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SONY ERICSSON CHAMPIONSHIPSNovember 1, 2009Stacey AllasterAldo LiguoriDOHA, QATAR THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this 2009 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour end-of-year press conference. With us today we have Aldo Liguori of Sony Ericsson, corporate vice president and global head of communications and public relations; and Stacey Allaster, chairman and CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Each are going to make some opening remarks and then we'll do a Q&A. Aldo. ALDO LIGUORI: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you very much for joining today. Thank you very much for supporting the Sony Ericsson Championships this week. From my point of view, I'd like to make two or three brief comments. One is that we're very pleased to have used the Doha event to launch a new consumer offering, a new consumer proposition. You may have seen it in relation to the Sony Ericsson name. It's make.believe. This is our new marketing tagline for consumers. It's something that we announced in September. We are activating it at this tournament for the first time. It's something that tries to reflect the vision of our company, which looks at communication, looks at entertainment, very interesting and exciting content. It's something that we are doing together with the Sony group globally. We're very pleased with what we've seen in terms of activating make.believe here at the Sony Ericsson Championships. I think the other comment that I would like to make is that from a local relevance point of view, we are pleased this year to have invited distributors of Sony Ericsson products. This region for us is not an operator-led region, it's actually a distributor-led region for our products. We have all of our key distributors in the Middle East region here with us this weekend. We also have a retailer. If you've had a moment to visit our booth in the central part of the grounds, you may have seen that we also launched our new communication entertainment phone for the Middle East region at this event. It's called Satio. Allow me to do a 10-second publicity. If you've not had a moment to experience the product, I hope that you'll be able to. We have some fantastic promotors there. We're very excited to have the Championships here one more year. I think next week will probably begin with Stacey and her team to start looking at how we can position and how can we prepare for next year. Maybe the last comment from me is that, compared to a year ago here in Doha, what I have experienced is a greater level of vibrancy, a number of additional events have been taking place this week. I think you've perhaps taken part in some or attended some. This encourages me in terms of Doha, the interest around Doha. And certainly when I've seen some of the press clippings which are even posted out there, it's very encouraging that there seems to be greater interest this year, and that the Qatar Tennis Federation seems to have put even more effort in making this year more successful than last. Lastly from me, a big thank you to all of you. You are very important to us as a company and all of you have been very respectful in naming the Championships in its official name. It's made my life a little bit easier. Thank you very much for being with us. To summarize it all, what I'd like to show you is this video. This is a little bit of a glimpse in terms of what we would like to do next year. Hopefully it will give you a certain feeling of how we are discussing with Stacey and her team about our planning for 2010. (Video Shown.) STACEY ALLASTER: Thank you, Aldo. Well, it does keep getting better. We've had five years of a great partnership with Sony Ericsson. Certainly when I see that video, it is energizing. That's what Sony Ericsson has done I think to women's tennis. You've really energized us, provided great innovation and optimism. And thank you for believing in women's tennis. The 2009 Sony Ericsson Championships I think have been a great success. I'd like to build upon Aldo's comment where there has been a significant increase in the quality of the operations. And it's normal when you are in year two of an event. First year, the Qatar Tennis Federation was so focused on building a new venue. That is a big undertaking, building a new venue, bringing a championships of this magnitude, staging them for the first time. We, too, appreciate everything they have done, Karim's team. I think for me two other takeaways from this year's Championships. Just unbelievable matches. Long, hard-fought matches where our athletes were really grinding it out and giving it their best. A great way to finish this year with that level of play, intensity and competition. If what we saw this week here at the Sony Ericsson Championships is any indication of what 2010 is going to be, women's tennis is going to be really exciting in 2010. We've had a record number of international broadcasters take the Sony Ericsson Championships, which is great. We're increasing our coverage with almost 500 hours of live broadcast going out to the world from here in Doha. We're having record results on our digital and our website platform. You can see our future is definitely about going digital and using mobile handsets to be able to share content with fans. I am officially done with my first hundred days as chair and CEO. I think it's always nice to get through that. What I take away from the first hundred days, the 2009 year on the Tour, is an immense gratitude to the players for stepping up, delivering to the fans and sponsors, in a year that's critically important. That