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TEB BNP PARIBAS WTA CHAMPIONSHIPSOctober 30, 2011Stacey AllasterISTANBUL, TURKEY THE MODERATOR: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, and distinguished members of the press. A very special lady I get to talk about right now. Stacey Allaster is the chairman and CEO, as you know, of the WTA, the Women's Tennis Association. Since becoming head of the WTA in July of 2009, Stacey has led women's tennis to global expansion, record revenue gains, business success, prize money increases, and greater broadcast exposure, along with innovative initiatives to drive the popularity of the sport. Named by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful women in sports, Stacey's CEO contract was just extended by the WTA through 2017, setting her up to be the second-longest-serving WTA CEO. Some of Stacey's major accomplishments since becoming CEO include bringing stability to the WTA and international growth, including major spurts in emerging markets such as China and now Turkey through the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships. Stacey has secured $80 million in revenues, brought five new sponsors to the WTA, including TEB BNP Paribas as the title sponsor of the year-end Championships for three years and renewed deals with Sony Ericsson and USANA resulting in a 60% increase in sponsorship revenues. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct pleasure to welcome chairman and CEO of the WTA, Stacey Allaster. (Applause.) STACEY ALLASTER: Thank you, Andrew. Merhaba. I am a smiling CEO for many reasons, not just because this is my last press conference of the year. Like the athletes, I too am looking forward to our offseason, but probably the reason to have the smile on my face that I have not wiped off all week is because of these great fans that we have had in Turkey. Turkey loves tennis, and the WTA loves Turkey. To everyone involved with these Championships, you have exceeded our expectations, and you have made the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships 2011 to be incredibly special for our athletes and for women's tennis. I thank the government, minister of sport, Suat Kilic, for his commitment, significant commitment from the country to bring our Championships here to Turkey, and in addition, our corporate partners. We are very fortunate to find not one but two title sponsors. To find and have BNP join our Championships was my dream. BNP Paribas is the No. 1 sponsor in our sport sponsoring Davis Cup and Fed Cup and Roland Garros and the development of the sport and so many of our WTA tournaments. But to have their brand on our crown jewel was my dream. It couldn't have been more complete to then have their joint venture partner, TEB, join our WTA family. So we get both. We get the best of a local company here in Turkey combined with tennis's global No. 1 sponsor. So I would like to take a moment right now to thank the president of TEB who is with us, the CEO, sorry, of TEB, Varol Civil. Please join me for a gift from our athletes. (Applause.) This, of course, is the image of the Billie Jean King trophy, and we have come so far with women's tennis since Billie Jean created this trophy for women's tennis, and we're so proud that it will now sit in your office as a memory of the great success and the great partnership we have had. Thank you. All right. Let's talk about the year. We started when we kicked off here in June. That's when the Bosphorus was bright and shiny. It's still bright and shiny but a few gray clouds at this time of the year. But it was a great day on June 6 when we announced our partnership and the athletes came, and we look forward to the next two years of coming back. 2011 was historic for so many reasons, not just bringing our Championships to this great country, but for the first time in the history of the WTA, we had 10 different nations represented in the top 10, 10 national heroes. The year started off with Kim Clijsters. I like to refer to Kim as the other working mom on the WTA competing and doing back-to-back Grand Slam wins, having won the US Open and then taking home the first slam of the year. I don't think there could be anything more historic in 2011 than Li Na becoming the first Asia-Pacific Grand Slam champion, the first in China, and 116 million Chinese fans watching Li Na capture her first Grand Slam. We have been talking about this generation of emerging stars, and Petra arrived in an incredible final, for those of you who had the opportunity to see her win the Championships, and we will be very fortunate today to see her for one more time this year. Good things happen to good people. Sam Stosur is a very worthy champion, and it was a great joy to see her achieve a Grand Slam championship, which has been one of her ultimate dreams. I like to pay tribute to Maria Sharapova who had a great year who worked her way back, will finish the year at No. 4. I was in Tokyo, oddly enough, when she was playing Petra, and she went down with a horrific ankle sprain. Forty-eight hours after that accident on court I saw the photos, and I thought, no way. There's no way she will be at the TEB BNP WTA Championships, it was so severe a sprain. But there's Maria with her tenacity, with her willpower, her wanting to compete here in Istanbul. She showed up, she did her very best, and I'm very grateful for Maria for being such a pro and giving it her best to be here this week. Serena Williams came back in shining glory as Serena does, winning Stanford, winning Toronto, getting to the finals of the US Open, a very long, hard year