Friday, Apr 17, 2020 • 37min
Podcast Special: ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi
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In this special programme, ATP Chairman, Andrea Gaudenzi joins ATP Tennis Radio Podcast host Seb Lauzier to discuss his vision for the game, as well as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Tour. Throughout the interview they discuss topics such as player relief, rankings, working with tournaments and other governing bodies and how the media landscape is changing. Gaudenzi also discusses how he first got into tennis, his playing career and how an entrepreneurial background is informing the decisions he is making now.
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Andrea Gaudenzi
Seb Lauzier
Transcript
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00:01
This is the ATP Tennis Radio Podcast.
Share
Seb Lauzier
00:25
Well, I'm delighted and honored to be joined on the line by
Andrea Gaudenzi
, chairman of the ATP
. First things first. You're in London
at the moment. But obviously as an Italian, I have to ask, how are your friends and family, everyone you, you, you know and love back home?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
00:43
Close relatives are actually okay. I mean luckily my hometown in
Ravenna
is, has not been impacted dramatically by the virus, but we've got a lot of friends and friends of friends that we're having really hard time. It's a dramatic situation for everyone around the world. Hopefully we can get out of it soon. We want to go back to normal and we want to start, you know, go back and see people healthy and go through this crisis. Hopefully as soon as possible.Share
Seb Lauzier
01:09
Not exactly been a case of easing into the role of
ATP
Chairman has it? I mean, how difficult has it been from an administrative point of view, this just getting everything in a row?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
01:20
Definitely different from what I expected. It's about crisis management. I totally understand that it gets slightly difficult to move forward. The implementation of the plan and the vision that was discussed with the board ahead of this role, but we have to manage like everyone else, every company, every business around the world first and foremost.
Share
01:42
I think we should also keep in mind that there are people who are actually going through very distressed situation and they are in trouble. I mean, big thanks to the nurses and doctors and everybody out there.
Share
01:53
And I think overall our arts should go to the people who actually have been impacted. You know, they have health problems nowadays. You know, we do a lot of discussions on a daily basis on the tennis and the tour rescheduling. And I try to remind everyone guess let's not take ourselves too seriously.
Share
02:11
We are part of the entertainment business. But you know, there are problems out there are real problems. So yes, our job is somehow to put a smile on people's face. So we want to go back on tourism as possible so we can entertain the people at home and we'll try to do that.
Share
02:25
But we should keep in mind that health and safety first for our players for our members. But for everybody around the world really because any one of us actually not staying home and going somewhere is potentially affecting someone else, your neighbor or someone who is week who has a precondition or as it is a little bit older age.
Share
02:44
So that should be our focus managing the current scenario is extremely complex, especially because of the nature of our calendar, the nature of our business. But I'm an optimistic in general by nature and I try to see the positive side which has been a tremendous collaboration with the other
Grand Slams
and the WTA
and the ITF
.Share
03:05
So all the bodies coming together and discussing calendar, way forward, player relief and many, many other topics. So that could be the positive outcome of this. Is that finally, you know that the governing bodies of tennis and the
Grand Slam
get together and work collaboratively be on the long-term future of the sport.Share
Seb Lauzier
03:24
And it also sounds like you're going to have, but you must be living on
Zoom
at the moment or something else and you've got a lot of meetings around a lot of tables over the next.Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
03:34
Well whenever you're allowed back around the table, It's not a bad thing to be honest. I've been used to work remotely the last 15 years, you know, managing startups with different teams spread around the world. You know, we had the engineering team in one country, the product in another.
Share
03:49
So we spent a lot of time with the conferencing and remote working, which is not something the
ATP
was very efficient at. So maybe another learning of this year would be learning how to work remotely. There is no need of traveling every time and putting 100 people on a plane to have a meeting. You can actually have a productive meeting via videoconference.Share
04:10
Obviously, the players do need to travel, you need to go to a site and play the tournament. Management is not always required to be on-site to actually meet and make decisions also because that is the limitation itself because by definition we meet only a number of times per year and we need far more decisions than meetings to be made in the future if we want to progress.
Share
04:32
So that's another wish I have for this year having an organization learn how to work remotely in a productive way.
