US Open's Record-Breaking Year, 'A Food and Wine Festival With A Side Of Tennis'

Cheddar News

An exclusive look at the tournament's fan experience with USTA Chief Commercial Officer Kirsten Corio

Transcript

00:00I'm Dave Briggs here at the U.S. Open where the USTA expects a record 1 million fans to

00:08walk these grounds, many of whom are here for the food, the drinks, the entertainment,

00:14and some even here for the best tennis on the planet.

00:22How would you describe it to someone who's never been to the Open?

00:25It has been described by others, maybe not by me, as a food and wine festival with a

00:29side of tennis.

00:30You did record attendance last year, record attendance on day one of this year.

00:36Something changed.

00:37And record attendance in last week's fan week as well.

00:40I think it's a confluence of factors, right?

00:43We came out of COVID and people were hungry for in-person, live experiences, and we definitely

00:49benefited from that because we're considered a premium, bucket list type event.

00:54We always have a winning team, we never have a losing team on the court, we always crown

00:58the champions, we're always right here in New York with the best players in the world.

01:01So that's an aspect of it.

01:03Tennis participation in the U.S. also really increased since COVID.

01:06It was a safe sport.

01:07It was a sport that was one of the first sports you could do outside safely, right?

01:13And so the growth that we've seen in participation has also helped inspire people to want to

01:18come and see and be inspired by the best players in the world.

01:21Our mission is to grow the game in the United States, to grow participation, and to ensure

01:26that the U.S. Open is an event that has some accessibility for all who want to experience it.

01:31So we opened fan week a day earlier this year.

01:34We added more tentpole events in the evenings to ensure there's entertainment from 10 in

01:39the morning until 10 at night.

01:41So that's very important.

01:43And even with the finals weekend, we're now doing a finals weekend festival so that even

01:47if you can't get into the men's or the women's final, you can come on the grounds, experience

01:51the food and beverage on the grounds, go shopping, and have a watch party inside our second stadium,

01:56Louis Armstrong Stadium, where there will be a watch party.

01:58The other records you've broken, I believe, sponsorships and hospitality last year as well.

02:04Hospitality has been growing massively since 2019.

02:09We sold out of suites earlier than ever this year.

02:11Our suite sessions that we sell in Arthur Ashe Stadium were sold out by April.

02:15We've added new premium experiences to try to meet the demand for those types of once-in-a-lifetime

02:20experiential types of events.

02:23So those have grown tremendously, double-digit percentage.

02:26Ticket demand has grown tremendously as well.

02:30Our American Express presale was up double-digit percentages.

02:33We sold as many tickets in the first hour as we did in five days last year.

02:37Same with the on-sale.

02:38So those are major.

02:40Our sponsorships are really long, tenured relationships.

02:44Seven of our partners have been with us for more than 30 years.

02:48We only have 24 official U.S. Open sponsors, and that's deliberate and by design.

02:53We added two new sponsors this year.

02:55We added Destination DC, Washington, D.C. Tourism, and Moet Champagne.

03:00So that's a good fit.

03:02It's a great fit.

03:03Sometimes they feel icky at sporting events.

03:06Here they just seem to blend so naturally.

03:09Why are they such a good fit, whether it's walking in and seeing Amex or Emirates or

03:14any of the companies you've named, Heineken?

03:16Why are they a good fit and don't feel forced on the customers?

03:20We spend 49 weeks of the year, as do our partners, with their agencies, thinking about how do

03:27you best want to activate in a really authentic way that will really resonate with our fans.

03:32And because they're such long partnerships, our partners know our fans.

03:36They know the fan.

03:37They know how the fan is evolving, and they're really cultivating experiences that are for

03:41those fans.

03:42Amex was supposed to be dying when Serena retired, and the Big 3 era came to an end.

03:47How are the players ultimately driving it?

03:49They really are.

03:50You've got, listen, when we were concerned about what happens when those icons exit the

03:55game.

03:56The greatest to ever play the game.

03:57But then, just when you had a second to think about that, you had Coco Gauff come on the

04:01stage and Ben Shelton and Francis Tiafoe and Carlos Alcaraz and Yannick Sinner, and you've

04:07got a new crop of amazing personalities, but that are so impressive on the court that

04:14we do, to come back to where we started, we do have a base of core tennis fans that really

04:19appreciate amazing tennis, and these are amazing young tennis players.

04:23All right, a feast fit for a king with executive chef Julian Alonso.

04:29This looks gorgeous.

04:30I'm almost afraid to eat it.

04:32A very wise man once said, we start with delicious, and that's exactly what we do.

04:37And by that man, I mean Ed Brown.

04:39You know, he taught us, start with delicious.

04:41We just try to take the best ingredient that you possibly can, make sure that we just taste

04:45that tomato, taste that watermelon.