for Serena with a near-death experience. So for our sport, we know what she means to it. She is healthy, and I know she's looking forward to being in Australia to kick off 2012. German tennis, it came back. It's been 10 years, but Andrea Petkovic is now in the year-end top 10. And not only did Andrea break some barriers and revive German tennis but so did Julia Goerges, Sabine Lisicki, Angelique Kerber. Germany how has six athletes in the top 100. Very important market for us in the European territory. And a couple nights ago, back at the room, we again awarded Caroline Wozniacki the world No. 1 trophy. This is my second year in a row giving this young lady that honor. She's the ninth all time with such greats, 64 weeks, 6 titles this year, I think a 63 and 17 winning record, "the" most consistent winning athlete this year on tour and very worthy of being our No. 1. And we end the year with this group of the top 10. They're not in order, because we don't know the order right now. Today's match will determine if Petra or Victoria become No. 2. But we know for certain they will be 2 and 3. When we look at the athletes' performance, it all comes down to this circuit structure where we took five years to modify it after we knew we were burning out the athletes. The season was too long, and we ultimately couldn't deliver to fans and to sponsors. So in 2009 we launched our new circuit structure, the most comprehensive set of reforms in the history of the WTA. It's my compass, are we doing well week in and week out, and we look at it. And the shortened season, this streamlined calendar, more breaks with geographical flow around the slams is working. Our top player participation is up 24% at our premier events. Our injuries are down 18%. Injuries are part of sport. There is no question. We still have injuries. But are they down and are we delivering at our top events, are our fans coming? Attendance is up 12% at our premier events, we have more jobs, we had four new tournaments in 2011, and prize money next year will increase 8%. That's kind of the ultimate litmus test: Is the Roadmap working? The tournaments are doing better. Player commitment is being made. Prize money goes up. So in this worldwide recession, women's tennis continues to move forward leaps and bounds. The athletes will compete for $96 million in 2012. For those who don't know this photo, this is a very historic photo, the original nine. Billie Jean and the other eight signed a $1 contract in September of 1970 and said, We can establish a women's-only WTA to be commercially successful. At the time when we finally organized in 1973, there was $300,000 of prize money with 14 events. In 2013 our athletes are on the road to breaking the $100 million barrier. Our athletes in 2013 will exceed $100 million, so far from that $1 contract where Billie Jean and the courageous eight joined her to set our course. That part is working. Another proof point: Are corporations supporting women's tennis? Do corporations, like TEB and BNP, and Sony Ericsson believe that we can deliver the return on investment? And the answer is simply yes. Sony Ericsson has been with us for seven years. Our partnership is working very well for them and for us, and I believe the success that we have had over the last couple of years is really -- because this is a partner who gets it. This is a partner who wants a strong WTA brand and who has supported us all the way. I think I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that during this Championships there has been a change with Sony Ericsson where their partner, their parent company, Sony, has agreed to buy out Ericsson. It was a joint venture between Sony and Ericsson, and Sony, based on their strategy, has decide that had Smartphones need to be part of their portfolio 100%. So that has just been announced. We met with Sony Ericsson here. It will officially start on December the 1st. What it will look like is still to be determined, but certainly what we know is that we have enjoyed being part of the Sony Ericsson family and being part of the Sony family. Howard Stringer is very supportive of our partnership. Along this way, they've done a great job this year with Xperia Hot Shots. They could sponsor all of the top players, but they chose to help us market the up-and-coming stars with Xperia Hot Shots and work it in social media. We signed a six-year deal with Rolex, so they're in for a long time. What a great brand to have with us associated with the sport. Oriflame, you'll recall, those of you who were with me in Doha, I talked about Oriflame, we were in our first six months with them. They did renew for 2012. So again, that partnership in the European territory has been a success. I know the athletes are enjoying working with Oriflame. USANA took it to the next level in 2011. Originally they were supplying us with vitamins and supplements for the athletes that were within the WADA code. Very important that the athletes know what they're putting in their bodies is in adherence with WADA's antidoping. This partnership, they really saw the value. It's a multi-million-dollar three-year deal, and they've now signed on five ambassadors. And no one had a bigger smile on his face when Liezel Huber became No. 1 last night than Alan Bergstrom from USANA and of course watching Sam compete out there. Peak is our China-based apparel company that we signed in 2010. This was our first year with peak, and in 2012 they will launch the WTA apparel line in China and the clothing line for those athletes who do not have a clothing sponsor. And Jetstar, again, last year in Doha, I don't know -- I don't think we announced it in the press conference. I think we announced it a couple days later, because we kicked it off at the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali. Jetstar joined our family as the Asia-Pacific airline for the next three years. So what is in my crystal ball? What do I see in the future? I see me. As you know, on Monday we announced that the board had unanimously approved for me, for my contract to be renewed through 2017. For me, it's the pinnacle of my career. It is the defining moment and I would say what I'm most proud of. But I have the respect of my tournament partners and of our athletes, of our sponsors to want me to continue to lead this incredible organization. So along the way I will continue to work with the partners that we have. I know that TEB and BNP Paribas, Dubai Duty Free have many different options to spend their valuable marketing dollars. But I commit to all of you that we will continue to exceed your expectations, and we thank you for believing in our sport. In the future, there's no doubt this is going to be about multi-platform. This is no longer just about television as we produce and send out these incredible matches. We're very close to signing a new four-year deal. We'll start in 2013 through '16. We announced that the board authorized us to enter into an exclusive negotiating period with a digital company out of the UK called PERFORM. PERFORM will double the number of matches we are producing each year. We produce and distribute about 250 live matches a year. Starting in 2013 we will exceed 500. And think about the opportunities that we have to promote all of these national stars through these multiple platforms and to reach younger consumers who are not watching WTA tennis on television. They are watching it on their Sony Vaios or Sony Smartphones or on their Sony Tablets or other. It's going to be a terrific opportunity for us to really take it to the next level, and for us, of course, to give more brand value to our commercial partners. This globalization, you've heard me talk about it, it continues to be at the forefront as we look to take this almost 40-year-old organization from what started out predominantly in North America to truly having our footprint on this global world. China will be the epicenter of our global strategy. We have just signed a new six-year agreement with the Beijing Sports Bureau to continue to have the Beijing WTA office there. I use this photo, because when we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the original nine contract, we had a celebration in the company and our Chinese officer holding some RMB as a symbol to what Billie Jean believed in. So we will be there. The China Open is the foundation. We put one of our top four events in the China Open. Anyone who went to the China Open this year saw an incredible new $90 million retractable roof stadium that was launched. The government has made tennis, and in particular, women's tennis a priority sport, and the China Open will be the anchor. We will continue with having promotion of our sport. We've got a long way to go to educate Chinese people on the rules, on how to play the sport. So we will work with the CTA, and we will work with our stars in China to inspire and energize and ultimately get racquets in kids' hands. We know that these are the generation of next stars of the WTA and our next generation of fans. This week we will conclude the premier season on the calendar, and the final week will be the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali. This will be the final addition of a new tournament that we started when we launched the Roadmap. The Tournament of Champions will move in 2012 to Sofia, Bulgaria. The players were visiting Bulgaria when they opened this brand-new, state-of-the-art facility. It's been very exciting. We've seen what the TTF has done here this week with this Sinan Erdem, and I know it will be exciting being able to take the Tournament of Champions to this world-class facility as well. How do we increase expansion and reach our global goals when we know we must be disciplined with the Roadmap in the circuit structure? We can't lengthen the season. We can't put too many events in one week. We have to have geographical flow around the Grand Slams. So one of the new ideas that we have that we will launch in 2012 will be a new level of women's professional tennis, the WTA Challenger series. Prize money at this level of event will be 125,000, and it is meant to be complementary within our sports system. WTA international events are $220,000 in prize money, and the ITF circuit events, the highest level is 100,000. So this is meant to add opportunities for our athletes who are on the pathway to the international and the premier level of the WTA, at the same time provide opportunities to grow our sport in markets where we can't find a home for them on our premier and our international calendar. 