Share
Seb Lauzier
04:39
You started as chairman in January. Previously the role of chairman and the role of CEO were done by the same person. Now
Massimo Calvelli
is the CEO and you're the chairman. So how are you dividing the roles, especially at the moment?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
04:53
We need to prepare for the future. We need to prepare for the digital revolution for the media revolution. So the help of
Massimo
which is a great guy had a long experience in corporate, both Wilson
and Nike
being in charge of sports marketing with the tennis focus.Share
05:10
It's really, really helpful of managing the day-to-day operation while the chairman should focus more on the long-term vision, you know interacting with the board, stakeholders, member etcetera. And also vital important role is to manage you know and collaborate and discuss with the governing bodies with the
Grand Slams
and WTA
, that's a job in itself.Share
Seb Lauzier
05:32
You mentioned the board and the player council I guess a big part of that. Let's talk about players and tournaments now because I mean they've all been affected in various ways. First the players, how much contact are you having with the players and the players council right now?
Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
05:48
Frequent. It's regular calls I would say weekly at the moment, there's a lot of discussion ongoing, mostly related to ranking and calendar player relief. You know, everyone is struggling at the moment financially. The lower-ranked player, you know ranked 200 and above are really struggling as well as the smaller tournaments challenger. So we are in touch because they have extraordinary decision that we have to make in this time. So we definitely have a more frequent conversation that we used to.
Share
Seb Lauzier
06:16
Is the
ATP
considering any kind of financial relief package for players as you say, lower down and also tournaments. Is that something the ATP
is even in a position to do?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
06:26
Yes, we are. As a matter of fact, we discuss it today with the players council, we have discussed it yesterday with the board I heard guys at home, you know, obviously unable to play unable to earn money within a financially struggling.
Share
06:41
So we will try to help the tennis player by nature is an entrepreneur, is a sort of a self employed, fully independent, completely different from team sports, basketball or soccer where they are fully employed by their teams. So it would be very difficult to create sort of a structure that guarantees them a sort of a base.
Share
07:01
The difficult part of it is also, you know, being conscious that also the reserves and resources are not infinite. We depend on the tournaments to be played and we don't know when we will go back on court and one of the large revenue stream of the
ATP
is actually the finance.Share
07:17
So it's a bit difficult to actually go in full without exactly knowing how deep is the hole somehow, if that is the way to say it. But we will try to do something, you know, to help those players who need it the most and you know, honestly have been quite touched by the top players who reached out the big names expressing really the desire of helping the lower-ranked player.
Share
07:41
We're also working and talking with the
Grand Slams
about it. They may want to join in the effort. I think it would be a great message for the sport. You know, the players do play in those tournaments as well. I mean, I think, you know, in a world where we think greater collaboration among the governing bodies, it's key. I think it would be a great message if we can all support the players in this crisis.Share
Seb Lauzier
08:02
The Fedex
ATP
Rankings
, they're frozen currently. But those points from 2019 March to June I guess can't count, can't go on counting forever. I mean, what are the latest thoughts and plans for the rankings? Complex I'm sure.Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
08:20
We have several options on the table that we are discussing with the players, you know, some following the basic principles of our ranking, which is basically the points come off when the tournament is played the following year, it's a 52 weeks, best of 18 ranking.
Share
08:35
Other options are obviously related to a more bulk phase-out. If you take the points that you've done in the previous period and you're divided by 52 weeks and you face them out.
Share
08:46
None of those options is perfect. And I think we should make the final decision when we know exactly the date or going back on court. Because one, you know, the length of the suspension has an impact on which one is the best option. So we will continue discussing with the tournaments and the players council and probably 6-8 weeks before going back on court will make the final decision.
Share
Seb Lauzier
09:08
The players obviously been hugely affected by this, that the tournament's this must be hitting them for six. I mean, how collaborative have they been with the
ATP
through all of this? And has that changed from country to country or region to region or has it been very consistent dealing with them all across the board?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
09:26
No, I would say it's been very consistent. I mean, we took a very simple approach in the concept of rescheduling which has tried to preserve as many points and try as many as possible. So we want to reschedule as many tournaments as possible across all categories. You know, because we should think also about the lower-ranked player, high ranked etcetera etcetera.
Share
09:47
It's not gonna be easy. I mean due to many factors, we don't know when we go back on court, you know, weeks will be limited, there's probably more tournaments than weeks, so it's going to be challenging. But I sense some sort of collaboration approach in understanding it.
