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BNP PARIBAS OPENMarch 21, 2010Raymond MooreCharlie PasarellINDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA MATT VAN TUINEN: Let's start. I just want to say thanks to Charlie and Ray for sitting down. Thanks to the media for all of your efforts throughout the week. They don't need any introduction, that's for sure. We'll just talk for a bit. Feel free to grab more breakfast. It's supposed to be casual. Away we go. CHARLIE PASARELL: Just real quick, I think we're having a great tournament. Weather has really cooperated with us this year. Looks like it won't get windy for us like last year for the finals. And amazing matches. I mean, we've had some real close ones. Bill and I were talking earlier. You know, everybody always expects, you know, Federer and Nadal to be in the finals, but that's just gonna happen very rarely as we know. It happens a few times, but not often. I think we've got a pretty darn good final today with Ljubicic and Roddick. Raymond, you want to say anything? RAYMOND MOORE: I think it's great. I think there have been some great matches. Really enjoyed the tennis. I think it's great to see Roddick and Ljubicic in the final. Very good. We have a respectable ladies final as well, two top 10 players, one who is former No. 1 in the world. So we're pretty happy. Weather is good, great crowds. We've got a new owner who has just totally embraced the whole tournament and is as excited as anyone I've ever seen. How about Nadal winning the doubles? I mean that's just great. And not only to see some of the top players trying to play doubles, but actually winning the title, and then Roddick and Blake actually in the second round almost beat the No. 1 team in the world. They went to 10-7 in the final set tiebreaker. So it's really, really great to see. I hope their trend continues. Q. From a financial aspect, I presume everything is as you would have wanted. Crowds? Attendance? RAYMOND MOORE: Yeah, I think up until yesterday I think we're gonna break the attendance record. Not by a whole lot, but we'd done 323,000 till yesterday. We did 333 last year. So if we have more than 10,000 people today, we'll break the record. And we have; we've sold the seats for it. So we know we're gonna break the record. Maybe we will get to 340,000 people, but we'll set a new attendance record, and we've set a revenue record. It's really been great. It's really, really taken on a life of its own, this event, right now. Q. What do you think it was - and I'm sure you had this discussion with him - that persuaded Larry Ellison to want to get involved and want to buy this particular tournament? Q. He means besides your charm. RAYMOND MOORE: Well, absent my charm and persuasive powers, (laughter) he is, firstly -- if any of you guys get a chance to ever engage him in a conversation, you will find -- you will confirm what I've been saying: He is the most rabid, enthusiastic tennis fan that I've ever come across. I mean, you sit and talk to him, and he's recalling matches from 20 years ago and this and that. When I saw Laver play Rosewall they did... He's unbelievable. He was talking with Charlie and I two days ago about Nadal and Djokovic playing in the Queen's final and talking about some matches. I mean, he is, number one, a fan; and number two, we like to think, and his history is that he has always purchased the best in anything he does in the world. So we think we fit in that category. He wanted to own this tournament. He was aware that because we're a privately held company that every year the issue existed that, Hey, someone may come and put an offer on the table that would move this tournament somewhere else. He wanted to keep it in the United States and in Southern California, Indian Wells in particular. He said, I'll buy the tournament; that puts the end to all of those stories. You know, he's coming down -- I'm amazed at how many matches a man as busy as he is - he's bought 54 companies in the last eight years - that he is here nearly all -- I mean, if there's a match he likes -- and you should talk to him. Charlie and I talked to him. He would fly anywhere in the world to watch Safin play. He loves Safin because he likes the way he plays. Just a fan. Total fan. CHARLIE PASARELL: Last night he sat there and he watched every point of that doubles match. I mean, I happened to sit with him for about a set and a half. I mean, the guy was unbelievable. Every point he was a little tidbit about this. It's amazing. I mean, and enjoying it to the utmost. It really was an unbelievably enjoyable match, that doubles match. He just loves Rafael Nadal, the way -- he gives you 100% on everything, no matter what he's doing. He could be playing marbles with you and he'll give you 100% effort every time. He loves it. Q. Did you all know him before? Had you met him at all before the approach was made? RAYMOND MOORE: Yeah, I got introduced to him almost four years ago. Just started talking, invited me to his house. I went to his house. All he wanted to do