WEBVTT - USTA's Zausner: New Retractable Roof Used For First Time(Audio)

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<v Speaker 1>Global business news twenty four hours a day at Bloomberg

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<v Speaker 1>This is a Bloomberg Business Flag, Bloomberg World Headquarters. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>Charlie Palot of the Dow and the SMP five hundred index,

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<v Speaker 1>of one percent. I'm Charlie Paloton. That's a Bloomberg Business Flash.

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<v Speaker 1>You're listening to Taking Stock with Kathleen Hayes and Pim

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<v Speaker 1>Box on Bloomberg Radio. Very special edition of Taking Stock

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<v Speaker 1>Live from the twenties sixteen US Tennis Open, Flushing Meadow,

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<v Speaker 1>Queen's is where we are. We're very happy to be

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<v Speaker 1>here as we are this year. And in fact it's

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<v Speaker 1>an historic here. And it's not historic yet because of

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<v Speaker 1>the matches or who leaves at the end holding that big,

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<v Speaker 1>beautiful silver cup over their head, it's because of the roof.

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<v Speaker 1>The roof FW is t A bought so hard, worked

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<v Speaker 1>so hard to get built operated. Last night as Roth

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<v Speaker 1>and Nadal played a very exciting match, he beat Andreas

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<v Speaker 1>Seppi of Italy, but I think he seemed happy at

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<v Speaker 1>about the fact he was the first player to win

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<v Speaker 1>on center court with that roof closed over his head.

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<v Speaker 1>Danny's Housner back, Chief Operating Officer of US Tennis is Association,

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<v Speaker 1>one of the really important forces behind this happening. Danny,

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome and congratulations. Thank you so much. Great to have

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<v Speaker 1>you back. Wow, so here we are. Are. Just remind

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<v Speaker 1>our listeners you know money had to be raised. This

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<v Speaker 1>was a really big deal and it was It was

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<v Speaker 1>a debated for so long whether or not the U

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<v Speaker 1>s t A, whether this this expense should be made here. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>I could bore you with weather data from over a

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<v Speaker 1>hundred years. That week before and after Labor Day. It's

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<v Speaker 1>relatively dry period of time. But as you know, we

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<v Speaker 1>had men's finals moved to Monday five years in a row.

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<v Speaker 1>It hadn't happened in thirty years. It was the right

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<v Speaker 1>thing to do for the players, the fans, and all

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<v Speaker 1>of our partners. It just took a long time to

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<v Speaker 1>find the engineering results that would give us this spectacular

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<v Speaker 1>roof that we have on the building. So tell us

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<v Speaker 1>what was so hard about the engineering? What? What does

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<v Speaker 1>this embody now in terms of engineering? Because other you know,

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<v Speaker 1>like that, they don't doesn't the Australia has a retract

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<v Speaker 1>where other places do as well. What is the engineering

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<v Speaker 1>feat here? So first and foremost, this is the first

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<v Speaker 1>time in the United States that we're actually building our

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<v Speaker 1>attractive the roof over an existing stadium. If it was

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<v Speaker 1>part of the original design, it would have been done

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<v Speaker 1>at one time. But Fleshy Meadows Corona Park, where we're

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<v Speaker 1>housed was an ash dump in the twenties and thirties,

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<v Speaker 1>So the land conditions here are a less than ideal.

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<v Speaker 1>If you put a roof on this existing structure, everything

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<v Speaker 1>would sink into the ground, not fun for the fans

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<v Speaker 1>or the layers, I WoT making a lot more challenge

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<v Speaker 1>is so what about the financing in terms of what

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<v Speaker 1>it took to get the money together to build this

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<v Speaker 1>incredible roof. In total, we're gonna be spending in extus

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<v Speaker 1>of six hundred million dollars on all the upgrades, and

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<v Speaker 1>we did a couple of bond offerings and that stuff

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<v Speaker 1>got gobbled up in a second. We're a really good

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<v Speaker 1>risk for a lot of people out there. And so

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<v Speaker 1>the way we go, we're about two thirds of the

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<v Speaker 1>way done with all the construction. What's and there's more construction,

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<v Speaker 1>not just the roof. But I mean, I I must

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<v Speaker 1>say I love the old Grandstand stadium. Um, I'm gonna

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<v Speaker 1>beat have the treat though. Seeing the new one, which

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<v Speaker 1>as i've read, haven't seen it yet, just got out

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<v Speaker 1>here this morning, is pretty spectacular as well. I think

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<v Speaker 1>you're gonna come back and tell me that you think

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<v Speaker 1>it's a pretty special place, just like the old one was.

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<v Speaker 1>And that's what we did. We try to model it

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<v Speaker 1>after the old one, just slightly larger but still intimate.

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<v Speaker 1>We rebuilt the entire South campus, all new courts out

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<v Speaker 1>there in this fall, we're gonna tear down Louis Armstrong,

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<v Speaker 1>which has a lot of history too, and we'll build

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<v Speaker 1>a new Louis Armstrong that will open eighteen. It's currently

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<v Speaker 1>ten thousand, five hundred seats and new one will be

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<v Speaker 1>four very special place. Uh. In terms of again paying

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<v Speaker 1>for all of this construction and all this growth, how

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<v Speaker 1>much do you just mentioned that you had about six

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<v Speaker 1>million dollar bond offering to help finance How much does

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<v Speaker 1>the attendance affect that in terms of what what part

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<v Speaker 1>of the total do you get from the people who

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<v Speaker 1>actually come out and pay them for their tickets? So

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<v Speaker 1>are are big numbers that generate The bulk of our

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<v Speaker 1>revenues is coming from ticket sales, broadcast revenue, and sponsorship sales,

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<v Speaker 1>and they're all pretty evenly divided. Food and beverage and

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<v Speaker 1>merchandise is an incredibly large part of the experience here,

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<v Speaker 1>but it's not a big driver for revenue. How how

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<v Speaker 1>is How does it look this year in terms of

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<v Speaker 1>the crowds you're drawing and the tickets you've already sold.

