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WTA CHAMPIONSHIPS - DOHA 2010October 31, 2010Stacey AllasterDOHA, QATAR ANDREW WALKER: Thank you all for coming. At this time, I'd like to introduce the chairman and CEO of the WTA, Stacey Allaster. (Applause.) STACEY ALLASTER: Thank you, Andrew. It's hard, I think, to follow this video. But when you see that video, it's clear why the WTA is the No. 1 sport for women, and why in 2010, in a very challenging economy, we had one of the most successful years in our history. Before we start, I would just like to take a moment to welcome a few special guests. I have two of the WTA board members here who have made a significant contribution to the success we're going to talk about in 2010. Lisa Grattan over there representing the players, and does a fantastic job at working with the management team. And a new member, Markus Günthardt, who's no stranger to the tennis family, and he is the tournament director of the Porsche Grand Prix. In addition, it's always a pleasure to have our friend, Tim Phillips, and his wife Elizabeth, the chairman of the All England. Tim has been a long supporter of women's tennis. He feels it is important to be here for the season finale. I appreciate you making the journey, and I thank you in your final very days, final few weeks as chairman. You have made such a difference to our sport and to women's tennis, and we are indebted. So there we go. A year ago I was here, and many of you asked, As you look to your first year as chairman and CEO, what will your priorities be? I talked about having a nice, smooth transition, making sure that I connected with our members. I probably spent more time on an airplane and at tournament sites than I did at home, but that was important in year one. To reach out to the players of all ranking groups and to our tournament members, because ultimately the WTA is their organization. On the business perspective, I highlighted the digital international growth, circuit structure, and financial stability would be our priorities. We kicked it off with the renewal of our major partnership with Sony Ericsson, and that gave us all the wind in our sails. To have Sony Ericsson renew, such a terrific brand, perfect to help us communicate and promote an energetic product. We couldn't be more thrilled to have Sony Ericsson as our lead global partner in 2011 and 2012. There's no doubt, a new leader at Sony Ericsson, Bert Nordberg, who is incredibly committed, very energized, participating in our global advisory council. He has restaffed and reprioritized our partnership. It will be reenergized, and I think in 2011 you'll see some exciting now marketing programs specifically targeted on the young players who are in that 30 to 50 category, the next group of stars. That's fantastic for us, because we need that energy to help market and promote those future stars. But obviously there has been a change. They are no longer our title sponsor, but they remain or No. 1 partner. We will unlock our two brands, but our two brands will live together, wherever possible, side by side. As our tournament members from Dubai said this morning - Salah is here, the tournament director from Dubai -- we are still married. They are still our No. 1 partner. We will not have a title sponsor. And here I think we launched the new model, and you can see Sony Ericsson continues to be our dominate partner, and the new WTA brand has arrived. So Andrew kicked off that video with the new brand. I'm going to spend a few minutes and share with you the background on how we developed the brand. The first strategic question, what were we going to call ourselves? For the past 37 years, many of you who have followed our sport, we have been the WTA, the Kraft General Foods WTA Tour, the Corel WTA Tour. It's been all over the map. We decided to go back to exactly who we are: The Women's Tennis Association. In had 1973, Billie Jean King and approximately 50 players were in the Gloucester Hotel in London, and they formed the Women's Tennis Association. We decided first and foremost to be the WTA. That would be our hero brand, and then we would create a subportfolio of brands: WTA Tour, WTA Championships, WTA news, rankings, scores, WTA Premier event. I think in doing so, we wanted to keep our communication simple, and also create a model for commercialization so we could have revenue growth. We got the best of the best to help us design that new mark, Chermayeff & Geismar. They are based out of New York, long-time leading experts in developing iconic logos. When you look at their collection of brands that they have worked with, we were incredibly fortunate to have the principals of the agency want to work with the WTA. As Tom said, Stacey, it's not whether you like or dislike the logo. Will it work? That was our guiding principal through the process. Because it is a very subjective exercise. There are things that we like and things that we don't like. But will the brand mark work across all of the multiple mediums that we have? The first component then was we were going to put a shape around it. 90% of the time we're not in control of our brand. We give it to our tournaments, to our commercial partners, our broadcast partners. It needed some type of framework. They got their inspiration from electronic line calling where