Share
10:03
Listen, there is no magic silver bullet here. We have to try to do the best that we can out of a very difficult situation and you know, it's gonna be a tough year for everyone, no matter what we do, there are going to be losses, we have to be aware of that. I think we have to be conscious of that. We have to accept it.
Share
10:20
And we also have to think a little bit and dedicate some more time into the future, because it could be a good opportunity to actually now to sit down and really look into the long-term future of our sport, not only focused on crisis management on the date today.
Share
Seb Lauzier
10:35
One thing that hits tennis arguably more than a lot of sports I guess is just the truly global nature and the and the reliance on global flights and travel. Do you face more challenges than other sports, do you think in this area? I mean, and how, how great is that?
Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
10:52
Absolutely. I mean even in possibility of going back on court when there will be travel restrictions, the fact that we are a global sport, and in a big event we travel from 1.000 to 5.000 people across the globe including as relatives, coaches, physios and everybody else.
Share
11:10
It's extremely challenging. It's much easier for a national league Where you can confine the outlets into one city and you know, and find the stadium and potentially have a show, it's going to be extremely challenging for 10 years. So I mean, but this is absolutely beyond our control, let's be honest.
Share
11:29
I mean, there's nothing we can do no matter how many hours we put in every day, every week, there are certain things that we can't control. And if we take an approach since the beginning we took a health-first approach. We were one of the first board to actually start canceling the events in
Indian Wells
.Share
11:44
I think it's important because at the end of the day, as I said, we're gonna be back stronger than ever this year is what it is, but we shouldn't take ourselves too serious in a sense that it's not worth risking one human life just to have one event. We should be very conscious of that.
Share
Seb Lauzier
12:02
You mentioned the calendar options and the amount of work going on with the calendar, do they include potentially playing through December this year? I mean, could this year just never end in terms of its tennis?
Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
12:14
No option has been disregarded. So obviously, you know, the
ATP
Finals, you know, they sort of crowned the number one in the world at the end of the year. So It would be difficult to have events with eight points past the finance, it's a bit challenging because the finance auto arena is booked and it's impossible to change the date, but we're really looking into everything.Share
12:36
I mean, it's -again- it would be extraordinary circumstances, you know, we may actually have to do something that will never do again, like having tournaments poster finance, but with such a long break and if the possibility of playing in November, December becomes a reality, we may look into it.
Share
Seb Lauzier
12:53
I want to ask you about the neato 80 B finals later and obviously as an Italian where, where it's going to next. But you talked earlier about the calendar and the fact that really everything's up for discussion at the moment, there are a lot of things that have been on-off the table for a while, just for example,
Indian Wells
and Miami
being a two-week event wanting to be aligned more with the Slams
than with The Masters 1000
calendar, Shanghai
apparently having similar ambitions to grow.Share
13:25
Is this the time to be talking about these things and taking them into consideration seriously or have they always been on the table and it's just simply a time now when you've got a little bit more man-hours to sit down and think about?
Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
13:39
Now some of the things you mentioned actually were part of the vision and plan that I presented to the board before getting elected like, you know, enhancing the days of the
Master 1000
for one simple reason that they have the commitment of the top players.Share
13:52
So this is definitely our premium events, that doesn't mean we want to compete against the
Grand Slam
. We feel the Grand Slams
are the pinnacle of our sports and we belong to the same storytelling starting in general in Australia
and ending with the ATP
Finals.Share
14:07
If you probably ask anyone on the street unless you're a court tennis fan or you work within the industry, they probably don't know the difference between, you know, a
Master 1000
belonging to the ATP
Tour
and a Grand Slam
not belonging to the tour.Share
14:21
Which is not true, but if you think about it, it's the same entropy, points same ranking, we share most of the rules, officials etcetera, so it doesn't really belong, they all belong to the same tour into the same story in the eyes of the fence we do.
Share
14:37
So why not working together? I mean, I'm definitely, we should raise the level of our events, but we're not competing against each other. That's the funny part for me is that even, you know the way our calendar is structured, it's not our tournaments are not competing against these lands and these lands are not competing against each other because they have different dates.
Share
14:55
So actually, if they grow, we grow. If we grow, they grow and and vice-versa. So I don't really see the competition here. My main concern is what the other sports too, you know what the other entertainment platform are doing.
