MUBADALA CITI DC OPEN

July 25, 2025

Mark Ein

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us.

Who has questions for our chairman, Mark Ein?

Q. You have talked a lot about, and it's ongoing talks about deals for redevelopment of the site here, renovations at the site here. Where do you think that's at in your eyes, and what progress do you want to see on that front, potential redevelopments here?

MARK EIN: In terms of what involvement?

Q. Like where you feel that process is currently at and what you want to see as next steps and your vision for that.

MARK EIN: Yeah, so I have a lot, and our whole team, has a lot of passion for the history of the tournament and the history on this site and a lot of passion for preserving it.

For those of you who don't know, the tournament started by John Harris and Donald Dell, and they asked Arthur Ashe to be part of it, and he said he would if they put it in a public park. Because in 1969, every tournament in America was in a private club, even the US Open was, or I think every one.

And that's why we are sitting here in a national park. And I actually think, as the current caretaker of this, that we try to make sure that spirit is infused in everything we do. I think when you walk around the grounds, hopefully that's what you feel. Like, this is the most inclusive event that just brings everyone together in our broad DMV community, one of them, that I think you can attend.

I think the location is a big part of that. So we have a lot of passion for it.

That said, it doesn't take a lot to look behind the signs to see the current state of this. This stadium was built in the late '80s with private funds and given to the Park Service with the condition they would maintain it.

I don't blame the Park Service. They just have a lot of priorities, and they don't have the capital to do a lot of things in their core portfolio.

So we are sitting here in a place that really has been woefully, dramatically undermaintained, and it shows and it creates a lot of problems. It does.

Most people don't see it, because we spend so much money and put so much in to dressing the place up and temporary infrastructure. We have increased -- before we took over, we spent over three times more than they used to, three times on temporary infrastructure.

We are sitting here next to Market Square. If you guys remember, and I was a fan before I came here, when it rained, there was nowhere indoor or air conditioned for people to go. When it was hot, there was nowhere.

We built this thing and it's incredible. From the first day, first hour until the end of the tournament, that place will be jammed. Whenever there is bad weather, people have a place to go.

So we do a lot to dress up and make the best of a situation, but it's not long term sustainable. So I think everyone who is involved recognizes that there is a better way. And that involves the city, the National Park Service, us. I really feel like everyone is working well collaboratively to try to create a solution for it.

Sorry, that was a long-winded answer to your question, but I actually think the context is really important, because that's how we think about it. I really legitimately think everyone has a desire to figure this out.

People really value this tournament, what it does for the city, what it does for our community. But the real vision is a little bit what happens during this week, but when you come to this facility the other 50 weeks, it's a disaster, you know. It's not safe. It's not maintained.

My daughter Chloe played soccer on the fields there, and the parents are all talking about how many holes there are in the field. So there is a better path I think for everyone. There is a lot of desire. I'm hopeful we're going to get it there.

Q. Following on facilities, it's a very hot day today. Curious what kind of things you guys have put in for extreme heat. For fans, this big air-conditioned tent is a big part of that, but how you guys look out for that. I was at Wimbledon a couple weeks ago, and they seemed much less prepared for the realities of the climates we now live in out in these places.

MARK EIN: Yeah, look, again, I think a lot of it is just by having actual facilities we build like Market Square which is indoor and air-conditioned. We have a bunch of other places for people to go that are outdoors: The grill, the taco place, and then we have a VIP tent. And actually, earlier today when Market Square was full, VIP tent is not for everyone, there is a certain access required, but we actually talked to the Park Service, and if people needed a place and they couldn't get in here, we let everyone go in there.

We just said we have to make sure people are safe. It was really hot, not just on the court but the fans. So we do everything we can including creating these facilities and opening them up as needed.

Then I would say one thing, we have an amazing collaboration with the Park Service and the Park Police, and there is a whole incident control command center that deals with heat, deals with issues people have, deals with lightning and rain, and it's really impressive to see the level of sophistication that people attack those issues.

Q. Unrelated thing, on Venus' return and the conversation and all the attention it got, even a big conversation about health insurance and healthcare, and I wondered, from your seat, about how wide the ripples went from her showing up on court and then playing matches at this tournament.

