Bloomberg BusinessweekWatch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.
USTA Chief Commercial Officer Kirsten Corio discusses US Open ticket sales and attendance. Shiz Suzuki, VP of Global Brand Sponsorships & Experiential Marketing at American Express, shares experiences available to card members at the US Open. Chris Studley, Managing Director of Event Services at the USTA, talks about the food and beverage offerings at the US Open. And we Drive to the Close with John Mousseau, Chief Executive Officer & Director of Fixed Income at Cumberland Advisors.
Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg business Week Inside from the reporters and editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus Gloomal Business, finance and tech news. The Bloomberg Business Week Podcast with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebek from Bloomberg Radio.
I love it with Tim Stenebeck dances to Madonna.
Oh my God. It is just very special.
Because we're live at the US Open again. It's something we look forward.
To everything, the best two days of well, can I say that I don't want to, like, you know, I don't want to make the other days feel bad, but sorry, it's out there already. Yeah, it's pretty fun being here at the US opener in the shadow of Arthur Ash Stadium at the twenty twenty four US Open. There are a lot of people here this year, Carol. The US Open on Monday, Opening Day. Yes, the biggest single day crowd in the history of the US Open. Seventy four thousand, six hundred and forty one people.
We're here.
I feel like every year that we come here, we hear like other records being broken.
We can tell you from experience.
A ticket resale market also hot. The cheapest ticket you did some homework on this, so I had to pay for you said right, was more than three hundred dollars for a day session.
Three hundred and eight dollars for Arthur ash tomorrow noon noon slot. My life has come in. I got the media pass. We're good.
Let's get to the person who's involved in all of this. Kirsten Corio is back with us. She's USTA chief Commercial officer on site with us here at the US Open.
Man, it feels like a good year already.
It's a bonker's spectacular year yet again. And I will have you know that the ticket the original ticket price. I'm glad you said resaleing on individuals. The original ticket price. The lowest we had was thirty two dollars at the time original on sale, so you just have to buy earlier.
Does this drive you crazy?
Though?
Does this drive you crazy that instead of the USTA getting the three hundred eight dollars that we spent on tomorrow's Nune session, it's ticketmaster whoever we bought it from.
It doesn't drive me crazy.
And you know what, it's most likely from a US Open subscriber who buys all Arthur Ash sessions who couldn't make it for the day session. Really, I mean even the most uber fan doesn't make it out for every single one of the twenty five Arthur Ash sessions.
So it's probably one.
Of them, and I don't begrudge them their ability to resell their ticket.
How much of the tickets are sold ahead of time? I remembered you saying something I thought last year. A lot of stuff gets sold.
Out, right, Yeah, So we had just unprecedented demand all year. When we first went on sale the original American Express Early Early Access for the pre sale, we sold as many tickets in the first hour as we did in five days last year. So it's just double digit percentages up. The on sale a week later, double digit percentages up. The demand is nuts.
There was this big concern two years ago that with Serena Williams no longer playing, that you wouldn't see a huge demand here in the US. That obviously wasn't the case. We talked to you about that last year. How do you explain the growth from last year to this year?
Though I think there are nearly a million people nine hundred and fifty seven thousand to be exact who enjoyed the twenty twenty three US Open, who said, Man, I'm definitely coming back in twenty twenty four, and I'm going to take some more friends with me, and I'm going to tell all my friends.
That's the simplest answer I can give you.
But you know, beyond just the success of this event, it feels like for the past few years, tennis has been having a moment. More people in the US are playing tennis, thans and for me about tennis and as challengers. The movies and Daya represent representing the sport beautifully, and I just have to, you know, credit the growth of tennis participation as an element in the desire for people to come out and see the top pros in the world.
Kirsten, how many people are returnees?
Like?
How much?
What percentage of folks are just coming to the Open year after year after year?
Oh yeah, more than fifty percent of our ur Thrash tickets are sold to full series ticket subscribers who do purchase all twenty five sessions You're in, You're Out, and those were new at ninety eight ninety nine percent.
Which is amazing. And what about the age demographics? I think We've talked with you about this, and I think I feel like golf went through it. Maybe I don't know if tennis ever went through a little bit of a lull of people were worried.
I don't know that that was the case.
But I mean, is it continuing to attract a younger generation as well?
Well? I think the short answer is yes.
But Fan Week is which is now part of the three week and one day US Open. The main draw runs for two weeks, the qualifying tournament runs the week prior that. We've called fan Week, and we've built in all kinds of ten poll events to attract a more diverse younger audience, younger families to that. And we had a record two hundred and sixteen thousand people come through that week, that Fan Week, And so that's really the way that we can attract a younger audience, a younger demographic. We're giving away We gave away ten thousand free rackets thanks to Wilson during that week, and we have Heineken Happy Hours from five to seven every one of those.
