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ROGERS CUPAugust 18, 2009Stacey AllasterTORONTO, ONTARIO STACEY ALLASTER: Should I kick it off with how great it is to be home? I couldn't be more proud to come home, really for two reasons: Proud to be a Canadian and proud to have come from the Canadian sports system. I know that all of you and all of us working in sport work so hard day in and day out. To be a Canadian and to have come through a Canadian sport to be the leader of the No. 1 sport for women, I hope that you all share in my pride. And when I certainly travel, red and white is blazing. Second of all, I am incredibly humbled by the opportunity to lead the organization that Billie Jean King founded some 36 years ago. There would be no Stacey Allaster sitting here today as the chair and CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour if it had not been for Billie Jean King and her vision to start a tour and use the power of her skills on the court to take them off the court and advance the rights of women and to give everyone, men or women, an equal opportunity. So, you know, I sometimes have to pinch myself that I now sit in the chair that Billie Jean King started so many years ago, and I realize that my responsibility definitely is grow the sport for our members but at the same time use the talent of our existing athletes on the court off the court to continue Billie Jean King's dream, particularly in parts of the world where the rights of women are not as respected as we all enjoy here in North America. I think the dream as well is about delivering to our fans and delivering to the Rogers Cup. Those that have followed the journey know that I sat here many a times telling you about a field that wasn't at the quality that we deserved here in Canada. When I left, I committed to all of you that I believed in where we were going with the Roadmap, the circuit structure, and that reform would come, and everyone has been very patient and the day has arrived that Canada's Women's Rogers Cup has 10 of 10, 19 of 20, the best field we've ever had for a women's event in a long, long time. I can only thank the players. It's the players who stepped up. They were the architects of this Roadmap and they said, We will deliver. It's players like Venus Williams, our modern-day Billie Jean King, who has been sitting in player council meetings for almost three-and-a-half years helping us design this circuit structure so that it would work for the fans. Other players like Vera Zvonareva, Patty Schnyder, Natalie Dechy, all of the -- Kim Clijsters. I sat with Kim yesterday, and she was part of building this Roadmap, and then I had the pleasure of showing her the results. She just said how great this is that it's working. So the players stepped up. Tennis Canada is to be commended for stepping up. We went from 1.3 million in prize money to 2 million, a significant investment for a national sport governing body to raise their prize money at that level. Last, but not least, where would we be without the faith and the belief from Rogers? There is, without question, they had to endure a few years where it was tough. I saw Alan Horn last night from Rogers. You know, he said, When we were looking at whether we were going to renew, this Roadmap was a big part of it. So how great again that we have been able to deliver for them because they have been delivering to women's tennis and to Canadian tennis for so many years. I think it's quite fitting that we honored Ted Rogers last night. Ted Rogers obviously believed so much in Canadians, giving back to Canadian sport, Canadian business. I now have the pleasure of continuing his legacy and making sure that Canadian sport and his Rogers Cup continues with great success. Those are just a few opening remarks, and I'll make it as informal as possible. I don't have to talk about SARS, and I don't have to talk about hurricanes. We get to talk about good stuff today. I will open it up to anybody who has any questions. Q. What do you think of the state of Canadian tennis, especially on the women's side? It's been 40 years since a women has won this particular tournament. STACEY ALLASTER: Yeah. It's hard to win. No doubt about it, it is a competitive product. There's more depth in this game. You know, it's 43 of the top players in the main draw. That is the second week of a Grand Slam. So I think they're doing all the right things here at Tennis Canada. The developmental process is a long horizon. There's no quick wins. They are investing in development, getting the very best talent. Look, to have Aleksandra Wozniak, who was knocking at the door of that top 20, she was right there. She is playing well. She's a lovely young woman working really hard, and she -- you know, she's got a bright future ahead of her. Q. Perhaps the most significant piece of news in the Women's Tennis Association last year, as you know, or this year, was about the issue with Dubai. What I want to know, now that you inherit Larry Scott's mantle, and as you probably know, there were many promises in other sports such as soccer, basketball, that said that despite what some Arab