August 29, 2025 • 39 mins
Watch Bloomberg Businessweek Daily LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.
Questions about whether President Donald Trump had cause to try to push out Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook dominated a court hearing Friday, as a judge weighs whether he had proper reasons to order her removal from the US central bank.
US District Judge Jia Cobb peppered lawyers for Cook and the administration for about two hours Friday, before ending the hearing without ruling on the Fed governor’s request for a temporary order blocking Trump’s effort to oust her. The judge, who isn’t expected to make a decision this week, didn’t indicate which way she is leaning in a landmark lawsuit that could determine the future of the Fed’s independence.
The hearing capped weeks of criticism of the Fed by the Trump administration and signaled the beginning of a pitched legal fight that is likely to land before the US Supreme Court. Cook sued after Trump moved to fire her for allegedly engaging in fraud by declaring two homes as her primary residence in separate mortgage applications. She hasn’t been charged with wrongdoing.
The judge focused in particular on Cook’s argument that being accused of wrongdoing and fired through a series of social media posts didn’t amount to proper due process under US law.
Today's show features:
- Bloomberg TV and Radio International Economics & Policy Correspondent Michael McKee on key takeaways from Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s emergency court hearing
- Bloomberg Intelligence Global Equity Strategist Gillian Wolff on the Friday trade and end of the "de minimis" trade exemption
- Kirsten Corio, Chief Commercial Officer of the USTA, on growth in the sport of tennis in the United States
- Eric Butorac, Director of US Open Player Relations for the USTA, on the life of professional athletes
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. This is Bloomberg business
Week Daily reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders
stay ahead with insight on the people, companies, and trends
shaping today's complex economy. Plus global business finance and tech
(00:23):
news as it happens. The Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast
with Carol Masser and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That's Molly Smith. She's Bloomberg News Economics Editor. She's in
for Carol mass Re live from the US Open. I'm
Tim Stenebek. It is Bloomberg Business Week Daily. We start
with the latest from our nation's capital and the emergency
hearing about Lisa Cook. This is Friday's hearing on Federieser
of Governor Lisa Cook's motion for a temporary restraining order
blocking her firing by President Trump. I want to bring
(00:53):
in Michael McKee. He's Bloomberg News Economics and Policy correspondent.
He joins us in the Bloomberg Interactive at Brokers Studio.
Mike Judge Cobb grilled both sides, but ended the hearing
without a ruling on Cook's request for an emergency ruling.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
What's the latest.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Well, we're probably not going to hear anything until Tuesday
at the earliest. What happened was the cook people basically
applied for a temporary restraining order to keep her in
her job until the matter could be heard as far
as whether she.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Should keep her job or not.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
The next step would be an injunction to keep her
in her job if that were the case, and the
judge sort of collapsed those two ideas with the ascent
of both sides, So there was a longer hearing than
we expected as she questioned both sides on what's going
to happen, but then gave the lawyers until Tuesday to
file their next motions.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
So it was a signal we're not going to get
anything over the weekend.
Speaker 6 (01:55):
Okay, so maybe we can enjoy the holiday weekend or
perhaps try to at least.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
Especially people who are at the US.
Speaker 7 (02:02):
Time will oh.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
Well, I mean, we have it's nice here, but we're
also very focused on what's going on back in Manhattan.
And so tell us, Mike, this was with a district
court judge. Everyone's talking about how this is going to
be a Supreme Court matter. What are the steps between
now and getting to the Supreme Court.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Well, this judge is going to have to rule on
whether or not to put a temporary hold on the
president's firing of Lisa Cook at some point, whether it's
Tuesday or later next week. And then if she says
that the president can fire her, that changes the narration
because then the president would probably move to replace her
(02:42):
fairly quickly, and you create a whole new set of
legal problems there because the ultimate case has not been decided.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
But if she does allow Cook to stay on.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
The job, then what we would see is the administration
go to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals,
this is what's happened in previous attempts by Trump to
fire people, has basically let the president proceed. Now we
know that this is a little bit of a different
situation because the Supreme Court carved out an exemption for
the FED saying that somebody has to be fired for cause,
(03:17):
and so that would that decision would turn on what
is the definition of for cause, which is what they
spend an awful lot of time on today. And then
if both sides, whichever side loses, that the appeals Court
takes it to the Supreme Court. I think that would
be the basic question. What does it mean to say
the president can fire something someone for cause? According to
(03:40):
the Cook side, the president is using just allegations, nothing proven,
and that doesn't rise to the level of a cause
to fire somebody. And the Trump side says, well, Trump
is the president and basically he can do whatever he wants.
It's up to him to decide what for cause means.
So it's a fundamental question that is probably going to
(04:02):
end up at a Supreme Court.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Is that the Justice Department attorney Yakov Roth's argument. Essentially
here it's whether or not to include something that happened
or could have happened before she became a governor on
the Federal Reserve. Does the timing of this matter, Does
the intent of this matter?
Speaker 5 (04:24):
None of that matters.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
According to mister Roth, the president has the absolute right,
according to the administration, to determine what four cause means.
Now that opens up a can of worms that the
Cook people are trying to spread around on this fishing
expedition by the president. Because if that's the case, then
(04:46):
the law is somewhat moved. There's no point in saying
fore cause, because the president could fire somebody whenever he wants,
because he can make up whatever he wants to be
for cause, and so that's going to be kind of
the decision that Judge has to make, that is, does
this rise to the level of four cause?
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Does the president have that right now?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
It's a tough situation for Judge Cobb, except that she's not.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
Going to be the last word on this by any means.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
Well, this is what I wanted to actually come back
to you on Mike, because I can see a situation
in which a ruling comes out it's not to Trump's liking,
and Gia Cobb was appointed by Biden, and I wonder
how much more this gets politicized potentially than if the
ruling does not go his way.
Speaker 7 (05:34):
Is that something that's coming up in your reporting at all?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Well, the question, kind of Molly, is could it be
any more politicized? They spent quite a bit of time
today talking about how many tweets that Bill Poulti the
Federal Housing Administration, a Federal Housing Agency administrator, has put
out on this something over thirty tweets accusing Cook of
doing something illegal without offering any proof. So it has
(06:00):
become quite politicized already. I think that the biggest question
is going to be whether the President is able to
get rid of her, and that would raise questions on
Wall Street of politicization that haven't quite hit the markets yet,
because I think the traders are basically thinking that the
president will lose if he wins. That's going to raise
(06:21):
an awful lot of questions about how policy is going
to be made going forward.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I do want to talk a little bit about the
economic data that we got earlier today. Before we do that,
I just want to bring everybody some flavor and color
about where we are at the US Open right now.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You might hear a.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Little bit of a Ruckustan see behind us a lot
of fans. It's because Carlos Alcoraz, who just won in
straight sets, is sitting just a couple of feet from.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Us doing interviews with the media here.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So you have a ton of people right behind us
trying to make Carlos Carlo's attention, and you.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Know, we just want to talk about economic data. That's
what we're trying to do.
Speaker 7 (06:58):
Do you think Carlos wants to come on to talk
about the PC reports.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
That I think he was.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I don't think he was paying any attention to the
PC report before his match.
Speaker 7 (07:05):
Molly, you don't think so.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
No, you were, though, So let's get.
Speaker 7 (07:08):
Well, that's what I would want to know.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
I want to know exactly what happened to inflation of
the month of July before I take to Arthur ash Stadium.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Okay, well, let's bring in much McKee on that. In
the last few minutes that we have, Mike, the data
that we got bang in line with expectations today.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Any surprises in there.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
The surprises came on the income and spending side, on
on the price side. It's not really any any kind
of surprise anymore for the PCE, because the data come
in and other releases and economists can pull them out
and put them together before we even get the numbers.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
A bit of us increase in.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
The core number on a year over year basis to
two point nine percent, But whether that leads the Fed
to do one thing or another kind of depends on
whether you already think the Fed should be cutting rates
or on hold. It's certainly not near two percent, but
the month over month number went down a tenth, and
so if you're thinking you can cutying, well, maybe we're
(08:01):
seeing a little bit of restraint in inflation. The income
numbers came in strong though. In terms of wages and salaries,
they were up six tenths of a percent after a
one tenth rise in June, so Americans had more money
and they did spend.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
You can also.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Parse that by saying a lot of that was on automobiles,
as people try to buy cars ahead of the price increases.
The automakers have promised for the new models coming out soon,
so it doesn't really lead us anywhere. I haven't looked
deep enough into the PCE inflation numbers though to see
what the price of haircuts did.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Maybe you can ask Carlos stat.
Speaker 7 (08:43):
I was gonna say that.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I always brings it home.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Mike McKee, Lieberg News International Economics and Policy correspondent. He
is on top of it all, whether it's everything from
the FED or what they are talking about here at
the US Open, which yes, does include Carlos Alcaraz's new haircut,
which way we learned earlier this week it was.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Sort of a mistake.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
Yeah, I need to still like read up fully on this.
It was something that like did his brother end up?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I don't know who did it, but you know, he said,
sometimes you just have to start fresh, and that's what
he did here and Tiofo.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Gave him a pretty hard Yeah.
Speaker 7 (09:14):
All good friends there. I mean the hilarious part.
Speaker 6 (09:16):
If you've seen anything in Carlos's matches, he kind of
puts his hand through said it's like, oh wait, I
don't know, it's kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
More from Bloomberg Business Week Daily coming up after this.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Catch
us live weekday afternoons from two to five ees during
this listen on Applecarplay and Android Otto with the Bloomberg
Business app, or watch us live on YouTube on.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
This last trading day of September? Can you believe August August?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Excuse me?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Right, yeah, it feels like September with the decline that
we're seeing today.
Speaker 7 (09:55):
Oh my god.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
Yeah. Rough, I mean we were just we just had
a record yesterday. Fibes today not as good.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah, yeah, really getting hit.
