Well, I can tell you, you said three
years in a row of record-breaking
attendance. Um, this should be a fourth
year in a row of record-breaking,
not just attendance, but over lots of
different areas that we measure. So,
attendance, yes, uh, viewership across
through the first round, we're up 36% on
our domestic ESPN, ABC, ESPN 2 coverage,
which is amazing. Uh, we actually had
the second highest viewership in its in
Italy's history of tennis uh, through
the first round. amazing. A lot of great
Italian players. Merchandise is up
double digit percentages. Ticket sales
up double digit percentages. And with
the opening Sunday start to the men's
and women's main draw singles play and
men's and women's doubles main draw
play, um we're up double digit
percentages and going to break break
records and ticket sales and and uh all
all the per caps related to that as
well.
>> So it sounds like things are obviously
moving in the right direction. On the uh
the attendance side of things, I'm
curious about the balance between the
criticisms last year about there were
too many people here because everybody
wanted to be here. How did you balance
that this year with a different strategy
when it came to ticket sales in terms of
like capping certain ticket sales at
different times to make it so people
could actually get around here?
>> Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, we never
want to restrict people that want to
come from being able to come, but at the
same time, we want to ensure that the
people who are here on site and have,
you know, bought their tickets and paid
good money and look forward to planning
to being here on site have a phenomenal
fan experience. So, we did make the hard
decision to reduce the amount of tickets
that we would sell over this very busy
Labor Day weekend. Um, so yesterday was
the first day of that implementation.
>> Okay. We did start to implement some
changes to better manage crowds through
the thorough affairs, better manage uh
how we're spreading out competition and
content across the different courts,
practice courts and competition courts
so that people have more options around
the site to experience the different
content and enjoy it in a more free
flowing way and not in a crushed way
alongside 70,000 of their friends. Well,
just to recognize what you had said
before, Kirsten, about spreading out the
tennis and also to make sure that people
are getting good value for their money
because it is expensive to come here.
Something I think that a lot of people
who I've talked to have said is about
having that Sunday start, having the
first round played now over three days
instead of two. It is technically
diluting the value of the ticket. No,
>> no. I I don't know how much tennis you
can watch simultaneously, but it's not
usually more than one match. Um,
actually spreading out the first round
over three days has really helped spread
the content out in a way that's actually
offered more content to more people so
that they can see more. Um, it's been
easier on the athletes in many ways.
It's hard to spread out uh the main draw
singles in first round in two days.
Three three rounds, sorry, three days is
what you you find at other grand slams
as well. It's quite common. So in our
case, it gave more content across the
courts in a way that didn't crush the
courts across two days. Now you can
spread it across 3 days and 70,000 more
people can experience it.
>> How should we think about the revenue
breakdown of the US Open? Ticket sales
versus concessions versus sponsorships.
I mean on the sponsorship side,
everybody's here and it's also all the
familiar names that have been with the
US Open for decades at this point.
What's the revenue breakdown? So we've
it's traditional in the way that every
other live event property whether it's
sports or entertainment is ticket sales,
hospitality, sponsorship, media rights
is a huge portion of of how um this
event is fueled. So uh not every event
gets to sell their media rights and and
is responsible for that. We are uh like
the other grand slams, but
>> and you do the negotiations for it. We
should note
>> we do and we work with our our partners
at IMG to help us uh worldwide.
What about sorry I just want to push on
this a little bit with the with in terms
of revenue like if if we think about it
from the perspective of okay ticket
sales bring in this much revenue does is
that the most uh in terms of overall
revenue for the US Open or the
sponsorships bring in
>> it is ticket sales ticket sales and
premium leads.
>> Okay. So that's that's still the
majority of where the revenue comes
from. Okay.
>> Right. And keeping with it on the ticket
sales I mean this is something that you
know as we've said it is an expensive
experience. It is a premium experience.
You know, you are getting certainly I
would say a lot for what you pay for to
come here, but it is something that
people do talk about that they get
frustrated with how much how quickly the
sales go over to the resale market.
>> Is that something that is out in your
control whatsoever? I mean, to be able
to sell more tickets at face value
before the resale market takes over and
jacks them up to however many multiples
of the face value price.
>> Yeah. Well, um there's two two key
factors at work here. One is the the
overwhelming demand that we experience
for the event. Two is the fact that we
are in New York State and resale cannot
be restricted legally. So um we are
unable to restrict how many tickets are
resold, at what price points they're
resold, and how people choose to resell
tickets that they purchase. So on the
demand side, we renew the equivalent of
full season tickets at about 98 99%
every year. And we did work hard to make
more volume of tickets available both
through the Sunday start uh as well as
for uh just ensuring that we had as much
inventory as possible for the American
Express individual ticket pre-sale.