MARK EIN: Yeah, I mean, this will be a memory that everyone who was here and saw any part of that will remember forever. You know, I think the most iconic moments since 2019 when we took over were Rafa walking in the stadium and that packed crowd. We got a lot of incredible moments. Then Venus being here has just been incredible.

You know, the news literally went global and it transcended sports. It was on the Today Show and CNN globally. Obviously it shines a spotlight on the event.

I actually think, to me the thing that matters the most to me, is how happy people in the community and the city were to have her in their town. I have spent a lot of time with her, you know, this week, and she really felt the love of this community. I think one of the reasons she came here was our relationship but then also just the relationship she has with our city. There is a lot of points of connection.

I think the impact of her being here will have touched a lot of people in Washington.

Q. (Question off microphone.)

MARK EIN: Yeah, I mean, we're not supposed to cheer for certain matches or certain players, but you do (smiling). And you want the fans to see memorable matchups, and obviously when the draw was made, you saw that one and thought, wow, if that happens, that's going to be a memorable maybe iconic match. We'll see what happens.

You know, we sold out this entire tournament weeks before it started again. It's been five straight years. But when you look at sort of, I mean, there is literally no tickets on the secondary market, and the few that are there are astronomical, incredible prices. I think that's indicative about how excited our community is about this.

I think it's going to be a memorable match. You know, I wish it wasn't in the quarters, but here we are. I think it will be a match and night to remember.

Q. (Question about Commanders, NFL, relative to this tournament.)

MARK EIN: And vice versa. The whole Commanders team has come here since we took over, and I think seeing how you can create a great fan experience even in a dated facility is something that we're trying to take and take that to our current stadium where we're obviously not going to be forever.

It goes both ways. I think tennis uniquely, because a day at a tennis tournament isn't one-, two-hour, three-hour game. If you give people a great experience, they'll stay for six, seven, eight, or longer hours and come back every day. It's something that everyone is forced to figure out.

I think we have spent a lot of time at the Commanders and made a lot of investments to try to also increase, improve the fan experience in a dated stadium there. I think we have made a lot of progress.

Vice versa, yeah, the NFL is, you know, it's the 800-pound gorilla in sports, not just because of its popularity, but the league is incredibly well run. When you get into the belly of the beast and understand all the things they know, their best practices, you learn a lot you can bring here across every part of the business.

One of the things, I have to say, that I have had a lot of passion for, even before I took over this tournament, was mic'g players in a tournament. So we did that in 2018 in World TeamTennis, first time ever.

It's funny, I thought, because for those of us who go to tournaments and sit close, you get a sense that people who can only watch on TV, I thought mic'g would be great.

The thing I learned in WTT is that it doesn't matter that much in singles, and now they put mics next to the court, so you can hear that. It's really in doubles where you get magic.

We did that in WTT and it was incredible. We started it here last year in doubles, and we did it again this year and we had one reel with Nick and Gael, the mics only lasted for a set, but that set was really good. It's like five times more on viewers on that than anything else that came out of the tournament.

Obviously, as I said, I had a passion for that idea before the NFL, but in talking to the NFL and the NBA social media, that's the content fans want the most. When I brought the tours to talk to those leagues, they said, if you can do this, you have to do it. It's what people want.

So that's an example of something where a lesson learned, a best practice, learning how they build social engagement, we're trying to bring here. It's disappointing we haven't gotten as many doubles players to do it, because I think it would be good for them and good for the game.

I love doubles and I'm a huge champion, but I think we need to be more innovative to make fans care more, and I think this would be the best thing. So we are really pushing, and I hope over time we can get more and more buy-in to doing that.

Q. Following up on a Commanders-themed question, on facilities, is there anything you can pull maybe in the conversations you're having about this facility and maybe the Commanders stadium project or vice versa, is there anything you can take from one to bring to the other conversation?

MARK EIN: Yeah, there are similarities. Both have National Park Service involved. Both have the city involved. The projects have been kept completely separate. There is no overlap on team or anything.

They have been completely 100% intentionally very separate, but there are similarities across the two of them, and I think lessons learned both ways that can apply.

Look, I give the mayor a huge amount of credit, because her desire for investing in sports is because she recognizes that the bedrock of the economy in Washington is changing. You can't count on the federal government here forever. So she needs to invest in the future of the D.C. economy.