Speaker 7 (10:03):
I mean you think it was the PC data?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
No, I don't.
Speaker 7 (10:06):
I mean, because it wasn't that. Yeah, it was in
line with expectations. Just I don't know.
Speaker 6 (10:09):
Maybe I had to give up some gains after yesterday's rally.
But I mean, our next guy's going to tell us
all about is. We're going to bring her in right now.
We have Jillian Wolf coming in to join us. She's
global equity strategist with Bloomberg Intelligence in the Interactive broker studio.
Speaker 7 (10:22):
Hey, Jillian, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 8 (10:24):
Thank you. I hope you guys are enjoying the time
at the US Open today. I'm a bit jealous.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Oh, we are having a lot of fun, but we
had to come back to talk to you because we
have the clothes coming up. Tell us about what the
trade of all today and what we're looking into going
into four o'clock.
Speaker 8 (10:41):
Sure, I mean we're officially at the end of the
two Q earning season right now, with Nvidia having reported.
I think what was a lot of providing a lot
of fuel for this rally was that earnings expectations going
into the second quarter were actually quite low, and it
provided a really easy environment for companies to be because
the brunt of the tariff impact was expected to start
(11:03):
hitting now. But in reality, what we saw was that
tariffs were not actually that influential on these two Q
earnings reports. So what we saw were massive beats which
really helped drive the equity rally. But I think now
investors are starting to look forward to how tariffs might
start to hurt those three Q and four Q earnings
and we might not get as much fuel from those
(11:24):
easy beats that we've been getting over the past few weeks.
So a little bit of lowering momentum on that side.
We've also just seen a lot of profit taking in
the megacap stocks, like you said in video, down still
quite a bit today. Tech broadly still looks strong for US.
We posted a note last week that on median tech
was holding up. But because the indices are so heavily
concentrated in these large names, it distorts the picture a
(11:47):
little bit. If you have a few names going down,
particularly in Vidia being one of them, you're going to
start to think, oh, tech must be collapsing everywhere because
it's driving all of these indices so heavily.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
On the tariff side of things, Why is it taking,
in your view, relatively and what I would consider a
long time to hit earnings or to at least hit
the stock prices of these companies. I thought the market
looked forward and you know, there's nothing clear in ahead
of us than having to pay tariffs.
Speaker 8 (12:20):
It's a great question, and I have a twofold answer.
The first is that a lot of companies did stock
up on inventories bracing for these tariffs, So there is
a little bit of a stockpile now where they're not
necessarily going to have to pay tariffs on imports that
are going to hit. We did have this ninety day
pause on what the worst of the tariffs were going
to be. I think what we're seeing in the market
(12:40):
is a little bit of relief that what was supposed
to play out on a liberation Day doesn't appear to
be happening. Even though the tariff situation were worse off
right now than we were, let's say, in September, because
we aren't as bad as analysts had it originally expected
in April. They're ultimately seeing this as good news and
positive upside the fact that company margins didn't just collapse
(13:02):
in two Q, which is what some of the concerns
going into this quarter were. But we definitely have to
keep an eye out on three Q and four Q.
There's definitely notes coming out on earnings calls, and companies
are still not entirely sure. I just think we avoided
the worst case scenario, so markets are breathing a little
bit of a sigh of relief, but definitely on trepidacious
terms right now.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
So, Julian, you're saying here, the tariffs haven't been that
impactful to earning so far. Ninety nine percent of the
year I write about the US economy, one percent I
write about Tennis. But when we're trying about the economy,
it hasn't really impacted inflation that much either. We got
the PCEE data for July this morning. Goods prices were
actually down in the month and services, kind of mirroring
(13:44):
what we saw on the CPI earlier in August. That's
where it seems like inflation is really pecking back up again.
And if I were a stock investor, I feel like
that has got to be.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
A much scarier omen for me.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
You know, this isn't the tariff driven goods inflation that
we had the luxury of thinking that might look through.
Speaker 7 (14:01):
This is something that is perhaps more persistent.
Speaker 8 (14:05):
It's persistent, and it's supply side. We published a note
and I had mentioned it last week that we were
already seeing producer prices accelerate faster than consumer prices, and
that's really a red flag for us because it means
that companies are struggling to push these costs onto the consumer,
and it also begs the question of how much rate
cuts could actually help at this point. If the inflation
(14:27):
is coming from the supply side of things, rate cuts
can't really do as much. They can help release the
burden on consumers, but if things just become more expensive
for companies themselves to purchase, they're going to have to
pass that on to the consumer ultimately. And they make
it some relief from those cuts. They may pay less
interest on their car payments or their credit card payments,
(14:48):
which could allow them to pay more for goods. But
the idea that we're not going to see inflation flow
through eventually, I think is a little bit misguided. We're
just starting to see companies start to pay more for
these inputs, and it is going to take some time
to gradually flow through. Remember, we were on a ninety
day tear off pause that technically did restart just this month,
so we're only going to start to see this data
(15:09):
really hit the economy in the coming weeks and months. Now.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Hey, Jillian, before we let you go, you and the
team out with a note overnight about value having a
banner year in Europe. What's the outlook in your view
on value stocks over in Europe.
Speaker 8 (15:26):
It's interesting because we haven't seen that same thesis play
out in the US. Value stocks in Europe are really
beat up, but they've been beat up for a long time,
and a lot of this is now just people buying
what they think could be a solid deal because it's
just so cheap in the US. Even the cheapest stocks
aren't that cheap by comparison. They're may be cheaper compared
(15:46):
to some of the highest mag seven stocks, but cheap
in the US doesn't actually need cheap relative to the globe.
So we're definitely seeing investors maybe moving a little bit
more towards safety, trying to pick up on some of
these beat up stocks in Europe, and we're seeing value
do quite well as a result.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Gillian Wolf on the Bloomberg Intelligence ATM Equity Strategist over there,
have a great weekend, Have a great long weekend. Appreciate
you joining us from the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
This is the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Listen live
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Just say Alexa play Bloomberg.
Speaker 7 (16:32):
Eleven thirty.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
We are at the US Open just outside of Arthur
Ash Stadium in Flushing, New York. We're surrounded by about
seventy thousand of our closest friends and also by somebody
who joins us on site every year during our US
Open broadcast. Kirsten Coreo is back with us. She's Chief
Commercial Officer of the USTA, the owner and operator of
the US Open. What does she do well, If it
(16:54):
has to do with money and bringing it in, that's
what she does. Think of course, ticket sales, hospital global metiaites, sponsorships,
digital strategy, business intelligence and more. Kirsten, how are you
good to see you? It's once a year we get
to see you.
Speaker 7 (17:10):
It's great to see you.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
It's the busiest time of the year for you.
Speaker 7 (17:12):
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Well, it's the time truly where you guys all live
in a hotel do right near here because you are
here twenty four to seven actually not watching any tennis
because you're working the whole time.
Speaker 7 (17:23):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
So let's talk a little bit about how.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
The revenue generation is looking for the year. I mean,
three years in a row of record breaking attendance. What
can you tell us about just the business this year
going into the US.
Speaker 9 (17:33):
Open, Well, I can tell you said, three years in
a row of record breaking attendance, this should be a
fourth year in a row of record breaking not just attendance,
but over lots of different areas that we measure. So attendance, yes,
viewership across through the first round, we're up thirty six
percent on our domestic ESPN, ABC, ESPN two coverage, which
is amazing. We actually had the second highest viewership and
(17:58):
it's in Italy's of tennis through the first round, amazing,
a lot of great Italian players. Merchandise is up double
digit percentages, ticket sales up double digit percentages. And with
the opening Sunday start to the men's and women's main
draw singles play and men's and women's doubles main draw play,
we're up double digit percentages and going to like break
(18:20):
records and ticket sales and all the per caps related
to that as well.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
So it sounds like things are obviously moving in the
right direction on the attendance side of things. I'm curious
about the balance between the criticisms last year about there
were too many people here because everybody wanted to be here.
How did you balance that this year with a different
strategy when it came to ticket sales in terms of
like tapping certain ticket sales at different times to make
(18:46):
it so people could actually get around here.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 9 (18:49):
I mean, we never want to restrict people that want
to come from being able to come, But at the
same time, we want to ensure that the people who
are here on site and have you know, bought their
tickets and paid good money and looked forward to planning
to being here on site have a phenomenal fan experience.
So we did make the hard decision to reduce the
amount of tickets that we would sell over this very
busy Labor Day weekend. So yesterday was the first day
(19:10):
of that implementation. We did start to implement some changes
to better manage crowds through the thoroughfares, better manage how
we're spreading out competition and content across the different courts,
practice courts and competition courts, so that people have more
options around the site to experience the different content and
enjoy it in a more free flowing way and not
(19:32):
in a crushed way alongside seventy thousand of their friends.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Well, just to recognize what you had said before, Kirsen
about spreading out the tennis, and also to make sure
that people are getting good value for their money because
it is expensive to come here.
Speaker 7 (19:45):
Something I think that a lot of people.
Speaker 6 (19:47):
Who I've talked to have said is about having that
Sunday start. Having the first round played now over three
days instead of two, it is technically diluting the value
of the ticket now.
Speaker 9 (19:57):
No, I don't know how much tennis you watch simultaneously,
but it's not usually.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
More than one match.
Speaker 9 (20:03):
Actually spreading out the first round over three days has
really helped spread the content out in a way that's
actually offered more content to more people so that they
can see more. It's been easier on the athletes in
many ways. It's hard to spread out the main job
singles in first round in two days. Three rounds sorry,
three days is what you find in other Grand Slams
(20:25):
as well.
Speaker 7 (20:25):
It's quite common.
Speaker 9 (20:27):
So in our case, it gave more content across the
courts in a way that didn't crush the courts across
two days. Now you can spread it across three days
and seventy thousand more people can experience it.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
How should we think about the revenue breakdown of the
US Open ticket sales versus concessions versus sponsorships. I mean
on the sponsorship side, everybody's here and it's also all
the familiar names that have been with the US Open
for decades at this point, what's the revenue breakdown?