Days of block Party.
So I think that's a factor too in trying to attract the younger audience to how cool it is to be out here.
It works, and it translates into people coming to the open Yeah.
Yeah, How much more capacity do you have when we talk about the number that came on Monday, more than seventy four thousand. Can you actually fit more people here?
We can't fit more people in the stadium.
The stadium's capacity Arthurrash Stadium is a fixed capacity. Louis Armstrong is a fixed capacity. But we also now are selling evening grounds passes, which is something we haven't done for a while, so we can get more people. We didn't like the concept of not allowing people to come into the grounds if there's tennis being played outside of those two stadiums, and you can go freely and watch those if you stay all day with the grounds pass, But if you only want to come for the evening and watch those matches, will sell you a grounds evening.
When are those matches taking place in the first are they in a second?
Could you have in the early rounds in the first and in the first and second round? You know, every one of our courts is filled with competition, and some courts have matches that will run all the way up until midnight, depending on how long the matches are if they're quick matches, perhaps not, But you know, in our first couple nights, in our first four nights of the first two rounds, you're likely to catch some great tennis on the outer courts as well as inside the stadium.
Some of the matches not so quick.
Yeah. Yes, he had a record breaking.
Match, Sebastian, who's on camera and actually doing everything right now. He came out here for a match. Was it Monday, Sebastian, But you got.
Home and the match was still going on. Yeah, Yeah, is like an hour and a half. It was a five hour match.
Five hours thirty five minutes is the longest match in the US Open history between Karen Katchanov and Daniel Evans, and just an incredible another record, another amazing, another amazing statistic.
About the twenty twenty four US Open.
Yes, I have to say when I walked in, I was just blown away by the crowd even looking bigger than last year. And I don't know if that's the case, but it really like amazes me and over the years of coming here, just how it continues to grow.
Yeah, and so we think we're going to get a million fans through the three weeks in one day on which i'd be a record, which would be a record last year nine hundred and fifty seven thousand. This year, we're on track to meet and exceed that record. The weather's been great, yeah, and that definitely helps, definitely helps people come out and the events that we added through fan week and into the finals weekend. We've added a Finals weekend festival and watch party in Louis Armstrong Stadium, as well as a Finals weekend banfest after party Saturday night after.
The War's final. You know, we'll sleep a little bit on September ninth when we.
Start all over again next week. You know what I noticed. I think last year when you rolled up to be interviewed by us, you had like a big energy drink with you. I don't see the energy drink right now, So I think that's a good sign as to where we are in the tournament. Like you're feeling good.
We're feeling great.
Yeah, next week we might need a little bit more of the adrenaline and the energy drink, but we're feeling great.
We're just energized and axhilerated to see it all.
You mentioned you mentioned the weather, which I know yesterday was a really, really hot day. Do you see a decline in the number of fans who come out when a day's so hot, I mean so hot that some of the tennis players complain about it.
Yeah, I think that's a factor, you know.
I think there are certain people, especially those that have had the privilege of being out to sessions before either this year or other years, who may make a judgment call of if they don't feel that they can handle being a ninety plus degree heat.
I think that's a factor.
But we also did have we may have broken another record yesterday in attendance.
It's even though it was so unbearable.
Yeah.
Hot, that's pretty amazing.
That is amazing.
I've to tell you, I have a friend here, a young couple and they have their seven month old here too, So wow, we're creating younger fan base and they're from out of town and come in for this event. So how do you think about year after year, like how you like you continue some of the things that are working, How you think about new ways right because you think about revenue streams and how do you continue to build out the business, so on the business side and keeping a balance of keeping the sport pure that people don't walk through and feel like it's too commercial.
That's why fan Week, and I'm sorry, I'm gonna keep harping on it like that is such an important investment for us. And it is free for all fans to attend every one of those days, seven days to come in, free to go into Arthur ash Stadium and watch the top pros practicing. You can sit in the front row. A few days ago, I walked in before the main draw and saw Coco playing a practice match against Sabalanca, which is like amazing after Arthur ash Stadium competitively, but it's a practice match, And I'm looking at the fans sitting around that court who got in for free, and I'm thinking they're seeing a reprise of the women's final last year for free.
Like, so that's really important. Yeah.
Now, business is of course very important too, and we do know that fifty percent ish of people who attend fan Week do ultimately buy tickets for the main draw, So it is a pipeline to build future fans. Adding tent pole events during that main draw, sorry, during that fan Week that our ticketed events is helping grow the business as well and provide more exposure for our players, and so when we think about ticket sales and hospitality and premium, which are primary revenue streams, that's sort of how we begin to introduce some test new ticketed products. On the premium and experience side, we've been adding new products to meet some of that experiential demand. This year, we have a finals weekend clinic. A very limited number of clients will have the privilege of doing that, playing on a court with Andrea Agassi and Andy Rotick before the men's final, before the women's final, and sitting in the court side premiere first few rows ticketed product, and so hospitality and experiences are a big part of that too.