was talk tennis, matches, this, that. He really is knowledgeable about players, about technique, about politics, tennis politics. I mean, I was just taken aback. This deal that we did is actually a third bite of the cherry, because we talked about two deals before that went south for whatever reasons. But he came down here as our guest, Charlie's and my guest, several times over the last three years, incognito, just sat there in the front row. Just sat there watching tennis. Loved tennis. Absolutely loved last year's doubles final when Roddick and Fish won, and he stayed till -- You know, the doubles finals, I mean, you get -- most of the people clear out. You know, it was Saturday evening he stayed last year right till the end. Just absolutely loved it that Fish and Roddick won the tournament last year. The relationship just built. He got confidence in Charlie and I, and he said yesterday, he said, If I can just stay out of the way, this tournament is going to continue. He said, I want to stay out of your way. He said, You guys run it. And the condition of the deal was that Charlie and I stay for at least four years, minimum of four years, to manage, which of course we love, you know, because that's what we do. That's our passion. So it's a partnership that really, you know, is working well. Q. The original vision was for this place to be surrounded by restaurants and hotels and shops. Is that still around the corner? RAYMOND MOORE: Yeah, the developers that we sold the land to have gone through the sort of excruciating process with the City of Indian Wells; took two years to get the zoning and permits. They have that all. The plans are right next to the east side where Courts 4, 5, and 6 are. It's gonna be a 16-cinema complex; gonna be six restaurant pads; gonna be a retail village there. The only question is when. With the recession and the economy, financing for such a development is very difficult to secure, but they do have their permits, they do have their zoning. The plans and the land planning, everything has been approved. So they're just waiting, A, for the economy to improve and find someone who's willing to finance that project. Q. What about hotels? RAYMOND MOORE: There is a hotel across the road of Miles that's also been approved. Again, they had contracts with two different hotel companies, and they fell through. Financing for a hotel is the hardest thing to get right now other than financing for your house. So that's where it is. They're just waiting, hoping that the economy picks up, and they'll get increased interest. Q. So you said Courts 4, 5, and 6, that area, you don't mean right where those are? CHARLIE PASARELL: No, I mean behind it. Yeah, all that sand area that you see there between the fencing of our property and Washington Avenue, and then across the way on the other side of Miles. Q. When this happens, then you kind of open up the facility? Do you block it off from that? RAYMOND MOORE: We'll have an entrance. If you've seen there right next to Stadium 2, we've got that little gazebo, that round circle there. We eventually want that to be the center of the facility. So that road would extend into that retail Village. CHARLIE PASARELL: Very much so we want to incorporate, you know, the development there, and their plans fit right into what we want so that there will be on a -- obviously not when we have event time, but even event time we will have a gate there so people can come in and out of there. But even on a year-round basis, it will be a great thing for people to just wander around. Our vision all along was to - and that's why it's called Indian Wells Tennis Garden - was to build a park that happens to have some tennis courts in it. Obviously the stadiums and, you know, the bleachers is what you see. If you come here a month after the tournament when we've taken down all the temporary seating, you actually -- you won't see a fence any higher than four feet. It looks like a park. You actually have a tough time finding the courts. You know, we like that. We like that concept, and I think it will work very well with the development that SJR is planning to do on the other side. Q. The other day you were saying that with Ellison buying the event, the sky's the limit for the tournament and adding to the vision that both you and Raymond have. But for the next couple of years, are there any plans to develop aspects inside the present complex? CHARLIE PASARELL: At the moment, no. But, you know, we just closed this deal in December. Obviously at some point in time, Larry, Mr. Ellison, is really, as Raymond said, he only buys the best and he tries to make it even better. So we don't know how far he really wants to take it yet. But, you know, certainly it's gonna be a lot of fun for Raymond and I to figure out how we can, you know, expand the facilities in terms of buildings and structures. But I will say that anything we would propose to him has to be justified. You know, we're not going to go around and say just do it because it's nice to do it. We have to justify