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<v Speaker 1>The ticket sale numbers are really strong. We're looking like

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<v Speaker 1>we're on pace too for the eighth year in a row.

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<v Speaker 1>View over seven hundred thousand people. Now we are actually

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<v Speaker 1>doing much like last year to less sessions than we've

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<v Speaker 1>done historically, so we're down too session tournament and we're

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<v Speaker 1>still driving eight hundred million dollars of economic impact for

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<v Speaker 1>the city of New York. So it's pretty special event

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<v Speaker 1>for the city. People come from all over the world,

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<v Speaker 1>all over the country, it's and so obviously tell us

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<v Speaker 1>a bit more about that, because it's not just the

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<v Speaker 1>people got a crop and make that claim about an

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<v Speaker 1>event in their city, but for it's got from New

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<v Speaker 1>York City. In the entire area. There are so many

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<v Speaker 1>tennis fans who show up. That's why this economic data

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<v Speaker 1>is so relevant for the city because over sixteen percent

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<v Speaker 1>of the fans are international, over come from outside the

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<v Speaker 1>Tristate area. So no one's that's that seven hundred thousand people.

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<v Speaker 1>They're not just driving from New York City, They're they're

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<v Speaker 1>coming from all over the world. They're staying in the

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<v Speaker 1>local hotels, they're eating in the local restaurants through out

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<v Speaker 1>here for three, five seven a lot of them for

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<v Speaker 1>full fourteen days of the tournament. Tell us a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit about technology because that obviously fans uh and you

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<v Speaker 1>want the fans to do that. You want them betweening

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<v Speaker 1>and self eating and all the rest of it. So

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<v Speaker 1>what is there anything new this year, anything that you

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<v Speaker 1>really want to let us know is happening. Absolutely, listen,

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<v Speaker 1>we want to be leaders in that for sporting events

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<v Speaker 1>in general. We've we've done several new deals. We have

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<v Speaker 1>some incredible cameras inside Arthur are Stadium, so you can

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<v Speaker 1>actually go to an app on our website, go to

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<v Speaker 1>us and dot org. When you're inside the ball, give

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<v Speaker 1>it your seat location and it will take a picture

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<v Speaker 1>or of you. You'll have a thirty second window where

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<v Speaker 1>you can actually see what's going on and it could

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<v Speaker 1>be in the middle of an incredibly cool point. And

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<v Speaker 1>in general for us, it's always about what's newest and

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<v Speaker 1>what's great and at the same time trying to do

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<v Speaker 1>something that reflects on the history of the event. So

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<v Speaker 1>you will find that when electronic line call was what

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<v Speaker 1>was very important to us. We introduced it on one court.

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<v Speaker 1>Now it's on seven courts and it's one of a team.

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<v Speaker 1>We will be both broadcasting from all eight teen courts

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<v Speaker 1>and doing electron flint calls on all a teen courts.

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<v Speaker 1>So the broadcasting on all eighteen courts. Would that be

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<v Speaker 1>what what channels? What network will got be carried on? Well,

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<v Speaker 1>we're broadcasting to over two countries, so there's matches being

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<v Speaker 1>played from players from all over the world, and those

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<v Speaker 1>host countries want to see their players and currently now

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<v Speaker 1>they can't always do that from all a ten courts,

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<v Speaker 1>So this will give us an opportunity to show matches

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<v Speaker 1>all over the world from every court. Well, I think

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of people don't realize to the first week

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<v Speaker 1>there's all some one of these side court matches are

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<v Speaker 1>the ones that people most want to see because you

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<v Speaker 1>never know when you're gonna get the upset, and you know,

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<v Speaker 1>for an especial second, if you're coming overseas, your your

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<v Speaker 1>your person, you're guy or Galican B a star, all

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<v Speaker 1>the stud your spot on. We can only play five

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<v Speaker 1>matches a day in arthur Our Stadium. We've got seventeen

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<v Speaker 1>other courts, so those matches have to get distributed amongst

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<v Speaker 1>all those courts. And what's amazing for the fans is

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<v Speaker 1>the players are the top seeded players in the world

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<v Speaker 1>and they could be fifty feet away from you, so

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<v Speaker 1>really quickly HI going to top this next year Danny's Housner. Oh,

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<v Speaker 1>we're gonna just keep going in. Obviously, when we will

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<v Speaker 1>have rebuilt eight of the whole site, people will be

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<v Speaker 1>pretty surprised. And again, congratulations, really so much work, a

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<v Speaker 1>labor of love and paying off hugely for tennis in

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<v Speaker 1>the United States, for plushing Middle Queens, for this beautiful stadium,

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<v Speaker 1>and for all the fans who come out. Danny's Ozener,

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<v Speaker 1>chief of operating officer for the U s t A.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Kathleen Hayes. We're live with the US Open. This

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<v Speaker 1>is Bloomberg. There are sponsors, there are fans. There's all

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<v Speaker 1>kinds of business and money out here at the US Open.

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<v Speaker 1>Up next Bloomberg Sports Reporters. Two of our finess on

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<v Speaker 1>taking stock