ATP Tour World Championship

November 29, 1998

Mark Miles

Juan Antonio Samaranch

Brian Tobin

GRAEME AGARS: To continue the proceedings this morning, I would like to introduce to you the gentlemen seated at the table in front of you. Firstly, His Excellency Juan Antonio Samaranch, the President of the IOC. We'd like to welcome Brian Tobin, who is the President of the International Tennis Federation. And of course we welcome back Mark Miles, the CEO of the ATP Tour. I'd like to hand it across to Mark to begin this part of the conference.

MARK MILES: Good afternoon again. Thank you for your attention just prior to our final. It is a great honor to welcome His Excellency President Samaranch to the ATP Tour World Championships, and also President Brian Tobin of the International Tennis Federation. They will shortly have the opportunity to speak for themselves. We did think it was particularly appropriate that President Samaranch chose the eve of our final, given our finalists, to join ministers of government from Spain and others who are arriving this morning, in spite of the fog, to attend the match. I wanted to make just a couple of comments perhaps to put the week in perspective, then to get to the point of discussions which the three of us and Ion Tiriac have had earlier today. From my point of view a year ago here, we announced the changes which we thought were important to make in the future of the ATP Tour and professional tennis. We thought it was important that we make the game easier to follow for tennis fans, and there were a couple of key ingredients to do that: First, to increase the significance, the global impact of our top series of tournaments, to make sure that they provided the most important possible platform for our players to play, for our sport to shine, to create stars, in addition to promoting the Mercedes star around the globe. Second, we thought it was critically important that we create a calendar year points race which was recognized inside the game as the right way to project the results of our competition to the public, and that it was important that it be done in a way that was clear and easy for the public to understand. A couple of the things that we thought were important at increasing the international recognition of our top series events included a rebranding, and that is work-in-progress - we are working with Octagon and ISL in that process; there will be news about that as the new year approaches - and to change the player commitment, to change the mentality and the system so that the top players who are ranked high enough to get into the top events are, in fact, automatically entered. A year ago, we told you we thought that the ideal number was seven. Since then, we've been delighted that the players have stepped up and we've become convinced that we could keep all nine of our current Mercedes Super 9 events and preserve their significance while increasing the quality of that brand. We also said it was vitally important that we centralize all the commercial rights to that top event, top series of events, so we can convey and promote the group as a class publicly. I think the announcements from earlier this week were delivering on that. The first announcement was that the events and the Tour have come together and formed a new corporation, which is a permanent corporation, for the pooling of those rights. That is done, fully executed. The second announcement was our collaboration with ISL and Octagon to step up, to take on the fuller, more comprehensive approach to marketing this more substantial bundle of rights. In addition, we thought that it was important - as much as we love the experience we've had in Frankfurt and Hannover - to move our World Championships from year to year, or at least every two years, to the major capitals of the world so other regions of the world can share in this great event and the event can do more to develop the game on a global basis. We also said it was important to streamline our calendar, so we created a fund with substantial assets to buy smaller tournaments which are interested in selling back, in the end to make some streamlining of the calendar. So far we've purchased five tournaments. I believe by the time we're sitting here next year, it will be at least five more. I think that will allow us to accomplish the surgical kind of evolution in the Tour calendar which makes sense. I think the other thing which we talked about, which we've always believed is critically important, is that the organizations that have a role inside the game must work more closely together. For too long, occasionally in substance and certainly more frequently, the perception has been that all of us have not really been committed to a set of common goals, and that we share the same vision and objectives for the promotion of our sport. It's not to say that there hasn't been a dialogue for a long, long time, because there has, and generally a very constructive one. Before I get to my guests today, I'd say one word about this broader agenda point, the bringing together of the organizations in a collaborative way. We have ongoing - and I think important substantive - discussions between the men's game and the women's game. I think it's fair to say that they have been slower and somewhat more frustrating than I might have hoped. But, on the other hand, I think there is goodwill, that the dialogue is constructive, that we will be working together, and over time you will see results of the type that we've talked about in the past. On the other hand, I couldn't be happier about the collaboration between ourselves and President Tobin and the ITF, and, in a related way, the Grand Slams themselves. You have in front of you a statement which talks about the common vision or agenda which we're working on. We're not here today to announce A, B, C are done, because they're not fully. We're here to say in the strongest possible way that we're committed to a common agenda, and that we'll do what we can - really I think what's necessary - to work together to move the game forward as fast as possible. The agenda includes this race. We really believe that the changes we've announced for the year 2000 will enhance the popularity of the sport because it makes it easier for tennis fans to follow, and because it will make the most important events even more accentuated. It is important to us that you understand that it's not going to come at the expense of the smaller tournaments on the Tour. They have their role to play, and that's an integral part of our commitment to our Tour members, and to the game, as they have their role in developing the sport. But the race ranking will make it clear that the most important events count most, and have the most importance in every player's scheduling. I'd suggest to you that through our discussions, we're looking at the ATP Tour very closely at the inclusion of the Davis Cup and the Olympic Games in this calendar year points race. If we can accomplish that, it represents a very important departure from the past. I want to take just a minute to explain why it isn't done at this moment, and why it hasn't happened previously. Those of you who follow tennis closely probably already know, from my perspective, it's never been a political question; it's been a philosophical one. The rankings, from the perspective of the players, the professional athlete, are aimed at having an objective, fair, consistent way of determining who has the opportunity to play in professional tennis. It is simply difficult to conform that philosophy to the granting of opinions to team competitions, or competitions which may not select the athletes based simply on their ranking. That has never been a statement on our part of anything but respect for the importance of Davis Cup, the Olympic Games, but it is simply a recognition of the past philosophy of the ranking. That's still an issue for us, but it's one that we are in discussions with Mr. Tobin and President Samaranch about, and I believe is likely to be fruitful. The second agenda item that's listed in the statement relates to the calendar. There are different organizations in the sport, not just those reflected here, but also the women. We believe that we must show a closer collaboration and share common goals with respect to creating the calendar for men's and women's professional tennis. I think, again, we've achieved a lot. You'll see in time that the major Tour events - the Grand Slams, and the Davis Cup - will be provided for as they take their fundamentally important position on the calendars. The ITF and the ATP Tour are also making important progress because we're arriving at a shared vision on the importance of us collaborating in two ways, two additional ways: One is public relations and communications about our sport, not just with respect to this race, but other important issues. I'll give you two from the ATP Tour's perspective that I think we would be negligent if we didn't embrace that are immediate communications, important messages and developments in our sport. One is Pete Sampras' pursuit of the Grand Slam title. Now, the Grand Slams aren't technically part of the ATP Tour, but they're fundamentally part of our sport. The ATP Tour will be as proud, I suggest, as the Grand Slams and the ITF on the day when Pete Sampras breaks that record. We want to work with the ITF and the Grand Slams in communicating that, the importance of that, to our sport, to the public. Another is that next year is the hundred year anniversary of the Davis Cup. We're proud of that as well. That's the kind of thing that we should be working together to promote. I think Brian may have an idea or two about how there are ATP Tour developments that the ITF can help us communicate. We also think it's important that we work hand-in-glove with respect to any future changes in the rules. Getting consensus among any part of the game on rule changes is not easy. But we're committed to working together so that in men's professional tennis at least - I'm sure Brian's agenda is broader - we really do work in concert. We are also in discussions about the possibility of taking one more organizational step, which I think would be designed to increase even further the level of cooperation, understanding and coordination in the sport; that is to look at overlapping representation on our respective boards. I think it would be a very positive development and one which I hope we can accomplish in the months ahead. Lastly, but certainly not least, is that the three of us and our organizations share a vision about the importance of the Olympic Games and the need for tennis to be more important inside the Olympic Games. I know that the discussions we've had have been productive and constructive. The Tour will do all that it can to increase the importance of the games, especially in the minds of our players. We have ideas with respect to the format, which are just ideas, expressed in the spirit of brainstorming and moving forward. We also have a common agenda with respect to the Olympic movement's leadership in the anti-doping program. I'm not going to announce all that; I'll reserve comment until later. But I simply would say that we believe all of this is fundamentally important to moving our sport of tennis forward, and we're happy to be a part of it. We're delighted that you two are here today toward that end. Brian.