it, financially and otherwise. So Raymond and I have already started talking about, you know, what are the next steps of how to grow the event. We certainly want to make this the best event possible, you know. However high any tennis tournament can be, we want to try to get there. Q. Is it correct that he owns everything, not just the event but... CHARLIE PASARELL: Correct. He owns all the properties, the stadium, everything. RAYMOND MOORE: Bud, he owns us, as well. BUD COLLINS: You can't make all good deals. (laughter.) RAYMOND MOORE: Every deal comes with some baggage. Q. Could you envision this 35 years ago? CHARLIE PASARELL: You know, Raymond and I always dream big. RAYMOND MOORE: Hold on, hold on, hold on. You dream big (laughter.) In fact, I would say you dream extra large. CHARLIE PASARELL: No, you know, as everything we try to do, we try to just make it as the best possible. I know then when we play tennis, we all try to be No. 1. We may have never reached that, but certainly we try to do it. So I think in -- we apply that same kind of energy and enthusiasm and ambition to anything that we do. Yeah, I mean we want to try to make it as big as Mr. Ellison will allow us to do it. Q. What do you it says about the well-being of the sport when someone as rich as he wants to get involved in tennis? RAYMOND MOORE: I've said I think it's the biggest thing that's happened to tennis in a very long time, that a man of his stature and resources would invest in the sport. It can only bode well for everybody, not just us here in Indian Wells, but for the sport in general. I mean I will give you an example: the Hit for Haiti. That was his idea. It wasn't our idea. You know, Larry called up and he said that -- you know, he first said to me that he wants to see a match that involved Sampras Agassi and Federer and Nadal, and did I think I could arrange it? I first didn't think I could, and then he said, you know, -- then he said, I'll contribute to each player's individual charity if you can make this happen, and I'll contribute a significant amount of money. So then that morphed into -- because of the tragedy in Haiti, then he said, How about instead of the individual charities, let's just go for Haiti? We did, and he donated a million dollars. You know, that's not chicken feed. You know, he's owned the tournament for eight weeks and he did that. All I can say is it's very positive. Q. Couldn't bring it to Britain, could he? The LTA could use a breath of fresh air. RAYMOND MOORE: You guys aren't short of money at the LTA. Seems like you're short of something else there. But, no, he really is -- no, he's talked with Charlie and I, What do we do? He's speaking, yeah, in conversations with Charlie and I, about, All right, how do we one-up this year's Hit for Haiti for next year? He's already talking about it. So he said, What do we do for next year? So we've got our thinking caps on trying to work out and make it, you know, a traditional event, a salute to hero's night, produce one or two special matches. I'll give you another example, Stephanie Graf; she likes to be called Stephanie, not Steffi; and I tried to get her. He said, I've got to have Navratilova and Graf. I tried to get Stephanie and made three calls to Andre. I didn't talk directly to Andre, but the guy we had, which is Paul Annacone, was helping us. The answer was no. Sorry, we can't do it. No way. I haven't played. I don't want to be put in that public forum. And finally I told Mr. Ellison, I can't get Stephanie. He said, Give me the telephone number. Ten minutes later, Steffi was playing. CHARLIE PASARELL: Stephanie. RAYMOND MOORE: Stephanie was playing. He wields leverage and power in tennis that no one else has. So that's just, you know, just a little vignette of what he can do for the sport and wants to do. Q. Are you happy this year with television and online vote casting than the situation you had last year? CHARLIE PASARELL: Big improvement, yeah. We're very, very happy. You know, doesn't mean we're totally satisfied, but certainly I think bringing in the Tennis Channel to do it in addition to FSN, to do the coverage, it's been a very positive thing, as well as the online streaming, you know, which is a brand new thing that the ATP media is trying to develop, which I think is very positive. RAYMOND MOORE: Yeah, I think The Tennis Channel being there is great. You know, coverage 24/7 in addition to FSN is just great for the sport. Q. You haven't been able to move in the hotels without seeing the tournament 24/7. RAYMOND MOORE: I mean everywhere. We've got some clients in Mr. Ellison's suite. He was in Japan, and he said, I was there in a meeting and he said, Some guy was looking at it on his BlackBerry, which was -- he was video streaming it on his BlackBerry. He was giving me updates on the scores. So, no, it's really -- the sport is really moving in the right direction. It really is. CHARLIE PASARELL: And you know, it's -- I think there are so many good signs out there, certainly from this event. Our attendance is up. We're