really comes from their partnership, together with the tournaments, with all of the changes we made to the circuit. The new Roadmap circuit brought a much more premium product to the market, player commitment. We went up significantly from where we were, players meeting their commitments at 80%. Withdrawals are down 34%. Really we're trying to say to the athletes, When you commit, it's a commitment to play, it's not an option to play. They really have stepped up. I think we rightsized the circuit and put our best events in the right dates. It has paid off. We've had good attendance. We've actually had an 11% increase in attendance for our premiere events, which we think is fantastic, particularly when you look at other events and leagues have done in 2009. We know how tough it's been. Prize money increased 34%. We had over $750 million of new stadiums open and showcase the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. All of that in a challenging economy. We had 51 events. We only lost one title sponsor out of 51, again showing the strength of the product for investors. 2010, as we look forward, we added three new events, added over 120 new jobs, new event in Kuala Lumpur, new event in Copenhagen. One change, our L.A. event sold, we immediately replaced it, and we'll be back in San Diego for 2010. Again, I think good signals for the strength of women's tennis for investment purpose. Really focused on two strategic priorities alongside of the circuit structure reform, and that's China and digital. I'll first speak to China. David Shoemaker is here, our president. He has been leading our China business plan. We opened the office in May of 2008. David has been there on the ground building the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour brand. We celebrated our first China Open this year, a new mandatory event with equal prize money. It was an overwhelming success. I had the pleasure of being there for a week. I can just tell you that there's great enthusiasm from the people, from the Chinese Tennis Association and the government of Beijing that tennis is a priority sport. That's great news for us because all of that energy and commitment will really grow women's tennis. It's a fantastic opportunity for our sport as a whole to have a strong presence in China, particularly when you look at what some of the other leagues like the NBA have been able to do to achieve an increased brand presence in that market. In addition, on the digital, an initiative that we're very excited about and proud of is TennisTV.com, which is our live streaming platform in partnership with the ATP where we stream together over 700 matches of live coverage as a complementary strategy to broadcast, trying to make our sport accessible and relevant to how fans want to consume sport, whether it be through traditional broadcast or through online. We launched a new website, much more video-based, and also developing our social media channels, which is, again, a key priority for 2010. We launched a Chinese website. In 2010, we'll launch a Spanish and a Russian-language website. All of that is about increasing our fan base, growing our fan base around the world, around the global, and really being relevant as a global tour to fans in their native language. I think we had a great year of marketing. We had some very fun and cool Sony Ericsson stunts in Canada, Madrid. ALDO LIGUORI: Miami. STACEY ALLASTER: Miami. That was great fun. The organization is in a good financial position, which again has been a priority for us. Last but not least, something that is paramount to the pillars of what Billie Jean King founded 36 years ago now, is gender equality. Our partnership with UNESCO is very important, continues to grow. We added Vera Zvonareva as a new ambassador to the UNESCO program. I think our team came up with something which I think is a great success, and that is taking our heroes, our superstars on and off the court, but also reaching out to the fans and asking them to vote for their everyday hero. We celebrated our everyday hero last night at the party, which I think was very special. So as we look to 2010, I must say I'm incredibly excited. There's no doubt this economy, we're not immune to it, but we have done well. With this product that we see this week, with Kim coming back, Justine coming back, Maria, together with our rising stars, you've seen Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, Radwanska, how exciting they are, our Serbian stars with Jelena and Ana, all together with Venus and Serena, the dominance still of our Russian players with Svetlana, Dinara, Elena, we just have a terrific opportunity. It will be a really exciting 2010. Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Aldo or Stacy. Q. What can you tell us about the renewal of the partnership? ALDO LIGUORI: Shall I answer this? STACEY ALLASTER: You take this one. ALDO LIGUORI: All right. I think it's the most commonly asked question posed to me these past 24 hours. Thank you for raising it here. Perhaps some of you know that the deadline to respond to the renewal is the end of this year. We still have a little bit of time left. I can certainly confirm we are looking at it very carefully. If you have been following Sony Ericsson these past several months, we've gone through some very important changes, including a new president having come onboard only a few weeks ago. So we are looking at our sponsorship seriously. We haven't made any decision yet, and all options are open. We will announce the decision alongside our partner at the appropriate time. That's all that I can say today because as of today we've not made any decision. Q. Stacey, the