WTA and they signed off on it, so it wasn't an issue. It was, again, we wanted to get the Sony Ericsson purple, and it worked. Q. 728 media credentials, it's one of the great mysteries of this tournament. Where are they? There's a few people in this room, and not that everybody needs to go to this press conference, there's a transcript, but even after a major match, you go into a room, and there may be 10 to 15 reporters at the very outside. This is not a rhetorical question, but is there a need to review the credentialing process here? Are you issuing too many to people who perhaps aren't here? BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Where's Sam? ADAM BARRETT: Well, we have a circulation, an accreditation policy to make sure that the media here are at the level that we want them to be, as well as we then follow up for any secondary requests with what was published or what -- pictures that were published or stories that were written. And we review them on a year-to-year basis to make sure we are getting the most productivity from the people here and that we're not just credentialing people to watch tennis but to do a job which benefits the tournament, south Florida and hopefully the tennis industry. BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think you've got a lot of photographers. It's a combination. Q. There's been a lot of confusion this past fortnight about whether or not the final was going to be a best of five sets. Can you just tell us what actually happened behind the scenes so that we have a best-of-five final today? BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: That was never in the cards to change this year. I think they're talking about changing it in 2008. We have resisted as strongly as we possibly can. CBS has notified the ATP that they're totally against this. You know, we have signed this contract with them through 2011. We have two hours on Saturday, three hours on Sunday. They have never -- if we've gone past, they've never cut us off, and the president of CBS Sports has basically said to me, Butch, I expect you to honor the agreement. We don't have an issue with players having to play on Monday the next day. I have told the ATP that in my opinion it's a strategic, long-term strategic mistake. I believe that it's at least the four combined events that they're talking about having on a worldwide basis should be five sets. I think that's the right thing. I've had a conversation with Federer about this; he agrees with that, by the way. What he doesn't agree is that we, the tournaments, this tournament, should just be separate and only five sets and not everybody else. And when I talked to him about the concept of doing the combined events, he was 100 percent supportive of that. I am hoping that the ATP will review this, rethink this, because I think it's a long-term mistake. Q. The reason why, Butch, was the Rome/Hamburg issue? BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Yeah, but that's a calendar issue. Q. That's a one-off issue? BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: No, and you had Toronto and Cincinnati, but again, they're talking about fixing that. So if you look at Indian Wells and you look at Miami, the guys have days off, and you're also, barring some weather problems, they're playing every day, so it's not like -- and also, Roger is starting to think, well, maybe we should play five sets from the very beginning, round 1. I think that's a little too tough. I think a five-set final for here, for the four combined events, makes some sense. Q. Butch, you were talking about Guillermo, "The Wall," earlier. He expressed some disappointment that he didn't receive a wildcard. Can you talk about what went into the decision not to -- ADAM BARRETT: I actually reviewed that yesterday. A wildcard request never got to our desk. What he said yesterday, and we followed up, is he asked for a wildcard request the day after he beat Roger in Indian Wells. Our wildcards were allocated approximately three days before that, on that Friday before that. So the odds are he called here, probably talked to one of the assistants in the administrative or player services office, who said there are no more wildcards, which is correct. On the men's side you're only looking at five wildcards, and they had already been confirmed. Q. So it had absolutely nothing to do with the circumstances that he's dealt with the last two years? ADAM BARRETT: Not at all. His request was not on our desk on, I think it's the 8th or the 9th the previous week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday the previous week when we started reviewing them, and therefore there was no consideration given one way or the other because the name wasn't there. Q. You said you would have definitely when we talked the other day, that you would have considered him if it had come in on time? ADAM BARRETT: We consider any requests that come in. You look at really a combination of things. We start with really marquee players, ticket sellers, which are former No. 1, former Top 10, former Grand Slam winners. You look at young, developmental, you try to balance between U.S. and international. We want a balance, that we're an international event, so it's not all U.S. wildcards. So you're balancing a lot of different things, and then you take a lot of those things into consideration. If you looked at them you would have been looking at a falling ranking and strength of play and really coming back, an exciting ranking on the tour. BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Plus the whole Latin piece. That sells a lot of tickets. Q. Are you sufficiently briefed on the Hamburg suit to comment on its impact on the ATP and perhaps even on this tournament? BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I know it was filed. I know why it was filed. I think the courts are going to determine whether the board has the right to do what they're doing. Yeah, I think it