gonna surpass last year's attendance. Our sponsorships are up. But also I've heard from the ATP that also overall attendance at ATP events is up about 6 to 7%. So gotta be some good things happening, you know. You know, I don't think it's one thing. I think it's a combination of many things. You know, so we feel very good about it. Q. You say you're going to top last year's attendance. Do you have a ballpark figure of what... CHARLIE PASARELL: It will be around 338, I think. Something like that, I'm guessing. RAYMOND MOORE: Bud, you were out when we talked about this earlier. Up until the end of last night, we had 323,000; so we've got today. It depends on the walkup crowd. We know we've sold 12,000 seats already, so that would put us just above. It depends on the walkup crowd. And with Roddick and an American element in the final, maybe we'll get to a sellout and get close to 340,000 people. But it will be a record. Q. In the past you've spoken about scheduling and the nightmare that scheduling is, but can I ask why matches have been so late? I think there were a couple of nights where it was not before 9:00 or 9:30 or something compared to, from what I remember, previous years. In this area that also Neil raised yesterday with Andy Roddick about the older generation staying awake and stuff, why are matches so late? CHARLIE PASARELL: First of all, you know, obviously Palm Springs used to be an old folks place, or the Valley used to be, but it's no more. It's changing dramatically. So, you know, and Steve Simon can answer that question very specifically, but my guess is it probably had to do with television schedules. I don't know. You know, I may be totally wrong about that, but... RAYMOND MOORE: Craig, I'm mystified that -- 9:00? Are you kidding me? I mean, in Australia we see matches -- I saw a match last year that was on at 4:00 in the morning live. Q. No, I agree, but that's also... RAYMOND MOORE: And the US Open, that plays -- Wimbledon doesn't and the French don't, but the ones that do, the US Open and Australia, their matches are going way -- I mean... Not before 9:00? We schedule two matches at night; we try and start the first at 7:30 and the second one not before 9:00. I mean... Q. What I'm also getting at is in Australia as an example, they've brought forward the evening session to start early to try to get away from those really late-night finishes. But I think at the Open, US Open and Australian Open, et cetera, there's no not-befores. It's just a straight follow-on. I know the other night, the first match went -- the day session went late. First match of the night went late. So things just steamrolled, but you could have had the potential of a gap between the first and the second night matches happening if not before. CHARLIE PASARELL: One-and-a-half hours is not much. RAYMOND MOORE: But that's okay. I think that going forward, I think some one or two of the Grand Slams will learn from us on how to schedule matches. (laughter.) I don't think that's outside the realm of possibility. I don't think a match has ended after midnight here, has it? Q. Last year, 2:30. RAYMOND MOORE: No, no, last year with Nadal and Nalbandian. But this year, have we? Q. I think so. RAYMOND MOORE: I mean, you know, barely. Barely. I think the night matches work very well. We schedule two. First one is at 7:30 and it's a long match. The next one will be 9:30 or 10:00 at the latest. That works for us. Q. Do you have any idea how it works on TV on the East Coast? CHARLIE PASARELL: It's not just on the East Coast. We are -- I don't know. I'm just saying that a lot of the not-befores has to deal with television schedules, you know, and so it's not... RAYMOND MOORE: I mean, obviously we have to review all of this after the tournament and tinker with it. But right now, if you go back, we did the opposite of what the Australian Open does. We used to start our night sessions at 7:00. Now we're starting them at 7:30 to give us the little gap between the afternoon and the evening session. It works for our clientele. You know, people can have dinner, they have an early dinner, 6:00, 6:30, and they come and watch a couple of matches. It's worked very well so far, and we've seen it in our attendance. In fact, the biggest increase we've had in attendance has been in the night matches. CHARLIE PASARELL: Night sessions. Q. I think maybe also there is a difference in that the Australian Open maybe from memory plays three day matches on the center court rather than I think we've got four here. So there is that bit of the gap between the day and evening session so the evening starts dead on time. CHARLIE PASARELL: Right. They also play three out of five, which makes a big difference. Q. Last year you were commenting stylistically about the WTA matches and seeing them as, I think, pretty much using the same kind of style throughout. You said that possibly players could learn from Andy Murray the different kinds of spins he uses and the different pace on the ball. A year has rolled on. Are there any players coming up