Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are all in for tennis, and we know
Speaker 2: our next guest certainly is. We love the US Open
Speaker 2: for a lot of reasons, including our regular check in
Speaker 2: at this time with someone who understands the game tennis,
Speaker 2: athlete to play it, the world of sports overall, like
Speaker 2: no one we know. Author of numerous books, John Werthheim
Speaker 2: is with US, executive editor and senior writer at Sports Illustrated,
Speaker 2: contributing correspondent for sixty Minutes. I'm gonna be a little
Speaker 2: bit of a fangirl, John. I love your pieces on
Speaker 2: sixty minutes. But he's here with us to talk about
Speaker 2: the US Open. He's on the phone in Los Angeles, John,
Speaker 2: welcome back. How are you good?
Speaker 3: How are you? I want to zam that intro music.
Speaker 3: What a great tennis.
Speaker 4: We might be able to get you that, we might
Speaker 4: be able to get you the information on that. I
Speaker 4: think Paul Our at Bloomberg Business its cream.
Speaker 2: It's cream.
Speaker 5: How about that? I didn't recognize that either? Really did
Speaker 5: you recognize? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I know right, I know who knew? Is that the
Speaker 2: Clapton cream is their own.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 5: Hey, John, So let's talk tennis. What are you looking
Speaker 5: forward to this year?
Speaker 2: It's an interesting year and it's a packed year. I'm
Speaker 2: just warning you from when you're here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I'll play really funny. This is the
Speaker 3: first US Open after Roger veteran Serena Williams, and for
Speaker 3: years and years tennis said what are we going to
Speaker 3: do with these two titans are no longer around? What's
Speaker 3: going to happen at tennis?
Speaker 6: And I think three of the last five sessions set
Speaker 6: attendance records. Someone was telling you about the the secondary
Speaker 6: ticket from from the secondary market or tickets is off
Speaker 6: the chart. There are a lot of good storylines. One
Speaker 6: of them is the abundance of American players who are.
Speaker 3: Who are still left in the draw. Is this Coco
Speaker 3: Goffs year to win? On the women's side, Is Novak
Speaker 3: Djokovissi and Carlos Alcarez this great new tennis rivalry? Are
Speaker 3: they going to have another stallman for the third straight
Speaker 3: major in New York? We missed Roger Feeder, we missed
Speaker 3: Serena Williams, But there is the show goes on there's
Speaker 3: plenty of plenty of tennis to watch.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love the Tiafo story as well, and he's
Speaker 4: currently battling it out right now in the third set,
Speaker 4: in the fourth set actually right now. So who else
Speaker 4: are the big names that you're watching this year?
Speaker 3: Oh? I, you know, some of them are the big
Speaker 3: names that we're used to. When Niga Schwantek won last
Speaker 3: year and is really establishing herself as this generational player
Speaker 3: and his Coco Goffin emerge his arrival, and Jesse Pagula
Speaker 3: is in fact the highest ranked American male or female
Speaker 3: of She's an interesting character with a much different backstory
Speaker 3: than than other players. But I also think the fact
Speaker 3: that sort of the fields are wide or open, and
Speaker 3: you know, I think it would be a surprise if
Speaker 3: if either Djokovic or Alcarez don't win, But there's still
Speaker 3: a lot of space on stage for other players to
Speaker 3: make their move. Taylor Fritz, who is the highest rank
Speaker 3: of MARAA can mail, but he hasn't had great success
Speaker 3: and a major is this the tournament where he finally
Speaker 3: breaks through. There's a lot of we're sort of we're
Speaker 3: used to these three players on the men's side better
Speaker 3: than all Djokovic, who absolutely dominated. We were used to
Speaker 3: Serena doing her ritual run and it's much different to
Speaker 3: cover the sport now that the fields are wider open.
Speaker 3: You know, d Djokovic is obviously still as relevant as ever,
Speaker 3: but it's it's kind of fun not being able to
Speaker 3: pencil four players through to the final weekend and you
Speaker 3: have this capacity.
Speaker 5: For surprise, keeping us all on our toes.
Speaker 2: It's interesting, John, I always think about We've talked about
Speaker 2: this a lot with golf, right, you know, golf after
Speaker 2: Tiger Woods. You know, in tennis, we've had a lot
Speaker 2: of conversations with the USTA over the years about, you know,
Speaker 2: making sure there's their interest with the younger generation. And
Speaker 2: we see it continuing and we do see younger, newer,
Speaker 2: interesting players come out. What is it about tennis that
Speaker 2: you think that continues to be a really popular sport.
Speaker 3: I would love to see some sort of mess some
Speaker 3: sort of data on how many people are at the
Speaker 3: US Open, because it's fun at an event and you
Speaker 3: walk around and you eat good food and they're guys,
Speaker 3: you know, juggling versus the actual tennis. I'm never quite
Speaker 3: I'd always sort of just for my own, and it's
Speaker 3: just interesting to see. I think tennis is actually getting
Speaker 3: a little bit of above from pickleball. I mean there's
Speaker 3: sort of this this existential fear in tennis that all
Speaker 3: the tennis courts are going to be turned into pickleball
Speaker 3: courts and players are retiring to go try their hand
Speaker 3: to pickleball. But I think it goes the other way,
Speaker 3: and I think all these millions of people that are
Speaker 3: playing pickleball have a new found appreciation for this, this
Speaker 3: other racket sport. I think tennis's globalization is a little
Speaker 3: problematic in the US, right.