Speaker 9 (20:53):
So it's traditional in the way that every other live
event property, whether it's sports or entertainment, is tickets, sales, hospitality, sponsorship.
Media rights is a huge portion of how this event
is fueled. So not every event gets to sell their
media rights and is responsible for that. We are like
the other Grand Slams.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
And you do the negotiations for it.
Speaker 9 (21:15):
We should know we do, and we work with our
partners at IMG to help us worldwide.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So what about it?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Sorry, I just want to push on this a little
bit with in terms of revenue, Like, if we think
about it from the perspective of okay, ticket sales bring
in this much revenue. Does is that the most in
terms of overall revenue for the US Open? Or does
sponsorships bring in.
Speaker 9 (21:35):
It is ticket sales, ticket sales and premium leads.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Okay, so that's still the majority of where the revenue
comes from.
Speaker 6 (21:40):
Okay, right, And keeping with it on the ticket sales,
I mean, this is something that you know, as we've said,
it is an expensive experience.
Speaker 7 (21:48):
It is a premium experience.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
You know you are getting certainly I would say a
lot for what you pay for to come here. But
it is something that people do talk about that they
get frustrated with how much how quickly the sales go
over to the resale market.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
Is that something that is in your control whatsoever?
Speaker 6 (22:04):
I mean, to be able to sell more tickets at
face value before the resale market takes over and jocks
them up to however many multiples of the face.
Speaker 7 (22:11):
Value per Well, there's two key factors at work here.
Speaker 9 (22:16):
One is the overwhelming demand that we experience for the event.
Two is the fact that we are in New York
State and resale cannot be restricted legally, so we are
unable to restrict how many tickets are resold, at what
price points they're resold, and how people choose to resale
tickets that they've purchased. So on the demand side, we
(22:36):
renew the equivalent of full season tickets at about ninety
nine percent every year, and we did work hard to
make more volume of tickets available, both through the Sunday
start as well as for just ensuring that we had
as much inventory as possible. For the American Express individual
ticket presale, again sold out of that inventory within a
couple of hours, and again in the public end sal
(23:00):
same thing, sold out of the inventory within a couple
of hours, and at which point in time people can
choose to resell tickets if that's their if that's their desire.
I think it's important to note that our individual ticket
price average sales price point across all the events, all
of the sessions, all of the venues, is one hundred
and ninety dollars the average resale ticket price. It's over
(23:22):
five hundred that it's sold for. So when people may
may say, oh, it's an expensive ticket, unfortunately for us,
we have to bear the brunt of that perception. But
it's not the ticket price that we set.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
Yeah, we're just if you guys are just joining us here.
We've got Carson Coreo with us.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
She's chief commercial officer at the USTA, talking all things
about revenue ticket generation, all of that that's going on
here at the US Open. So, Kison, you've brought up
something interesting. I actually didn't know about this. That this
has to do with maybe state rules about the resale
market and what can can't be restricted.
Speaker 7 (23:55):
Is that something then that you guys, you.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Know, obviously as a huge event spoor here in the
state of New York. Is that something that you try
to work with the state on to say, like, hey,
you know, we want to you know, maybe change the
rules in the state.
Speaker 7 (24:08):
Is there any way that we can work on this?
Speaker 9 (24:10):
Listen, We're happy to talk to any state body, legislative body,
or representative at any point in time. Our intention is
to ensure that fans have an opportunity to come here
and experience the US Open and tennis are inspired to
play tennis and have an opportunity to come many days
if they wish to, to the extent that the state
wants to work with us to offer more accessibility beyond
(24:30):
the six days of the free open to the public
fan week. We're always happy to have a conversation.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
But does it also tell you that you could be
charging more for tickets? I know that's like not a
popular thing. For me to say. But if you think
about it, the delta between the average ticket price of
a resale and the average ticket price where you're saying,
there's a lot of money right from the table there,
So it seems like the willingness to pay is a
lot higher than you guys are marketing it for right now.
Speaker 9 (24:54):
It is, but it's a balance, you know, It's a
balance between wanting to retain accessibility or for all types
of fans and at the same time being an event
that has an obligation to deliver net proceeds back to
growing the game. So it is a balance. I don't
think you'll ever see us go to the highest end
of the market demand on a regular grounds pass, but
(25:17):
in some cases we will sell that high end experience
to the person who's willing to invest that much.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
Well, the high end experience isn't a lot of that.
What's going to be part of this new renovation in ash, right,
that's going to be bringing more luxury suites also just thousands.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
Of more tickets in general to the stadium.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
Can you tell us a little bit more about this
renovation that's in progress in twenty twenty seven, right, That's
what it's going to be ready.
Speaker 9 (25:39):
So Arthur ash Stadium amazing stadium, largest tennis stadium in
the world, purpose built for nineteen ninety seven. We've come
a long way since ninety seven, and fan expectations have
evolved and changed, and we need to evolve and change
to meet where they are and what they expect for
the next generation.
Speaker 7 (25:54):
So the transformation will see the addition.
Speaker 9 (25:57):
Of two thousand new incremental court side seats. We have
the smallest lower bowl in all of North America by proportion, perhaps,
and we have more way more demand for those than
we can satisfy. So we're looking to be able to
offer more accessibility both for fans that want that court
side seed as well as fans that have been longtime
subscribers in the next level and the lowge level. That
(26:19):
number one on their wish list is the ability to upgrade.
As I mentioned with the ninety eight or ninety nine
percent renewal rate, they don't have a lot of options,
but we will have suites moving up by about twelve feet,
same number of suites, but they will be larger with
more square footage, more fixed seats for people to enjoy
and entertain guests. And that's been long on the feedback
lists from our suitet clients.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
How do you guys at the USDA talk about influencers
and the way that they're part of the us OPEN now?
I feel like the last few years it's just exploded
in terms of social media.
Speaker 9 (26:48):
Yes, yes, influencers, content creators.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Are they part of officially part of media here now?
Speaker 9 (26:53):
So there is something called non media credential that we've
trialed this year for a elect group of individuals that
may positively be able to report on and influence audiences
to be interested in tennis. Our mission is all about
growing the game and inspiring people to play more often
so to the extent that there are influencers content creators
that can help us leverage the us OPEN to do that,
(27:16):
we're really interested in exploring it. That said, you know,
it's the wild West out there. It's really challenging to
try to harness that passion, I will say, in a
way that's productive for the entire ecosystem and protects our
partners who have been with us.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
For so long here.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Well, I do feel like I even see them outside
of the gates at this point. I mean, the popularity
is just so huge. Kirsten Koreo. Always good. When you
join us, it means we're at the US Open. We
love being here and we love chatting with you. Kuston Coreo.
She's chief Commercial Officer of the USTA and she might
get to watch a little tennis. Look for her in
the box next to the celebrities later in the tournament.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily. Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
More from Bloomberg Business Week Daily coming up after this.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Catch
us live weekday afternoons from two to five these during
listen on Apple Karplay and Android Otto with the Bloomberg
Business app, or watch us live on YouTube.
Speaker 7 (28:15):
We're going to bring it now.
Speaker 6 (28:16):
Eric Bouderak, he is director of US Open Player Relations
at the USTA, also a former professional player known for
your doubles pro US.
Speaker 7 (28:24):
Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
Eric, great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Right here outside of Arthur Ash. How's the tournament been
for you so far? It's only probably the crazy three
weeks of your life, it is.
Speaker 11 (28:32):
It's been busy, and with it with the fan week
and all the events we have going on the front end,
it feels like a full month. But again, what better
place to be if you love tennis. This is the
center of it all, So it couldn't be.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Better explain to everybody what it means to be the
director of player relations here.
Speaker 11 (28:50):
Yeah, so I joined this role about nine years ago,
straight off the court, literally ended my career in Core
ten right behind us and it was in the office,
you know, a month later. Originally the direction was, you know,
to improve the kind of relationship with players, understand all
their needs and how can they have a better experience
at the US Open. I think that has evolved over
the last nine years to you know, building new events
things like we were seen in Fan Week with Stars
(29:11):
of the Open, the Mixed Devils tournament, but really just
everything that the players touch, which is so many things,
right from the transportation and the hotels to the prize
money and all the everything that goes on with the
biggest events they participate.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
So you want to make sure everything goes well so
they can perform their best out there on the court
and have a good experience. Can you give us the
perspective from somebody who was on tour and kind of
like what goes into it? I think a lot of
people romanticize the idea of being a pro athlete, but
then you really think about it, especially in tennis, and
you think to yourself, wait a second, this means you're
on the road all the time. You're never sleeping in
(29:45):
your own bed. You're spending a lot of time on
airplanes yep, and.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
Spending a lot of money on all the staff that
travels with you.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
It's very expensive, and if you're not one of those
household names, it's not easy to make ends meet.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
It is.
Speaker 10 (29:58):
So there's a lot to that equation.
Speaker 11 (30:01):
I mean, first the financial side, yes, right, you're you're
traveling the world, and how you need to travel depends
very much on kind of what level sport you're at, right,
And I equate a lot of it to baseball, sort
of single A, double A, triple A. The single A level,
you know, everyone's just trying to survive, right, There's not
a lot of money coming in, not a lot of
things are being covered. As you get to the double
A level or the Challenger tour, you start to get
(30:22):
where there's free hotels, you start to get meals covered,
and the checks start to improve a little bit.
Speaker 10 (30:27):
Once you get to the ATP tour, here.
Speaker 11 (30:29):
You know, life is good, right, and you know you
see first round prize money one hundred and ten thousand dollars. Okay,
now we can start to really bank on some real income. Yes,
there's huge fluctuation within your checks week to week, but
you know that, Look, if I'm going to perform a
certain level over the course of the year, I'm going
to have, you know, a good enough income to kind
of cover my needs. Now, if you want to expand
to a large team, then that can be substantially more.