How limited, So that's a limited I think are trying to twenty four.
Twenty four for each session.
Yeah, wow, that's amazing.
That's a pretty cool thing. And the women sold out first, which we also love that. Who are they working within the women same thing, same same but the draw being the women's final.
Love that.
How are things looking on the sponsorship side in terms of demand, what you're hearing from companies, the appetite for them to come back and extend their agreements and partnerships with you guys.
They've been great we've got, you know, a small ish roster of partners, twenty four official sponsors, seven of which have been with us for more than thirty years.
So there's a really strong renewal history and track record here.
And you see our partners on the grounds, activating everywhere and entertaining their own clients, but also interacting with fans and enhancing the experience for fans. The MX Fan Experience was opened during fan Week as well, and.
We added two new partners this year.
We added Destination DC for Washington DC tourism and n we added Moet as our official champagne partner, which has come in handy.
Are you able to reliably raise prices each year for those brand opportunities to keep the revenue growing at the USTA From that side.
As long as we can demonstrate more value to the partner, you know, the market, the value of the partnership can increase, but it's all dependent on what value does the partner wish to extract from the US Open and how can we quantify and qualify, you know, the value that we've been able to deliver to that.
Partner over their term.
What's fun about the sports world for you because you spent what fourteen years of the NBA. I know we always bring this up, but I think here you're doing, you know, tennis.
There's so much going on.
We've had a week where the NFL said okay for private equity.
To buy into you know firms.
We have been doing a lot of stuff a business week about the explosion of gambling basically right when it comes to all things sports. But what's interesting for you to kind of watch this progression and where things are.
Sports is just fun sports and live entertainment.
To me, it's great predict everything and that's what makes it really serendipitous and fun, but also sometimes stressful.
Sometimes the energydrink. Energy drink is required.
But we also we just announced yesterday with our partners ESPN. Yeah, we've extended our relationship through twenty thirty seven.
It will be the longest deal in.
Tennis and they're a fantastic partner and we couldn't be more thrilled about that.
So that's the big fun news from yesterday.
That did require a little help from our partner Moet in celebrating that one, But that makes it really.
Full the bottles, like a couple of courts.
Maybe maybe, maybe when we speak to you next year, what's going to be the biggest.
Change wow for the twenty twenty five US said, yeah.
We're already thinking about it.
Yeah, we're about you are you will be in a week? We sure are, I mean a couple of weeks. It's interesting, like day one begins and we already have a twenty twenty five list beginning of Okay, we're going to do this differently for next year. But you know, I'll say, when we look at the Fan Week and the tent pole events, we love them. We want to make them bigger, better, you know, more exciting performances, and they really are a testing ground for us. You can't predict the competition on the court and the main draw, but you can plan for and create new experiences for the fans that come out, and new ways to deliver that to people digitally. And when we think about digital you may not see it here on the grounds. If you wanted to take a walk over to the Advantage Arena, you could play Fortnite, you could play US Open Night.
Five million people have played it so far.
Always good to see you, Officer of the USDA, Kirston Correo joining us here at the US Open.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Catch us Live weekday afternoons from two to five pm Eastern Listen on Apple car Play and then brought auto with a Bloomberg Business act or want us Live on YouTube.
Yes, you're at the US Open and just loving it. Just perfect weather.
I gotta say there are a few certain truths when it comes to the US Open. There's the honeydews. Okay, yeah, check matches that stretch into the middle of the night.
I think you've run for a long time.
It players not so much, not so.
Much a definite New York five even though it's global.
But crowd.
We can hear them right now.
Right like we love it when like somebody scores a great point or something.
If you just hear the crowd.
Sponsors logos they're plastered everywhere. They've been for years, like you know, JP, Morgan, Chase, Emirates, Chubb, IBM, and of course American.
Express, longtime partner of the US Open. MX has been a brand sponsor of the US Open for more than thirty years. We just talked with Kirsten about some of the brands. A handful or so that have been with them for a long time, and that includes American Express.
Yeahs Zuki can tell us exactly why and where they see the value. She's vice president of Global Brand, Sponsorships and Experiential Marketing at American Express. She joined us on site here at the US Open.
Good hello to see you too, Thanks for having me another year.
It's another partnership year between AMEX and the US Open.
I know this is our thirty first year, if you can believe it.
Well, what keeps you coming back? I mean this is a big ticket event. This is a big ticket item. You have to see ROI from as you sit, Yes, what keeps you coming back?