Speaker 7: I Mean, in golf, all the.
Speaker 3: Events are pretty much held in one of three time zones,
Speaker 3: and the majority of the tour they're all, you know,
Speaker 3: mostly American and certainly English speaking. Tennis does have that, right,
Speaker 3: I Mean, You've got the player from Tunisia's playing the
Speaker 3: Colombian and a lot of times the events are in
Speaker 3: the US, you're not on the US friendly time schedules.
Speaker 3: But I think overall, this is a really really global sport,
Speaker 3: and I think big picture, especially you look at how
Speaker 3: many other businesses would love this kind of a footprint.
Speaker 3: You know, I would say it's like stepping out a balloon, right.
Speaker 3: So it was a lot healthier and easier in the
Speaker 3: US when all the events were sort of between California
Speaker 3: and Florida and the players came from here. It's a
Speaker 3: lot trickier where you've got Serbs and you've got Tunisians.
Speaker 3: But I think it's healthier for the sport overall.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny that you say that we talked
Speaker 2: with the folks over at IBM yesterday and talking specifically
Speaker 2: about trying to bring some of the content from some
Speaker 2: of the other matches that aren't either at ASH or
Speaker 2: you know, the main you know, kind of the main
Speaker 2: focus if you will, here at the open to make
Speaker 2: sure that maybe some lesser well known and even you know,
Speaker 2: global players at least get their time time and that
Speaker 2: their fan base gets to see them. But it's also
Speaker 2: there's an AI artificial intelligence component where AI is doing
Speaker 2: the commentary voice, you know, and talking about the players
Speaker 2: and so on and so forth.
Speaker 4: They got a long way to go, though, John, don't worry.
Speaker 4: I watched a little bit last night. It's not anywhere
Speaker 4: close to what you do. It's not close to what
Speaker 4: we hear from the Macenroe brothers.
Speaker 2: But is it good giving you know, some of these
Speaker 2: players who might not get attention and their matches some time.
Speaker 2: But is it also a little worries though I don't
Speaker 2: know with the AI component.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's well to AI. We all recognize some of
Speaker 8: the upside of the potential. I'm not sure AI's most
Speaker 8: urgent need is for sports commentary. I mean, i've heard
Speaker 8: things that like, it's still whatever we won't think we
Speaker 8: do known about AI. It gets better, right, it sort
Speaker 8: of lurns from its way, it improves rapidly. But I've
Speaker 8: heard it's pretty cringey right now and they're you know,
Speaker 8: using terms that aren't real his term suspect that will improve.
Speaker 8: I got to think there are other ways to excentuate
Speaker 8: UH players from other countries, UH from AI.
Speaker 3: But you know, I guess I give the USCA and
Speaker 3: IBM credit for at least experimenting. But I think I
Speaker 3: think we got to.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Hey, John, I love I love every year the
Speaker 4: tips that you write.
Speaker 5: I have been dying off air.
Speaker 4: I mean it's not just the ones that you write,
Speaker 4: but you also crowdsource them this year with you know,
Speaker 4: help from people on Twitter x whatever you call it. Okay,
Speaker 4: a couple of things that I have a couple of
Speaker 4: things I want to ask for now. I'm not going
Speaker 4: to take yours. Uh, what's the deal with how loud
Speaker 4: the crowd is this year? And I've noticed it too
Speaker 4: watching TV when I'm not here and watching the matches
Speaker 4: on TV, you have the the commentators complaining that, hey,
Speaker 4: they are too their crowds and ash are being too loud.
Speaker 4: Uh while the players are playing.
Speaker 3: I think it's healthy and I think, you know, it's
Speaker 3: firm level. I feel like crowds take their cue from players.
Speaker 3: And you know, you talk before about Francis Siao, he
Speaker 3: will say very openly he wants crowds to be louder,
Speaker 3: he wants them to move around. Why can't be more
Speaker 3: like the NBA. I think there's a sense that, you know,
Speaker 3: I go to a sporting event, I act a certain way.
Speaker 3: I get it. It's tennis, it's not Nastar. I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna you know, we're not gonna go go popla. You know,
Speaker 3: men aren't going to remove it first, but they're they're
Speaker 3: I think, I think, I know, you know, I think
Speaker 3: you can keep the korum and also have fun and
Speaker 3: be loud but I also, honestly, I think that crowds
Speaker 3: take their cue from the athlete, and if it doesn't
Speaker 3: bother the players, it fathers the ESPN booth. When not
Speaker 3: the players, that's that's not much to turn.
Speaker 5: I totally agree with you.
Speaker 4: I got I saw daggers. I saw daggers from the
Speaker 4: player she looked at she looked out my way during
Speaker 4: during one of the matches earlier this week.