the ball mark leaves it. In addition, the ellipse also is the shape of a tennis racquet. We then looked at the competitive landscape for which we compete in, and it's all over the map. You have logos that are square, rectangular, logos that and include a silhouette of the athlete, and those logos that do not. When we look that portfolio, does our brand stick out through color and boldness and shape? Yes. When we make it smaller, which in the world that we now live in today with mobile communication and digital platforms and through television graphics, it needs to be really effective within a small framework. So we knew even in a small execution it was going hold its weight. From there, the big debate: Do we need have to the silhouette of the athletes? At the end of the day, this mark is just a mark. We don't love the FIFA mark because it's a great mark; we love FIFA because it's the best football in the world. Our brand comes to life through these amazing athletes; and 98% of time, this mark will not appear without the product, without the athletes. It's always in context. And where it's not, we'll work to help in the early days of communication. So there you see it on court. Those that have been with us all week have seen it at the tennis center. There you see it in advertising execution. Really, we want to celebrate the product, not let the mark be the centerpiece. Our athletes and our tournaments are the centerpiece. From there, the next component was commercial. This is about driving the business. How are we going to have our own identity? Is our intent to not sell a title sponsor? Give Sony Ericsson the value that they need and deserve, but still allow our mark to sit side by side, but let them be the hero. So here you saw the execution, that it works very well. We presented the board the option of the silhouette with the athlete, but all of a sudden it's getting very busy in the commercial space, and also in the media space. So we've gone with this very simple, bold, energetic -- obviously the colors here, I'm working it. (Laughing.) It all comes together and lets the communication speak for itself. Then came a whole new commercial model. You see here that Sony Ericsson is our lead global partner, and now comes the opportunity to sell new partnerships. In 2010, not only did we renew Sony Ericsson, we secured three new sponsors. We had not secured a new sponsor in six years. I think that had everything to do with the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Because when you have such a dominant brand, it is much harder to attract other brands to want to partner. So this new commercial model has, in fact, delivered more revenues that we had with Sony Ericsson as the title. So we are stable and we are growing, and we've got great momentum in our sales. So we kicked it off with a new relationship with Oriflame, a Swedish-based cosmetics company. You saw them here launching. They'll be at the majority of our European tournaments, they'll be at our Dubai tournament, and as well, they're going to be very much part of our off-court presentation of the athletes. It's something that they enjoy, the special makeup artist that was flown in for the party. Those that have seen the pictures, the ladies did look spectacular. The WTA clothing line will launch in 6,000 retail outlets in 2011 in China, with our new partnership with Peak. Peak is a Chinese-based apparel company with global aspirations, performance, and style. They're focus at first will be on China. They work with NBA China, so it's a great brand to now partner with the WTA. When you're launching a new brand and wit China being an important strategic market for us, what better partnership to have to be able to have our brand in 6,000 retail outlets in a market that is incredibly important to the future of the WTA. Our third partnership, I really would like to tell you, but I can't. It is signed, and it will be announced in the next couple of weeks. That's the good news. In addition, I am quite confident to be able to say to you today that by the end of 2010, not only will we have renewed Sony Ericsson, three new sponsors signed. I think we will have at a minimum one more, possibly two more sponsors of women's tennis. That would be five new partners in one year combined with the renewal of Sony Ericsson. In this global economy that has been challenging, women's tennis has gone forward. We talked about the business. Our tournament business is weathering the storm quite well. Our tournament promoters, they know how to handle challenging times. They're excellent promoters in giving value of our 53 events. We had seven new title sponsored join the WTA family; out of those 53, we only lost one title sponsor, which is really quite amazing. Attendance has held its own. We've got a little bit of growth in our premier events. Contrary to come of our other leagues where we are seeing double-digit declines, we feel really proud that women's tennis and our tournament partners have held they're own on the attendance side. As it relates to television, global coverage of women's tennis, 15% increase in the number of hours that we've seen cover women's tennis. Why? I think it's because of that depth of athlete that we've been talking about all year. Eight players from different nations in the top 10. That has created