BRIAN TOBIN: Thank you, Mark, Your Excellency. Ladies and Gentlemen, I think Mark has covered it pretty well. Thank you for inviting me to be present here today for your finals. I think the fact that we're here, we're all here, including President Samaranch, is indicative of the commitment that I think we all want to make in achieving more unity in our sport of tennis. There are a number of issues still to be solved, but I think we need to solve them. Mark has touched on a few points that have been difficult for him, the ATP. We've had some difficult points, but I think we've all come to the conclusion, the realization, that we need to solve them if we're going to achieve unity and a proper focus on our sport. We do have a commitment, the ITF has a commitment, to bringing parties together for that very reason or reasons. I think - particularly at the professional level - we tend to be involved very heavily at all levels of the game of tennis, but we're now talking about the top level, the level that people see, focus on, judge the sport by what happens at this top professional level. I don't want you to think that we've only just started talking in the last two or three months or two or three weeks, because it isn't so. Mark and I, I believe, have a pretty good relationship, and we've had long talks now probably over 18 months or two years, until we had a game of golf recently and the conversation stopped (laughter). But we have been talking. I think we both want to rationalize the problems that we both face. Mark has mentioned most of them. I think this new points race will be ideal in simplifying the public's perspective of our sport. The calendar has always been a problem to all of us, tournaments on the Tour, the Davis Cup, even for the Olympics, but I think that's in the process of getting to the best resolution. We hope to have cross-representation on our boards. That's certainly one of my objectives. I believe the ITF is ready to do something in that respect, in other words, to have some ATP Tour representation on our board. I'm pleased, indeed, to see President Samaranch here because the Olympics is a very high priority for the ITF. It is the forum, the stage for the best in sport, and I want tennis to be part of that stage. I'm delighted that Mark sees the ATP Tour helping with us to achieve this. I know we have President Tiriac here - he's president of everything, but now he's president of the Romanian Olympic Committee - I know Ion is committed to tennis in the Olympics. That's the good news for all of us. What are we doing to get together? How are we going to market and present the sport better? That's all in the throes of discussion. I think we need to present a coordinated face to the world, that includes the WTA Tour, of which we're already part. I think we need to include all of our newsworthy items in our joint communiques to the press and to the public. We want to experiment with rules, if we do want to experiment on, on a joint basis rather than a competition basis. There are a lot of things that can be improved. One of my bugbears is passive time in the sport, the amount of time that the public or television audiences don't see anything. We need to improve and sharpen it up in my view. I think we need to work together on equipment trends. The ITF is now establishing a pretty comprehensive laboratory for testing equipment, balls, racquets, surfaces, so on. I think we can do a lot together. I think we can do a lot with our computer services and systems that will save us all time and money and present a more coordinated view. I think if we can negotiate the inclusion or the reinclusion of the Grand Slams in the Tour, recognition of Davis Cup and Olympics as Mark has said, cross-representation on our boards, I think that is going to achieve a lot. I've always believed, and I think I've said to most of you before, I think we have to focus at the professional level on the major events because they're the events that sell our sport to the public. The ITF has all the other levels of the game to worry about. We're going to do that. I think the fact that we're here is a commitment. I hope you'll take it as that. We're here to reinforce what has been a cloudy issue, I suppose, over the last 12 or 18 months. All sorts of stories and problems have emerged. I think now we're on the same track. One final point I wanted to make, perhaps in relation to the Olympics president, we attended, along with many other international federations and interested people, the working session on Friday in Lausanne on the question of doping in sport. I want to say, I don't know that there's any other sport in the world that has the cohesive anti-doping program that tennis has. The ITF, the ATP Tour, the WTA Tour, all subscribe to and comply with one anti-doping policy and procedure, professional, amateur, whatever you like. I think that's unique. We intend to keep it that way. In some areas of the press, I understand yesterday tennis was singled out as a sport which was not ready to comply. Let me just say to you that tennis does not support cheating in sport, and particularly in tennis. The only reason on Friday that I deferred agreeing to whatever the paper was that was presented to us that morning was because we have partners, the ATP Tour, WTA Tour, and of course we need to talk to them about the new formats, procedures for anti-doping penalties, all that sort of thing. The big conference is in February, and I'm pretty confident that we're all going to be there, all of us and the WTA Tour, in support of the anti-doping unified problem that the IOC presents. It's not as if we don't support it. Let me make it clear. We have partners who are part of the a program. We want to confer with them before we make any public statement on it. Thank you.