(30:51):
But you know, component one is the financial is you
really have to manage that because you're an independent contractor.
You know, I was with a spreadsheet, you know, trying
to figure out how much I was spent each week
or really a month, and trying to survive. But you
also don't know your earnings, right. You could make one
hundred thousand dollars one week, or you could be in
the red if you had a small check and a
team traveling with you.
Speaker 10 (31:10):
So those swings are real.
Speaker 11 (31:12):
But the lifestyle is probably as much the real part,
which is I tell people all the time, it's the
most unbelievable life. You know, my spring for ten years
was you know, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome, Madrid, Paris, London.
I'm naming the best six cities in the world, and
we did them, you know, over the course of two
months in the spring.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
It's amazing.
Speaker 11 (31:29):
But you've got to be comfortable two hundred and fifty
days a year in a hotel. You're living out of
two to three suitcases, so it's it's a huge adjustment
for a lot of people. If you like the comforts
of your own home, you know, this may not be
the best career for you, but it is a fascinating
experience to see the world. You get backstage passes to
see all the best stuff that these cities have to offer.
Speaker 10 (31:50):
So it's a pretty wonderful experience at all the.
Speaker 7 (31:52):
Same time, totally imagine.
Speaker 6 (31:53):
I mean, I'm thinking back to when you just said
Monti Carlo. There, this might have been my peak tennis
viewing experience when.
Speaker 7 (31:58):
I study abroad.
Speaker 6 (32:00):
Semester, I met up with my mixed doubles partner in
Monte Carlo and we went to see the semifinals of
the twenty fifteen tournament, Djokovic Nadal playing each other. Right there,
I mean, this was just just.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
After you were tired, right that was year after your
retired sixteen.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Yeah, so you're talking about so much of this though
from like the doubles perspective. I think that's what's so
what a lot of people don't get to hear about
because you see, you know, of course, how the sing
A lot of the top singles players. I mean, these
are people who have what ten tens of millions of
dollars in contra and endorsements and money. How much of
that equation is happening on the double side? You know,
they is Nike and all these other sponsors. Are they
(32:38):
paying doubles players that much to wear their kids?
Speaker 10 (32:40):
No?
Speaker 11 (32:41):
I would say that in the double side, if you
know roughly seventy five percent of your earnings are coming
from encore, right you might.
Speaker 6 (32:48):
That's got to be the total opposite of the single
side of the equation.
Speaker 10 (32:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (32:51):
I don't have the exact numbers, but sure, right, I
think in the in the vicinity, absolutely so. I think
prize money is the main driver for the majority of
the tour as you get to the very top, you know,
the sponsorships and the off court earnings we will trump that.
Speaker 10 (33:04):
But yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
So, coming back to that, because I heard somebody told
me that you were the genius behind the mixed doubles
tournament this year.
Speaker 7 (33:11):
I would think a lot of you then.
Speaker 6 (33:13):
Would want to have this you know, big prize pool,
you know fivefold what it was in the previous year.
Speaker 7 (33:19):
Have the real doubles players get access to that?
Speaker 11 (33:21):
Yeah, No, was this was this was a tough one,
right And I obviously received a lot of phone calls
from from close friends on tour that again, this was,
this was an event that given the way that we
built it up, they weren't the majority of them weren't
going to be able to play in it, and we
had those discussions. I think the first up we wanted
to do was make sure they were financially whole. So
what we did with our increases this year, we took
our regular scheduled increases in doubles, which were substantial. Then
(33:44):
we took all of the money from mixed doubles from
last year it was won by doubles players and put
that in on top.
Speaker 10 (33:49):
Of the other increases.
Speaker 11 (33:50):
So I think a lot of the doubles rounds this
year were up thirty percent from last year, so there's
huge earnings for the double side. I think the other
thing we wanted to do, which was hard for some
of the double player to hear, but we want to
shine a light on doubles like never before. And as
the doubles mixed doubles are being played with doubles players,
there wasn't a lot of people tuning in. ESPN wasn't
really airing it, Fans weren't turning up for the matches
and droves right. What we were able to do was
(34:12):
to take mixed doubles something that no one talked about,
no one was really watching, put it in Arthur Rash
Stadium with twenty four thousand people. So I think that
step has been incredible. We're super happy with it. You know,
where we go forward now is to have a lot
of conversations and say, okay, what's next, right, you know,
how do we grow this to make this something bigger?
Do we want to adjust the dates, we adjust the
format to, we adjust the entry policies, and that'll be
(34:33):
you know, the next couple of months of analysis. But
for step one, I think it was it was a
big success.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
We're speaking right now with Eric Buerak, he's heads up
player relations here at the USTA where he is a
director we're at the US Open. It is Tim's Kinnebeck
and Molly Smith. She's Bloomberg News economics editor.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Eric. I want to talk a.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Little bit about what the youth program looks like right
now in the US. You grew up playing in the US,
You played college in the US. What do you hear
from the about the difference is now in terms of
interest among young American kids and access that they have
to tennis, because that is the.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Whole purpose of the USTA. Here can you quantify for
that compared to when you were growing up?
Speaker 11 (35:12):
You know, I I don't work on that side of
the business. I'm not going to rattle off the numbers
off the edge of my tongue. I know we are
in I think at least five years now consecutive growth
with participation which was looking good, which is looking good,
which is great. You know, there was sort of a
COVID bump that we had because it was one of
the first sports you could really come back and play.
Speaker 10 (35:27):
I think we were.
Speaker 11 (35:28):
Maybe concerned that that was only a COVID bump. But
the growth has sustained, which is which is really encouraging.
I think we're seeing lots of growth in you know,
different economic diverse environments, which is great.
Speaker 10 (35:39):
Youth participation is up, which is good.
Speaker 11 (35:42):
I think the US Open, I mean, we look at
this not only is the revenue from this event going
into the USTA, which has the mission to grow the game,
but we look at this as a three week festival
to showcase the sport to our country, you know, motivate
more people to go out and play the sport.
Speaker 10 (35:56):
And so everything we do is from a lens of Yeah,
we want.
Speaker 11 (35:58):
To earn money so we can put the money into
the sport, but let's also excite people about playing back
to the mixed doubles people.
Speaker 7 (36:04):
Sorry, we'll be going to hear today.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Sorry as the Bloomberg News following on Eric for those listening,
he's still okay.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
I'm good.
Speaker 11 (36:13):
On the waiver Before you got here, We're all said,
I'm all right. But we knew that people love playing
mixed doubles. We wanted to We want everyone to see
that so they go to their clubs and play mixed doubles,
you know.
Speaker 10 (36:21):
So that was one of the reasons. So we're looking
at it through that lens as well.
Speaker 7 (36:23):
Totally.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
I mean that's what I played in college. I played
for the club team. It's Syracuse, but you played actually
real college tennis, and I want to hear about what
that transition is like to go from college to the
pro circuit, because it's tennis is a bit unique in
that way. It's not the way of a traditional feeder
the way other sports are, you know, the NBA and
playing in a professional football as well. That like college
(36:45):
is such a huge driver of where your career is,
it's not really the same in tennis. So can you
talk about that transition and if more people are seeing
college is maybe a gateway.
Speaker 7 (36:53):
To the pro tour?
Speaker 11 (36:54):
So I think, I mean, I played Division II college tennis,
which is really not.
Speaker 10 (36:57):
The route to pro tennis.
Speaker 11 (36:58):
I don't think anyone really did it before me, and
no one did it afterwards, so that I wouldn't I
wouldn't recommend that route.
Speaker 10 (37:02):
I somehow found the loophole.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
I played D three and I never turned pro.
Speaker 10 (37:06):
See that gain.
Speaker 11 (37:07):
Yeah, A lot of people call me and asked me,
and it's a kind of a crazy story I worked out.
So anyway, But if we focus on the Division IE level,
which is really you know, the reality of a pipeline
into the pros, I think through a couple of things. One,
the college life has become more and more appealing to
players who need those years to train and get better.
Speaker 10 (37:25):
So those you know you can you.
Speaker 11 (37:26):
Can train from eighteen to twenty two, have all your
expenses covered at a really high level, and especially in
the men's side, where you develop a little bit later
in life, right, it's more likely to kind of give
you that time to really go off on the tour.
Speaker 10 (37:36):
Number Two, with.
Speaker 11 (37:37):
The nil you know, now these players can actually not
only get a free education, but they can earn some money,
build up a little bit of a net worth to
go out on tour and have some savings to take
that money on tour. I mean kem Nory playing Djokovic tonight,
he's straight out of TCU. I mean not just on
the men's sides, but we're seeing women Emmin Nvara play
college tennis.
Speaker 10 (37:56):
Peyton Stearns played college tennis.
Speaker 11 (37:57):
So there's a lot of players coming off college tennis
to play professionally in.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
These days, and like it was even twenty thirty years ago,
a lot of players coming from outside of the US
to the US to play D One. Do you think
the nil thing is going to make it even more
so that you know, the next Carlos Alparez skips going
right pro and comes to the US and plays college.
Speaker 11 (38:15):
Maybe I don't think that Alcarez will skip, but the
cam Norri's.
Speaker 10 (38:19):
Of the world will will continue to skip.
Speaker 11 (38:21):
If you're seventeen years old and you're winning, you know Internet,
you know, with Grand Slam Junior Championships, and you know
you're still going to the IMGs of the world are
signing you and Nike wants you, you're going pro. There's
there's too much opportunity for that group. The ones just
below that who don't have huge contracts being offered to them,
those are the ones that are going to go to college.
They're going to take those nil deals and then they're
going to hopefully go to the tour, use it as
(38:42):
a kind of a training ground to get ready for
the tour.