I mean ultimately, right, we are not just in the card business. We are really in the business of membership. And when we talk about membership, it's about all the value that we bring to our card members and our prospective card members. So that could be at things like live sports and incredible moments like here, music, entertainment and other how do we, you know, bring them that incredible access and value. Right, And so when you think about US Open, I mean, this is such an incredible event right here in New York City, and like, yeah, would not want to be anywhere else.
What does it event specifically like the US Open, Yeah, do for your membership base. Yeah, it's a feedback you here, what do you see?
It's number one.
It's an incredible event, right, And I'm sure Curisten talked a little bit about even the growth of the fan base, right and their ticket sales, et cetera. But even just like even in tennis, fandom overall has grown actually year after year for the last few years. For US, we really think about this event. We were able to bring something for everyone because there was so much to offer here. We have a twenty thousand square foot fan experience space and so it is all indoors, especially on really hot summer and New year Gestic is like yesterday, but the first floor is actually open to everyone, and so it's a fan experience space. We've got everything from Glow Tennis. We have this really incredible customizable tennis ball station.
This year.
We have you know, things like we actually have a two K so like the actual video game two K two K Top Spin. We have some gaming stations there. We have this really fun trivia based more machines of vending machines like size of a human. There's some trivia in there, and depending on if you get the answers right around, there's some great prizes as well. So we've got that upstairs. We've got a card member lounge as well.
So when you're a few months from now, or even just a couple of weeks from now, when you're looking at the numbers, yes, to justify the marketing spent here, what are the metrics that you're looking at to know whether or not it was successful.
I mean we're looking at everything from certainly right, ticket sales and the attendance here, but we're also looking at for ourselves engagement reach things of that nature, right, like what are the numbers of people that are coming by? And you know, we'll look at that from the perspective of like our existing car member base and other opportunities there. And then certainly right there's going to be all the qualitative feedback as well in terms of like how much do they love it? Like we hear such great feedback about the things that we offer.
Do you have do you want to see an increase in number of people who are signing up for certain cards after an event like this, like a Platinum cards.
For example, Yeah, that would be fantastic, Right.
Are you able to measure that? Like, are you able to draw a line from this to that?
Yeah, there's there's different ways in which we're able to draw and like be able to talk about like ROI overall for the business certainly, Yeah, I think for us too, Right when we think about you know, the like the audience here, how this has also changed, right, it continues to get younger. We think about gen Z and millennial audiences for us, like when we think about even twenty twenty three. Overall as a business, we've actually publicly talked about the fact that like sixty percent of all new cards acquired in consumer is actually in that like gen Z millennial base, and seventy five percent of that is actually in the platinum and gold cards. So you think about premium card segments and the growth of that younger demographic, right, fans here also getting younger as well, and so it's a great, incredible opportunity for us to engage them at all different levels.
Well, that's what I think we wonder, Like we always think about, you know, you do something and then what's the direct payoff? And maybe it is, And that's what I guess I'm curious about and I think tims too, is do you actually sign up people that come here to this event or is it more about like brand recognition and understanding what AMEX is about, even for like a younger consumer.
I would say it's all of the above. Right.
So really, if you think about it from the angle of brand consideration, a brand is really that, like, there is so much that goes into that. It's a long term relationship that you build with somebody, right, And so.
I mean I've had my AMEX to be you know, full disclosure since college, and.
So that's a long time.
Well we thank you for that, We thank you for that. But but yeah, I mean I think it is that like every single touch point, it's it's like a relationship with anybody else. Right, We're obviously right this from a brand perspective, right, but just the same way you would build a relationship with anybody else. It takes many many touch points to get to that, right, You build a trust the relationship other. Yeah, that's what we're really here to do.
You know. It's funny. I actually surprised to see that there is one of your biggest competitors here as one of the sponsors, as well, you don't oftentimes see that when with different events that make.
You angry, we just do about is.
It going to be my question?
I would be a little angry she is.
Going to skip twenty twenty five when she comes back. But how do you stand out an environment where you know, Chase does have an airport lounge, Chase does have a lounge here. How do you justify to a member paying seven hundred dollars a year where when there are competitors out there who offer similar experiences.
I think for us, we stay focused on our card member base and that future card member base. Right, So we're constantly looking at right, what is the data, what is the feedback? What are all the different places that people are going to show up for us?
Right?
We've been here for thirty one years at the US Open, but this is one of an entire portfolio by the way of the places that we are, whether that be in like lifestyle, entertainment, music. Last year we kicked off our and announced our partnership with Formula one in the America's region, right, and so right we are staying ahead of in terms of like all the passion points in the places where the people that are our car members want to be and so that is really like if you think about it from a holistic perspective, right, it is about the holistic offering.
Liz, talk to us a little bit about the pathic I think of you know, pre pandemic, pandemic hits, right, nobody's traveling, and you guys did a lot of things to adapt to people being at home. And then we're, you know, slowly coming out of the pandemic. And now we're you know, we've seen a ton of traveling. Like where are we post pandemic? What you guys are seeing from consumers?
