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