Speaker 6 (38:44):
Yeah, there's just so much to be played for, especially
on the junior circuit.
Speaker 7 (38:47):
There.
Speaker 6 (38:47):
So, Eric Budurak, thanks so much for joining us here.
This is Eric Mudak. He's the jacker of US Open
Player Relations at the USCA.
Speaker 7 (38:54):
Thanks again for coming with us here.
Speaker 10 (38:55):
You guys from the set appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
So we're still sitting here outside of Arthurs Stadium, Tim,
you're gonna stay for.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
The night session tonight, you know, I'll stay for a
little bit of it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
I don't think I'm in the state untill like one am.
Like you and I did a couple of years ago, though. Yeah,
that was that was till two am.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
That was crazy. Yeah, that was crazy. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
This is the Bloomberg Business Weekdaily podcast, available on Apple, Spotify,
and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live weekday
afternoons from two to five pm Eastern on Bloomberg dot com,
the iHeartRadio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business app.
You can also watch us live every weekday on YouTube
(39:36):
and always on the Bloomberg terminal
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. This is Bloomberg business
Week Daily reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders
stay ahead with insight on the people, companies, and trends
shaping today's complex economy. Plus global business finance and tech
(00:23):
news as it happens. The Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast
with Carol Masser and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That's Molly Smith. She's Bloomberg News Economics Editor. She's in
for Carol mass Re live from the US Open. I'm
Tim Stenebek. It is Bloomberg Business Week Daily. We start
with the latest from our nation's capital and the emergency
hearing about Lisa Cook. This is Friday's hearing on Federieser
of Governor Lisa Cook's motion for a temporary restraining order
blocking her firing by President Trump. I want to bring
(00:53):
in Michael McKee. He's Bloomberg News Economics and Policy correspondent.
He joins us in the Bloomberg Interactive at Brokers Studio.
Mike Judge Cobb grilled both sides, but ended the hearing
without a ruling on Cook's request for an emergency ruling.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
What's the latest.
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Well, we're probably not going to hear anything until Tuesday
at the earliest. What happened was the cook people basically
applied for a temporary restraining order to keep her in
her job until the matter could be heard as far
as whether she.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Should keep her job or not.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
The next step would be an injunction to keep her
in her job if that were the case, and the
judge sort of collapsed those two ideas with the ascent
of both sides, So there was a longer hearing than
we expected as she questioned both sides on what's going
to happen, but then gave the lawyers until Tuesday to
file their next motions.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
So it was a signal we're not going to get
anything over the weekend.
Speaker 6 (01:55):
Okay, so maybe we can enjoy the holiday weekend or
perhaps try to at least.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
Especially people who are at the US.
Speaker 7 (02:02):
Time will oh.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
Well, I mean, we have it's nice here, but we're
also very focused on what's going on back in Manhattan.
And so tell us, Mike, this was with a district
court judge. Everyone's talking about how this is going to
be a Supreme Court matter. What are the steps between
now and getting to the Supreme Court.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Well, this judge is going to have to rule on
whether or not to put a temporary hold on the
president's firing of Lisa Cook at some point, whether it's
Tuesday or later next week. And then if she says
that the president can fire her, that changes the narration
because then the president would probably move to replace her
(02:42):
fairly quickly, and you create a whole new set of
legal problems there because the ultimate case has not been decided.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
But if she does allow Cook to stay on.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
The job, then what we would see is the administration
go to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals,
this is what's happened in previous attempts by Trump to
fire people, has basically let the president proceed. Now we
know that this is a little bit of a different
situation because the Supreme Court carved out an exemption for
the FED saying that somebody has to be fired for cause,
(03:17):
and so that would that decision would turn on what
is the definition of for cause, which is what they
spend an awful lot of time on today. And then
if both sides, whichever side loses, that the appeals Court
takes it to the Supreme Court. I think that would
be the basic question. What does it mean to say
the president can fire something someone for cause? According to
(03:40):
the Cook side, the president is using just allegations, nothing proven,
and that doesn't rise to the level of a cause
to fire somebody. And the Trump side says, well, Trump
is the president and basically he can do whatever he wants.
It's up to him to decide what for cause means.
So it's a fundamental question that is probably going to
(04:02):
end up at a Supreme Court.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Is that the Justice Department attorney Yakov Roth's argument. Essentially
here it's whether or not to include something that happened
or could have happened before she became a governor on
the Federal Reserve. Does the timing of this matter, Does
the intent of this matter?
Speaker 5 (04:24):
None of that matters.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
According to mister Roth, the president has the absolute right,
according to the administration, to determine what four cause means.
Now that opens up a can of worms that the
Cook people are trying to spread around on this fishing
expedition by the president. Because if that's the case, then
(04:46):
the law is somewhat moved. There's no point in saying
fore cause, because the president could fire somebody whenever he wants,
because he can make up whatever he wants to be
for cause, and so that's going to be kind of
the decision that Judge has to make, that is, does
this rise to the level of four cause?
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Does the president have that right now?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
It's a tough situation for Judge Cobb, except that she's not.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
Going to be the last word on this by any means.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
Well, this is what I wanted to actually come back
to you on Mike, because I can see a situation
in which a ruling comes out it's not to Trump's liking,
and Gia Cobb was appointed by Biden, and I wonder
how much more this gets politicized potentially than if the
ruling does not go his way.
Speaker 7 (05:34):
Is that something that's coming up in your reporting at all?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Well, the question, kind of Molly, is could it be
any more politicized? They spent quite a bit of time
today talking about how many tweets that Bill Poulti the
Federal Housing Administration, a Federal Housing Agency administrator, has put
out on this something over thirty tweets accusing Cook of
doing something illegal without offering any proof. So it has
(06:00):
become quite politicized already. I think that the biggest question
is going to be whether the President is able to
get rid of her, and that would raise questions on
Wall Street of politicization that haven't quite hit the markets yet,
because I think the traders are basically thinking that the
president will lose if he wins. That's going to raise
(06:21):
an awful lot of questions about how policy is going
to be made going forward.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I do want to talk a little bit about the
economic data that we got earlier today. Before we do that,
I just want to bring everybody some flavor and color
about where we are at the US Open right now.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You might hear a.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Little bit of a Ruckustan see behind us a lot
of fans. It's because Carlos Alcoraz, who just won in
straight sets, is sitting just a couple of feet from.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Us doing interviews with the media here.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So you have a ton of people right behind us
trying to make Carlos Carlo's attention, and you.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Know, we just want to talk about economic data. That's
what we're trying to do.
Speaker 7 (06:58):
Do you think Carlos wants to come on to talk
about the PC reports.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
That I think he was.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I don't think he was paying any attention to the
PC report before his match.
Speaker 7 (07:05):
Molly, you don't think so.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
No, you were, though, So let's get.
Speaker 7 (07:08):
Well, that's what I would want to know.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
I want to know exactly what happened to inflation of
the month of July before I take to Arthur ash Stadium.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Okay, well, let's bring in much McKee on that. In
the last few minutes that we have, Mike, the data
that we got bang in line with expectations today.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Any surprises in there.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
The surprises came on the income and spending side, on
on the price side. It's not really any any kind
of surprise anymore for the PCE, because the data come
in and other releases and economists can pull them out
and put them together before we even get the numbers.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
A bit of us increase in.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
The core number on a year over year basis to
two point nine percent, But whether that leads the Fed
to do one thing or another kind of depends on
whether you already think the Fed should be cutting rates
or on hold. It's certainly not near two percent, but
the month over month number went down a tenth, and
so if you're thinking you can cutying, well, maybe we're
(08:01):
seeing a little bit of restraint in inflation. The income
numbers came in strong though. In terms of wages and salaries,
they were up six tenths of a percent after a
one tenth rise in June, so Americans had more money
and they did spend.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
You can also.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Parse that by saying a lot of that was on automobiles,
as people try to buy cars ahead of the price increases.
The automakers have promised for the new models coming out soon,
so it doesn't really lead us anywhere. I haven't looked
deep enough into the PCE inflation numbers though to see
what the price of haircuts did.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Maybe you can ask Carlos stat.
Speaker 7 (08:43):
I was gonna say that.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I always brings it home.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Mike McKee, Lieberg News International Economics and Policy correspondent. He
is on top of it all, whether it's everything from
the FED or what they are talking about here at
the US Open, which yes, does include Carlos Alcaraz's new haircut,
which way we learned earlier this week it was.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Sort of a mistake.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
Yeah, I need to still like read up fully on this.
It was something that like did his brother end up?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I don't know who did it, but you know, he said,
sometimes you just have to start fresh, and that's what
he did here and Tiofo.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Gave him a pretty hard Yeah.
Speaker 7 (09:14):
All good friends there. I mean the hilarious part.
Speaker 6 (09:16):
If you've seen anything in Carlos's matches, he kind of
puts his hand through said it's like, oh wait, I
don't know, it's kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
More from Bloomberg Business Week Daily coming up after this.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Catch
us live weekday afternoons from two to five ees during
this listen on Applecarplay and Android Otto with the Bloomberg
Business app, or watch us live on YouTube on.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
This last trading day of September? Can you believe August August?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Excuse me?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Right, yeah, it feels like September with the decline that
we're seeing today.
Speaker 7 (09:55):
Oh my god.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
Yeah. Rough, I mean we were just we just had
a record yesterday. Fibes today not as good.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah, yeah, really getting hit.
Speaker 7 (10:03):
I mean you think it was the PC data?
Speaker 3 (10:05):
No, I don't.
Speaker 7 (10:06):
I mean, because it wasn't that. Yeah, it was in
line with expectations. Just I don't know.
Speaker 6 (10:09):
Maybe I had to give up some gains after yesterday's rally.
But I mean, our next guy's going to tell us
all about is. We're going to bring her in right now.
We have Jillian Wolf coming in to join us. She's
global equity strategist with Bloomberg Intelligence in the Interactive broker studio.