Share
15:09
So that's where the competition is not internal. So, but if we can create that organization that serves the player's serve the tournament helps run the business sharing best practices is very important, is what for example, the American sports do.
Share
15:24
Some great ideas may be done by
Wimbledon
or by the Tournament of Rome
or Cincinnati
can be shared among other members or among the players. So this is a kind of collaboration that we need to start having within the world of things that is not happening at the moment.Share
Seb Lauzier
15:40
Just finally
Andrea
on this current situation I guess, would you consider holding tournaments behind closed doors? No fans in the stands as unpalatable as that seems and sounds, lots of sports have been looking at the viability of it. Is it something that tennis would go for?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
15:56
As I said, we were really exploring all options, including closed gates. It is something that we discussed in
Indian Wells
, for example, because the players were already on-site, we couldn't guarantee the safety of the people outside everyone.Share
16:10
Not only the players, I mean talking about ball boys, linesman, physios, all the stuff on-site, I think it's extremely difficult for tennis because these people travel from all over the globe. They're not locals and it would be extremely challenging. So again, safety and healthy first it's going to be the priority if we can play with closed gates guaranteeing everyone health and safety, we will do it. If not, I think it's best to probably wait.
Share
Seb Lauzier
16:39
Moving on in the chat,
Andrea,
I wanted to on behalf of the many fans out there listening to find out a little bit more about you because you've been in this role of a teepee chairman for what? For four months now. Many people will be fascinated to know more. We, we know you're a former tennis player, a very good tennis player. How did your own tennis story begin? Take us right back.Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
17:00
Well, I did not really have a choice to be honest. My, my dad was a decent player. My uncle was a good player, he played in
Davis Cup
. My grandfather was a founder of the Tennis Club in my hometown, a very small town.Share
17:14
So I grew up in a house full of tennis records. I started playing when I was three years old and then I started competing in all the tournaments under 12, 14 juniors, etcetera etcetera.
Share
17:25
My father was my first coach and it was my love and passion for my entire life. So I've got three boys now 13, 11 and nine, they all played tennis here in England in the
LTA
Program. So I find myself traveling to tournaments on the weekend, coaching them and teaching them.Share
17:42
My wife was a tennis player, she's been a coach, so it's all about tennis. If you come in my house any time of the day, 80% of the time tennis TV is on, and we're watching a tennis game.
Share
17:55
So that is what it is. It's just in our in my blood since a very early age in parallel I developed this passion for technology, for media and many other things that gave me a chance to have the motivation and the drive to get an education doing MBA and then do other things past my playing career, which I stopped around when I was 30 years old, fairly early considering where today's players are.
Share
18:23
And then I started you know that path in the first corporate in gaming and then startups. You know again being an entrepreneur in different sectors from financial services to a game gaming. In the last three or four years in the
music industry
. You know I've learned a lot of things. It's been an enormous experience.Share
18:42
And a few years ago I started collaborating with
ATP
Media which is sort of the business are managing the media and broadcasting right of the ATP
as a board director nonexecutive. So I sort of got the chance to come closer to the world of tennis four or five times a year and observed and after 15 years of basically being out completely out.Share
19:04
It doesn't mean I didn't observe tennis, I was just watching on TV but I was not dealing with the business of 10 and I simply saw an amazing opportunity. I just saw this on top potential in our sport due to the fragmentation due to the many different factors and problems that we're facing.
Share
19:21
But where the world is going with immediate distribution, where the technology opportunities are, I just said so much we can do and if we compare ourselves to other sports like called soccer basketball we can do better in terms of fan experience.
Share
19:38
This is one of the main driver that gave the motivation to actually start this job is I've always been of the belief that we should put the fence at the center of everything we do. Which is sort of what I've learned throughout my business career which is a sort of a customer-centric approach. The client is always right.
Share
19:57
So the people who are watching tennis are buying a ticket for a tennis game. You know the sponsor themselves, you know they sponsor the autonomous because they want to reach our fans. So it's all about the fans.
Share
20:10
And unfortunately our fragmentation, our sports doesn't provide the ideal fan experience. I mean in a single country you probably need to three different subscription to actually follow the the entire tour from the beginning to the end including the
WTA
. Which is sold, the rights are sold separately.Share
20:27
And then it's about data, you know we have many different ticketing platforms, website, we duplicate efforts, investments in technology. So there's so much potential by centralizing all those functions and start focusing on competing against the other sports.