Roadmap has been an unequivocal success. How concerned are you at the end of another year, a streamlined year, four of your top 10 players have pulled up injured and were unable to complete matches? Are you still working them too hard or are you happy with what you've achieved in the last 12 months or so? STACEY ALLASTER: Well, there's no doubt I'll agree with you, the Roadmap has been a fantastic success. If you remember, we're asking the athletes to play 13 commitments, and they're down to 10. All of the data, sports, science and medicine data, supported that's what sort of the top 10 players had been playing, 10 tour events, four slams, and possibly Fed Cup. So certainly we'll continue to monitor the data to make sure we do have the right level of play because the health of the athletes is paramount. If we don't have healthy athletes, you know, we can't have a level of product that we want. I think what I'd say about this week and those athletes, in a new circuit structure, it's a new schedule, Caroline Wozniacki played over 90 matches this year. That's a lot of play. She played six internationals. She'll now move into the top 10. She I'm sure will be relooking at her schedule and the level of play that she can have. If we look at Serena and Venus, over this long career that they've had, they've been careful how much they have played. I think that is important, and they need to take breaks. That's why it was important in the Roadmap that we scheduled breaks. That is why there is a long break after Wimbledon, so they can take a rest after that grind on the clay and then the grass before they move into the hard courts. There is a longer off-season. We have two more weeks for them. Two weeks can make a significance for them. They have two good months that they can have a good break. Q. You talked before about Fed Cup would be one of the tournaments they should play, the players. STACEY ALLASTER: They might play. Q. Now we have Bali and Fed Cup the same week. One of the players, Flavia Pennetta, could not attend Bali. Next year will you change something? STACEY ALLASTER: We're working on that, yes. When we finished the calendar for 2009, we knew putting the Fed Cup final opposite the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali was going to be an issue. The Bali event is mandatory for those players who have qualified, but for a player who might want to represent her country, she could choose, so we wouldn't apply that rule. We knew it was a compromise. I guess we have learned. We have learned quite a bit from the Roadmap, that we should avoid that conflict for next year. Right now we're working through that issue. We're committed to not having a conflict next year. Q. Where do you stand, Stacey, on the principle of having more mixed tournaments? I'm thinking of the fortnightly events that the women precede the men or vice versa. Any thoughts on combining them for a fortnight like the Grand Slams? STACEY ALLASTER: The year-end championships? Q. Maybe events like Rome and Dubai, for instance. STACEY ALLASTER: Great question. There's no doubt we can all see the success of tennis when it's combined. Just look at the success of our Grand Slams, the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. I think today on this 2009 calendar, 40% of our events are combined or back-to-back. In 2011, we'll have more combined events. Rome will be combined. Cincinnati will be combined. Canada will be combined virtually. They'll keep their separate events, one in Toronto, one in Montréal, but the date will change. They'll be played in the same week, and they'll be virtually combined for broadcast. We do know that combined events are a great strategy. Six of our top events in 2011 will be combined. Q. I have a particular vested interest in Dubai. Any possibility of it happening there? STACEY ALLASTER: We have not had discussions with Dubai, whether or not they would like to be combined. Obviously, when you have combined discussions, it's a calendar also with the ATP World Tour that we have to take into consideration. If they were interested, we'd certainly have a look at it. Q. For a lot of years there was talk the Australian Open needed to be moved into February or March. Now that you're finishing your year earlier, is that sort of put to bed for all time, the date change at the Australian Open possibility? STACEY ALLASTER: Well, obviously the date change for the Australian Open is definitely something for Craig Tiley and Steve Wood at Tennis Australia. At the moment, the date change, they're playing where they're playing, and we'll adapt it to our calendar as such. Q. Stacey, considering obviously Doha has been chosen to stage such an important tournament as this, are you happy there's enough being done in this part of the world for girls to take up tennis? STACEY ALLASTER: I think the Qatar Tennis Federation is quite committed to women's tennis. Again, if we look at this, the first city in the Middle East to have a women's professional event. Having bid for the Championships and been successful, they definitely are using women's tennis as a platform to show that they are an open culture. Last year we celebrated having Billie Jean King here. She gave a clinic to young Qatari girls. Without question, we would like to see more young women here in the region having an opportunity to play this great sport. Nothing like a great event like this to inspire youth, both boys and girls, to take tennis. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. STACEY ALLASTER: Thanks, everyone. ALDO LIGUORI: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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