MARK MILES: President Samaranch.

PRESIDENT SAMARANCH: First of all, I would like to say that I was really pleased to accept invitation of Mr. Miles to attend this very important meeting this morning with ATP, ITF. I think the conclusions, in general, they are very good for the three parts, but mainly for the game, for tennis. Also, Mr. Miles, thank you for your invitation to attend the final of the ATP Tour World Championships this afternoon. I am sure, a hundred percent sure, that a player from my country will be the winner (laughter). Speaking in tennis, tennis was in the Olympic Games at the beginning, since 1924. After 1924, disappear the game. We push forward, very hard with International Tennis Federation, to have tennis back. That was a reality in 1988. Since then, we are facing some problems. I think the participation of women is okay, the best women tennis players are always in the Olympic Games. But sometimes we have problems with some players, men players, like you have, Mr. President, sometimes also with the Davis Cup I think. I think we have to reinforce the Olympic tennis tournament, and for this reason I am here. I am very pleased to listen that you are studying the possibility to give points, ATP points, for the Olympic tennis tournament, and also to increase the interest for the players to take part in this very major event that is held every four years. Also I would like to say that you know Mr. Tiriac is very important in tennis. Now he's becoming also very important in the Olympic movement. He's the President of the Romanian Olympic Committee, and maybe that is only the beginning. He can be most important also in the Olympic movement in the near future. That's all. I am very pleased and very happy of this relations with ATP and ITF. We think that working together is a benefit of the three parts, and I think mostly working together is the benefit of the tennis players and also of the tennis sport. Thank you.