Share
20:45
But not only so the reality is that in today's world you compete against any other entertainment platform. If you sit down and watch tv any time of the day, you have the option to watch a series of Netflix, listen to music, watch another sport or maybe a game of tennis. So we need to sort of step up and increase uh the level of how professionally we manage those businesses and the rights in order to compete. Especially given the changes that are ahead of us.
Share
Seb Lauzier
21:14
And what are the cornerstones of your vision for tennis. What made the board I guess go for you?
Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
21:22
Where I see the sport in the future is one sport. Basically providing a better fan experience, focusing on the fan. 1st You know the last 15 years in the different industries I've worked for, it taught me to actually focus on the client and the customer-centric approach.
Share
21:41
We have to deliver a better experience especially in terms of media and data distribution. We do a great job I think on-site, on the events.
Share
21:51
But the second part the most difficult is actually to get to align the stakeholders players and tournaments. Currently in the past there have been spending most of the times, you know trying to solve internal conflicts, that's where the most amount of time energy and resources were spent.
Share
22:09
While in reality our competition lies outside, we compete with other sports, we compete with other entertainment platforms, you know, the technology is evolving rapidly, so we need to invest in people human capital, we need to invest in technology and we need to work more closely with the other organizations specifically the
WTA
, ITF
. and the other Grand Slams.
Share
22:29
Because together combined we can invest more in technology and innovation and we can provide a better experience to the fence, which is key here. We are lucky because we could be delivering around six months of premium content where we have the top players playing is many matches throughout the days, different time zones.
Share
22:49
So it's a great product for the broadcasters and I do believe that in the future we will see more companies starting acquiring sports rights, you know, the likes of Apple, Netflix...
Amazon
has already started. So there is a big opportunity but we have to get it done our internal work and homework before we're actually ready for for the next step and leveling-up in terms of both technology and distribution.Share
Seb Lauzier
23:15
And how important is the women's game in that? Because, you know, we have the two side by side at the slams at some of the Masters women's tennis actually, relative to other sports is very strong in the global sporting landscape. How important is the women's game in your vision alongside the men?
Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
23:36
It's extremely important and I think it's one of our biggest advantage towards our competitors because not only we have a great women's product, but also our audience is fairly split among women and men and a combined event. I strongly believe is a better event, both on-site and on media and it's just great. The variety is great, our fans, they love both.
Share
24:00
So we have strong combined tournaments within the
ATP
and WTA
, and the Grand Slams
are combined. So it's really a no-brainer and actually, we are lucky to be at the forefront in that regard, and other sports should be looking after what we have done so far. It's really important and it's a huge opportunity because it becomes very appealing content for the broadcasters.Share
Seb Lauzier
24:22
And tennis, you know, the
ATP
has its own platform app, you know, all of that. But is that enough these days, which sport do you see winning here, which sports or sports are leading the charge when it comes to really winning eyeballs?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
24:39
In terms of innovation, there is no doubt that the American sports and I'm referring to
MBA
, NFL
, MLB
are probably ahead of the game. It's in somehow easier for them because 90% of the business, 80%, 90% is US-only. So if you are one market and one of the biggest market by the way and you don't have to deal with the complexity of being global. Because let's be honest, I mean, our rights revenues are coming from 50, 60 different markets.Share
25:11
It would be much easier to manage if you are, you know, one market only your organization is there? That doesn't mean that we can't do it. I mean, golf itself is facing tremendous fragmentation in a way, it's a strong US sport, obviously they have a big advantage there, but it can be done.
Share
25:28
It's not impossible. It's just the motivation behind which probably has been lacking in the past and maybe we find the right momentum. Maybe this crisis actually can be helpful to give the proper motivation to everybody to say, hey now we're really facing a tough time, let's step up the game and let's get together and then do what is right for the sport.