new stars in global markets, and created more demand for WTA. Digital being a key focus of our growth strategy, a 40% increase on wtatour.com. We need to work out and get our URL back. Somebody else owns it, but we're going to do our best to be wta.com. But a 40% increase there. A mobile website launched. A Spanish website launched. And then the whole world of social media. Five million fans now connected with our players and the WTA. It's an increase of 1.5 million fans. I'm pretty confident with the ambitious digital team that we have in London - and also in China - that we will be talking about record growth. It's a fantastic platform for women's tennis to live, and for our partner, Sony Ericsson, and our new partners, to communicate with fans. We go to our international growth strategy. Asia-Pacific is the priority, and specifically China. You know that in 2009 we put one of our four mandatory events in Beijing. There is the incredible Olympic stadium that was built, and now is the home of the China Open. Next year when I'm here, I'm going to be able to show you a new 15,000-seat, retractable roof stadium. Laura Ceccarelli is smiling, a supervisor. It is absolutely amazing what the Beijing government and the China Open are doing for our sport. At the press conference there in Beijing, Chairman Yabin said to me, Stacey, what took tournaments 20 or 30 years to build, we're going to to build it in four or five years. They are incredibly ambitious. They have made women's tennis a priority sport, and that is just simply fantastic for the WTA. We have an office in Beijing. We're two and a half years into it. It has been led by David Shoemaker, our president. I don't know where Dave is. He's done an incredible job. He's now back in St. Pete with me, thank goodness, but he's still overseeing this very important strategic growth project for us. We have taken a play right out of David Stern's playbook from the NBA. We need to excite kids about our sport. We need to get racquets in their hands and show them our sport is fun through tennis festivals throughout the country. That's created an opportunity for our brand, and also assets for our partners, like Peak. We have a lot education to do. We're going to work with the Chinese Tennis Association to educate the Chinese people on our sport. Even a simple thing as how to score the game. And being on the ground and in the market is a great advantage to us. And then we have the local heroes. Where our team week in, week out is promoting back to the Chinese fans their stars. And what a year the Chinese players had, making the semifinals in Australia, Li Na being the first Chinese woman to crack the top 10. As David has said, it's not a matter of if there will be a No. 1 female Chinese player in the world, it's just a matter of when. The circuit structure really has been a beacon of focus for me. You know, in 2009 we launched the new circuit structure. We call it the Roadmap. It was the most extensive set of reforms in the history of the WTA. It was about streamlining our calendar and shortening the season. Together with the players and the management team and our board, we are all thrilled that tonight at about 10:30 the 2010 season will be over and we end with two months off. That is great for the athletes. Better geographical flow around the Grand Slams with the surface and the climates. Very important for the overall health and well-being of the athlete, and giving them some breaks in between. Is it working? Absolutely. Compared to where we were in 2008, withdrawals are down 35%, and our top 10 players are committing at 84% to our top events. We never said the Roadmap would be without injury. There is going to be injury in sport, particularly when you have 40 weeks on a very demanding and grueling calendar. But if we look at I think the injuries that are on everyone's mind - Serena, Venus, Justine - those injuries are not from overplay. They are not because of the demands on the circuit where we've asked now the top 10 players to play ten, they have each of their own individual reasons for why they're not with us here in Doha. So I in the circuit structure as the whole remains the centerpiece for the board. We need to monitor it and we need to make sure that our athletes are healthy so that we can, on a consistent basis, deliver our top players to our top events, because ultimately they're going to drive the sport. Now we come to these unbelievable athletes on and off the court. Incredible role models for women's tennis. We've had some great moments in 2010 where we celebrated a new No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki. She is a bright, young, smart, and charismatic star. We are thrilled to have her as our No. 1 , and we celebrated that with her in Beijing. She is only the 20th woman to be world No. 1. She game came into the WTA Championships, and pressure was on, no question. She was tested, and she proved why she is deserving of that No. 1. She takes home at the end of this week the world No. 1. As we journey through 2010, I think some of the highlights. Sam Stosur's performance has been incredible, and she really rose up. This has been a hard-working player. It's fantastic to have her here at the Championships, and we will all remember her run at Roland Garros. Who will ever forget probably one of the