Speaker 5: I love this.
Speaker 2: Unless you have a match that day, there's no excuse
Speaker 2: for dressing like a player when you attend to the US Open.
Speaker 2: You don't wear stirrups to a Yankees game and hint
Speaker 2: guards and leotards to the LA.
Speaker 5: Leave the wristbands at home, jam. It's so true.
Speaker 2: It is really funny to kind of look around the
Speaker 2: crowds and there are people, you know, who were just
Speaker 2: fans and they're dressed like a tennis player.
Speaker 3: I don't I kind of sort of sometimes want to
Speaker 3: approach those people and say, listen, no judgments, but can
Speaker 3: you just explain that they can here? And I don't
Speaker 3: know if you need blaze me when you've got these
Speaker 3: you know, sixty year old passtantly guys with wristbands on
Speaker 3: to go to go watch you know, I don't get it.
Speaker 2: All right, there's another one we have to do, because
Speaker 2: I felt like, where is that one tent, Tim, because
Speaker 2: I felt like this happened to me because I did
Speaker 2: take that l I R R to go back home
Speaker 2: to Manhattan. Oh here it is. Your fund is crushing
Speaker 2: it and the Hamptons were amazing, and your kids left
Speaker 2: camp and your buddy got you these tickets. If you
Speaker 2: insist on a change over conversations, keep it down, Tiger.
Speaker 5: It's so true. I'm the l R.
Speaker 2: Like they're coming back from here and they're like, hey,
Speaker 2: you know the investments and there they name dropped so
Speaker 2: many different people and fun and funds.
Speaker 4: It could have been a source for you, Carol.
Speaker 5: But it gets a little crazy, right.
Speaker 3: John h Yeah, it's a certain type. And you certainly
Speaker 3: see that type at the US Open. And you know,
Speaker 3: we all we all love uh, we all love full markets,
Speaker 3: and we all love you know, and when we close
Speaker 3: out a.
Speaker 8: High as we seem to be close to doing.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I don't need to hear about that, and
Speaker 3: neither does the person of seeing.
Speaker 2: Before you go. One thing I did want to ask you,
Speaker 2: and getting back to just a little bit more serious
Speaker 2: is the role of Saudi Arabia in sports specifically overall.
Speaker 2: You saw it with LIB golf, WTA, stuff's percolating. How
Speaker 2: are you seeing it as somebody who's covered this industry
Speaker 2: for a long time or covered this world.
Speaker 3: Oh man, we could do a whole hour on that.
Speaker 3: I get a piece a few months ago for sixteen
Speaker 3: minutes when I went. I went to Riot and sort
Speaker 3: of saw what.
Speaker 7: It was like on the ground.
Speaker 3: And I'm clearly the Saudis sports as a place to
Speaker 3: get involved. Their economics much different from conventional sports economics.
Speaker 3: This is not about media rights deals and selling tickets
Speaker 3: and sweet and merchandise. I think this is about rebranding
Speaker 3: a country. And you know, we saw in golf that
Speaker 3: took uh it took one shape in golf, it's taken others.
Speaker 3: In soccer, you know you'll do in football slash soccer.
Speaker 3: You'll notice, you know, there are big time offers and
Speaker 3: athletes are being paid a clear premium to come play
Speaker 3: in Saudi Arabia. Some of them are accepting it, some
Speaker 3: of them are not. I mean, it's interesting to me
Speaker 3: there now is to bid on the table for the
Speaker 3: women's tennis sort to hold their final events, which is
Speaker 3: sort of their big showcases. They're big money. They drea
Speaker 3: money maker in Saudi Arabia, and I think, you know,
Speaker 3: we can have a debate about this is the tour
Speaker 3: of Billy g and King that's just left China for
Speaker 3: ethical reasons because it didn't want sort of to be
Speaker 3: compromised on principles, and they left China. Is it's strange
Speaker 3: that they would then, you know, pitch their tangent to
Speaker 3: Saudi Arabia. The flip side is, and we're all creatures
Speaker 3: of incentives. And if Fanny Arabia is offering top dollar,
Speaker 3: who are we to tell soccer players or golfers or
Speaker 3: female tennis players not to go take it. It's a
Speaker 3: story that I think is only going to accelerate because
Speaker 3: I think it's it's clearly working. And you know, the
Speaker 3: Saudi private and veil the p I have the private
Speaker 3: and that's the fun. They've had billions and billions of
Speaker 3: dollars to lavish on this sort of soft power, and
Speaker 3: sports are clearly going to benefit and athletes are going
Speaker 3: to have a real decision.
Speaker 4: To me, but it's tennis different. I mean, you mentioned
Speaker 4: China several times there. And what they did in China
Speaker 4: is tennis different.
Speaker 3: You know, I think a couple of things. First, they
Speaker 3: the WTA left China citing these ethical concerns, so you
Speaker 3: sort of set up precedent for you know, ethics and
Speaker 3: morals and human rights that matters to us. It's a
Speaker 3: little strange to them say, actually, you know what, make
Speaker 3: that back. It doesn't. I think the Women's Tennis Tour
Speaker 3: sort of has this strand and has for decades of
Speaker 3: activism and social justice and fairness and equality, and this
Speaker 3: is more than just about four hands and backhands and
Speaker 3: a bouncing ball. The movement a little strange to then
Speaker 3: go to a country where women are not given equal rights.
