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USTA
(APPLAUSE)
(SOUND OF TENNIS MATCH)
(APPLAUSE/CHEERS)
ANNOUNCER
Fifteen up.
(MUSIC)
WOMAN
When you're on the grounds, you feel the magnitude, you feel the excitement.
MAN
The U.S. Open experience has grown into just a mega event.
MAN
But as a global, entertainment, and sports spectacle, over half a million people come to Flushing for the U.S. Open.
MAN
And there's nothing like the energy, the buzz at the U.S. Open.
(MUSIC/APPLAUSE)
WOMAN
We love the U.S. Open.
USTA
"TruTranscripts, The Transcription Experts" (212-686-0088) 2-2
(MAN ANNOUNCING OVER FOLLOWING VOICES)
WOMAN
The weather is perfect, the players are awesome. It's great.
WOMAN
There's nowhere else like this.
WOMAN
The atmosphere, lots of people.
WOMAN
We love tennis!
WOMAN
Yes. (LAUGHS)
MAN
U.S. Open is all about New York. It's all about excitement. It's all about nighttime tennis. And this is where the sports fan comes to watch tennis.
MARIA JACOBSON
I've been coming to the U.S. Open here ever since this place opened. And before that, probably the middle to late '50s, at the West Side Tennis Club, where the U.S. Open used to be played before it was played here.
ARLEN KANTARIAN
We're trying to take a sport that's steeped in tradition, and marry tradition with innovation. To keep us from a technology standpoint ahead of the curve, as we project what I call the electronic imaging of this event to the rest of the world.
(MUSIC)
(SOUND OF TENNIS MATCH)
JEFF VOLK
Our goal is to bring the game closer to fans. With every decision that we make, we think about how do we bring the U.S. Open closer to fans, through the latest and greatest technologies.
PIERCE O'NEIL
Our Web site has grown to one of the most significant in all of sports. This year, we anticipate that over six million people from around the world will come on to check out the U.S. Open Web site.
MAN (?)
I go to U.S. Open Dot Org all the time. I love it. I get all the stats I need. I get them right at my fingertips. I get point tracker.
MAN
IBM Point Tracker? Oh that's amazing!.
WOMAN
Four times a day during the Open, because I really need to know what's going on.
RICK SINGER
Over the last few years, we've worked with Hawkeye to create a new application called Point Tracker. Point Tracker enables a fan anywhere in the world to really understand how a match is played, because they can follow where that ball goes. Not just about scores, it's how a point plays out.
(APPLAUSE/CHEERS)
(CUT/MUSIC)
ARLEN KANTARIAN
You know the USTA certainly operates year-round, uh, both at a grass roots level here in New York City, where we have over 6,000 kids taking lessons, 6:00 A.M. to 12:00 midnight here at the USTA. All of a sudden, we get to this two - to three-week event, uh, and we need those corporate partners that can ... that can produce the kind of scale that this event requires, to the rest of the country and to the rest of the world.
KRISTINA KLOBERDANZ
It's hard to realize that 50 weeks out of the year, USTA really is a small business.
RICK SINGER
And it's got to scale up 50 times what it does the rest of the year. That requires an infrastructure that's extremely strong and robust.
(OFF MIKE)
ARLEN KANTARIAN
USTA, and particularly U.S. Open is clearly in the entertainment business. I think we've seen over the past five years the world of sport and entertainment certainly collide. I think they come together maybe more than any other event here at the U.S. Open.
STEVE WOOD
I’d have to say that the biggest innovation we've seen in tennis in the last say 10 years has been the introduction of technology to, uh, help, uh, the sport become more of an entertainment medium.
IAN RITCHIE
I think it's all about keeping the fan's interest. And if we provide new innovation like Point Tracker, they'll come back, they'll watch the Web site, they'll watch the statistics. And then we can drive even more people to come and watch us.
(MUSIC)
(END OF TAPE)