who you are seeing who are introducing new ways of playing in the WTA, or is it still pretty much the same kind of diet? RAYMOND MOORE: Looks to me like it's pretty much the same. I mean I've seen a couple of matches where some ladies have different styles, but I think Andy Murray is -- he is a tennis brain, I really believe that, in the way he plays. I think his style of play can only elevate the women's game if they did that. Because right now the women's game looks very one-dimensional to me. It's bang, bang, bang, bang, from the back. Very seldom do you see players, you know, coming to net or playing a lot of dropshots or using different spins like Andy does. That's sort of one of the features of Andy's game. CHARLIE PASARELL: One player - funny you mention the women's -- that I saw a little variation was Radwanska. She seemed to play some delicate shots at times and everything. The other player I saw, she hits the ball hard, amazingly hard for her size, but likes to come in and attack, is Zheng. Boy, she can really -- that was a great match she played against Wozniacki in Stadium 2. I actually happened to watch that match. You know, it's sort of interesting, you know, how the game sort of follows big players, you know. You know, Bjorn Borg sort of set a new tone for how to play the game for a lot of the men that follow for the tops spins and everything. I think somebody like an Andy Murray may be reintroducing a kind of a new, Hey, don't forget about hitting some soft shots and slices and all that kind of stuff. Actually you're seeing it in men's tennis today. I saw Andy Roddick do it; Nadal does it; certainly Federer has been doing it for a long time, you know, how they vary the spin and the pace of the ball. RAYMOND MOORE: In fact, today I think Ljubicic, Ljubicic does that a lot. He really varies the pace. I thought yesterday he played a brilliant match, you know. He used the wind all the time, and he was very patient. He would slice and just kind of keep the ball in. He was patient. Waited when he got his chance he'd go for the big shot. He played slices on the backhand, top spins. I love seeing that, you know. It's kind of like Rod Laver used to play. Rod Laver would chip, chip, chip, and then suddenly go, whoom, big. I love that variety in a player. Ljubicic has it, and he certainly showed it yesterday. Q. A suggestion to take advantage of the fact that there are so many former players, so many names in the Southern California area, why not bring in a former player either living here or in the LA area, San Diego, to handle the toss of the coin for the first match in the afternoon, the day match and the first one in the evening match, and make it something special, maybe even have a medal of the PNB Paribas Open 2011, that's the coin they flip, and they get that as a gift for having been here and started the day or evening matches. It brings them back into tennis, and the people that aren't maybe familiar with some of these names -- because they would be introduced and then on TV they would be explaining who they are and some of their records and so on. CHARLIE PASARELL: That's a very good suggestion. RAYMOND MOORE: We did that in the Hit for Haiti, because we brought in Rod Laver. And we actually tried to get Billie Jean, and Billie Jean is incapacitated now; she's has had both knees done. We tried to get Billie Jean to come and flip the coin for the ladies match. We did get Rod Laver, who flipped the coin for Hit for Haiti match. We also talked to Roy Emerson. So we have started that process, and the extension of that would be exactly what you said, flip the coin and all that stuff. We ended up having Mr. Ellison flip the coin for the women's match, so we did do it for a start this year, but sort of like in a sort of infantile way. We will get better at it and maybe do something like that. CHARLIE PASARELL: Yeah, I think it's a very good suggestion, Bob. Because in that same -- you know, the history of the game and the traditions are still very important for us. We want to make sure -- by the way, you know, with the exception of a few people in this room, that really do, you know, keep trying - I keep looking at Bud - try to keep reminding people of the history of the game. I think tennis in general has done a very poor job of keeping the history of the game compared to other sports. So we tried to do that, and you know, amongst the things we've done every year. Every single year we do it. We have in the memory of Alan King, we do the Alan King Tennis Passion Award. Every year we honor somebody. This year we did it for Tracy Austin, we've done Rod Laver, Billie Jean, Crissy, and Andre. We've done a number of players. So we, I think, perhaps as much as any other tournament or perhaps more than any other tournament, you know, we really pay attention to that. But that's a great way to try to, you know, not just bring a bunch of people every year and making it... Q. Maybe get Pancho. Could try but probably not get Gussy Moran and -- you know, there are some people that we remember