And really, the next-best thing is tourism. We are one of the great tourist destinations in the world, and so she wants to create more events, facilities, host more events that will bring more people here. It's a very conscious, strategic decision on her part, and I think she's obviously doing it with all the sports. I actually think it's really smart.

Q. What I hear from so many fans, and I agree with them, is the level of the field that you have for both the men's and women's tournaments. How are you able to have such an impressive field year after year? I think, and I can speak for myself, it's increased every year that you have been running this tournament.

MARK EIN: I appreciate you saying that. Yeah, so when we took over, as I said, I was a ballkid at this tournament when it was on clay courts and bleachers. Then I came as a fan before we owned it.

You know, it was an important tournament, but I don't think the experience for any stakeholder was particularly good. No criticism to anyone, just for whatever reason, the fan experience wasn't very good, probably the media experience wasn't very good, the sponsor experience, and the player experience was not great.

So people came if they had to, not because they wanted to. We made a very conscious, large investments in all the stakeholder experiences, and players were at the top of the list. For anyone who walks through the player area, you see that's an incredible temporary structure with an amazing indoor and outdoor gym, a great lounge, super comfortable.

We have invested in their food a ton. We have invested a lot in their barista, because they are European and they love the coffee. So that's a very conscious thing.

Then we put them up in a great hotel. We don't go to the hotel that gives us the best deal or the lowest price. We put them in two hotels. We take over two hotels that they love, The Salamander and the Watergate. Then I spend a lot of time cultivating these relationships.

So what happens is players this week -- I mean, we are the big tournament on both the men's and women's side. But they don't play and train. I think what's happened over time is more and more players say, I should to D.C. I'm going to have an amazing experience, a first-class facility. I'm going to come here instead of staying home or going somewhere else.

To me, the biggest proof point has never been stronger. It isn't just the field. It's how many players have stayed here after they've lost.

I don't know if you have seen how many players lose and they stay for two or three days. My experience is that never happens. The minute they lose, they're on to the next place.

People are having so much fun. I don't know what our hotel bill is going to be, but it's fine. I love it. They're here. I run into Rublev, into so many players. Nick stayed here. They just decided I'd rather stay here for a few more days because I'm so comfortable, the facility is so good.

That I think is great proof that the investments we made in their experience is really what's getting them here and keeping them here.

Q. Going back for a moment to what you were saying about the mic'g of the doubles players, curious what other thoughts you might have for ways in which tennis can promote itself better in a broader sense? Other thoughts you might have, other specifics or more general?

MARK EIN: Tennis or doubles?

Q. No, tennis.

MARK EIN: Tennis more broadly?

Look, first of all, I think tennis is in an amazing place right now. It's really good. I mean, as I said, our events sold out weeks in advance. Tickets are highly coveted. You walk around these grounds, the energy this week, you have all been here, it's just incredible.

When you walk around, I know, because I'm part of the tennis community here, you see all the people in the tennis community, but so many of these people are not tennis people. They are here to experience it for the first time.

I think they come because I think they hear it's an amazing experience, great food and drinks, great venues, fun. You're also are going to see great players.

But I also think the players, when I took this over, the case when people said why you shouldn't think about investing a lot of money in a tennis tournament, it was the end of Roger, Rafa, Novak, end of Serena, thought it would be the end of Venus, turned out it wasn't, thank goodness, and while even those players weren't playing here, in Wall Street terms, the Bear case, the case against was that's really going to hurt the sport, interest is going to wane.

My view was, knowing the next generation, that I feel like they're -- I don't mean this physically -- they are appealing, like super appealing, they're social media savvy, and they just didn't get any attention because you had these icons of the game soaking it all up.

The minute those other players went away, the Franceses and Bens and Emmas and Naomis had a chance to show themselves and get the attention. And they're amazing. They're really good.

I feel like the sport is in a really good place. I think the big thing is lean into your strengths, and so the strength is the personalities. The fact that you're out there on the court, not wearing a helmet, not even wearing -- there is almost no other -- I don't think there is anything other than, I don't know a comparable for personal branding the way being at a big tennis match is for the number of countries you're going to be seeing, you don't have teammates, it's all about you.

So lean into those personalities. Let them, you know, let them have a great presence, social media and other. Then when you're on the ground, create an amazing event. Spend the time and money to go create something like this, because that's the unique thing about tennis.