Speaker 3: And we saw this week somebody was playing for guests
Speaker 3: for retweeting something that was unflattering to NBA. Right, And
Speaker 3: yet I think you could argue just as easily. You know, Look,
Speaker 3: Chris John and Ronaldo can make whatever you see, a
Speaker 3: quarter of a billion dollars playing soccer. Why can't women
Speaker 3: athletes avail themselves to that money the same way men can?
Speaker 3: So it's really complex and thorny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got to run come back into the hour
Speaker 2: of Saudi Arabia. We would love to you name the
Speaker 2: date at the time. John, you are here, John Worth,
Speaker 2: I'm of Sports Illustrated of sixty minutes, just incredible. Carol
Speaker 2: Master along with Tim Stenovic live here just outside Arthur
Speaker 2: Ashe Stadium. It's busy and when you come here, we
Speaker 2: keep saying it is about the tennis, no doubt about it, right,
Speaker 2: But there's so much more. We've talked to sponsors. There's
Speaker 2: lots of merchandise, there's lots of food, and there's a
Speaker 2: fair amount of drinking.
Speaker 4: I mean walking around last night, walking around Tuesday night.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be here all night tonight. There's almost as
Speaker 4: many people eating and drinking totally as watching tennis inside
Speaker 4: ash inside Armstrong. It's an event, right, It's absolutely an event.
Speaker 4: And here's what's interesting. But the US Open has establishments
Speaker 4: that are familiar to any New Yorker. It's come a
Speaker 4: long way in the last fifty years. You got Italy
Speaker 4: here this year, Hill Country, Paatela free to Meat Company
Speaker 4: of Patlafreda, Carol Vanluin ice cream.
Speaker 5: I love Vanluin ice cream. I buy it.
Speaker 4: You've been a kosher kart. Here is a kosher krt. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, let's get to the guy who's behind it. The
Speaker 2: man behind it all is Chris Studley. He's senior director
Speaker 2: of Event Services at the ust A.
Speaker 5: Welcome. Nice to have you here again.
Speaker 7: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 5: Is it again? We talked to you last year, didn't we?
Speaker 5: I think briefly, Okay, briefly.
Speaker 4: One year, one year. We've had you before.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, souse, I know we always
Speaker 2: talk about food because it's such a big part of it. Chris,
Speaker 2: First of all, I can't believe you didn't bring us
Speaker 2: any food.
Speaker 7: I'm sorry about that. I'll grab it after the segment.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2: But like, talk to us about what goes into it,
Speaker 2: because you do, Tim Is right, as you walk around,
Speaker 2: that is such a big part of the experience.
Speaker 5: I've eaten here, Tim is eating here.
Speaker 2: Tell us about how you think about it as what
Speaker 2: you want to.
Speaker 5: Offer up to the people who come.
Speaker 9: Well, I can tell you, first of all, I look
Speaker 9: at this tournament as a food and wine festival, and
Speaker 9: by the way, there's tennis.
Speaker 7: So much to what you're describing before.
Speaker 9: People are walking around eating and drinking and what we
Speaker 9: want to bring in the names you mentioned is the
Speaker 9: best quality that there is in sports. We don't want
Speaker 9: you to come to a sporting event and say, oh,
Speaker 9: I have to eat. We want you to come here
Speaker 9: and say what a great meal you had and I
Speaker 9: got to watch the tennis. So from our offerings that
Speaker 9: you described to our champion steakhouse run by Benjamin's right
Speaker 9: from Manhattan to Aces bringing the best chefs, we partnered
Speaker 9: with Tatiana chef Kwame and Aces to do some special
Speaker 9: dishes for us. So, I mean it's really about the
Speaker 9: food to me for sure.
Speaker 4: How do you make sure that the quality is what
Speaker 4: you get in you know, the year round establishment, So
Speaker 4: great question.
Speaker 7: We meet with these chefs throughout the year.
Speaker 9: I can tell you right now we've been talking to
Speaker 9: people even during this tournament saying I want in next year.
Speaker 9: I'm not going to give you any names today, but
Speaker 9: we will evaluate each and every one. We look at
Speaker 9: what sells, what do our fans want, what's the quality.
Speaker 9: We'll meet with these chefs throughout the year. I can
Speaker 9: tell you you know a number of chefs that we
Speaker 9: brought in from James Kennet Crown Shy to Melboy's of Harlem.
Speaker 7: We've been there in the off season.
Speaker 9: We sit with them, we talk to them, and you know,
Speaker 9: to some the menus might not lend themselves to a
Speaker 9: concession stand necessarily, but we'll work with the team to
Speaker 9: bring that item into that environment for our fan.
Speaker 2: How important is it from year to year, Chris, in
Speaker 2: terms of some consistency so that people come back and
Speaker 2: they're like, I know this is going to be here,
Speaker 2: and then also bring in some.