that these kids don't know, but they should. RAYMOND MOORE: Bill Dwyer was telling me he remembers when he was watching Bill Tilden play. (laughter.) Q. I was pretty young, but I do remember. Couldn't that also be an option for next year's equivalent of whatever Hit for Haiti could be where you have Newc (John Newcombe), Firey (Fred Stolle) on either end alongside Roger or Rafa or something like that, and bring some of those old... RAYMOND MOORE: We have some ideas. We're not going to tell you what they are right now. There will be some nice surprises for next year. Q. For us sitting around for a couple of weeks looking for things to write about, those are great stories. If we knew ahead of time Rod Laver was going to be here such-and-such a time, I'm sure you put it out and publicize it, but really let us know what is happening and when it's happening, there are a lot of guys, as you know, sitting around LA who won a lot of Grand Slam titles. They just sit there. RAYMOND MOORE: No, we agree. We've tried to embrace them. We've started to bring them back here, as Charlie said, about the Alan King Award, and then with the Hit for Haiti we brought in Rocket, and Rocket has been here. I'll tell you, Mr. Ellison, the people he wants in his suite are the former players, because that's who he wants to talk to. He doesn't want to talk to captains of industry or anything. He wants to talk to players. That's his passion. We will begin to do that. Q. How about an American Tennis Hall of Fame? You don't have to be an American, but you have to have been vital to American tennis. Like a Dennis Van Der Meer Peter Burwash, people who have done a lot for American tennis but they're not recognized, and they aren't gonna be recognized. You have facilities here. You could have the Hall of Fame, the American Tennis Hall of Fame. You have the induction here, dinner. There's more people coming in. It could be a fundraiser. MATT VAN TUINEN: May I just say someone has to run that. (laughter.) CHARLIE PASARELL: Well, you know, -- sure. I mean, you know, Wimbledon is doing their Hall of Fame. Any of the other Slams? Paris? Q. The Australian. CHARLIE PASARELL: Australia is doing it. You have the International Tennis Hall of Fame. I mean, you could have a 15 Hall of Fames going on around. We have a Southern California Hall of Fame. So there's a lot of things that we could do, you know. I still think, you know, that the International Tennis Hall of Fame is the way we should all go. My opinion. But I think the International Hall of Fame needs to start doing things a little differently. My personal opinion. Q. It would be nice to recognize some people that aren't going to make it into the International Hall of Fame but have had a major effect on U.S. tennis. CHARLIE PASARELL: And that's fine. Southern California Tennis Hall of Fame does that. RAYMOND MOORE: They have a contributor category in International Tennis Hall of Fame. Right now they do. CHARLIE PASARELL: Bud is in it. Q. Nick Bollettieri didn't make it. RAYMOND MOORE: Well, we can argue. This is like a whole new conversation. I'm gonna keep quiet, because Charlie and I have talked about this several times. It just opens up a debate. We understand the point. Q. When you talk about growing this tournament and you're gonna talk to Mr. Ellison, what direction do you guys want to go for the next step for the tournament? CHARLIE PASARELL: You know, we have maybe 25 ideas, and we probably won't be able to do all of them, so we just have to kind of gradually start talking about where we can do this, we can do this, we can do that. We still, as I said, need to try to figure out how to justify every one of them, because there is an expense involved in it. Raymond and I, you know, we actually are even more protective about what we do now in terms of how much money we, you know, we need to spend than when we were part owners, you know. So, you know, you can expect some changes. I think, you know, we will tell you soon, as soon as we know, that it's gonna happen. We can't tell you anything that we think we want to do next year is gonna happen, because we don't know. Q. Is this Larry Ellison media shy? In other words, would he be amenable - too soon this year - but next year sit right up there and talk to us? RAYMOND MOORE: He may. He may. Q. I'm sure we'd all be open to that. RAYMOND MOORE: He may. And if it's the tennis press, I think he may well agree to do that. Q. He did it once already. RAYMOND MOORE: He did agree to do the Hit for Haiti; he did come in here afterwards. As, you know, some of the players didn't show. There had been an altercation during that. But he did show, and he sat up here and he did the press conference for Hit for Haiti. He's not averse to it. I think in the right circumstances he would, is my -- just an opinion. Q. $9 million in prize money this year? RAYMOND MOORE: Yes. Q. I can remember when you hit the three million mark. I was blown away, and the four million dollar mark. Here you are at nine million bucks, and there are other tournaments