04:47Tell me what's in front of us.

04:48Here we have our deviled eggs, served with some cucumber radish, and then why not caviar?

04:56Wagyu fried rice.

04:58We have our signature crab cakes.

05:00Ed has been doing these for almost 30 years.

05:02Here we have our warm lobster roll, so instead of me doing a classic with the mayonnaise,

05:08all we do is we poach it in butter, toast the bread, put the poached lobster on top,

05:13and serve with potato chips.

05:14The most amazing thing about this feast is, oh, by the way, we're at a sporting event.

05:21We are here at the US Open at ACES, and that's what people wouldn't believe, that this kind

05:26of Michelin chef type food is served at a sporting event.

05:31Why?

05:32Well, why not?

05:33I mean, really, why not?

05:34I've been doing this tournament with Ed since about 1999, and we've always made sure that

05:41we want to make sure that our guests are satisfied.

05:43We want to produce really great local farm-to-table dishes, and that's really what we've done,

05:49and the USTA is generous enough to let us do that.

05:52We do 1,000 covers here every single day.

05:56We open at 11, we close at 11.

05:59Oftentimes, Julie and I go to restaurants with my kids.

06:01They want to read the dessert menu first, because that's their priority.

06:05What is this magnificent piece?

06:07We partner with Millie Paretri, and she's a wonderful chef.

06:11She also gives back to the community.

06:12She came up with this dessert.

06:14It's an orange glazed honey bun with sweet potato.

06:17We decided to do an ice cream sandwich.

06:18All right, here we go.

06:19Wait till you taste this.

06:21That is awesome.

06:22The US Open is all about fan experience, and this is the first year the Advantage Arena

06:28is a gaming lounge.

06:30Why a gaming lounge when the focus should be on the court?

06:33Well, we figured there's a different way for fans to engage with tennis.

06:37It's not just what happens on court.

06:39We want them to engage and interact with tennis, right?

06:41So tennis is a sport where, obviously, when you're on court, you have a racket in hand

06:45and you're playing, because we wanted to bring that to life in a different way.

06:48What are the games that we have this year?

06:49Yeah, so we have four games this year.

06:51We have Topspin 2K25, we have Tennis Clash, we have Roblox Champion of the Court, and

06:57we have Fortnite Tennis Storm.

06:58In Topspin, you can play as any of your favorite players.

07:02They have a pretty big player roster.

07:04And then, obviously, you can play right on center court in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

07:07And video games really grow all sports, because they engage a different audience, and then

07:12they start to appreciate the sport itself.

07:14Yeah, and this has been a three-year strategy for us, where we've been investing the gaming

07:17space and really building out all these different games.

07:20So this is Tennis Clash.

07:21It's available on iPhone and Android.

07:23It's a mobile app game where you can play at the US Open.

07:27Against other people, you can play friendly matches.

07:29We also have a US Open tournament available on Tennis Clash for people to join.

07:33This is Tennis Storm on Fortnite.

07:35It's part of the mini-box PVP island.

07:37So what we really wanted to do here is bring US Open and tennis to an authentic way inside

07:43of Fortnite.

07:44So is the tennis racket the weapon?

07:45The tennis racket, it's a little bit.

07:47You can hit the ball.

07:48You can hit other people off the court.

07:50And then at the end, you've got some flaming ball cannons that come around that you can

07:54hit against other people, and it's last man winning.

07:57So another global game in Roblox.

08:01How is this one unique?

08:03So Roblox is truly more of a social platform, and the strategy we had here was to bring

08:07the US Open, the grounds, and the sport of tennis to life inside of Roblox.

08:11So as you can see, the full stadium, you have Arthur Ashe Stadium in the background.

08:15We have some of our brands.

08:16So Ralph Lauren is here with polo and a photo quest.

08:19But really, it's the atmosphere of the open and bringing that social aspect of when you

08:24are here on site to Roblox.

08:26We actually rebuilt our US Open shop where you can come in and you can buy all different

08:32kinds of items.

08:33So this looks very much like our Octagon on site in our main shop.

08:36You can go in, and there's a bunch of different items for sale, everything from different

08:40types of rackets to different tennis balls.

08:42We knew that there's a different audience that wants to engage with the US Open in a

08:46way that's, again, the way they engage with sports at home.

08:49So let's bring this to life here.

08:51We have these four games.

08:53It's just a great opportunity.

08:54It's kind of a 360 strategy for us.

08:57We have the ability to play at home, engage with the US Open when you're not here, and

09:00now we're promoting our games for the fans that are here.

09:02We didn't really have a way to engage with that Gen Z and younger audience that we want

09:06to really introduce to the sport and introduce to the US Open and then bring them up to become

09:10tennis fans.

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