Yeah, Actually, we had a twenty twenty four Business as a Travel Trends report that we released and actually, when we look at that, almost seventy percent of people are going to be traveling this year and it's related to some type of big sporting event or event or other. So the trends there are like looking up and up as we think about that intersection of travel, fandom, et cetera.
The Olympics, Like, did you see it lack connected to that as well?
Olympics, right, like any big sporting moment, Like last year was Las Vegas Grand Prix. It was the first ever Formula One race out in Las Vegas.
Right, yeah, I think so too one of our colleagues. Oh fantastic.
Yeah, So, like you think about those types of moments and how do you bring that to life, Like in American Express, we're at the intersection of all event travel, big events, other so.
When you think about growth in the future and attracting those card members who don't exist yet, who are not who have not signed up, how do you think about adding different features and experiences to keep the value proposition fresh? Like what's on the what's on the the whiteboard with brainstormed ideas right now?
Yeah, I think it is. It is about that, right, it is about where are the trends going? And like how do you anticipate that as much as you can? This year, you know, it's been really exciting. Yeah, in like the area of like even music, Like we've actually done quite a bit with like the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Billy Eilish, Dua Lipa, and so you know, we've been able to do some really incredible moments and experiences and access for our card members, not just here in the US, but also globally as well.
When you look at the consumer we've got to ask you.
We'd be idiots if we didn't, and we are bloomberg like, do you feel like and I know American Express every time we talk about the company, we say it's a certain sector of consumers. But like I said, I got mine in college. I was making no money, but that's where I started. Is the consumer doing okay? Or do you see any concerns that? I mean, we look around here and we're like, consumers are spending big time?
Are here?
Yeah? I mean, listen, I think at some of the biggest moments that are out there in sports and entertainment, people are there. I mean, that's what we're seeing. That's what we want to provide for our card members. And so I think it's an exciting twenty twenty four has been a very exciting year for all sorts of events around the world.
Are you here all two weeks?
I'm here. Yeah, I'm here for a good number of days.
Yes, what a bad place to be, right, I might take out the line or something.
Thank you so much. Great snapshot of what you guys are doing. And like we said, you have been American Express affiliated with it for thirty years with the US Open, which.
Is a really really long time. She Suzuki.
She's vice president of Global Brand, Sponsorships and Experiential Marketing at American Express.
Joining us on site from the US Open.
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Bloomberg Business If you're alive at the US Open and flashing meadows Queen. We often say when broadcasting from the US Open that, Yep, no doubt, it's about the tennis. It's what you see on the courts, the players, the matches. But to be fair, coming to the US Open is quite an experience.
It's the food, the merge, the people watching, the lounges and yes, Carol, your prized honey deuces.
I still have my cup from last year?
Did you bring it back this year?
I did?
You're gonna get another one still tomorrow, We'll see, we'll see.
As for the food, the year, the team this year, the team that's behind it all. They recruited more than twenty New York City restaurants to serve their signature food and drink items at various dining venues, and you can see it as you walk around the center, the Tennis Center throughout.
The two weeks of the tournament. So to talk about it all, as Chris Studley, he's back with us.
He's managing director of Event Services at the USTA right on site here at the US Open.
Nice to be back with you. How are you?
Thanks for having me back. I'm great.
We've had a great year. Of course, you kicked off with Fan Week just a little over a week ago. Welcome more folks than ever before to our site during that period.
People are finding out about it.
Right, we don't have tickets that week, and people are flooding out here to check out the action, get close to the players.
Is all food and beverage that's available this week and next week available during fan Week.
It's a great question.
So years prior, we've kind of opened up slowly, but we knew that we were promoting this and trying to get more fans interested in it, so we opened the entire food village. We opened a few restaurants as well, that wouldn't have been opened in the past, and people really responded, well, I mean the fans that came out over two hundred and sixteen thousand of them. So we set all kinds of records and people realized what a deal. I can come on the site for free. I can get up close with the stars of today. It's incredible.
It is pretty incredible. Right.
We were talking with Kirsten Koreo about it earlier, having said that, how do you think about the experiences that you want in terms of hospitality, because we certainly see certain things that come back every year, but then there's some new stuff.
So tell us about kind of the menu that you think about.
Absolutely, So we look at all the data, right, we have spreadsheet upon spreadsheets.
I don't want to bore you with those details.
It's more fun to talk about the drinks.
Sure, So that's so cool.
Readsheet is our language.
So we can look back and look at sales over prior years. I mean I'm talking dating back to over ten years ago, and we can see the trends in everything. Right, what's the hot item? What needs to stay if you will? What what are we looking at that may not move, what's not moving the needle.
What are our fans asking for? Maybe they're not buying.