2012 we'll do two. We want to make sure that we do it right, so there will be two pilot events. They will be in the offseason, and we have not established yet where they will be, but as you can imagine, there is great excitement for this level of product in China and within the Asia-Pacific territory. This year obviously has been a devastating year for our world. You know, I think about it, we started with the floods in Brisbane and we're ending with an earthquake here in Turkey. But along the way, our athletes have really stepped up. Here, in Tokyo, the PPO, the athletes came out in support again. I think being there in Tokyo was symbolic and important to show the world that Tokyo is safe and that they are rebuilding and are surviving the devastation that their country has experienced. And, of course, last night, together with Ayda and Varol and the athletes, we made a donation to those that have suffered so deeply here in Turkey. I thank -- I've always said it: This is my dream job, because I wake up and I market the best athletes in the world. Not only because of their talents on the court but because of who they are off the court. They are fantastic ambassadors. They understand how privileged they are to play our sport, and you heard Maria: We are very, very, very lucky to be doing what we're doing, and it's the athletes who stepped up this week and made this donation, together with TEB BNP Paribas. What does the future look like? It's a bright horizon for the WTA with bright, exciting stars who will, for the final time this year, excite us at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships. I am incredibly inspired finishing 2011 here in Turkey with all of you. You have been tremendous hosts. You have taken our Championships to the next level, and we will be forever grateful. We look forward to coming back here at the end of a 2012 season for the 2012 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships. I thank the media. It's a long season for all of you who have traveled on our journey. We wouldn't have the success we have if it wasn't for your commitment to cover women's tennis. So I thank all of you. Lastly, to my great WTA staff, we have achieved so much. We have defied the odds. Together, I hope that you're all proud of what we've accomplished together. Thank you. (Applause.) THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Serena, Venus, Kim weren't here, but tomorrow the world's top 3, the oldest will be 22. Do you see this as a bit of a changing point for a new future? STACEY ALLASTER: I think for almost the past 24 months we have been in this, the next generation is coming. We know that the current generation, when you're getting to 29 and 30 and having other interests like family, their sunsets will come. I think what's nice is we do have this great mix of established stars and rising stars that are emerging and proving themselves. So I think it's an exciting time. It's a dynamic time. And I think it's a reason that we have so much depth right now each week. Q. What's the situation of television viewers generally, those kind of figures? STACEY ALLASTER: Sure. I didn't want to duplicate maybe some things we would normally do week in and week out. Coming into this, our viewer-ship was up 73% and our broadcast hours are up 14%. I think it's a real testament to the athletes and the depth, having these 10 national heroes that are bringing to life markets like China, like Australia, Francesca Schiavone has had a great year, the Germans. So overall our broadcast hours are growing. Q. Is that because you've moved into new territories? STACEY ALLASTER: At the moment it's the same footprint of our international television with EuroSport being our mainstay, and we go country by country with our other markets. Geraldine was here from EuroSport. She said "the" most-watched women's tennis match in the history of the WTA was Agnieszka Radwanska and Andrea Petkovic during the China Open. Shows you the importance of the German market and the importance of these emerging stars. I felt pretty good when she told me that. All-time. And this new deal that we will conclude soon with PERFORM, doubling our match output, will give us so more reach and opportunity to increase eyeballs through these multiple platforms. Q. Historically the United States has always been a strongbed of women's tennis. With the Williams sisters not around very much anymore, that doesn't appear to be the case. And you talk about television deals in the States, it appears to be flattened out a little bit. Is that a concern for you? STACEY ALLASTER: I think Serena is I think No. 12, 12 or 13? And she's not going away any time soon. I think what we have seen in the United States overall is the USTA is very focused on Under-10 Tennis and getting kids to play. They're ultimately going to be the fans. The US Open continues to grow despite sometimes just having Serena or Venus coming to the end or injured, not playing. It's becoming an international world, and we are collectively learning how to market these international stars in the U.S. territory. Is attendance up? Yes, at our events. US Open goes from strength to strength. TV audiences are holding their own in a sport with so much diversity, probably very positive. We just signed a new long-term deal with ESPN. We're very committed to the U.S. market. It remains to be very important in our global strategy. Q. Can you give your perspective on the bottom line or business of this event so far? And also your assessment of the image that's been generated by the event so far. STACEY ALLASTER: Well, you here have shared your image to the world. Turkey has exceeded our expectations and taken this event to perhaps the days of being in Madison Square Gardens. I think I've heard a few times this feels like we're in New York at Madison Square Gardens where people talked about those were the glory days of the WTA Championships. So what has probably surprised me the most -- I knew we'd have full stands on the final weekend. I knew that Tuesday would be full. But it has just been each day to a new level. So, Ayda, congratulations, really. For you to have all of these people here is a great testament to your leadership. And hopefully over the next couple of years we can use all this positive