nations say about Israeli athletes competing, they never seem to back up with any kind of bite. So what I wanted to ask you is with the upcoming year and next year's Dubai tournament, what guarantees does the WTA have to know that same incident won't be repeated again? STACEY ALLASTER: It's a great question. I just commit to you that we will not have another player on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour discriminated against in our future. Certainly the Dubai situation was most unfortunate for everyone, particularly Shahar, and all of our athletes and in the sport itself. We now have firm commitments from the government that any athlete, irrespective of their nationality, will have the right to play, and certainly if they don't make good on that promise, I can tell you that we will not have a Dubai tournament there in 2010. Q. Is there one piece of advice that maybe you hold close in regards to your new position that, you know, maybe someone told you over the last couple of weeks that really made you think and you appreciated it? STACEY ALLASTER: I think for me it's a reflection on this job is about our players and about our tournaments. It's my job really to make sure that women's tennis is shining bright with all of your help week in and week out around the world. What's most important is shining the light brightly on them and great events like the Rogers Cup. Q. I'd just like to know what the thought process was behind the rule change where players can seek help from their coaches in a match. STACEY ALLASTER: That is a Stacey Allaster innovation. There are more innovations on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in the first 18 months than in the 36-year history of the WTA Tour. That is all about responding to our customers. That initiative came from broadcasters. I went to a broadcast summit. I sat with producers and announcers, and they said, These are the things you, traditional tennis, need to do to stay competitive with the other sports. This whole notion of making our sport more accessible to fans is the common theme. So whether it is you see the athletes now walking just before their match, they have a quick little sound bite, how they're feeling for the match, came from that broadcast summit. On-court coaching was once again to give the viewer at home that unique experience of sharing what the dynamic of the coach and the athlete was. It's a highly energized topic. There are many traditionalists who don't like it. That's okay. There are many that do like it. The way we found a balance in this traditional sport is to say, Players, you can decide. It's your choice. If you'd like to use it, it's there for you. If you don't want to use it, you don't have to. At the end of the day, coaching is a big part of the sport and entertainment experience. We look at the other sports. They're a cast. They're a supporting cast member. I can tell you I was watching Maria's first match back in Warsaw. I don't get a chance to see EuroSport very often. There it was, the moment you wait for. Maria is in that first match, and she calls out Michael Joyce. It was that first match back trying to settle her down, and we all got to hear what Michael was saying to Maria, but more importantly then it became a theme for the broadcasters thereafter in the match learned about content and accessibility for the fans. Q. Why does the WTA want this tournament to change its format in 2011? STACEY ALLASTER: Well, as part of the circuit structure and the Roadmap, we really looked at what's driving the business, and there is without question the business is really thriving when men and women are combined. You look at our Grand Slams, you look at our top events like the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, the BNP Paribas in Indian Wells, those are combined platforms. The Roadmap was about the best of the best and more combined events. How do we did that to Canada? Because this is a winning equation financially for Tennis Canada: a men's event in Montreal, a women's event in Toronto, and then we flip. We have two center courts, two markets. It's perfect. It's the envy of many tournaments around the world. The way to achieve everyone's objectives, more combined events at our top events, which is a name of the ATP, and the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Canada, you could stay with your domestic financial success, but we're going to virtually combine you in the same week so that we can combine Cincinnati. Like most major sporting events, you guys will bring us our virtual combined here in Canada through broadcast. Q. So you'll have the men in Toronto and the women in Montreal, or half the men in Toronto and half the women in Toronto? STACEY ALLASTER: In 2011 it's scheduled that we'll continue to do what we do. So men will be in Montreal, and the women will be here. But we'll be -- this event will be one week earlier. So last week's men, the women will be in the same week. Cincinnati men will go down to this week. So the way, if you work backwards, US Open is combined, New Haven is combined, Cincy will be combined, Canada will be combined, and then