most inspirational Grand Slam finals. Elizabeth is smiling away, because that's all you can do. Francesca Schiavone; 30 years old; a fantastic athlete for years and years, and her dream came true to win on that beautiful red clay, and to see how much she enjoyed holding that trophy. The first Italian to ever win a Grand Slam. She is now the national hero in Italy, and she is national hero of our sport in Italy, and had great marketing now forever more. Women's tennis will have gone to a new level because of that result. That's a storybook. You know, how amazing to have Kim Clijsters back on the WTA. How amazing to have this working mom prove to everyone that you can be successful in your career and be a mom. And to win back-to-back US Opens, it's just incredible - and to win the Olympus US Open Series. How fantastic to have her and our No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki to finish off the season. Also for the season, Vera Zvonareva, a great, great year. As an athlete, also hard working, very, very bright. Worked her way back through injury; finishes her year at No. 2; back-to-back Grand Slam finals. Losing a Wimbledon final has got to be devastating. Most athletes might not be able to pick themselves back up. Vera totally dug deep and got herself into that US Open final. As Kim said to her, It took me four times. I believe she will win herself a major, and also another great star for us in the Russian market. Those of you who were with us the other evening when Elena Dementieva announced her retirement, it was Vera who stepped forward on behalf of the players. She was quite emotional, but she gave a very heartwarming speech to her countrywoman and to someone she greatly respects. Now we come to the 2010 Championships, our final year here. I have been asked throughout the week, What has Doha, what has Qatar done for the Championships? I said on Sunday night for those of you who were with us, when the history books are written, the history books in this decade will say will say it was Qatar that took the WTA Championships to equal prize money and set a new value for the WTA Championship. As we go to Turkey next year, we will have equal prize money there as well. Often in my -- now I'm getting to 20 years of being involved in tennis. That can't be possible. I don't know how that has happened. I'm often asked, What are your favorite moments? By far this, is my favorite moment in 2008, our first year the Championships, where Sheikha Moza presented the Billie Jean King trophy, with out founder in the background to our modern day Billie Jean King, Venus Williams. For me, this is the essence of Billie Jean King's dream. Three women from different cultures being fantastic global ambassadors to inspire youth around the world in a variety of different ways. That is definitely a key memory of our visit here in Doha for the Championships. The Qatar Tennis Federation has worked hard on staging each and every year with a spectacular closing ceremony last year. I know they have a special surprise planned this evening for us. There has been an investment in stadia, which now gives a great platform for our WTA premier event to return to the calendar in February. I would now officially like to thank the Qatar Olympic Committee, the Qatar Tennis Federation, with Nasser Al Khelaifi, the president, and Karim Alami, the tournament director, for three fantastic years here. We've seen the Qatar 2022 bid throughout the week. Their theme is, "Expect amazing." Our three years here have been amazing, and I would tell the FIFA bid committee that Qatar will deliver. So we have been very fortunate. This is the not the end of women's tennis here. They started in the Middle East, and the WTA premier event will come back on the calendar in just a few months' time in February. There we go. And now we look forward to 2011 to 2013 in an incredibly exciting country and an incredibly exciting city, Istanbul. We have with us Ayda Uluc, the president of the Turkish Tennis Federation, Asaman Turell (ph), vice president of the Turkish Tennis Federation, and we have the full support of the Turkish government. Jengus (ph) is there as well, and another vice president of the government. They had a large team here; they are very committed to staging a fantastic Championships. I participated in a meeting this morning. They gave me Word documents about this thick. The planning is well underway. They have appointed Markus Günthardt, one of our finest tournament directors, to be the tournament director of the Championships. So we are incredibly excited to be going to Istanbul, and we thank for all of your support. Some of you of said, What will be different? We'll be an indoor Championships. We will be in a world-class facility, the Sinan Erdem, that was used for the 2010 FIFA World Championships this past summer. It will create an opportunity for a different kind of staging and presentation. Today in our meeting, we made a very important decision: The overall theme and strategic goal of our Championships, this will be the People's Championships. The Turkish Tennis Federation wants to use the Championships as a way to inspire more Turkish people of all ages to enjoy this great sport. So we will be able to configure the stadium with a commercial model that is sound, but to ensure that we can bring