Speaker 9: New It's very important, right. Our fans always want to
Speaker 9: see us innovate. It's the name of the game and
Speaker 9: food especially. Obviously, trends change over years and we want
Speaker 9: to be right there. But you need to have the
Speaker 9: staples right. Everybody talks about our lobster role as being
Speaker 9: one of the one of the iconic foods of the
Speaker 9: US Open. It's also our hamburger, believe it or not.
Speaker 9: They're all Pat la Freida, even though his name might
Speaker 9: not be on that stand. It's all Palerfree to meet
Speaker 9: Pats stand over here too. The steak sandwich has almost
Speaker 9: become just as famous as the lobster. Also, you know,
Speaker 9: we try to find what our fans love and really
Speaker 9: gravitate towards and work with it.
Speaker 4: We talked a little bit.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, girl, I was gonna just what about price point? Like,
Speaker 2: how do you think about that as part of the experience.
Speaker 9: Absolutely, you know, listen, we're in New York City. Obviously
Speaker 9: we're a temporary event, but we were very price sensitive
Speaker 9: in a regard. You know, we would put ourselves up
Speaker 9: against any other New York City venue and say that
Speaker 9: we are probably not the most expensive. We may not
Speaker 9: be the least expensive, but we're right in that in
Speaker 9: that sweet spot because we want to have value for
Speaker 9: our fans. I would tell you that our quality though
Speaker 9: surpasses our peers here. So we know that the prices
Speaker 9: sometimes can be healthy, but we know that we're giving
Speaker 9: you the best quality you can possibly have at a
Speaker 9: sporting event.
Speaker 4: So are you seeing what's the typical markup from an
Speaker 4: established restaurant that you'd experienced in Manhattan and the same
Speaker 4: dish that you'd get here.
Speaker 5: Is there a mark up?
Speaker 7: It's not.
Speaker 9: There's no direct correlation in that regard. You know, a
Speaker 9: concession stand, you're not going to really be able to
Speaker 9: compare directly to the items I can tell you in
Speaker 9: some of our restaurants, there's a slight markup just for
Speaker 9: you know, bringing the team out here and operating, but
Speaker 9: there's no set percentage.
Speaker 2: Say hey, one thing you had brought up, Yeah, we
Speaker 2: were thinking on this job's day, right yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean it's pretty incredible. Hospitality one of the continued
Speaker 4: bright spots when it comes to the US labor market,
Speaker 4: and the biggest gains in August were in healthcare hospitality
Speaker 4: as well, lesion hospitality. How is it getting employees right now?
Speaker 9: You know, our team did a fantastic job. I mean
Speaker 9: I oversee our front of house services as well, and
Speaker 9: this was probably the earliest we were ever fully committed
Speaker 9: for all of our seasonal staff that we bring in,
Speaker 9: which is it's wild to think about with the lowest
Speaker 9: unemployment rate, right, but people want to come work here.
Speaker 9: We have people that take vacation to come work here.
Speaker 9: You know, you could be a server in a restaurant
Speaker 9: and you're saying to your New York City restaurant, hey,
Speaker 9: I want to go out to the open work there.
Speaker 4: Do people who work for one establishment get paid the
Speaker 4: same hourly wage that work for another establishment.
Speaker 7: Most of the time.
Speaker 9: I mean, there are some different levels depending on how
Speaker 9: many years you've been here, who you're with, what restaurant
Speaker 9: in particular, but you know it varies. You interview for
Speaker 9: the position just like you would at a restaurant in
Speaker 9: New York City.
Speaker 2: How difficult is it to settle this up? I love
Speaker 2: logistics because we come here and it just looks like
Speaker 2: it's been here forever and we know it goes away.
Speaker 7: I love getting asked those questions. I'd tell the truth.
Speaker 7: The logistics behind it is mind blowing, to say the least.
Speaker 5: How early do you start the day after it ends?
Speaker 7: I mean we're here figuring it.
Speaker 2: Out, okay with that part, but building this and building
Speaker 2: everything that's in your world to make this happen. When
Speaker 2: does that start?
Speaker 9: The planning goes into place right away. The build up
Speaker 9: I mean by the springtime, you'll see a lot of
Speaker 9: movement here and things getting physically set up, aside from
Speaker 9: any new buildings we're going to build right you know.
Speaker 9: Obviously we went under this massive renovation that was all
Speaker 9: year for a number of years, and we stopped for
Speaker 9: the open and we went back into it. But in
Speaker 9: terms of the general repeat business that we're doing, we'll
Speaker 9: start in the spring.
Speaker 4: We're speaking right now with Chris Studley, he's senior director
Speaker 4: of Events Services here at the USTA. We're live at
Speaker 4: the twenty twenty three US Open.
Speaker 2: But on that in terms of the food part of it,
Speaker 2: like what's involved logistically with building that out.
Speaker 9: So we'll have trucks showing up in early August. You know,
Speaker 9: with the volume of food and beverage we do here,
Speaker 9: we have trucks coming in every single day. But we'll
Speaker 9: build out a temporary warehouse facility essentially to house everything.