So we we go in every year with a fresh perspective of Hey, in this stand, there's three or four items, this one's on the bottom.
Let's refresh that. Let's do something new with it and see if it responds.
So it gives us that opportunity and just like that, over the years, when we've evaluated like this, we've gotten feedback, Hey, try this, try that, and it actually shapes the food village a little bit every year. We piloted last year, in the year before we were piloting a mobile ordering system, we realized that our event, our fans weren't really interested in it. What they wanted to do was take that walk down the food village you mentioned yourself.
I don't know.
I kind of love doing it and like looking at but there are sometimes lines and I'm like, I can't I can't wait.
Job is to make sure they're live.
How do you do that?
Well, you know, we look at everything from the technology that we use to process the transactions down to how the honeyduce is made in a tap system. Now, so, by the way, you get the perfect ratio of vodkaa lemonade to raspberry look or.
Autocato. Yeah, the melon they have a Chipotle to make them all in.
I like, is there something for.
The un there is, there's a type system. Yeah, well the Mellon ball is so interesting story about those. You know, we're projected hopefully do a half a million honey duces this year. I think three mellion balls per honeyduce. You're talking one point five million Mellon balls. And we have a team that puts them on skewers. So they come in bald already, but there is a team.
But they come balld. Okay, they come bald.
We have Yes, I'm just going to say it could be like Chris is handing.
You're here to get the assignments. You're on the Mellon ball team.
I'm really sorry, but you're going to be like making Mellon balls in the back of it.
The unsung heroes for sure.
You're going, Yeah, how much revenue does the honey juice bring in?
What can you tell us? You know, he saw some numbers, so I'm curious.
What are you say?
Nine million dollars in sales?
That's probably fair and were last year we sold about four hundred and sixty two thousand, all right, and how much are they eat?
Twenty two last year, twenty three this year?
Okay, he held you sold?
How many last About four hundred and sixty two thousand?
Okay, So yeah, so that's about ten point six million.
Okay.
So our listener Sedron, who's very into tennis, is going to be here tomorrow. Combine the men's women's tournament win winners get seven point two million in winnings, so you're making more.
Well, we have to pay the whole pool of prize money.
Who watch more. There's a lot of other players that aren't the one.
What if?
What if the winning prize money was based on just honeyduce revenue?
So you take a percentage equal prize player says, I'll have a percentage of the honey duce.
The players are like, go buy your honeyduces.
Listen. It all helps the fan experience, right.
Everybody in our newsroom was coming up, like you go to the US OP and I wish you were there. Our Scarlet Food said to me, wait a minute, so where did the honey deuce recipe come from?
Great question? I've been asked that a couple of times recently, you know, because we keep.
Talking about how she always has good questions.
Well, funny enough, this is the first year we actually did Honey due merchandise. So you can get a Honey Ducee hat or T shirt with the recipe on the back. And they sold like wildfire, according to our merchandise.
Yeah, yeah, it was really popular.
So where did it come up from?
Where?
How did it come about?
It came up from a grey Goose mixologist and a few USCA folks in a kitchen here on site over fifteen years.
Ago, just before I joined the organization. I think I can't take any.
Credit for it, but it must have been a fun kitchen, you know.
Absolutely, they were experiment again.
They sat there and tried every different cocktail and what's the world that resonated the most?
Right? What was the flavor of summer so to speak.
So then they even came up with the three melon balls to represent the tennis balls and a can.
So not everybody realized that, but yeah, was.
That lightning in a bottle? I mean, you know the way that I talk about the us open to people, they always say, what does that drink?
What does that drink?
What does that drink.
Yeah, everybody to do.
Yeah, everybody knows about it.
It's grown over time, right, it's just taken on its own persona. Thanks social media for that. Right as that took off, the Ducee takes off. It's cool to come take your picture with the honey Due.
So when are you going to do a mocktail again? Elizabeth asks us, who says, I'm going to come, But I don't know that I want to drink alcohol, but I'd love to have a Honeyducee mocktail.
You know, we'd have to talk to our partners at greg Goose and kind of figure something out if we can do that.
But we do all for some.
Everything without the minus the vodka, minus the key.
You can have lemonade, lemonade and some melon balls. Yes, with melon balls. We do offer a few mots on the site. It is a category that's growing, totally.
Growing, So many guests come on and it's non alcoholic beer, beers, wines like.
You name it.
Well, we do serve the Heineken zero point zero, which is quite delicious for a non alcoholic beer.
So there are a good partner of ours as well.
On the food side of it, the prep time. That goes into actually making sure that there are minimal lines even though there are still lines. How do you have the balance of making sure that you know that the chefs are prepping ahead of time, but also making stuff to order. You're not going to get something soggy.