that just are struggling. For example, Indianapolis is gone now, as, you know, and LA is going into, I want to say, its second or third year without a title sponsor. I'm just kind of intrigued by how do you guys continue in this economic environment, with other ATP events struggling, how does this continue to grow? You've had some tough issues over the years, too. How do you continue to keep finding the type of money to bring in this type of event? How do you do it? RAYMOND MOORE: It's not easy. It's not easy. That's why we have staff here. We work 365 days a year. The tenure of our staff is admirable. The guys are experts, and we are cognizant every single day of cost of doing business. We are trying to think up innovative ways to stay the pace. In fact, the reason we came here from the Hyatt Grand Champions was exactly that. We could not have expanded at the Hyatt Grand Champions. We were landlocked; we didn't own the concessions; we didn't own the parking, on and on and on. We need to develop new revenue streams. That's what it's about. We have to be vigilant and on the ball, and we've got great staff. Steve Simon. We've got a bunch of people that are very creative. We keep hiring people. Our director of sales, Ralph Hoehn, who was a former sponsor in tennis when he was with Lufthansa has really elevated our selling strategy in terms of tickets. The way we sell tickets today is very different from what we did five years ago. If anyone ever tracked it. You'll see. So, you know, we're aware that the cost of doing business keeps increasing, and it's an issue. But if we keep drawing 340,000 people, we're gonna be okay. CHARLIE PASARELL: You know, just to add a little bit on that, we always -- first of all, we were prepared to make the investment, and we're lucky enough to be able to have the ability to make a big investment, build something like this, buy all this land, and you know, do all of the above. You do need to have the right stadiums and the right facilities to allow you to bring in the revenues that you need to to get to $9 million in prize money. Gotta have enough ticket revenues and sponsorship revenues. You have to have all of the above. So when we ventured on and we were still at the Hyatt -- when we built the Hyatt Grand Champions and the stadium there, you know, we thought, we're gonna be here for the rest of our lives. We soon realized after four years of operating that, oops, we're just landlocked, as Raymond explained. So we started back then thinking, where do we go? You know, if we want to grow this event, where do we go? We looked at all kinds of places throughout Southern California. We looked at Las Vegas, and we were lucky to find this piece of property. We were lucky then to bring in IMG, Mark McCormack, at the time to believe in what we wanted to do. It literally took a lunch to convince him, Let's be partners; let's do it. One lunch. We shook hands, and that was it. So, you know, it's just sometimes you have foolish dreams and, you know, they kind of seem to happen. So we went out and made the investment. We did have some difficult times financially from 9/11, the ISL bankruptcy, those were very, very tough years. We never ever lost faith on trying to build this event. We watched our expenses even closer and we cut down, but we never sacrificed the quality of the event. We never reduced prize money, by the way, even in those tough years. We never cut down on the prize money. Because we believed this is a long-term deal. This is not something we do year by year. We're not a promoter that does this for one year and then, you know, thinks about maybe do I do it again next year? We're in here for the long haul, and kind of that kind of philosophy and that kind of belief, I think, is what helped us, you know, build ourselves to where we are today. Q. Given Mr. Ellison is from outside the tennis world to some degree, and you've said you've got a four-year agreement to stay on with him, given all these plans and dreams and events planning, are you considering extending your four-year commitment already? RAYMOND MOORE: I am. (laughter.) CHARLIE PASARELL: We'd love to. RAYMOND MOORE: I told Charlie the minute that the ink was dry on the agreement, which is December 22, just before Christmas, and Charlie and I looked at each other, Charlie said, What now? I said, Charlie, we need to work for another four-year extension. (laughter.) Absolutely. I mean, we love what we're doing. We love the sport. We want to stay in it. Q. In the past you've talked about parking, maybe parking put a cap on attendance. Is that still your feeling? If you can remind me again, I think you guys said you could accommodate 25,000 people on the property. RAYMOND MOORE: TUP, temporary use permit, allows us to have 25,000 people. CHARLIE PASARELL: We can accommodate more than that -- RAYMOND MOORE: -- on property at one time. It's governed by the City and ordinances, and parking is an element where the City - you guys drive around - won't allow parking on the streets. None. Zero. So we have to