Speaker 7 (10:22):
Hey, Jillian, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 8 (10:24):
Thank you. I hope you guys are enjoying the time
at the US Open today. I'm a bit jealous.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Oh, we are having a lot of fun, but we
had to come back to talk to you because we
have the clothes coming up. Tell us about what the
trade of all today and what we're looking into going
into four o'clock.
Speaker 8 (10:41):
Sure, I mean we're officially at the end of the
two Q earning season right now, with Nvidia having reported.
I think what was a lot of providing a lot
of fuel for this rally was that earnings expectations going
into the second quarter were actually quite low, and it
provided a really easy environment for companies to be because
the brunt of the tariff impact was expected to start
(11:03):
hitting now. But in reality, what we saw was that
tariffs were not actually that influential on these two Q
earnings reports. So what we saw were massive beats which
really helped drive the equity rally. But I think now
investors are starting to look forward to how tariffs might
start to hurt those three Q and four Q earnings
and we might not get as much fuel from those
(11:24):
easy beats that we've been getting over the past few weeks.
So a little bit of lowering momentum on that side.
We've also just seen a lot of profit taking in
the megacap stocks, like you said in video, down still
quite a bit today. Tech broadly still looks strong for US.
We posted a note last week that on median tech
was holding up. But because the indices are so heavily
concentrated in these large names, it distorts the picture a
(11:47):
little bit. If you have a few names going down,
particularly in Vidia being one of them, you're going to
start to think, oh, tech must be collapsing everywhere because
it's driving all of these indices so heavily.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
On the tariff side of things, Why is it taking,
in your view, relatively and what I would consider a
long time to hit earnings or to at least hit
the stock prices of these companies. I thought the market
looked forward and you know, there's nothing clear in ahead
of us than having to pay tariffs.
Speaker 8 (12:20):
It's a great question, and I have a twofold answer.
The first is that a lot of companies did stock
up on inventories bracing for these tariffs, So there is
a little bit of a stockpile now where they're not
necessarily going to have to pay tariffs on imports that
are going to hit. We did have this ninety day
pause on what the worst of the tariffs were going
to be. I think what we're seeing in the market
(12:40):
is a little bit of relief that what was supposed
to play out on a liberation Day doesn't appear to
be happening. Even though the tariff situation were worse off
right now than we were, let's say, in September, because
we aren't as bad as analysts had it originally expected
in April. They're ultimately seeing this as good news and
positive upside the fact that company margins didn't just collapse
(13:02):
in two Q, which is what some of the concerns
going into this quarter were. But we definitely have to
keep an eye out on three Q and four Q.
There's definitely notes coming out on earnings calls, and companies
are still not entirely sure. I just think we avoided
the worst case scenario, so markets are breathing a little
bit of a sigh of relief, but definitely on trepidacious
terms right now.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
So, Julian, you're saying here, the tariffs haven't been that
impactful to earning so far. Ninety nine percent of the
year I write about the US economy, one percent I
write about Tennis. But when we're trying about the economy,
it hasn't really impacted inflation that much either. We got
the PCEE data for July this morning. Goods prices were
actually down in the month and services, kind of mirroring
(13:44):
what we saw on the CPI earlier in August. That's
where it seems like inflation is really pecking back up again.
And if I were a stock investor, I feel like
that has got to be.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
A much scarier omen for me.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
You know, this isn't the tariff driven goods inflation that
we had the luxury of thinking that might look through.
Speaker 7 (14:01):
This is something that is perhaps more persistent.
Speaker 8 (14:05):
It's persistent, and it's supply side. We published a note
and I had mentioned it last week that we were
already seeing producer prices accelerate faster than consumer prices, and
that's really a red flag for us because it means
that companies are struggling to push these costs onto the consumer,
and it also begs the question of how much rate
cuts could actually help at this point. If the inflation
(14:27):
is coming from the supply side of things, rate cuts
can't really do as much. They can help release the
burden on consumers, but if things just become more expensive
for companies themselves to purchase, they're going to have to
pass that on to the consumer ultimately. And they make
it some relief from those cuts. They may pay less
interest on their car payments or their credit card payments,
(14:48):
which could allow them to pay more for goods. But
the idea that we're not going to see inflation flow
through eventually, I think is a little bit misguided. We're
just starting to see companies start to pay more for
these inputs, and it is going to take some time
to gradually flow through. Remember, we were on a ninety
day tear off pause that technically did restart just this month,
so we're only going to start to see this data
(15:09):
really hit the economy in the coming weeks and months. Now.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Hey, Jillian, before we let you go, you and the
team out with a note overnight about value having a
banner year in Europe. What's the outlook in your view
on value stocks over in Europe.
Speaker 8 (15:26):
It's interesting because we haven't seen that same thesis play
out in the US. Value stocks in Europe are really
beat up, but they've been beat up for a long time,
and a lot of this is now just people buying
what they think could be a solid deal because it's
just so cheap in the US. Even the cheapest stocks
aren't that cheap by comparison. They're may be cheaper compared
(15:46):
to some of the highest mag seven stocks, but cheap
in the US doesn't actually need cheap relative to the globe.
So we're definitely seeing investors maybe moving a little bit
more towards safety, trying to pick up on some of
these beat up stocks in Europe, and we're seeing value
do quite well as a result.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Gillian Wolf on the Bloomberg Intelligence ATM Equity Strategist over there,
have a great weekend, Have a great long weekend. Appreciate
you joining us from the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
This is the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Listen live
each weekday starting at two pm Eastern on Applecarplay and
Android Auto with the Bloomberg business app. You can also
listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station.
Just say Alexa play Bloomberg.
Speaker 7 (16:32):
Eleven thirty.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
We are at the US Open just outside of Arthur
Ash Stadium in Flushing, New York. We're surrounded by about
seventy thousand of our closest friends and also by somebody
who joins us on site every year during our US
Open broadcast. Kirsten Coreo is back with us. She's Chief
Commercial Officer of the USTA, the owner and operator of
the US Open. What does she do well, If it
(16:54):
has to do with money and bringing it in, that's
what she does. Think of course, ticket sales, hospital global metiaites, sponsorships,
digital strategy, business intelligence and more. Kirsten, how are you
good to see you? It's once a year we get
to see you.
Speaker 7 (17:10):
It's great to see you.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
It's the busiest time of the year for you.
Speaker 7 (17:12):
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Well, it's the time truly where you guys all live
in a hotel do right near here because you are
here twenty four to seven actually not watching any tennis
because you're working the whole time.
Speaker 7 (17:23):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
So let's talk a little bit about how.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
The revenue generation is looking for the year. I mean,
three years in a row of record breaking attendance. What
can you tell us about just the business this year
going into the US.
Speaker 9 (17:33):
Open, Well, I can tell you said, three years in
a row of record breaking attendance, this should be a
fourth year in a row of record breaking not just attendance,
but over lots of different areas that we measure. So attendance, yes,
viewership across through the first round, we're up thirty six
percent on our domestic ESPN, ABC, ESPN two coverage, which
is amazing. We actually had the second highest viewership and
(17:58):
it's in Italy's of tennis through the first round, amazing,
a lot of great Italian players. Merchandise is up double
digit percentages, ticket sales up double digit percentages. And with
the opening Sunday start to the men's and women's main
draw singles play and men's and women's doubles main draw play,
we're up double digit percentages and going to like break
(18:20):
records and ticket sales and all the per caps related
to that as well.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
So it sounds like things are obviously moving in the
right direction on the attendance side of things. I'm curious
about the balance between the criticisms last year about there
were too many people here because everybody wanted to be here.
How did you balance that this year with a different
strategy when it came to ticket sales in terms of
like tapping certain ticket sales at different times to make
(18:46):
it so people could actually get around here.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 9 (18:49):
I mean, we never want to restrict people that want
to come from being able to come, But at the
same time, we want to ensure that the people who
are here on site and have you know, bought their
tickets and paid good money and looked forward to planning
to being here on site have a phenomenal fan experience.
So we did make the hard decision to reduce the
amount of tickets that we would sell over this very
busy Labor Day weekend. So yesterday was the first day
(19:10):
of that implementation. We did start to implement some changes
to better manage crowds through the thoroughfares, better manage how
we're spreading out competition and content across the different courts,
practice courts and competition courts, so that people have more
options around the site to experience the different content and
enjoy it in a more free flowing way and not
(19:32):
in a crushed way alongside seventy thousand of their friends.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
Well, just to recognize what you had said before, Kirsen
about spreading out the tennis, and also to make sure
that people are getting good value for their money because
it is expensive to come here.
Speaker 7 (19:45):
Something I think that a lot of people.
Speaker 6 (19:47):
Who I've talked to have said is about having that
Sunday start. Having the first round played now over three
days instead of two, it is technically diluting the value
of the ticket now.
Speaker 9 (19:57):
No, I don't know how much tennis you watch simultaneously,
but it's not usually.
Speaker 7 (20:01):
More than one match.
Speaker 9 (20:03):
Actually spreading out the first round over three days has
really helped spread the content out in a way that's
actually offered more content to more people so that they
can see more. It's been easier on the athletes in
many ways. It's hard to spread out the main job
singles in first round in two days. Three rounds sorry,
three days is what you find in other Grand Slams
(20:25):
as well.
Speaker 7 (20:25):
It's quite common.
Speaker 9 (20:27):
So in our case, it gave more content across the
courts in a way that didn't crush the courts across
two days. Now you can spread it across three days
and seventy thousand more people can experience it.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
How should we think about the revenue breakdown of the
US Open ticket sales versus concessions versus sponsorships. I mean
on the sponsorship side, everybody's here and it's also all
the familiar names that have been with the US Open
for decades at this point, what's the revenue breakdown?
Speaker 9 (20:53):
So it's traditional in the way that every other live
event property, whether it's sports or entertainment, is tickets, sales, hospitality, sponsorship.