Share
Seb Lauzier
25:49
So is your focus more about unifying tennis as a product. And by that, I mean, men's tennis, women's tennis, you know, whether it's
ATP
, WTA
, ITF
... anything. As opposed to giving the punter out there, just one screen, one means that they can watch it. Because I'm guessing that if you have your own OTT platform, like a Tennis TV, you can't necessarily rely on that solely because you also need to be selling your rights to broadcasters, whether it's Amazon
or ESPN
or whoever. So how do you strike that balance?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
26:25
That's a very difficult balance. But we need those partners, we need the
Amazon
of the world, Sky
, ESPN
, Tennis Channel
, anybody who is distributing our content, we definitely need them now and we will need them in the future.Share
26:38
Don't get me wrong, it started to consumer the authentic platform, in my opinion, it's a great product, the one we have, it just lacks the
Grand Slams
and the WTA
content. Because if you're a tennis fan, you want to see it all in one platform, you want to see the full story from January until November. So that is a proposition that is rich.Share
26:58
You know, you have the archive, You have many different things, you can watch 15 games in 15 chords, you can watch everything And it might be a different audience from someone who gets an
ESPN
plus subscription and maybe he just wants to sit in this four or five times a year. So I'm not saying one is a substitute of the other, they complement each other, they just served two different types of fans.Share
Seb Lauzier
27:21
And in terms of who uses or, you know, people have been tuning in to watch, certainly in the men's game over the last 10, 15 years tennis has, let's face, it relied quite heavily on 3 names:
Federer
, Djokovic
, Nadal
. A lot a lot of people will miss these guys when they're gone. They're so transcendent in a way, you know, they just they're more than just tennis.Share
27:50
Do you have any concerns about life after these guys?
Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
27:54
We will definitely miss them and it will be hard to replace their career records, let's be honest. I mean, when I retired, I thought nobody ever could be
Pete Sampras's
record of winning 14 Slam and there is no way that a human being can go beyond that.Share
28:10
And we have three of them now. So it's just incredible. But in parallel at the time, everybody thought, oh, post legacy
Sampras
is going to be really difficult. And then we have, we had Roger
, Rafa
, Novak
and we had other great guys and we still have so who knows, I'm very confident for one simple reason.Share
28:31
The product is the game of tennis and we have great tournaments with a fantastic infrastructure, grasslands, thousands 502 fifties.
Share
28:40
And we will always have great players because the game of tennis is great. So yes, you can have ups and downs, but I'm really confident about the future because our product is very smart.
Share
Seb Lauzier
28:49
What can tennis do to help create household names out of people like
Sascha Zverev,
Stefanos Tsitsipas
, Felix Auger Aliassime
, these new young kids coming through. Is it down to them to make themselves into household names? Or does the ATP
and tennis in general have a role to play in trying to fast track that happening?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
29:11
No, no, we definitely should have a role in marketing the players in developing, you know, the distribution of the content in helping them in their social media efforts. It's very important and it's all about nowadays about content creation. Mostly video short form is extremely important, is a great marketing tool for our life product which is essentially watching the entire match.
Share
29:32
And we need to start thinking about having, you know, highlights shorter form because not everybody has the availability to stay 23 hours or four hours and watch a tennis game during weekdays, maybe they want to watch a shorter version, you know, later in the evening when they come back from work.
Share
29:49
So it's all about doing that. I mean
ATP
Media has been doing a great job and I think we need to work even closer with them and potentially, you know, get everybody else on board, WTN
the Grand Slam
, because again the players are playing all these tournaments.Share
30:05
So it's not only about the
ATP
but all the players, including WTA players, they play in all the tournaments including these lands.Share
30:12
So if we can create a story around that and reach and create content which is very appealing for the fans... the fans, they also want to know about what these guys are doing before the match, after the match, when their offseason, what they are doing at home, how they trained. You know, it's all about delivering the content in the right format and through the right platform. So we definitely should play a role in that.
Share
Seb Lauzier
30:35
And to have the players come with you on it I guess. Because if if the vision is to create more content but
Stefanos Tsitsipas
who is a great example here he goes out and does his, his podcasts and podcasts. If he's creating it on a separate Youtube
channel, then you want to bring him in don't you? You want that to be part of your offering.Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
30:53
That's a good point. But I think it's up to us to show that we can do a good job, we are professional. It's also I think a role that appeared to be fully transparent with the players and between tournaments and players, there should be full transparency and trust because if the players understand that by offering more, more space to the media and the content, the tournament will grow and if the tournament grows, they grow, because we are in the same business.
Share
31:17
Without the tournaments, there is not a tennis game and without the players either. So we need the 50/50 partnership to work in order to move forward, it's a mask and it needs to be a partnership, it cannot be a continuous discussion about this or that because otherwise it doesn't work.