the people down courtside. Rather than it just being those corporate boxes courtside, let's bring the fans and people down. They get to do that at Wimbledon, and there's nothing more exciting that when we see that one section of the stadium with all of fans being totally into the event. So that's our ultimate goal, and I believe that we're going to have an incredibly exciting WTA Championships in Istanbul. A year from now, we'll talk about these priorities. This will be the focal point for the WTA 2011. The circuit structure, again, right at the top of the list. Commercial, nurturing those sponsors that we now have secured, and growing or business. Digital, international, and the 2011 Championships first time staged in Istanbul. It's been an incredible year. I thank my management team who are here and all of the staff. Women's tennis would not be where it is without their incredible dedication. And the athletes and our tournaments, they really have proven time and time again why we're the No. 1 sport in the world. Thank you. (Applause.) I will take a few questions. Q. Talk about the ranking No. 1. The problem always with No. 1 without Grand Slam. You say before we are pushing the WTA brand. Why you're not pushing WTA ranking? Because when we, the media, we write ranking No. 1, it's like not only WTA, but when you have someone like Serena Williams playing three Grand Slam, winning three Grand Slam and playing three WTA events, everybody say, Oh, she is the really No. 1. But she's playing the WTA ranking, so why you're not pushing also WTA ranking? STACEY ALLASTER: Well, this debate has gone on for ever, and probably will. The ranking system is a combination of Grand Slam results and WTA results over a 12-month period. We couldn't have one without the other. The Grand Slams definitely deserve more ranking points. And so at the end the day, it's all about meshing through results at the slams and on a 12-month basis the consistent performance. Sport has a variety of different goals that the athletes want to achieve. World No. 1 is one of those. The majority of world No. 1s have in fact won majors. There have been a couple in the recent history that have not. Kim Clijsters was world No. 1 and hadn't won. So I think the athletes themselves, they look at Caroline as incredibly inspired to be the No. 1 player in the world. She has earned it. She has won more matches than any other athlete over the 12-month period of time, and she sets her sights on winning a major. Those will be new milestones for her. Q. Your predecessor, Larry, was a great believer in joint events with the men's tour. There was a lot of talk a few years ago about the year-end Championships and the ATP Championships joining together and being held at the same time at the same place. Now obviously you've got three years at Istanbul; the ATP have got another four years in London. Is that still on the agenda, or is that forgotten now? STACEY ALLASTER: Well, it's never forgotten to where we can cooperate with the ATP. In 2011, 20 of our events will be combined, and six of their Masters Series will in fact be combined with our top, premier events. So we're working very closely together. On the Championships, it's a hard one. Their calendar is too long. We want to finish at the end of October. So if they can perhaps achieve their goals to shorten the calendar, perhaps that will bring us closer to that potential reality. We're going to start working on where the Championships should be for 2014 early in 2011. I definitely will have a conversation with Adam to see where his thoughts are. I think at the moment, the biggest issue is our calendar, when we finish, and their calendar. You're being very easy on me on this Championships Sunday. (Laughing.) Q. If you take Caroline Wozniacki sort of out of the equation age-wise, I suspect the average age of the players in the top 10 is around about 25, 26, maybe even older. Are you thinking at all of revisiting your age eligibility rules to give younger players opportunities to come through, or is it now set in stone that they're going to stay as they are? STACEY ALLASTER: That's a great question, Neil. The age eligibility rule has been in place since 1994, and it is reviewed every year by a group of independent medical advisors who specialize in female adolescent growth and development, particularly those who are young and living in an adult world. We take their guidance always on the amount of professional play for those young superstars. I will take a 15-year career any day over a premature burnout. I think if we look at the success we're having commercially, to have these athletes have long careers and sustainable careers is great in their home markets, and is great for us on the global stage. It also gives us athletes who have that maturity to deal with it on the court and off the court in the commercial reality. Q. Will there be any change in the calendar? STACEY ALLASTER: No, no change. The change will be that Dubai will take place, and then Doha will follow. I think we -- remember we talked about the calendar being about geographical flow. So if we're going to bring the athlete to the Middle East, let's bring them for two events. So I think it will bring great celebration to women's tennis in the region. We'll kick it off with Dubai, and then the athletes can flow