New Atlanta TD Gonzalez Aims To Create Mini US Open

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 1st October 2013

New Atlanta TD Gonzalez Aims To Create Mini US Open

epa00988608 The shadow of Roger Federer of Switzerland during his semi-final match against Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain at the ATP Master Series Monte Carlo Open tennis tournament in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, 21 April 2007. EPA/CHRISTOPHE KARABA |

Long-time Atlanta resident, tennis volunteer and former USTA Southern staffer Eddie Gonzalez was recently named the BB&T Atlanta Open Tournament Director and Chief Development Officer.

The 20-plus year Atlanta resident had been Athlon Sports Vice President of Sales/National Accounts for 14 years. Gonzalez is well known to the Southern tennis community after working as USTA Southern Director of Sales & Marketing from 1990-97. He was the first full-time USTA sectional staffer dedicated to sales and marketing in the country. Gonzalez served as a USTA Southern board member from 2007-10, a BB&T Atlanta Open Business Development chair, USTA Membership Committee member, chair of the USTA Southern Marketing Committee, and co-chair of the US Open Member Appreciation Day event.

He talked with Daily Tennis Business about his goals.

DT: What made you decide to leave your job and take up a new challenge?

Gonzalez: I was made aware during the tournament this year about their interest and I always said I would listen. I thought about what the event needs and my passion for tennis and my skill set coming from a sports sales and marketing background and I thought it was a great fit and the right place at the right time. When you are with a company for almost 15 years it’s tough to leave, but I took a leap to follow my passion for tennis.

DT: As I’m sure you know, a slew of tournaments left US shores last year. Do you believe that Atlanta has the potential to stay for the long term?

Gonzalez: From a global perspective it’s great there is so much interest from South America and Asia, but whether it’s Carlsbad going to Tokyo or San Jose going to Brazil, or LA going to Bogota, domestically it hurts us. I think there is a direct correlation between our reduction in men’s ATP events and the lack of US men in the top 10. When I came out of college there were about 30 pro events in the US and now there are 10 in the US and that includes the US Open, the [Masters] 1000s and ours. As the governing body that owns this event – 75 % ownership by the Southern section and 25% by the USTA nationals – we have to protect it. Our mission is to grow tennis at all levels and if we don’t have the opportunity for our American kids to stay home and earn a living and points — right now they have to chase points and money across the globe and that hurts.

I want this event to be American through and through. We want all our top American players here and then to use it as springboard for those players on the cusp and maybe they make a breakthrough here that propels them to reach the second week of the majors.

DT: One of problems for all US non Master Series tournaments is if even if you have the top American males, most fans know that it’s Nadal, Djokovic, Federer and Murray dominating the majors and the Masters Series and those are the guys they want to see. It’s a tough sell when you can’t recruit one of those guys and don’t have a legitimate star to market.

Gonzalez: With where we are on calendar (July 21-27, 2014) and yes we are part of the Emirates US Open Series, we are always going to have a tough time getting the Europeans and the top guys to want to come to the US that early in the summer. That’s a challenge we are going to have year in year in.

Part of the vision is to create an environment where it’s more than just a tennis tournament and it’s an event. It’s probably something that a lot of other people have said they’d do, but I truly believe that for the Atlanta tennis community this can be a weeklong celebration of tennis and that can include world class tennis.

Would I love to have Nadal and Federer? Absolutely. But you can’t rely on that. If you are waiting on walk up ticket sales because of a specific player I think that’s where the event becomes threatened.

I just got back from the [US ] Open, it was my 20th year going up there and I look forward to it every year because of its energy, excitement and electricity. You got your shopping, restaurants, and music, people watching and of course you have your world-class tennis.

I believe we can do that here and create a mini US Open. We have great partner in Atlantic Station. Some many people have to create a food court and find a place where people can go when it rains, and we already have that here. We have a very supportive title sponsor and that got the event in the black. It was in the red the first two years, the acquisitions costs from Indy [Atlanta bought the sanction from the former tournament in Indianapolis], but having a great title sponsor and great venue really helps create more than just a tournament. As you come on to grounds there is live music, you get a pep in your step, we have nice opening and closing ceremonies.

And having a partner like USTA national we have access to their staff and we can implement ideas on a smaller scale here to create mini US Open so people feel for a week that it’s the place to be and be seen.

DT: There are plenty of people who go to the US Open just because it’s seen as a must-go-to event in the Tri-State area, and they are not necessarily tennis fans.