Again, sold out of that inventory within
a couple of hours. And again, in the uh
the public on sale, same thing. Sold out
of the inventory within a couple of
hours. And at which point in time,
people can choose to resell tickets if
if that's their if that's their desire.
Um, I think it's important to note that
our individual ticket price, average
sales price point across all the events,
all of the sessions, all of the venues
is $190. The average resale ticket
price, it's over $500 that that it's
sold for. So, when people may may say,
"Oh, it's an expensive ticket."
Unfortunately for us, we have to bear
the brunt of that perception, but it's
not the ticket price that we set.
>> Yeah. We're just uh if you guys are just
joining us here, we've got Kirsten Coro
with us. She's chief commercial officer
at the USA talking all things about
revenue, ticket generation, all of that
that's going on here at the US Open. So,
Kirsten, you brought up something
interesting. I actually didn't know
about this that um this has to do with
maybe state rules about the resale
market and what can be restricted. Is
that something then that you guys, you
know, obviously as a huge event sponsor
here in the state of New York? Is that
something that you try to work with the
state on to say like, hey, you know, we
want to, you know, maybe change the
rules in the state. Is there any way
that we can work on this? Listen, we're
happy to talk to any state, state body,
legislative body or representative at
any point in time. Um, our intention is
to ensure that fans have an opportunity
to come here and experience the US Open
and tennis, are inspired to play tennis,
and have an opportunity to come many
days if they wish to. Um, to the extent
that the state wants to work with us to
offer more accessibility beyond the six
days of the free open to the public fan
week, we're always happy to have a
conversation.
>> But does it also tell you that you could
be charging more for tickets? I know
that's like not a popular thing for me
to say, but if you think about it, the
delta between the average ticket price
of a resale and the average ticket price
where where you're selling, there's a
lot of money left on the table there.
So, it seems like the willingness to pay
is a lot higher than than you guys are
marketing it for right now. It is, but
it's a balance, you know. It's a balance
between wanting to retain accessibility
for for all types of fans and at the
same time being an event that has an
obligation to deliver net proceeds back
to growing the game. So, it is a
balance. Um, I don't think you'll ever
see us go to the highest end of the
market demand on a regular a regular
grounds pass, but um in in some cases,
we will sell that high-end experience to
the person who's willing to invest that
much. Well, the high-end experience, I
mean, isn't a lot of that what's going
to be part of this new renovation in
Ash, right? That's going to be bringing
more luxury suites, also just thousands
of more tickets in general to the
stadium. Can you tell us a little bit
more about this uh renovation that's in
progress and 2027, right? That's when
it's going to be ready.
>> Yeah. So, Arthur Stadium, amazing
stadium, largest tennis stadium in the
world, purpose-built for 1997. We've
come a long way since 97. uh and fan
expectations have evolved and changed
and we need to evolve and change to meet
where they are and what they expect for
the next generation. So the the
transformation will see the addition of
2,000 net new incremental courtside
seats. We have the smallest lower bowl
in all of North America by proportion
perhaps. Uh and we have more way more
demand for those than we can satisfy.
So, we're looking to be able to offer
more accessibility both for fans that
want that courtside seat as well as fans
that have been longtime subscribers in
the next level in the Loge level that uh
number one on their wish list is the
ability to upgrade as I mentioned with a
98 or 99% renewal rate. They don't have
a lot of options, but we will have
suites moving up by about 12 ft. Um same
number of suites, but they will be
larger with more square footage, more
more uh fixed seats for people to enjoy
and entertain guests. And that's been
long on the feedback list from our our
sweet clients.
>> How do you guys at the USDA talk about
influencers and the way that they're a
part of the US Open now? I feel like the
last few years it's just exploded in
terms of social media.
>> Yes. Yes. Influencers, content creators.
>> Are they part of like officially part of
media here now? So there there is
something called a non-media credential
that we've trialled this year for um a
select group of individuals that may
positively be able to report on and
influence audiences to to be interested
in tennis. Our mission is all about
growing the game and inspiring people to
play it more often. So to the extent
that there are influencers, content
creators that can help us leverage the
US Open to do that, we're really
interested in exploring it. That said,
um you know, it's it's the wild west out
there. It's really challenging to try to
to um harness that passion, I will say,
in a way that's productive for the
entire ecosystem and protects our
partners who have been with us for so
long here. Why?