Yes, So their goal is to not make you know the finished product days in advance for frending stretch. You know, they're professionals what they do. I mean even the best restaurants in New York City do a lot of prep uh, and they know where they can kind of cook the item too until they have to serve and then obviously finish it. So they're the pro at that. I don't claim to be. I'm not a chef at all, nor do I work in a kitchen. But you're operations guy, operations guy through and through, so you know they know what's best.
I trust them. They know what they're doing.
We work with Levy Restaurants, which is a division of Compass Group. They're around the world, they know what they're doing, their process.
So do you have kitchens like all set up all over like all over and stuff's coming in off site?
Yeah.
We have about seven commissaries on site I'm talking massive kitchens. We even have one underneath the grandstand. The public would have no idea where it is. Kitchens in the back of every restaurant, so fresh as food possible. It's built to serve the areas that they're in.
So yeah, from an operations perspective, talk to us about how you're using technology to sort of offset where people maybe add more people, where people are going add more stuff there. What's the tech side of this?
So on the tech side not necessarily tied to food and beverage, so much more tied to seating our fans, especially the first week of tennis right now with so many grounds, passes and matches going on everywhere. We actually have cameras aimed at every bleacher, so you can kind of get an idea of where you're going to go, green, yellow, red, for you know, which has seating available to kind of point people in the right direction to catch the tennis.
Love that all right?
What's the most exclusive dining experience here?
Exclusive dining Aces and Champions are two signature restaurants on the club level of ash. You either need a court side ticket or a sweet ticket to access them. Those are probably what people just die to get into. The reservations are off the charts.
And what's this chicken?
The lowly media pass Carol will not get you in.
Yeah, let me know if you guys need.
It's okay.
I got my French fries before. What's this chicken dish with caviar?
So Coco Doc by restaurant tour Simon Kim So if you've heard of it, popular restaurant in the city right.
Now, House knows about them.
So we have the stand on the club level of Arthur ash Stadium and it is just unbelievable.
I mean you can get regular.
Chicken nuggets with dipping sauces all the way up to truffle nuggets or the caviar covered nuggets, and it's selling crazy.
I'm going to ask you this question that I asked Kirsten just in the last twenty seconds we have with you. What's the what's the big difference that you're already planning for next year? What's something new that's coming in twenty five? What are you thinking about.
We're always looking at new chef's, new restaurants, what people are craving. I'll get back to you after I look at all the data.
Always working this guy is always working, always looking at the data.
That is such. That is such cool stuff. Thank you so much. And cardible Deli's.
Back to they are it's popular, very cool, stormy sandwich. Maybe hey, I already had what I I have know you at something Chicken euro something delicious.
Great, Chris, thank you so much. Thanks for good luck with it.
Chris Dudley, he's managing director of Events Services at the USTA, joining us right here on site at the US.
Open brom.
Journal.
Now about you let me drive?
Oh no, no, no, no, alright please, I'll gravelt.
I want to drive.
It's a good question.
This is the drive to the clothes down communing well Brier on Bloomberg Radio.
All right, everybody, just about eighteen minutes left in today's trading session. We are definitely driving to the clothes on this Thursday. You've got equities, as you just heard from Amy Morris, definitely off their highs of this session. And we did see some movement on the treasury side of things following this morning's economic report.
Upbeat growth is still happening. That's a good thing. Maybe a recession won't happen.
We'll have to see what our next guest has to say with us is a treat John Mussau, he's chief executive officer, director Fixed Income at Cumberland Advisors, a firm that has been around for a half a century or so, and of course a good friend David Kotek. I think about it, like we've talked lots of conversations. You guys have seen a lot of market cycles.
Yeah, let's do it.
What does this one tell you?
We think it's elongated because of COVID, so everything takes longer. Yeah, you know, it took a while for inflation to set in, took longer. It took longer for the Fed to raise rates. It's taken a longer time for the Fed to start cutting rates, which looks like it's going to happen next month. And it's taken a while for inflation to come back down, which seems like it's finally taking place as well.
So we're getting back to normal.
Getting whatever normal, whatever normal is, is taking longer.
To get there.
Are you concerned that the Fed waited too long to cut rates?
I am, and because I think there's a lot of anecdotal evidence out there that the economy is moving lower, maybe a little faster than people think you could almost read it a little bit of it into j Powell's language, because it seems like he shifted in his not only his talk at Jackson Hall, but at the FED meeting before that, from a concern about inflation per se to a little more concern about the job market and that their movements going forward would be to probably hopefully keep the job market from slide down, don't you.
Think, though I don't know, these aren't exact sciences, right, especially when you're getting ready to pivot right. It's a little tricky, and I mean, I don't know what's worse. I mean, obviously, if people are losing jobs, that's not going to be a good thing for the economy.
But I also know that you've got to tame the inflation beast.
But I also do wonder, John, we talked about normal, is it a different normal when it comes to where inflation needs to run going forward because of some different macro factors, whether it's wars or climate change or whatever.