Speaker 9: I mean, you mentioned some of our drinks, the Honeyduce
Speaker 9: we sold for.
Speaker 4: The Honey Duce cup at home, Well, we had a
Speaker 4: lot of people walking around with like seven Honey Duce cups.
Speaker 9: So to think about the logistics behind that, four hundred
Speaker 9: thousand cups are sitting behind the scenes right now. You know,
Speaker 9: they're ready to go and the team's moving them about
Speaker 9: getting them all over the site. So, I mean, the
Speaker 9: logistics behind it is massive.
Speaker 4: So, speaking of the Honey Deduce, one of the reasons
Speaker 4: I asked about labor was because as I was leaving
Speaker 4: yesterday after doing our broadcast, the lines for some of
Speaker 4: these concession stands we're so long. Chris and I couldn't
Speaker 4: help think to myself, there must be people who see
Speaker 4: these lines and say to themselves, I don't want to
Speaker 4: wait in this line. And you know, therefore the USTA
Speaker 4: is not going to get my twenty two dollars for
Speaker 4: the honeyduce. How do you control for lines here?
Speaker 9: It's a great question, and I'm glad you mentioned the
Speaker 9: honey duce on that one. So innovation, right, So this
Speaker 9: is the first year we're actually able to batch some
Speaker 9: of the honey deuce to try to speed those up.
Speaker 9: We rolled it out in somewhat of a pilot program
Speaker 9: this year at ten different locations around the site and
Speaker 9: we're seeing that we're able to increase service. So our
Speaker 9: goal here is let's roll it out all over next year.
Speaker 5: What does that mean that?
Speaker 9: So we are able to prepare part of the drink
Speaker 9: in a ready to mix container, and we can control
Speaker 9: the quality most importantly. You know, if you go to
Speaker 9: a bar and you get a drink made and you
Speaker 9: may not like that one. Yeah, here we can actually
Speaker 9: do the quality testing behind the scenes, know the exact
Speaker 9: precise measurements, and then also deliver to you faster. So
Speaker 9: innovation is key, and we're going to speed those lines
Speaker 9: up for sure.
Speaker 4: But so that's the question. Is it then forgive the
Speaker 4: terminology here, but is it a failure to you when
Speaker 4: you walk around and see huge lines and people waiting.
Speaker 9: It's disappointing for sure. I mean, we want to be
Speaker 9: able to service every customer as quickly as possible, but
Speaker 9: we also want to deliver that excellent experience. So it's
Speaker 9: a fine balance for you know, for sure, but we're
Speaker 9: trying to make sure that we innovate as much.
Speaker 4: Are there areas are down here where you walk around
Speaker 4: this year and you say, okay, well we could do
Speaker 4: another another of this type of concession right here and
Speaker 4: ease the demand a little bit.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, and.
Speaker 9: You know, it's surprising because each year, I mean, we
Speaker 9: know there's some things that never fade, right, The honey
Speaker 9: Juice is not fading. It is the most popular, is there.
Speaker 9: Really it is by far. But you know sometimes they're surprising.
Speaker 2: That's honey juice lovers. No, it's actually a matt sorry
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 7: For sure.
Speaker 9: Yeah, No, it's it's it's always interesting to see what's
Speaker 9: going to be the top seller of the year.
Speaker 2: Are you adding more drinks that.
Speaker 7: Are like, well, we have this year.
Speaker 9: We have the Aperol Sprits as well, right, and Dobell
Speaker 9: has joined us with their Ace Piloma cocktail and they're
Speaker 9: both delicious. I encourage you to try them before you leave.
Speaker 2: What's interesting, too, is are there workers that you needed
Speaker 2: that you couldn't hire?
Speaker 5: Are you said you could get everybody you wanted?
Speaker 9: I think we're pretty well staffed. I would say that
Speaker 9: we're really well staffed. And you know, we benefit from
Speaker 9: the folks that come back every year and they help
Speaker 9: us really make the operation home.
Speaker 4: Here, Carol, I got a number for you. What one
Speaker 4: point two million? Okay, that's one point two million? And
Speaker 4: mellon balls that the USTA.
Speaker 2: Is I get a number for you. What ninety pounds
Speaker 2: of beef?
Speaker 4: Did you have a Hamberg goo to day?
Speaker 5: I did have a Hamberg surprise. I ain't done yet.
Speaker 2: We're going to come back with Krista, the senior director
Speaker 2: of Event Services at USDA.
Speaker 5: He's got a big job here. He's getting it done.
Speaker 2: I know the answer because we were talking about it
Speaker 2: before we got going again. But supply chains where you know,
Speaker 2: you go back a few years coming off the pandemic nightmare?
Speaker 2: Are you getting everything you want? And at decent costs, or.
Speaker 9: You've got enough lobster. I think so okay, I think so.
Speaker 9: I think we're in good shape this sh vodka. No, Fortunately,
Speaker 9: it's one of those things.
Speaker 5: Let's get to the priority.
Speaker 7: For sure.