here to Doha. Q. We know that if nothing on TV, it doesn't exist, any event, if you don't watch it on TV. So this year, there was better coverage from some international events than premier events, because you could see from the first match to the end. One of the premier events, especially US Open Series, we watch maybe five matches, not more. Are you doing anything to improve this? STACEY ALLASTER: I think the whole component of exposure for women's sport is television and the conversions with digital and live streaming, and where the production is getting more cost efficient with live streaming, we don't perhaps have to stream matches to the same production quality as television. I think the digital world is going to give us great opportunity to have all of those matches being shared with those fans that want to see them. We have tennisTV.com portal right now. It is a joint initiative with the ATP. It's a platform to start. It has to find balance with our broadcast rights. As we look to our new TV strategy, it's definitely one of the components that we're looking in. Production values, optimizing our exposure, and reaching more fans internationally. Q. On both the men and women's circuit the last few years, it seems that the surfaces and the conditions of play have slowed down tremendously. I don't say it's a good or not a good thing, but it seems like there's less and less tennis on faster conditions. Even Wimbledon I think since 2002 has magically slowed down its conditions. Is that at all on the agenda? Is there any concern or thoughts about? STACEY ALLASTER: Well, I think, again, the health of athletes is paramount. I think all of us in the sport, the stewards and the guardians of the sport, are always looking at the technology, the balls, the court speed, as components of presentation of the product, and also the impact on the athletes. Tim and I were talking last night about how great racquet technology has been for women's tennis. Maybe as they've improved as athletes and embraced the use of the technology where they're hitting the ball so hard, perhaps it is slowing down the court a little bit, to make sure that we have engaging rallies. We don't want to just have those one- and two-point rallies. So I would say all of these elements are always important to look at. I know our sports science and medicine people are tracking injuries based on balls and the court speed. We'll keep an eye on it to see if the speed that we currently have is the right speed for the overall health and presentation of the product. Q. Probably the most debated thing is a certain cut foot that has been going on and on and on. For a long time, there was a degree of secrecy about it all. The tennis world in general thought, What on earth is happening here? Have you had conversations with Serena about perhaps being a little bit more open about everything? Because she does have a responsibility as the most recognizable female tennis player in the world. Have you spoken to her about this sort of situation? STACEY ALLASTER: We haven't spoken directly with Serena, but we certainly have spoken with Serena's camp. I think Serena is a very private person, and she's chosen to manage her career the way in which she wants. But to your point, she does have a responsibility. I think she accepts that responsibility. When she had to announce that she could not go to Linz, we worked with her team - Andrew worked with Jill Smaller, her agent, to say, Let's share that the surgery didn't work and that you have to have another procedure. So, yes, in fact, it's something that our board has discussed. Because the more we can share about the athlete's personal situations as it relates to injuries, I think that will help the fans understand why that particular week an athlete perhaps is injured and isn't able to make her commitment. So it's something that the board is actually going to look at. We have to find that balance of their privacy in injuries, because if you share too much, that perhaps gives their competitors an edge. So it's finding the right balance for them to maximize their competitiveness, but also or collective responsibility to fans. Q. You mentioned about your China focus. STACEY ALLASTER: Yes. Q. Are you worried that there are no woman players coming up from this region particularly? STACEY ALLASTER: Oh, coming up from this region? Q. Yeah. STACEY ALLASTER: Well, this is going to take time. I think after each match, we've seen the young Qataries playing with the stars. I know the Qatar Tennis Federation will, in fact, be sending one or two of them to the Bollettieri Academy. So it takes time, athlete development. Even in developed countries who have been doing this for many, many years, they don't have current top 100 players. So it's a step at a time, finding a few diamonds in the rough, and then nurturing those. Having professional events like the Championships, and then the women's event in February, provides good inspiration for young girls to think that maybe one day they could be on center court here. ANDREW WALKER: Thank you very much. We've got lunch served in the back. STACEY ALLASTER: Thanks everyone for all your support. Have a great off-season as well. We look forward to seeing you in 2011. (Applause). End of FastScripts |
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