You go to Indian Wells, it feels the same way, right? It's the same thing.

You go to a Grand Slam, when I go to a Grand Slam and it's the first Wednesday, almost no one's there because who was playing that day, they made that decision to go to the first Wednesday of a Grand Slam a long time ago, and whoever was playing is playing.

The people who bought tickets here, we are now up to, when we took over, 18% of the tickets were full-tournament tickets. It's now 73%. Then all the rest of the tickets sold out, but that's long before anyone knew who was playing. They're coming for the event.

Those are two things. I just think lean into the really attractive, appealing personalities we have, let them shine in. Break Point didn't work out hugely well, but I think the idea is a good idea, do more stuff like that so people know the people and people outside tennis, and then create amazing events that fans love and talk about and come back.

Q. I believe it's been discussed that this tournament is on track to have equal prize money on the ATP and WTA side by 2027. Correct me if I'm wrong. Some other tournaments on both tours have made those claims, as well, but the date has come and they actually haven't come through with it. What are you working towards with your team to make sure when we get to 2027 that the word is bond and that has actually happened?

MARK EIN: Well, we said it and we signed an agreement to do it, so we are doing it. We didn't have to sign an agreement. If we said we're going to do it, we're going to do it.

When we took over, it was an ATP 500 and a WTA 250. The first year we did it, it was, like, well, you have to present it equally, but you can't when they're different. 250s don't have the same number of top-10 players. There's so much that's different. It was so awkward.

To me, the other great thing, for Howard's question, one of the other, "the" unique thing about tennis is it's the only sport where men and women play at the same event at the same time. It's the only one. So let's lean into that.

If you walk around, over half the audience are women and that's amazing. You buy one ticket and you can see the best of both.

I really wanted to get the 500 all week to move here. It took a lot of years. I tried from the beginning. It took three years to have a conversation.

I will tell you, the minute I told, I got to Mubadala, who was the sponsor of the tournament, they immediately got it and said, Yeah, we should try to do it.

I give them a ton of credit, because it wouldn't have happened without them as the title sponsor, but they really bought into it.

So when we did it, a condition of doing it is that we would make it equal prize money in '27 when it would have been 2033 instead. So we moved it up six years in advance.

The reason it's not immediate is frankly you need a little room to get the revenues to grow, but it's not a step function. It doesn't go like this. It's every year, starting this year, it's growing more and more until in '27 it will be the case. I'm really proud of it, and I'm really proud of all of our sponsors who are behind it, as well.

Q. I want to ask something about Hailey Baptiste said earlier this week, she said this was the Blackest tournament on tour in terms of the crowd, and Frances was very excited about that statement, as well. Can you talk about how you see that, the diversity of this crowd and this tournament and the Black community specifically? Do you agree with that claim that she makes? I don't know if you have any demographic data that would at all back that up?

MARK EIN: Well, I mean, I don't go to every event on tour so I can't compare it. I will say we take a huge amount of pride in the diversity in our crowd. When you walk around, the biggest compliment I get, and I get it with some regularity, said in different ways, it happened when we owned the Kastles and it's happened here, people look around and say this is the single-best melting pot of our community that I experience.

It's not just race. It's age, gender, income, geography, it's every bit of diversity. It literally brings everybody together. Again, as the caretaker/owner of this thing, nothing is more rewarding than having the opportunity to bring people together from every walk of life into something they can all be excited about.

I definitely, when I walk around, I feel like that's the case and I'm really proud of that. You know, some of that is the nature of our community, which is very diverse. Some of it is the nature of the sport, the athletes.

I think we really try hard that there is something for everyone here, you know. There's something for everyone. It's not all about appealing to any one set of people. It's something for everyone.

I love the fact that people from every part of our community come and attend but also have a lot of passion for the event.

Then I would just say, talking about Hailey, because we should talk about that, the other amazing thing about this event is you have Hailey whose grandmother I think lived down the street and she played here. Clervie who played on these courts. Taylor Townsend went to the WTF. Obviously Frances wasn't part of that, but his first breaks on tour were here.

You people talk about events as an onramp and all the way you can inspire kids, give them something to aspire to, but here, we have all these examples from kids from our community that this site and this tournament really impacted their lives and inspired them. Man, there's nothing better than that.