Share
Seb Lauzier
31:34
And how excited are you,
Andrea,
by the I guess the batch of new guys coming through because you mentioned before, you know that the big three, the big four, if we're talking about Andy Murray
as well, they're not going to be around forever. These new kids are coming through in a way it helps doesn't it?Share
31:50
That they've grown up with digital platforms, they've grown up from a very young age with you know talking to
the
ATP and they're used to talking with people, how impressed are you with the way that they are coming through given that you yourself won two Grand Slam
junior titles and needed that springboard I guess. Or how impressed are you that they've you know some of them come through without having too much of a junior career to talk about?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
32:18
I think that the level of the game nowadays is incredibly high and it's the reason why it's difficult for a young player to come through is because the level is high and then those players who have come through there are tremendous heartless and great tennis players.
Share
32:33
So the the advancement nowadays in terms of scientific knowledge preparation training... That creates in itself, a better outlet and better outlets will eventually play a better game of tennis so the level keeps going up which means that the show keeps improving and the entertainment level is also, you know, it's just a better game nowadays, if you look at it.
Share
32:58
Now there are different, many different aspects, obviously the quality of the picture. I mean if you think about it, you watch the game in the 90s comparing to watching today, high quality 180P, it's a completely different thing. So there is a lot of factors that I think we should be really smart about to improve the level of our product. The least concern I have is about the players, they play great things. They do an amazing job. I'm not concerned about that.
Share
Seb Lauzier
33:26
One event I did say earlier that I wanted to talk to you about an event that all the players get behind. There's no question is the
Nitto ATP Finals
. As you say, it's the, the bookend at the end of the year. I have to ask you about the move to Turin
from London
. How will Turin
billed as an Italian on what the O2 has already achieved?Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
33:47
The two has done an amazing job. I mean,
London
is a, is a great city. So the level is high. And I think, you know, the Italians have been very passionate about the game of tennis, especially lately. They have shown that they can organize a great tournament and there is a lot of passion, dedication, motivation and a great team behind me. So I'm confident it would be a successful event.Share
34:09
We will have challenges. I mean, with the economic downturn of the future, there will be consequences to this current situation. So it won't be easy, but I'm confident that we will be able to put up a very good show.
Share
Seb Lauzier
34:22
And just finally
Andrea
coming full circle to the back, I guess to the current situation and hopefully looking beyond it as well. But what are your objectives for the next? Well, for the rest of this year first, let's just start there.Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
34:36
First of all, you know, I think our focus should be on the health of the people in our situation about outside of the world of tennis. That's the most important thing that I said we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously.
Share
34:48
I think my main wish for this year that we start the year more united. We end the year, sorry, more united. Because we are a bit of a crossroads, like every time you face a challenge like this one, you can go two ways, you either start fighting or you actually get together and do the right thing and I really hope that we take this opportunity to do the right thing and get together and build the right foundation for the future.
Share
35:12
If you ask me what wakes me up in the morning, it's something that, you know, I've done as an exercise at the beginning of this mandate, even before preparing the presentation to the board getting elected, which was basically a sort of a letter from 2025. sort of where would you want the sport to be in 15 years?
Share
35:33
And if I summarize it, it's it's one sport, any incredible fun experience across all platforms, but also with a one OTT, one stop-shop where if you're a tennis fanatic, you can spend 10 hours a day watching everything this game available no matter which tournament. Short form, long form, archive, everything.
Share
35:53
For a fair decent price in a subscription and continue to deliver great live events because the live experience is also extremely important. But we actually do a great job in that, you know, honestly, we currently do a great job in the live environment.
Share
36:07
We need to innovate in terms of sponsorship and it goes, it has to go along with media. I mean it's very linked to that so we cannot separate the two. But overall it's one spot all
United
and deliver a much better fun experience. And I would like to see tennis in the top three sports in every country around the globe.Share
36:28
I know we probably can't beat soccer in Europe or American football or basketball in the states. But if you are a solid top three, top five in every county in the world, that's what I would like to be in 10, 15 years.
Share
Seb Lauzier
36:40
Andrea Gaudenzi
, it's been a real pleasure, Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and your wisdom, and let's hope that's at some stage soon we can get players back out on courts. But until then, thank you very much.Share
Andrea Gaudenzi
36:55
Thank you very much. Everybody.
Share
36:59
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Andrea Gaudenzi