There's a lot of that at work. In the end. I'm always a little distrustful when someone says this time it's different, you know, and you've had people say that, particularly when you talk about something like the inverted.
Yell crew for example.
They're saying it doesn't matter anymore because now you're like a year past a year and a half and we haven't gone into a slowdown.
I would suggest that you can still wait and.
See that and why because COVID has extended that time period there was so much space in the system. You're starting to see things like and you've had other guests talk about it, higher rates of people, you know, not paying their credit cards.
You're seeing it.
I see it personally in my email every week where I'm getting resumes from either people that have lost jobs in financial services, but also from kids getting out of college that can't get jobs.
That's a far cry from where you were two years ago.
Now that doesn't you know, list, is this a normalization or is this concerning to you?
It's it's I see it as a normalization given the hot market.
You were in two years Like, this is pre COVID levels pre COVID.
Yeah, yes, you're a pre COVID levels, but moving moving in the downward direction, right, So that's that's a bit of a concern.
But that's a great question, Like, so is it if we're getting back to normal, which is just getting back to normal.
But getting back to normal can be painful on the.
Economy, sure, you know, especially if you're the one losing their job, and you know, there's there was no question that most, if not all, of these COVID funds were spent, and that is what of course caused that, not damage, but the cycle that we did see on inflation. And I think you would not necessarily have been here if maybe the FED had acted sooner back in twenty twenty one.
Then you know, wait until this March of twenty.
Two to their defense, and I think is still the jury isn't necessarily still out, but I think there was still supply chain challenges that led to some of the inflation pressures that we saw.
I would agree with you, Tim, and I don't think it was just that. I think it's the Fed, like back during the Great Recession, where they kept short term regis rates at zero a quarter for god seven years, the same concerns were this time. They did not want to see employment slide back just as it was coming out, and they would err on that side.
Hey, let's talk politics, because everybody loves talking about politzing going on. Yeah, nothing going on right, nothing happened in November. How should pond investors think about these two candidates.
Listen, we saw in twenty sixteen, we saw yields move up when Trump got elected out overnight and yield shot up, and they stayed elevated for the better part of about nine ten months before they started to come down. You saw that same reaction after the first debate, and yields bounced up about almost twenty five basis points from where they were because people started to assume not only a Trump winning the election, but also a particularly after the assassination offempt, a sweep of Congress, both the House and the Senate. And that perception is, oh boy, if everybody's on the same side, they're going to start spending money, you know, just like a party.
But is it also the idea that if Trump were to win, he would and he's talked openly about this, the idea of maybe pressuring the FED or having input to the FED when it comes to interest rates. He's talked about that, he says, as.
Much is talked about it.
I think if he really wanted.
To think, some people are worried about the credibility of the FED in a situation r right.
My own thought is that if he won, he would keep J. Powell in there at least to the end of his term in twenty eight. And one of the reasons there is that he appointed stuff. You know, you know, there's some credence level there, right. But I do think that the idea that if all parties White House, Senate and House of Representatives are on the same side, that is regardless of who's in power, Democrats or Republicans, because you spend because there's no check in balance. So I think the market started to assume.
Hey, but my question is more about rates and pressure that he would put on any FED chair, whether it's Powell or not. He said he has said that he thinks the president should have input when it comes to is it.
More bark than bite?
I think it's I think it's more.
I think it's more barked than bite, certainly because the last thing he wants to do is have the financial markets go into a you know, volatility mix, right, because of what.
He's saying, right, they will have no credibility.
He will have no credibility. It's not about FED not having credibility, no, no, All right, got about a minute lapped, So how do you invest? You know, you're playing in the fixed income world. As we're getting ready for a FED pivot, we think, like, what's your advice to investors?
I think I think that you know, listening, you don't have the yields like they were last you know, would fall right when when the ten year hit five percent.
It's people we're talking six percent.
Yeah, you're three eighty five. You can make a good case of inflation's coming down. We think bonds offer some good value. We think tax free municipal bonds offer a really good value because they're backed up by a lot of supply. So there's a lot of high quality, investment grade intermediate longer bonds and four percent plus tax feels that's like over seven.
When you're computing if you're looking at the curve. You mentioned muni's, But where would you go on the curve? Would you go shorter duration at this point?
No, no, no, We would barbell it with some short term bonds, but also some bonds out in fifteen years or so, fifteen to twenty years, because you're getting about ninety percent plus of the available yields out in thirty years. So we think that is very good value and listen. You know that if Democrats win, you have a good chance of tax rates going up, so they present some good value, good stuff.
What a pleasure, what a treat, say aboad to David.
Really nice to see a pleasure.
John Whosso.
He is of course Chief executive Officer, Director of Fixed in Coomic Humberland Advisors.
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