Speaker 9: Fortunately it's one of those things that's kind of been
Speaker 9: in the past for us. Now thankfully it's.
Speaker 2: An issue, but it wasn't issue it was.
Speaker 7: It was an issue a while back. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 9: I mean I think everybody fought through the same thing.
Speaker 9: And I think we're on the other side of the
Speaker 9: supply chain in terms of our business right now?
Speaker 4: What were the challenges this year? If if it wasn't employees,
Speaker 4: if it wasn't supply chains, what's the what's the big
Speaker 4: challenge this year?
Speaker 7: Weather? Who can control the weather? But look at us,
Speaker 7: I know.
Speaker 4: Day right here, it's amazing.
Speaker 7: That's the biggest concern we have right now. I think
Speaker 7: we're doing okay.
Speaker 2: I do wonder though, you said while we were off air,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm here before everybody else, and I leave
Speaker 2: after everybody. I mean, what's what are the calls that
Speaker 2: you get?
Speaker 5: Is it that way?
Speaker 2: You know, electricity isn't working, or.
Speaker 5: We ran out of burgers or something.
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 5: What's the stress points for you doing this?
Speaker 9: You know, to your point earlier lines and things. You know,
Speaker 9: you want to make sure everyody has a good experience.
Speaker 9: So we're trying to send people out. Like during the
Speaker 9: typical day, I might hear that we might have an
Speaker 9: issue with a line over here, a line over there
Speaker 9: in terms of food. If one of those facility issues
Speaker 9: pops up. We have a great team here. One of
Speaker 9: my counterparts on the back house side helps me out
Speaker 9: from give a quick call and we get everything right
Speaker 9: back on.
Speaker 7: So those are the little pain points.
Speaker 4: How do you how do you alleviate a line?
Speaker 7: Well, you can.
Speaker 9: Send more people over to help out, right, I mean
Speaker 9: if you get a honeydusee line, you try to get
Speaker 9: a couple more bartenders over there too. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 9: mean we've done everything we can. I mean, pos is
Speaker 9: always one thing that we look at, and we've upgraded
Speaker 9: our systems over the years to try to process those transactions.
Speaker 4: We met some folks from American Express earlier today. If
Speaker 4: you want to talk to them, they know a thing
Speaker 4: or two about our processing.
Speaker 7: They're fantastic.
Speaker 5: They are a good partner.
Speaker 2: Well, I think about like a Disney. Right, you have
Speaker 2: apps and you can like kind of guide people. Do
Speaker 2: you think about that? The role of technology is it's
Speaker 2: a big thing here. Do you say, listen, I know
Speaker 2: there's lines.
Speaker 9: Here, but you know what, so I have a great
Speaker 9: point on that. I mean, we we tried out mobile ordering.
Speaker 9: We did it so that you could order anything from
Speaker 9: the food village and then you could grab it and
Speaker 9: go to your table. And what happened was our customers said,
Speaker 9: we don't really want to do that seriously, And I'll
Speaker 9: tell you why. I mean, you know, when you come here,
Speaker 9: because you're coming here once a year, you want to
Speaker 9: walk around and check out everything. To your point, we
Speaker 9: were talking about what's new. They want to see what's new.
Speaker 9: They want to go look at that menu. They want
Speaker 9: to pick what item they want. They don't really want
Speaker 9: to do it on a small phone screen. They want
Speaker 9: to see the kitchen. They want to know what's going on.
Speaker 4: So, okay, one point two million mellon balls are are
Speaker 4: are created? Are bald from melons? I think that's the
Speaker 4: proper terminology here for sure. Each year, I guess so
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go ahead and say that it's Friday afternoon,
Speaker 4: I'm not making stuff up. I think that's how it
Speaker 4: goes a little bit. We talked to the folks at
Speaker 4: Chipole about quarterly and they've started to invest in technology
Speaker 4: that automates guacamole making so they can free up employees
Speaker 4: who spend time doing that laborious task of actually cutting
Speaker 4: up avocados and getting the guak out. Can you do
Speaker 4: that with with uh mellon balls?
Speaker 9: We actually get them pre bald. Okay, well we bring
Speaker 9: them in. We've done that, we started in the very beginning.
Speaker 4: Right, interview's over. We got nothing for you.
Speaker 9: We look for every way to make it comes to
Speaker 9: us from the supplier pre Bald. But we do have
Speaker 9: people that skewer each one, so we get three. Because
Speaker 9: if you notice the drink kid's got three Mellon balls
Speaker 9: to indicate the same number and a tennis ball can
Speaker 9: that's that's the tie there.
Speaker 4: Never knew why I was three.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 2: What was interesting too, is I think about more broadly,
Speaker 2: the things that you guys are doing here from the
Speaker 2: USTA and using this incredible space. I mean, it is
Speaker 2: obviously about tennis and this is your big event, rightfully so,
Speaker 2: but you're doing other things.
Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, I mean, tennis is number one. I got
Speaker 7: to say that off the top.
Speaker 2: I had to stop talking about mellon balls. I'm just
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna say, whoops, I threw my pen on
Speaker 2: that one.