has some potential long-term effects on the ATP. Q. Can you elaborate on your thoughts there? BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Well, the board made a decision that they were going to remove Hamburg from the Masters Series, and they're talking about doing the same thing with Monte-Carlo. They want to place a Masters Series event in China, and the question is does the board have the right to start changing people's status, especially when they don't want to. Hamburg has invested in a stadium. It has had problems; we've had a very difficult time getting players to play. They've had television issues; they have sponsorship issues; they have weather issues. So the board looks at this and says maybe this is time for a change. Plus we need to get to China, and that's a huge market. The question is does the tour board have the right to make those decisions? You know, I'm trying to see -- when I was sitting there it was a little different because it was just -- I represented just the players, and you don't have the situation of the tournaments and the players. Hopefully, they can get it resolved. Most of the time money solves those problems. But I think the board has made a decision, we're going to find out if we can manage the circuit the way we think it should be done, or are we always going to be dealing with lawsuits from somebody that's unhappy. ADAM BARRETT: One of our biggest concerns when you have a lawsuit filed is that it's interpreted wrong, and it's often interpreted in the media that there's something wrong with the sport, which couldn't be further from the truth. I mean, the question is, is tennis broken? And the answer is simple; the answer is no. I think if you look at what went on this week with the crowds, with the excitement, the television coverage, the level of play, the answer is an easy no. If you look at what happened at the US Open or Wimbledon or the French Open, the answer is no. If you talk to, and I don't know how many of you went out to Indian Wells, and I've spoken a lot with Steve Stenmark (phon.) and Charlie Pasarell, the answer is no. They also had record crowds and they also had great matches. But if you go to -- we travel to a lot of tournaments between the two of us; the answer that keeps coming back is no. Tennis is growing, the popularity of the professional game is growing. People are coming out to watch, they're watching it on television. And our sport has Roger Federer, who could be a legend in the making at the pace he's going; you have Maria Sharapova, who is one of the highest compensated women athletes with not only her on-court but off-court endorsements. You have depth of fields, you have great players. There's a lot of exciting players from all over the world right now on both tours. So tennis is healthy and it's growing, and it's popular. You know, I just continually hope that people recognize that because while I like what the ATP is doing that it should always continue to try to make the game better, keep thinking forward, keep trying to make improvements, that it should never be interpreted that there's something wrong because right now things in our sport are very good and very strong. Q. Can I just on the back of that, and maybe this isn't quite the right place to raise it, but taking all those things into account, getting the right players on the right courts at the right time so they actually get publicity is vitally important. We had a situation here in the first round where -- and there are a few Brits here; we're a dwindling band, which is getting a little worrying. We had Henman starting very late and then we had Murray the next day starting very late and we couldn't get them in the British papers the next day. Whether we're important or not, it's important following from all those things to actually get the profile players in newspapers where actually the readers can read about them. Can we -- once again, I know a few years ago I came in a couple of times when Cliff was tournament director and talked about these order of players. Perhaps we could have a liaison next year so if we have the situation again, we can get the players on in a time we can actually get them in the papers. BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think we are conscious of that. I know Adam has to go through the scheduling, but you've got major input from the ATP and the WTA. I mean, they're the ones that are really sitting there and saying, this is where we should be playing, this court, that court. I mean, we've got a proven -- I think we should always try really hard to accommodate the Europeans because of the time change, so if that helps -- ADAM BARRETT: It is taken into consideration. We try where we can, too -- you are balancing slots between both tours where there's a lot of preset slots so we know where we're sliding in men's tennis and women's tennis. You're looking at times going back, you're also looking at the matches for the fans that you're trying to balance. Often you're trying to get the players that the fans want to see in time slots where the biggest crowds are here. You're trying to balance between courts to make sure that the courts can handle the players, handle the crowds that will be there to see them. So there's many, many different facets that come. But we absolutely do try to take into consideration to try to get coverage back in the respective countries, or television back in the respective countries. Q. In line with your thoughts on the growth of the game and stuff, one of the things, looking at the Roadmap the WTA released, it seems with the increasing parity of the women's game and the men's game, especially with the combined events happening and stuff, wouldn't it be better for the game if the women and men had an identical system, you know, a Masters Series plus Grand Slams type system, and even if the dates and places are different, then fundamentally they played the same way? BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I couldn't agree with you more. I think you should have points systems that are similar. The fan out there still doesn't understand it. If you just think of tennis, and not men's tennis and women's tennis, but just tennis, it would be much easier to understand. I would hope that -- at one time they were getting closer, the ATP and WTA were trying to do more things together or even thinking about getting under the same roof. I am still a strong supporter that you would almost have like a commissioner, so to speak, of ATP/WTA, and you've got the American League/National League, NFL/AFL, and men and women are all under the same roof because it's a sport. I think the sport would benefit from that. Q. What's the stumbling block to that? It's not rocket science. BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: My guess is it's probably money. Again, for the issue of we're going to combined events in 2009, you're going to be talking about equal prize money to the tune of $8 to $9 million, and the Masters Series events are in that range, will be in that range. But the women's tier 1 prize money isn't anywhere near that. So for example, Charlie Pasarell is going to have to come up with a heck of a lot more money from the women's side. I was at a dinner the other night with the WTA, and they were saying, you know, you guys are going to have to help subsidize that because there's a big difference in what the men's prize money is on the Masters Series and the women's prize money on tier 1, and you're going to have to help get that up and just going to have to subsidize it if you want equal prize money, and it should be equal prize money. But the ATP contributes so much more money to the Masters Series and their television package and everything they're doing than the WTA contribute to the tier 1s. So to me it's a financial issue, not a philosophical one, and that's one that we've had here for years. Sony Ericsson helped that, which we said, again, not a philosophical issue, it's just pure finances. ADAM BARRETT: First time I heard that was around 1993, 1994, I went to one of my first meetings in Ponte Vedra Beach at the time, why can't we work these two tours, why aren't they under one roof, even if they're in the same building so they can talk. Why not one set of rules? We have equal prize money but we have two separate negotiations with the tour as to what those amounts should be. So we have it, why don't we all sit in one room and have the conversation. Butch has been a proponent of that for many years. Q. Instead of having this convoluted theory of promising X number of stars, the men's Masters Series where everyone is entered anyway ensures that the top players meet there. BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think Larry is trying to fix that, and that gets into the whole suspension thing. I don't think all the problems are solved yet, and there is a credibility problem there. When the fans hear that a top player is going to play, they expect it. They go out there and buy a ticket and they expect it. We've had a situation where the credibility has been badly hurt, and I think Larry is trying to fix that. The Masters Series has done a better job with that, and again, one of the reasons that the tour is going to eight events is because they think they can deliver the players on eight events. So who's going to get left out? Those are really hard, hard, tough decisions. But the board, at least the ATP board, has made a decision that we're going to find out whether we can manage this sport or not, and that's what the lawsuit is going to tell us. Q. Have you ever considered or would you consider having a veterans' event with people like the Chrisses and Martinas and Jim Couriers of the world? BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think that it doesn't help the veterans' tour. I think people are here to see Federer and Sharapova and the Williams sisters, and I think it'll be put on bad courts, and it's a different product. That's my opinion. We've never talked about it so I don't know how he feels. ADAM BARRETT: We'll consider anything that makes the overall event experience better. So we have conversations and ideas and we find ways and we kind of balance when we try to implement them. So the question is will we consider? Yes, I think we've considered it in the past. You kind of brainstorm in conversations. But with the number of matches we have throughout the week with the level of prominence that a lot of the stars or the legends need, you know, we kind of feel that unless you're able to get them on premium show courts, it may not be fair to them. So that's how you end up with going more kind of developmental like the Luxilon Cup, we have the juniors come because you have courts for them where you can get enough seating, and for them it's a higher level experience than they're used to out on the Challenge and Future level, versus kind of giving them an experience that's less than they deserve. So a lot of challenge in there, but once again, any idea, whether it's from our staff, the media, the players, the tour staff, that we believe will add more entertainment and a better show for our fans, we will absolutely consider, so keep the ideas coming. BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: We are in discussions with the USPTA, the teaching pros that used to play here. We're thinking about trying to resurrect that for next year, which would be fun. Q. I was just curious if you had had any feedback from the purple and green courts. BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: No, a lot of people said, you have Wimbledon colors. I got a lot of calls from Tim asking if he wanted to spray the courts purple. A lot of people said, oh, you've got Wimbledon colors. ADAM BARRETT: That was the first thing Alan Mills said. He said, "I like the colors." End of FastScripts |
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