Image courtesy of the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open
The Sony Ericsson Open’s tournament chairman Butch Buchholz and tournament referee Alan Mills held an impromptu press conference on Monday in Miami.
The topics discussed include the event’s record-breaking attendance, the reasoning behind match scheduling, and ESPN and FSN’s television coverage of the tournament.
Q. When you do have so many, obviously those are all marquis matches, almost equal, any of them. How do you decide which goes at 1:00, which goes after, what goes at night? What goes into those decisions?
ALAN MILLS: A lot of it depends on television requests. Certainly the women’s quarterfinals were all set in stone at 1:00 and 7:00, and then there’s requests from television for the particular players, and then they come to us and say, Well, this is what this particular country would like for their players, a time, and we have to put the time differences into attention.
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: It’s always a battle, but he’s the No. 1 diplomat. He gets us through that stuff.
Q. What’s your take on the ESPN situation?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Well, you know, they had been such a strong proponent of tennis. You know, they did the Davis Cup for something like 25 years. They were going to cut us from, I can’t remember, 25, 30 hours down to 8, and we thought it was better to try Fox SportNet to see how that works.
You know, it was pretty clear that — it looks like ESPN is primarily interested in the four Grand Slams. We don’t have it yet, but I know they’re working on it. They got three now.
Q. Can I ask one more thing about attendance? I think it’s up like 6,000 already. Can you just talk about, is it the weather, is it better marketing? What do you think is the reason?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: We’ve all been sort of playing with this. I think one of the things you would think about when you read about the economy, why is our retail sales way up? Why is our food and beverage way up? I honestly think it’s some residue from last year, because we had so many new things on-site.
You know, I think Sony Ericsson’s marketing efforts, a site change last year, new product with the VIP, the Collectors Restaurant. I think a lot of it is just, you know, I think a lot of people had a good time last year, saw new things, and it’s just word of mouth.
Plus, I think people make their plans to come down six months, year in advance, and, you know, I think our crowd probably aren’t as affected by the economy as maybe some other things.
ALAN MILLS: I think we have a lot more local people coming than they have been coming in the past and they can come and sort of make the whole day of it here, sit down, sit down, sit in the food court, go and have a drink if they want to. If they want to watch tennis they can go watch tennis. They can just make a day out.
It seems to be, apart from the tourists that come, people that make their plans six months in advance, I think there are more local people coming and sort of staying all day.
Q. But a lot is said and pontificated about marketing of this sport?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: The sport?
Q. Of tennis. What is the prime? What is the most important sell? Is it selling a TV deal or is it making the experience for the paying customer that walks through the gates?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I think it’s a combination. I think, one, the sport is star driven, so obviously we’ve got a lot of stars here. And two, I really think it’s the total experience.
We’ve worked very hard at trying to make it an entertainment event. It’s a tennis tournament, but we also try to have a lot of things going on. We want everybody to have a good food and beverage experience. We want them to have a good retail experience. We hope that our people that work here treat everybody nicely.
You know, we see our volunteers as ambassadors for our sport and for our community. I think it’s a combination of things. I really do.
Q. But television is right up there, isn’t it?
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: Well, television is important because that’s what our sponsors look at, and that’s how they determine what they’re going to spend on sponsorship.
So, you know, if that back wall is significant and with our international telecasts going to over 200 countries, when we go try and sell to television, we’re talking about lots of eyeballs, which translates to a sponsor saying this makes sense for me or it doesn’t make sense for me.
So that’s the important part for — from television’s point of view.
Q. How much is a good value? I mean what percentage of the time, if you don’t like a match, it’s a dud, you can move on where with a ticket to a baseball or basketball game. That’s it. If it’s a dud, it’s a dud
BUTCH BUCHHOLZ: I always thought that’s was the plus for the men and women together. You have years that the men are strong and the women aren’t that strong and the women are strong and the men aren’t that strong.
When a customer or fan comes to the tournament, he’s going to see the best that we have. I think that’s what the sport should do, put our assets in one basket.
Interview transcript from ASAP Sports
Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
Chris, thank you for your nice comment and for reading On the Baseline!