MARK MILES: I think it's fair to say that from our perspective, there should be no doubt about the importance to the ATP Tour, to the players on the Tour, of both the Davis Cup and the Olympic Games. The more important, the better. They're historically significant to our sport, they're part of the world of sport, and we have to do more in that regard. That's why we're having this discussion. We're trying to overcome the kind of philosophical issue that is a genuine one, an historic one, and I think that it's easy as done in a framework of kind of a reconciliation between our organizations of all of the game. My expectation is that those items that we've talked about today will progress together. I'm not going to give you a timeline. I know that our common objective would be to be able to include the Olympic Games in the race for the year 2000, and the race itself, as we've said, we'll redefine it doesn't take effect until the beginning of the year 2000. We have time for deliberate discussions. I think we'll take whatever time is necessary over the course of the next year to hopefully achieve this agenda.

BRIAN TOBIN: With respect to your second question, the merger I think of the events. Obviously, that's one of the elements that we need to reexamine, the merger of the events. There's a lot involved, both events are very successful, both have private promoters - if I can call them that - involved, a lot of commercial contracts are in place. All these need to be examined, and they will be relooked at to see whether at some stage we can do something about that. I mean, I think you also have to think of the players because we now have the women included in the Grand Slam Cup. We have a commitment to the women. Probably if you combined women, men, ATP Championships and the Grand Slam Cup, I think there's certainly going to be less money available for the players. One event can't support what we have now. There are some pros and cons, but I think it's something, along with all the other elements, that we have to relook at.

BRIAN TOBIN: I think the second question is obvious. Yes, if the Grand Slams become part of the Tour again, and the Davis Cup is - I don't want to say part of the ATP Tour or vice versa - but the Davis Cup works with the ATP Tour, yes, I think that would have to be part of the cooperative bases. Yes, there would be.

MARK MILES: What was the first part?

MARK MILES: The Tour's player commitment, as I think you know, is really part of a bonus program, which is funded by our tournaments and our marketing activities. While the answer is effectively no, it's not literally part of that program, I think that you can accomplish much the same thing if we can incorporate these events in the ranking, in the race.

MARK MILES: I agree with you.

MARK MILES: I completely agree with you. Part of our, if you will, branding work, ongoing work with Octagon and ISL, is to come up with an approach to the professional game from top to bottom that's much more transparent, makes sense to not only the informed Italian journalists, but the public.

MARK MILES: I think that's why we're here. Your question in a way goes not just to history but to the psychology of the player. We want to change that. We're not satisfied with that. I don't think the whole answer is points. First of all, I don't think it's realistic to think from one day to the next history changes; it takes time to establish a great tradition. The Grand Slams have taken a great deal of time to be the pinnacle of our game. But it has to be the goal. Part of our dialogue is brainstorming about the possibility for after the year 2000 is to find ways to influence the format of the competition there to make it as important as possible, as distinctive as possible for the tennis player.

BRIAN TOBIN: I agree with that. I think you'll find that the ITF is going to launch quite a heavy promotional program in the next 18 months leading up to the Olympics in Sydney - President Samaranch may feel the brunt of some of this, too - in trying to create a higher level of interest in tennis in the Olympics, both in the player, spectator, the IOC, many of the other Olympic sports, to recognize tennis, because we believe it is probably the most international sport in the world, and it contains men and women. So why shouldn't it be part of the Olympics? I think it is an attitude thing, a philosophical thing. I think we've got to change the minds of people. We'll be asking you guys to help us do that a little bit over the next 12 months. I understand what you say, and that's one of the things we're fighting to improve. I don't think that points are going to make all the difference in the world either. I mean, whoever's No. 1 in the world in the year 2000 or 2004 is probably not going to play in the Olympics just for the points. But I think I understand Mark's problem with getting to the Olympics purely on performance perhaps, rather than being selected by your country. But I think for the players who do play in the Olympics - and who will now hopefully receive some points - it will be better than them playing for nothing, watching some of those guys who don't play, earning points at the same time somewhere else. I think it's more important to the people who are not at the top of the tree, rather than getting one or two players who want to go just to get points. I think it's, again, a philosophical thing, that all the other players see one or two guys not playing Olympics, but earning points. The same applies for Davis Cup. I think it's important for all those guys that do play in those events, the Davis Cup and the Olympics, to know that they are getting some recognition for representing their country.

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