Speaker 5: I was a little no.
Speaker 9: But anyway, Yeah, I know, obviously tennis is number one
Speaker 9: for us, but we're always looking for new ways to
Speaker 9: use the facility. It's great we can bring staff in.
Speaker 9: They can work with us along, you know, throughout the year,
Speaker 9: which is critical for us.
Speaker 5: Like a concert venue, we would love to.
Speaker 7: If you know, somebody wants to play here, you let
Speaker 7: me know.
Speaker 4: But Taylor Taylor Swift as long as I can get
Speaker 4: a ticket.
Speaker 2: But do you I mean, are you talking with people
Speaker 2: who have you know, whether it's Barkley's or other like,
Speaker 2: they definitely have relationships and they do.
Speaker 9: Of course of course, and we do have some people
Speaker 9: talking to other people. Yeah, to put it very vaguely,
Speaker 9: but no, we would love to host a show, for sure.
Speaker 9: I can tell you ten days after the Open this year,
Speaker 9: we'll be converting the tennis court into a wrestling ring
Speaker 9: for aw Wrestling on September twentieth, So it's gonna be
Speaker 9: our third show here. They call it aw Grand Slam appropriately. Yeah,
Speaker 9: so's it's drawn about eighteen thousand people you're over here.
Speaker 4: That's quite a few for sure. You said twenty four
Speaker 4: thousand is capacity.
Speaker 9: Twenty four thousand's capacity. We've got about eighteen thousand in
Speaker 9: the house for the show.
Speaker 4: Is it Do you typically do it with the roof
Speaker 4: open or or does it depending weather?
Speaker 9: We actually keep the roof closed for all our outside events.
Speaker 9: It makes things so much easier, less worry whether there's
Speaker 9: gonna be weather.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm thinking about the dogs that we're here. They
Speaker 2: spend a lot of time getting their hair done.
Speaker 5: Talk to us about the Westminster I've seen it. I'm
Speaker 5: a dog lover. I've been to the Westminster.
Speaker 2: Dog So there's a lot of you know, primpy, but
Speaker 2: you guys have done it.
Speaker 7: We have, we have.
Speaker 9: We got one under our belts. We got them coming
Speaker 9: back again next May. We're super excited. They took over
Speaker 9: Arthur ash Stadium, all the player areas, you name it.
Speaker 9: We had three thousand dogs here over three days.
Speaker 7: It was wild.
Speaker 4: Okay, what's the one event that you haven't gotten to
Speaker 4: host here that you want to host? What's on that that's.
Speaker 5: Your wish lists?
Speaker 7: I'll take a concert. I'll take a concert. Give us
Speaker 7: a name though, I call me. Let's talk about it.
Speaker 5: But you do think about the exclusivity.
Speaker 2: First of all, it is a great venue and it
Speaker 2: is a little bit smaller, which I like to go
Speaker 2: to smaller places, right, I mean, otherwise they get too big,
Speaker 2: so you could really do some really cool things.
Speaker 7: I agree, I agree, all right.
Speaker 4: Also easy to get to, yeah, which I think people forget.
Speaker 4: Just jump on the seven train or.
Speaker 5: The l R R, which is where I did.
Speaker 2: Someone's coming here, they're coming for a night. What would
Speaker 2: you advise that they do? They're going to watch tennis.
Speaker 7: But okay, you got to explore.
Speaker 9: You know, part of hosting all these other events is
Speaker 9: getting people out here that may not have been here before.
Speaker 9: And I can't tell you how many people come to
Speaker 9: one of our events, whether it be Westminster or aw Wrestling,
Speaker 9: and when they walked through the gates, I didn't even
Speaker 9: realize this place was here because they may not be
Speaker 9: tennis fan. So I invite everybody that's not a tennis
Speaker 9: fan to really explore. And if you are and you've
Speaker 9: never been here before, make sure you're walking around to
Speaker 9: check out all the secrets behind the scenes and what
Speaker 9: we got.
Speaker 5: What would you go eat?
Speaker 7: I would probably grab.
Speaker 9: Some gelato from the card over here right now is
Speaker 9: also really good, nice and Van Luine ice cream. We
Speaker 9: have our own flavor this year, they created our own
Speaker 9: us so it's a honeycomb fudge slim of.
Speaker 5: Course it is.
Speaker 4: So sounds pretty good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that actually sounds really good. Thank you so much,
Speaker 5: my pleasure.
Speaker 2: Good luck, good luck, and I hope you get a
Speaker 2: little bit of a break between your next events. Chris Dudley,
Speaker 2: of course, Senior director of Event Services at USTA. Yeah,
Speaker 2: pretty cool, right, it's just we talk about it. You
Speaker 2: can watch tennis, but you're gonna do a.
Speaker 4: Lot more here seven point five tons of crab, shrimp
Speaker 4: and lobster.
Speaker 5: What else do I have?
Speaker 4: Eighty five thousand pounds of poultry, sixty six.
Speaker 2: Thousand bananas, two of them right here.
Speaker 5: You're watching and listening Bloomberg Radio.