have all the parking. And we have plans in which we've looked at all kinds of strategies to have off-site parking, bus people in, or even looking at surrounding properties if we can purchase it and build more parking. So we're absolutely aware of it, and it's -- like Charlie said earlier, there are 25 things we want to do. We're not able to do all of them, but parking is certainly one of the things. CHARLIE PASARELL: It's on the top of the list. Q. When you say 25,000, you can accommodate more, how much do you think you can accommodate? CHARLIE PASARELL: I'm thinking in terms of the area. We could be - and I don't know for certain - but we could be, including the Slams, the largest acreage of a tennis site. We could be. I'm not -- don't -- you know, I'm not certain about that. But we certainly are a very large acreage. We have 54 acres here. In 54 acres you can put more than 25,000 people, but it's -- like Raymond said, our permit is our only limit. It's related to those things. It's related to parking, you know, ability to service those people, everything from bathrooms, et cetera. But bathrooms, we're in pretty good shape with bathrooms, by the way. But anyway, that's basically what it's all about. Q. How cooperative has the City been in helping you guys expand the parking and maybe... RAYMOND MOORE: The City are very cooperative; the City are partners in this. They're very cooperative. Doesn't mean to say it's easy with the City, because it's not. They know what they've got here, and they want to preserve it. The City is renowned in California for having very, very high standards. Just when you drive in, have a look at all the setbacks, all the properties, and all the landscaping they require developments to do between the property line and the street and the winding walkways. They've set a standard here. There's not a neon sign in the City of Indian Wells. Q. Fast foods. RAYMOND MOORE: No fast foods, no garages. No drive-through alcohol place. If somebody wanted to buy this corner and wanted to do a drive-through kind of alcohol, the City won't allow that stuff. They're tough. But they know what they have, and they're cooperative with us. Q. Have they offered any solutions? I know in the past you talked about ideas to expand parking. RAYMOND MOORE: The closest I've ever come to being lynched was when I went to the City and I suggested that Wimbledon parks on a golf course next to them, and that we could use their golf course for parking. That's the closest I've come to being lynched. And I haven't given up on that. I will go back to them on that again. They've got a golf course that's very close by. But as I said, that's not our only solution. We've got some off-site areas we've looked at just to improve. It's all about improving the experience for everybody, for the players, for the spectators, for the press. That's what we want to do, and that's what we try to do. Q. You can tell them they park the day of the Rose Bowl on the golf course at Brookside, and they play golf the next morning at 6:00 a.m. CHARLIE PASARELL: Yeah, we know that. RAYMOND MOORE: I've been to the City, as I told you. CHARLIE PASARELL: Not once, not twice, but several times. RAYMOND MOORE: Anyway, you know what? I understand they just spent a lot of taxpayers' money on improving their golf course and they're not quite ready to have us park on it. But, you know, with the passing of time, sometimes people's attitudes begin to erode a little bit. Q. How long is your contract with BNP Paribas? RAYMOND MOORE: We've got another three years. It's initially a five-year contract with a five-year renewal option, mutual. Q. Could you please comment briefly about this year's wildcard recipients? What can you say about their privileges? RAYMOND MOORE: You know, every year it's different. And wildcard by definition, you know, we can do what we like. We get wildcard requests from all kinds of people. You know, we've got sort of some guidelines for ourselves. For example, on the men's side we had an Nalbandian and Moya, Carlos Moya, and we thought both of those, although they're not American players, really deserved to get wildcard consideration. So when it's either, you know, a great player or a player who's been injured, that's certainly one category. Then we try and support American players, because we're an American tournament, and that's how the pecking order goes down. We talked to the USTA. We have lots of conversations with them about their development program, who they want to see get a wildcard. We talked with Patrick McEnroe; we talked with everybody. That's the process we use. So, you know, you saw some wildcards here, a young American guy, 17 year old... CHARLIE PASARELL: Ryan Harrison, who won his first match. RAYMOND MOORE: He beat Dent in the first round. We gave him a wildcard. That's what we do. MATT VAN TUINEN: Good? I think these gentlemen have to meet people before we start at noon. Thanks everybody. Thanks, Charlie; thank you, Ray. End of FastScripts |
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