Media rights is a huge portion of how this event
is fueled. So not every event gets to sell their
media rights and is responsible for that. We are like
the other Grand Slams.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
And you do the negotiations for it.
Speaker 9 (21:15):
We should know we do, and we work with our
partners at IMG to help us worldwide.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So what about it?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Sorry, I just want to push on this a little
bit with in terms of revenue, Like, if we think
about it from the perspective of okay, ticket sales bring
in this much revenue. Does is that the most in
terms of overall revenue for the US Open? Or does
sponsorships bring in.
Speaker 9 (21:35):
It is ticket sales, ticket sales and premium leads.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Okay, so that's still the majority of where the revenue
comes from.
Speaker 6 (21:40):
Okay, right, And keeping with it on the ticket sales,
I mean, this is something that you know, as we've said,
it is an expensive experience.
Speaker 7 (21:48):
It is a premium experience.
Speaker 6 (21:49):
You know you are getting certainly I would say a
lot for what you pay for to come here. But
it is something that people do talk about that they
get frustrated with how much how quickly the sales go
over to the resale market.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
Is that something that is in your control whatsoever?
Speaker 6 (22:04):
I mean, to be able to sell more tickets at
face value before the resale market takes over and jocks
them up to however many multiples of the face.
Speaker 7 (22:11):
Value per Well, there's two key factors at work here.
Speaker 9 (22:16):
One is the overwhelming demand that we experience for the event.
Two is the fact that we are in New York
State and resale cannot be restricted legally, so we are
unable to restrict how many tickets are resold, at what
price points they're resold, and how people choose to resale
tickets that they've purchased. So on the demand side, we
(22:36):
renew the equivalent of full season tickets at about ninety
nine percent every year, and we did work hard to
make more volume of tickets available, both through the Sunday
start as well as for just ensuring that we had
as much inventory as possible. For the American Express individual
ticket presale, again sold out of that inventory within a
couple of hours, and again in the public end sal
(23:00):
same thing, sold out of the inventory within a couple
of hours, and at which point in time people can
choose to resell tickets if that's their if that's their desire.
I think it's important to note that our individual ticket
price average sales price point across all the events, all
of the sessions, all of the venues, is one hundred
and ninety dollars the average resale ticket price. It's over
(23:22):
five hundred that it's sold for. So when people may
may say, oh, it's an expensive ticket, unfortunately for us,
we have to bear the brunt of that perception. But
it's not the ticket price that we set.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
Yeah, we're just if you guys are just joining us here.
We've got Carson Coreo with us.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
She's chief commercial officer at the USTA, talking all things
about revenue ticket generation, all of that that's going on
here at the US Open. So, Kison, you've brought up
something interesting. I actually didn't know about this. That this
has to do with maybe state rules about the resale
market and what can can't be restricted.
Speaker 7 (23:55):
Is that something then that you guys, you.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Know, obviously as a huge event spoor here in the
state of New York. Is that something that you try
to work with the state on to say, like, hey,
you know, we want to you know, maybe change the
rules in the state.
Speaker 7 (24:08):
Is there any way that we can work on this?
Speaker 9 (24:10):
Listen, We're happy to talk to any state body, legislative body,
or representative at any point in time. Our intention is
to ensure that fans have an opportunity to come here
and experience the US Open and tennis are inspired to
play tennis and have an opportunity to come many days
if they wish to, to the extent that the state
wants to work with us to offer more accessibility beyond
(24:30):
the six days of the free open to the public
fan week. We're always happy to have a conversation.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
But does it also tell you that you could be
charging more for tickets? I know that's like not a
popular thing. For me to say. But if you think
about it, the delta between the average ticket price of
a resale and the average ticket price where you're saying,
there's a lot of money right from the table there,
So it seems like the willingness to pay is a
lot higher than you guys are marketing it for right now.
Speaker 9 (24:54):
It is, but it's a balance, you know, It's a
balance between wanting to retain accessibility or for all types
of fans and at the same time being an event
that has an obligation to deliver net proceeds back to
growing the game. So it is a balance. I don't
think you'll ever see us go to the highest end
of the market demand on a regular grounds pass, but
(25:17):
in some cases we will sell that high end experience
to the person who's willing to invest that much.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
Well, the high end experience isn't a lot of that.
What's going to be part of this new renovation in ash, right,
that's going to be bringing more luxury suites also just thousands.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
Of more tickets in general to the stadium.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
Can you tell us a little bit more about this
renovation that's in progress in twenty twenty seven, right, That's
what it's going to be ready.
Speaker 9 (25:39):
So Arthur ash Stadium amazing stadium, largest tennis stadium in
the world, purpose built for nineteen ninety seven. We've come
a long way since ninety seven, and fan expectations have
evolved and changed, and we need to evolve and change
to meet where they are and what they expect for
the next generation.
Speaker 7 (25:54):
So the transformation will see the addition.
Speaker 9 (25:57):
Of two thousand new incremental court side seats. We have
the smallest lower bowl in all of North America by proportion, perhaps,
and we have more way more demand for those than
we can satisfy. So we're looking to be able to
offer more accessibility both for fans that want that court
side seed as well as fans that have been longtime
subscribers in the next level and the lowge level. That
(26:19):
number one on their wish list is the ability to upgrade.
As I mentioned with the ninety eight or ninety nine
percent renewal rate, they don't have a lot of options,
but we will have suites moving up by about twelve feet,
same number of suites, but they will be larger with
more square footage, more fixed seats for people to enjoy
and entertain guests. And that's been long on the feedback
lists from our suitet clients.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
How do you guys at the USDA talk about influencers
and the way that they're part of the us OPEN now?
I feel like the last few years it's just exploded
in terms of social media.
Speaker 9 (26:48):
Yes, yes, influencers, content creators.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Are they part of officially part of media here now?
Speaker 9 (26:53):
So there is something called non media credential that we've
trialed this year for a elect group of individuals that
may positively be able to report on and influence audiences
to be interested in tennis. Our mission is all about
growing the game and inspiring people to play more often
so to the extent that there are influencers content creators
that can help us leverage the us OPEN to do that,
(27:16):
we're really interested in exploring it. That said, you know,
it's the wild West out there. It's really challenging to
try to harness that passion, I will say, in a
way that's productive for the entire ecosystem and protects our
partners who have been with us.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
For so long here.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Well, I do feel like I even see them outside
of the gates at this point. I mean, the popularity
is just so huge. Kirsten Koreo. Always good. When you
join us, it means we're at the US Open. We
love being here and we love chatting with you. Kuston Coreo.
She's chief Commercial Officer of the USTA and she might
get to watch a little tennis. Look for her in
the box next to the celebrities later in the tournament.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily. Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
More from Bloomberg Business Week Daily coming up after this.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Catch
us live weekday afternoons from two to five these during
listen on Apple Karplay and Android Otto with the Bloomberg
Business app, or watch us live on YouTube.
Speaker 7 (28:15):
We're going to bring it now.
Speaker 6 (28:16):
Eric Bouderak, he is director of US Open Player Relations
at the USTA, also a former professional player known for
your doubles pro US.
Speaker 7 (28:24):
Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
Eric, great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Right here outside of Arthur Ash. How's the tournament been
for you so far? It's only probably the crazy three
weeks of your life, it is.
Speaker 11 (28:32):
It's been busy, and with it with the fan week
and all the events we have going on the front end,
it feels like a full month. But again, what better
place to be if you love tennis. This is the
center of it all, So it couldn't be.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Better explain to everybody what it means to be the
director of player relations here.
Speaker 11 (28:50):
Yeah, so I joined this role about nine years ago,
straight off the court, literally ended my career in Core
ten right behind us and it was in the office,
you know, a month later. Originally the direction was, you know,
to improve the kind of relationship with players, understand all
their needs and how can they have a better experience
at the US Open. I think that has evolved over
the last nine years to you know, building new events
things like we were seen in Fan Week with Stars
(29:11):
of the Open, the Mixed Devils tournament, but really just
everything that the players touch, which is so many things,
right from the transportation and the hotels to the prize
money and all the everything that goes on with the
biggest events they participate.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
So you want to make sure everything goes well so
they can perform their best out there on the court
and have a good experience. Can you give us the
perspective from somebody who was on tour and kind of
like what goes into it? I think a lot of
people romanticize the idea of being a pro athlete, but
then you really think about it, especially in tennis, and
you think to yourself, wait a second, this means you're
on the road all the time. You're never sleeping in
(29:45):
your own bed. You're spending a lot of time on
airplanes yep, and.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
Spending a lot of money on all the staff that
travels with you.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
It's very expensive, and if you're not one of those
household names, it's not easy to make ends meet.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
It is.
Speaker 10 (29:58):
So there's a lot to that equation.
Speaker 11 (30:01):
I mean, first the financial side, yes, right, you're you're
traveling the world, and how you need to travel depends
very much on kind of what level sport you're at, right,
And I equate a lot of it to baseball, sort
of single A, double A, triple A. The single A level,
you know, everyone's just trying to survive, right, There's not
a lot of money coming in, not a lot of
things are being covered. As you get to the double
A level or the Challenger tour, you start to get
(30:22):
where there's free hotels, you start to get meals covered,
and the checks start to improve a little bit.
Speaker 10 (30:27):
Once you get to the ATP tour, here.
Speaker 11 (30:29):
You know, life is good, right, and you know you
see first round prize money one hundred and ten thousand dollars. Okay,
now we can start to really bank on some real income. Yes,
there's huge fluctuation within your checks week to week, but
you know that, Look, if I'm going to perform a
certain level over the course of the year, I'm going
to have, you know, a good enough income to kind
of cover my needs. Now, if you want to expand
to a large team, then that can be substantially more.
(30:51):
But you know, component one is the financial is you
really have to manage that because you're an independent contractor.