Gonzalez: I come from the media and sports industry so I used the US Open to entertain my clients who had nothing to do with tennis. That’s why it’s been so successful, because it has the ability to entertain.

I went out to the PGA Tour Championships [golf] last week and it as extremely corporate. So much of the Atlanta business community believed in it because of the charity aspect. We need to do a better job of that: to invite the Atlanta business community to be part of it and show them that it’s important and matters and also have the charity aspect Our charity of choice is the YMCA, and we chose them because there are a lot of YMCA’s across Georgia that have access to tennis and so it’s easy to incorporate the values of tennis when we have a charity partner that actually believes in tennis.

Daily Tennis Business: Does the Atlanta tournament have the possibility of attracting a summer vacation crowd like say Indian Wells does in the early spring?

Gonzalez: Indian Wells is already a tourist destination as is Key Biscayne. People look forward to going to the desert or beach and Atlanta isn’t exactly a tourist destination, but I do feel we can draw from a 90-mile radius with tennis fans who want to come in for the day or the night.

DTB: Cincinnati tries to draw in a three to five hour driving radius and it draws very well.

Gonzalez: I really look forward to going out and seeing that tournament because I hear that the renovations have been phenomenal and Cincinnati is not an A-level tourist destination, but I have heard that it is such a great event. And the USTA has an equity stake in that event, which certainly helps,

DTB: What would make you satisfied after the last ball is struck at your tournament next year?

Gonzalez: More involvement from Atlanta business leaders. We have a lot of companies with headquarters and regional headquarters here with a lot of people that also play tennis. Atlanta is arguably the No.1 tennis city in the country in terms of USTA involvement and the ALTA league. There is an employee moral play by getting companies involved, because that’s what their employees are playing. There’s a hospitality element because you are able to entertain your top customers. And there is also an ability to grow the brand because of the signage and TV.

We also need to do a better job of getting the Atlanta tennis community involved. My goal is to have it sold out from Wednesday through Sunday. Is that going to happen? TBD. But with an intimate 4,000-seat stadium in a metro area where there are hundreds of thousands of tennis players, this should be the place to be that week. I would be very happy and I think our board would be very happy if we could accomplish those two things.

DTB: If you look at Southern California, which has lost four events since 2005, there is huge tennis playing population there too but not enough of those recreational players came out to watch pro tennis, even when they had great draws.

Gonzalez: There been a knock of Atlanta that it’s a tennis playing rather than a tennis watching community, but it’s about entertainment value and the entertainment dollar that might be going to the Hawks [NBA], or the Braves [MLB] or a midtown music event, We need to makes sure that people have a great time when they are here at out event and tell their friends.

But the more you get the Atlanta business community involved and their customers – we have a limited budget just like any sporting event has. We don’t have the budget of the Yankees and they are the exception. We have to partner with companies who help us get the word out and help create buzz. That’s very doable.

DTB: Getting teaching pros involved has worked very well at some other tournaments as they have access to their own groups of players and can bring them in groups to pro tournaments.

Gonzalez: We are tossing around some ideas. Do we invite the pros from all the top academies and they get to bring their kids? Because there are only 10 pro events left in the US. I remember as kid going to pro sports events and you remember that. Kids are impressionable. We want our youth to come to this event and aspire to play tennis. To maybe get a college scholarship or heaven forbid, they dream that one day they play at our event. This is why this event is so important in the tennis pyramid. We need these events in the United States and cannot afford to have any more leave.

DTB: The word is that there were no serious bidders in the United States for the WTA Carlsbad, California event that just left for Tokyo.

Gonzalez: But I heard that it was going for $5-6 million. That’s such a premium that I don’t know that an individual promoter can afford to take that risk. But if you get a Tokyo government entity and can come up with backing, or like Bogota [which bought the LA ATP event] did. They already had their sponsors and government support and it’s easier to make that acquisition.

DTB: One of the reasons why the tours are putting more and more events in Asia is they can go straight to the governments and not be concerned about finding private capital.

Gonzalez: It’s important that we have government involvement too, not necessarily financial, but the City of Atlanta as a partner. Any event does. The poster child for that is Delray Beach [the ATP tournament played in February. It’s a destination and the City of Delray believes that an investment in a pro tennis tournament helps increase awareness and increases heads and beds.

Topics: 10sballs, Atp, BB&T Atlanta Open, Eddie Gonzalez, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, US Open, Usta, Wta