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ROGERS CUPJuly 23, 2008Rich LantTORONTO, ONTARIO THE MODERATOR: Questions for Rich. Q. Can you put a day like this in perspective, what that means from your end? RICH LANT: To say the least, it's certainly taxing. We'll say from a management perspective, but most importantly it's very taxing on our staff and on the site crew that we have. It's something that they're put on standby as the rain starts to go. We have regular updates for the weather, and it's fairly pinpointed. We're down to probably about five to ten minutes when we know it's coming, and also what the length of it is going to be. From there, you know, the objective is to make sure that we're ready. We ultimately have to pull the crews off of other jobs so that they're ready to go. When we get the call from the tour, usually we deal with Tony Cho, who is the head referee and take his direction as to where he wants us to go first. It's been a hectic week so far. But, again, you deal with it one at a time. Q. Where is this in terms of how drastic this is comparing it to other tournaments? RICH LANT: Probably the worst would have been in 2005, which for any of you who have been here for a while was by far -- it's one thing to get rain, and quite another thing when there's the damage that goes with it. Certainly that's what happened in 2005. There was a lot have damage to deal with as far as the clean-up as a result of the rain with that, to get those things done. Everybody is important on site for not only the tennis side of things but sponsors and retailers. When you have to deal with those things as well as trying to get the tennis part going, to put it into context, that's a lot more difficult. It's certainly taxing, as they say. There is an urgency when you're on air obviously to get things back up and running as quick as possible. Q. And your problems aren't over yet. RICH LANT: Is there something I don't know? Q. I've been looking at the forecast, as I'm sure you have. RICH LANT: Again, you try deal with them one at a time. The weather like this has been very sporadic. The hardest one is when you get something like Sunday where it's start, stop, start, stop. I think we dried the court seven times that day. So something that comes and you get the one hit and get things tidied up and are back at it. But it's when it's start and stop. And with that, those type of days you get high humidity, so it's more difficult to dry the courts. Q. Will there ever be an option to have a cover for the court? RICH LANT: A lot times it comes down to cost. A lot of times it's what do you do with the water that's on there? You get something like grass courts, and ultimately you're trying to shed the water off to the sides. But it's something that we've talked about. But as I say, the management of the water, where does it go, that becomes a lot more difficult. You've got such a wide area to try and support something that going to keep them all covered as well as shed the water. It's something we've looked at, but I haven't come up with something that's viable. Q. This court didn't flood like it did in 2005. Has something changed between now and then? Was there some drainage put in, or was the storm just not like that? RICH LANT: We had, I think it was last week, where actually Centre Court got backed up. There's adequate drainage. The benchmark when you come from a design and engineer standpoint is they go on 100-year maximums. What happened in 2005 was we were way over that. So the design that's there, it's not that there was any fault or flaw in the design, it was just sheer volume of water. In particular with the Centre Court, you've got all the banking of the seats. Water comes down the tiers ultimately trying to go down the drains that are a there. At some point you are out of room. Q. So this wasn't as much water as the last time? RICH LANT: No. Fortunately. It was still a lot. At the same time, you know, it's a fairly new site. It's been well designed. The water does drain fairly well, but it does take time, especially when it gets saturated. Q. Did you have to give rainchecks to any fans today? RICH LANT: It's not directly through myself, but just from e-mails and notices that have been going out, things were officially canceled as of 4:00 and our rain policy was put into effect. With that, there was the opportunity for people to either trade them in for subsequent tickets for the evening -- depending on availability. We're in a fortunate position with a number of sessions being sold out as we get closer to the end of the week. So availability starts to come into it. That or the option is they take a credit for tickets for next year good. Q. Do you think Federer is going to get his match in? Have you heard what the latest on the storm is? RICH LANT: There's more rain being forecast, but part of the frustration with it being so volatile is in part you deal with what's there. It's good have to the notices, but at the same time, you keep going with the tennis until you actually have the rain come upon you. Q. Because we heard there's a three- or four-hour window and something might happen. RICH LANT: That was the indication that we had. Again, we're getting updates every half hour. With the amount of change that's going on, you know, with the volatility of the weather right now, three or four hours is actually a long time. We usually tend to go with the prediction that's a little closer to the time frame. Q. Is there anyway to find out how many people exercised the exchange policy the rain? THE MODERATOR: We can get that number for you. RICH LANT: Yeah. Q. Is there a latest forecast that you have that we don't? RICH LANT: No. It's the one that's broadcast. Right now it's nice and sunny out. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? Q. How much would a court cover cost, assuming you could find one that would be viable? RICH LANT: We haven't costed it out yet. It's more of the design that we would be dealing with. One of the things that comes into play as well, if you'll -- next time take a look down on Centre Court, what do you do with all that fabric that's there? If you look at Wimbledon it's all rolled up in the corner. But from sponsor signage, TV camera positions, the look of the event. So the design is to shed the water that we've got there and ultimately get on to drying the courts as quick as we can. Q. Do those courts absorb water at all? RICH LANT: It's asphalt and a rubber base. It's actually angled. If you were to stand at the south or north end and look at the end wall you can see that it's actually quite slanted. It's slanted from the east and the water sheds to the west. The whole court is angled. Q. Really? RICH LANT: Yeah. Q. Do the players know? RICH LANT: No: Yes, it's very minimal, but it's enough to shed the water off. End of FastScripts |
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