enthusiasm to inspire more kids to play the sport. The presentation has been world-class. So overall this event has been very memorable and special for the WTA. Q. I don't know what the ticket structure is, but I've heard that they were purposely priced low so that the stands were full. Is that the case? Also, did they release more tickets? Because obviously the attendance has been higher than the quoted capacity of the facility. AYDA ULUC: Yes. First we thought that we will have spectators around 8,000 people or so because the capacity in here is like around 16,000 with all the back ones. But then we gave the tickets to be sold in Biletix, which is a prominent company. And then what happened is that we know that they have increased, the buyers have increased, and then we started producing more tickets. And then on the top level, in the 400 No. 1s, we had close to 1,500 players with the registered players free of charge. And we also, during this week, we have also organized the training camp sort of like a training camp for the trainers. So there were about 350, 400 trainers there also. So we have exceeded 8,000, and now we are -- I think the maximum, we had 12,800 yesterday. Thank you. STACEY ALLASTER: When I was here -- I think when I first toured the Sinan Erdem, it was during Istanbul Cup in 2010. I talked about this being the people's Championships. The reason that -- one of the primary reasons that the government, the Ministry of Sport, has invested so much in the WTA Championships was about building the promotion of tennis. So these Championships are important that the people of Turkey could come and enjoy it and become inspired by it and bring them down low. Don't put the corporate type like me front and center. Bring the fans down, bring the people down so they can feel it and get energized and ultimately want to play. Part of it, not only the layout of the stadium, but it was also the ticket-pricing strategy to ensure we had a full house. And for the athletes, nothing energizes them more than being in a full stadium of over 11 or 12,000 very energetic Turkish fans to spur them on to win. Q. The Challenger series that you mentioned before, you talked about two pilot events. How many are you looking at having longer term? And you mentioned China and Asia-Pacific. Does that mean Australia is perhaps one of them? STACEY ALLASTER: Could be. No decisions on where the Challengers will be. Obviously our good friends at Tennis Australia are working hard on development, so it's always possible. But we see it as opportunities to take it maybe to markets where we can't take a traditional premier or international event. How many do we see? I would say I can see eight to ten coming by '14. I think we just need to see how it goes. This is again meant to be complementary, building upon our premier and international-level events. Q. Last year the Mr. Jacobi, the president of IOC warned the whole sports world for Internet betting. Has WTA had any signs of maybe being affected by this problem? How can it tackle this problem? STACEY ALLASTER: Well, our entire sport, together with the Grand Slams, the ATP, the ITF, has zero tolerance for any gaming in our sport. We have a very stringent policy, good system in place, education. We have a video that all of the athletes have to watch to educate them on what shouldn't happen if someone approaches them, what they should do. We are steadfast, day in, day out, my team, working with the athletes to make sure that they're safe and protected and not getting involved in that aspect of what goes on. Q. Have you had any actual reports of athletes being approached? STACEY ALLASTER: Yes, that's why we have the tennis integrity unit. We have staff who go around and work at our tournaments, speaking to the athletes. We know there are cases where certain athletes have been suspended. We have had nothing like that on the WTA but in the sport, as part of it. But again, I think all of us involved in the sport have zero tolerance for it with severe penalties. The key for us is keep our athletes safe, keep those people out of our environment through our credentialing system and security. And if the athletes do get approached, they know where they can go to report such approaches. Q. Have the number of approaches or reports of approaches changed over the last year? Have they gone up or down? STACEY ALLASTER: I don't want to comment on those specifics, but I can just say we are diligent on it. We've got full-time staff who are flying, going to events, being on the ground and learning about these different cultures and who's involved and de-credentialing people. And again, education, I think, is the key for our athletes. Q. Similarly, one of the complaints many of the male players make is about drug testing, that they're always surprised at indecent hours of the morning. That doesn't seem to be a problem on the WTA. Is that something -- does it happen differently? STACEY ALLASTER: It doesn't happen differently. We're all part of WADA. The tennis anti-doping committee is all, again, all the governing bodies under one policy and implementation. Sometimes what happens at the national doping associations that are outside of our control, sometimes they can knock on the doors of the athletes, but I think the athletes understand it's a privilege to play sport. It also comes with responsibilities. Part of this comes with antidoping. We have extensive in-competition and out-of-competition testing, and we have systems in place where the athletes have to say where they're going to be, what hour of day so that they, if WADA wants to come along, they know