we're working on the others. Q. Martina Navratilova last night said the state of the women's game was in great shape. There was an article in the Globe and Mail recently where it also said women's tennis stands up to men's versions just fine. But at Cincinnati last week in the final between Pennetta and Safina, the seats -- I mean, there were just massive amounts of empty seats. I consistently see that in women's finals, semifinal matches. I'm wondering how you can rectify that, when you say it's in great shape and then you see matches where nobody is sitting in the stands. Like how do you explain that? STACEY ALLASTER: Well, I think certainly attendance overall for the tour is tracking exactly as it has been in 2008. So right now, we get a tick that we're doing well. Certainly empty seats is not what we want to be showcasing. Cincinnati had a record week last week with ticket sales. One of the challenges that we have in tennis is that we've sold all of our lower bowl seats to the corporate. We look at it even here today. It's a little light down below, particularly in the daytime because the corporates aren't coming till the evening. So that is an issue that we have that sort of our prime television seats are sitting empty sometimes because the corporates are either there and they're in the suites or it's daytime and they're not there. Q. Could you talk about Kim's comeback and what kind of a feel-good story it's going to be? STACEY ALLASTER: It's feeling very good. Yeah, she is just everything that we all remember when she was here in 2005 as our Rogers Cup champion. Great athlete, great champion, and a great person off the court. I think -- I was amazed at how well she played last week in Cincinnati. I did get to see a couple of matches, and I think it just proves what a great athlete she is. She prepared, she trained, she worked hard, and she is really happy to be back. She's taking it one tournament at a time and enjoying the moment being back on the court. Q. Two months ago Larry Scott released a statement saying that the tour can no longer turn a deaf ear to grunting. What do you plan on doing about the grunting on tour? STACEY ALLASTER: We're sort of -- we're monitoring it I think where we see this -- we don't have players complaining. We don't have fans sending us very much communication on the matter. I recognize that there is discussion on grunting. We do have a rule. It's called the Hindrance Rule. So certainly everyone is attuned to it. Our supervisors are having private words with a few of the younger athletes. Where I really think if we want to address the issue, it comes through education, particularly at the junior level where the young athletes are training and learning how to play their game. I think we need to do it down at the academies, down at the ITF junior circuits, and it would be there where we can see if we can modify it. Expelling of noise is happening on men's and women's tennis. I think our female voices are a little higher-pitched. That's all. Q. Is there any concern by combining the two events in the same week that you might dilute the attention that would normally be paid? I mean, you have a fairly captive audience for this for the WTA this week, as you had for the men's, whereas if they're all together, maybe it will be spread out? Things won't get covered or ignored? STACEY ALLASTER: I don't think Canadian press are going to ignore the Rogers Cup. There can be no denying one of the nice things about the format today is you've got a week before Montreal starts. You have Montreal of men and then you have Toronto women. That's three weeks for Canadian tennis to promote itself. No question. So when we go down to one week before, now a combined virtual event, Tennis Canada is going to have to work a little bit harder to create more noise. But I think broadcast is really going to enhance in the sense that if we're having a great match here, you know, we can bring the fans. If we have a great match, let's go to Montreal and pick up. Just like you feel in a Grand Slam, that's what we're going to be able to do for Canadian fans with the Rogers Cup. Q. I did a story back where I live in Florida recently about the LPGA, which is not in the same financial good situation as you're in. There was a lot of talk by the LPGA players that they wanted to get, do the opportunity of what Tiger Woods and Roger Federer would do; in other words, have some more joint commercials between top WTA and LPGA players. They said they were going to be approaching the WTA maybe even about having some sort of, I don't know if it's possible to have a joint tournament that at one site they could do. But has there been any talk? Have they approached you at all about doing anything? Because it seems like the demographics and the audience and interest might be similar between women's golf and women's tennis. STACEY ALLASTER: Yeah, that's a very creative idea. There are some superstars on the LPGA. We haven't had any discussions with them. I think in the off-season those kinds of made-for-TV events could be quite fun. End of FastScripts |
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