during that window they can knock on an athlete's door. I think everyone -- we don't want cheating in our sport, and everyone understands that we're going to continue to be steadfast and keep our sport clean. Q. There has been an increasing amount of displeasure among fans about some of the noise that the players make when they're hitting the ball, and I think here we saw a growing course of players also expressing their displeasure. I'm just wondering what the tour is going to do about it, and secondly, is it even enforceable. STACEY ALLASTER: I thought we'd get away without that. (Smiling.) Let me say that grunting is part of our sport, full stop. Athletes hitting the ball as hard as they do, they expel, and there are sounds. Guys do it, women do it, been doing it for a long time. But at the same time I'm mindful of being very fancentric and listening to fans. It is factual that there seems to be an increase in fan communication to me about some of the grunting. I wonder if technology is enhanced so much with digital that the volume has been turned up? It could be a part of the issue. Some of the athletes that were playing today were playing many years ago, and we didn't have an issue there. For the first time at the US Open we had it on the board agenda to look at it, what can or can't we do? I think what is important is that for those athletes that we're receiving fan mail about in the offseason, we'll share it with them. It's a very sensitive topic. No one is doing this on purpose. It's the way they've trained. It's the way they hit the ball. The athletes are very ritual and habitual, and it might be such that this generation, this is the way it's going to be. But can we, as again, a sport, if this is a real issue, then it needs to happen for the next generation, the younger generation, and we will spend time with coaches to talk about it, to talk about why athletes are doing it, and does it need to be potentially at the volume that a few of the athletes are? And I can say to you I have not had one player come to me and complain, not one. It is not bothering the athletes. And we do have in place a hindrance rule. That rule came in place when Seles was playing, that if a noise is happening before the other athlete has an opportunity to strike the ball, the hindrance rule. I have not had one athlete to date come to me and ask if that is an issue. Athletes are talking about it, but it's not bothering them. Q. The figures that you showed showed the huge success of the Roadmap and the restructuring of the calendar. Have the ATP approached you to discuss how they're going to look at their calendar, or is there any desire to do so, to work together on that? STACEY ALLASTER: Well, we're always working cooperatively with our partners at the ATP. You look at 40% of our events are combined. If there was a magic solution to shortening the ATP calendar, they would have done it already. It's not easy. Many of our tournament directors that we work close with the staff, they know how we did it. It took us five years. This did not happen overnight, and Adam Helfant has made progress where there will be two extra weeks in the guys' offseason, but many tournaments -- you need to be fair, you need to find the right balance, and it needs to be done in a consensus kind of way. But we know that they want to make further changes, and I'm sure they're going to continue to look at it. Q. Have you had any contact with Venus Williams since the US Open? If so, how is she, and do you expect her to play again on the tour? STACEY ALLASTER: I was with Venus a week ago Wednesday night in New York for the Women's Sports Foundation dinner. It was a fundraising event with athletes raising money to give young girls an opportunity to compete with sport. So she was our guest there. She is healthy. She's her smiling, jovial self. She is in the gym working on her fitness and very focused, listening to her medical team on how to calibrate and manage this immune system, looking at her diet and so forth. She wants to play, looking at starting 2012 in Auckland. If anything, Venus misses not competing. So I know that she is trying very hard to get there, and she's been very mindful to not when. She's going to do this in a very disciplined way and be guided by the medical experts and how she's feeling. Q. Is there anything real on the table about combining the year-end events? STACEY ALLASTER: No. I'm glad you asked, actually. I can set the record straight. We are very committed to our calendar and finishing this week. We're starting to look for a home for the 2014 Championships. We even started this week. Would we like to combined? Yes. We know that combined events are very successful in our sport. When we were doing the Roadmap, when we were putting more combined events together, I can confirm we had conversations with the ATP about the possibility. That was back in 2008. Then when we launched the Roadmap, we set the course in a new direction. But if we could ever align the two calendars, if they could in fact shorten their season where our dates could be aligned, then we would look to have open discussions with them to see if a combined Championships would make sense for us and for them. Q. So for the moment it's a dream? STACEY ALLASTER: Dreams do happen. (Smiling.) I think when you look long term, would a combined Championships be great for fans? Yes. But in the near-term horizon, I don't see it. But I don't give up easily, and I am a dreamer and I do look long-term. Thanks, everyone. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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