You know, I was with a spreadsheet, you know, trying
to figure out how much I was spent each week
or really a month, and trying to survive. But you
also don't know your earnings, right. You could make one
hundred thousand dollars one week, or you could be in
the red if you had a small check and a
team traveling with you.
Speaker 10 (31:10):
So those swings are real.
Speaker 11 (31:12):
But the lifestyle is probably as much the real part,
which is I tell people all the time, it's the
most unbelievable life. You know, my spring for ten years
was you know, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome, Madrid, Paris, London.
I'm naming the best six cities in the world, and
we did them, you know, over the course of two
months in the spring.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
It's amazing.
Speaker 11 (31:29):
But you've got to be comfortable two hundred and fifty
days a year in a hotel. You're living out of
two to three suitcases, so it's it's a huge adjustment
for a lot of people. If you like the comforts
of your own home, you know, this may not be
the best career for you, but it is a fascinating
experience to see the world. You get backstage passes to
see all the best stuff that these cities have to offer.
Speaker 10 (31:50):
So it's a pretty wonderful experience at all the.
Speaker 7 (31:52):
Same time, totally imagine.
Speaker 6 (31:53):
I mean, I'm thinking back to when you just said
Monti Carlo. There, this might have been my peak tennis
viewing experience when.
Speaker 7 (31:58):
I study abroad.
Speaker 6 (32:00):
Semester, I met up with my mixed doubles partner in
Monte Carlo and we went to see the semifinals of
the twenty fifteen tournament, Djokovic Nadal playing each other. Right there,
I mean, this was just just.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
After you were tired, right that was year after your
retired sixteen.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Yeah, so you're talking about so much of this though
from like the doubles perspective. I think that's what's so
what a lot of people don't get to hear about
because you see, you know, of course, how the sing
A lot of the top singles players. I mean, these
are people who have what ten tens of millions of
dollars in contra and endorsements and money. How much of
that equation is happening on the double side? You know,
they is Nike and all these other sponsors. Are they
(32:38):
paying doubles players that much to wear their kids?
Speaker 10 (32:40):
No?
Speaker 11 (32:41):
I would say that in the double side, if you
know roughly seventy five percent of your earnings are coming
from encore, right you might.
Speaker 6 (32:48):
That's got to be the total opposite of the single
side of the equation.
Speaker 10 (32:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (32:51):
I don't have the exact numbers, but sure, right, I
think in the in the vicinity, absolutely so. I think
prize money is the main driver for the majority of
the tour as you get to the very top, you know,
the sponsorships and the off court earnings we will trump that.
Speaker 10 (33:04):
But yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
So, coming back to that, because I heard somebody told
me that you were the genius behind the mixed doubles
tournament this year.
Speaker 7 (33:11):
I would think a lot of you then.
Speaker 6 (33:13):
Would want to have this you know, big prize pool,
you know fivefold what it was in the previous year.
Speaker 7 (33:19):
Have the real doubles players get access to that?
Speaker 11 (33:21):
Yeah, No, was this was this was a tough one,
right And I obviously received a lot of phone calls
from from close friends on tour that again, this was,
this was an event that given the way that we
built it up, they weren't the majority of them weren't
going to be able to play in it, and we
had those discussions. I think the first up we wanted
to do was make sure they were financially whole. So
what we did with our increases this year, we took
our regular scheduled increases in doubles, which were substantial. Then
(33:44):
we took all of the money from mixed doubles from
last year it was won by doubles players and put
that in on top.
Speaker 10 (33:49):
Of the other increases.
Speaker 11 (33:50):
So I think a lot of the doubles rounds this
year were up thirty percent from last year, so there's
huge earnings for the double side. I think the other
thing we wanted to do, which was hard for some
of the double player to hear, but we want to
shine a light on doubles like never before. And as
the doubles mixed doubles are being played with doubles players,
there wasn't a lot of people tuning in. ESPN wasn't
really airing it, Fans weren't turning up for the matches
and droves right. What we were able to do was
(34:12):
to take mixed doubles something that no one talked about,
no one was really watching, put it in Arthur Rash
Stadium with twenty four thousand people. So I think that
step has been incredible. We're super happy with it. You know,
where we go forward now is to have a lot
of conversations and say, okay, what's next, right, you know,
how do we grow this to make this something bigger?
Do we want to adjust the dates, we adjust the
format to, we adjust the entry policies, and that'll be
(34:33):
you know, the next couple of months of analysis. But
for step one, I think it was it was a
big success.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
We're speaking right now with Eric Buerak, he's heads up
player relations here at the USTA where he is a
director we're at the US Open. It is Tim's Kinnebeck
and Molly Smith. She's Bloomberg News economics editor.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Eric. I want to talk a.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Little bit about what the youth program looks like right
now in the US. You grew up playing in the US,
You played college in the US. What do you hear
from the about the difference is now in terms of
interest among young American kids and access that they have
to tennis, because that is the.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Whole purpose of the USTA. Here can you quantify for
that compared to when you were growing up?
Speaker 11 (35:12):
You know, I I don't work on that side of
the business. I'm not going to rattle off the numbers
off the edge of my tongue. I know we are
in I think at least five years now consecutive growth
with participation which was looking good, which is looking good,
which is great. You know, there was sort of a
COVID bump that we had because it was one of
the first sports you could really come back and play.
Speaker 10 (35:27):
I think we were.
Speaker 11 (35:28):
Maybe concerned that that was only a COVID bump. But
the growth has sustained, which is which is really encouraging.
I think we're seeing lots of growth in you know,
different economic diverse environments, which is great.
Speaker 10 (35:39):
Youth participation is up, which is good.
Speaker 11 (35:42):
I think the US Open, I mean, we look at
this not only is the revenue from this event going
into the USTA, which has the mission to grow the game,
but we look at this as a three week festival
to showcase the sport to our country, you know, motivate
more people to go out and play the sport.
Speaker 10 (35:56):
And so everything we do is from a lens of Yeah,
we want.
Speaker 11 (35:58):
To earn money so we can put the money into
the sport, but let's also excite people about playing back
to the mixed doubles people.
Speaker 7 (36:04):
Sorry, we'll be going to hear today.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Sorry as the Bloomberg News following on Eric for those listening,
he's still okay.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
I'm good.
Speaker 11 (36:13):
On the waiver Before you got here, We're all said,
I'm all right. But we knew that people love playing
mixed doubles. We wanted to We want everyone to see
that so they go to their clubs and play mixed doubles,
you know.
Speaker 10 (36:21):
So that was one of the reasons. So we're looking
at it through that lens as well.
Speaker 7 (36:23):
Totally.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
I mean that's what I played in college. I played
for the club team. It's Syracuse, but you played actually
real college tennis, and I want to hear about what
that transition is like to go from college to the
pro circuit, because it's tennis is a bit unique in
that way. It's not the way of a traditional feeder
the way other sports are, you know, the NBA and
playing in a professional football as well. That like college
(36:45):
is such a huge driver of where your career is,
it's not really the same in tennis. So can you
talk about that transition and if more people are seeing
college is maybe a gateway.
Speaker 7 (36:53):
To the pro tour?
Speaker 11 (36:54):
So I think, I mean, I played Division II college tennis,
which is really not.
Speaker 10 (36:57):
The route to pro tennis.
Speaker 11 (36:58):
I don't think anyone really did it before me, and
no one did it afterwards, so that I wouldn't I
wouldn't recommend that route.
Speaker 10 (37:02):
I somehow found the loophole.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
I played D three and I never turned pro.
Speaker 10 (37:06):
See that gain.
Speaker 11 (37:07):
Yeah, A lot of people call me and asked me,
and it's a kind of a crazy story I worked out.
So anyway, But if we focus on the Division IE level,
which is really you know, the reality of a pipeline
into the pros, I think through a couple of things. One,
the college life has become more and more appealing to
players who need those years to train and get better.
Speaker 10 (37:25):
So those you know you can you.
Speaker 11 (37:26):
Can train from eighteen to twenty two, have all your
expenses covered at a really high level, and especially in
the men's side, where you develop a little bit later
in life, right, it's more likely to kind of give
you that time to really go off on the tour.
Speaker 10 (37:36):
Number Two, with.
Speaker 11 (37:37):
The nil you know, now these players can actually not
only get a free education, but they can earn some money,
build up a little bit of a net worth to
go out on tour and have some savings to take
that money on tour. I mean kem Nory playing Djokovic tonight,
he's straight out of TCU. I mean not just on
the men's sides, but we're seeing women Emmin Nvara play
college tennis.
Speaker 10 (37:56):
Peyton Stearns played college tennis.
Speaker 11 (37:57):
So there's a lot of players coming off college tennis
to play professionally in.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
These days, and like it was even twenty thirty years ago,
a lot of players coming from outside of the US
to the US to play D One. Do you think
the nil thing is going to make it even more
so that you know, the next Carlos Alparez skips going
right pro and comes to the US and plays college.
Speaker 11 (38:15):
Maybe I don't think that Alcarez will skip, but the
cam Norri's.
Speaker 10 (38:19):
Of the world will will continue to skip.
Speaker 11 (38:21):
If you're seventeen years old and you're winning, you know Internet,
you know, with Grand Slam Junior Championships, and you know
you're still going to the IMGs of the world are
signing you and Nike wants you, you're going pro. There's
there's too much opportunity for that group. The ones just
below that who don't have huge contracts being offered to them,
those are the ones that are going to go to college.
They're going to take those nil deals and then they're
going to hopefully go to the tour, use it as
(38:42):
a kind of a training ground to get ready for
the tour.
Speaker 6 (38:44):
Yeah, there's just so much to be played for, especially
on the junior circuit.
Speaker 7 (38:47):
There.
Speaker 6 (38:47):
So, Eric Budurak, thanks so much for joining us here.
This is Eric Mudak. He's the jacker of US Open
Player Relations at the USCA.
Speaker 7 (38:54):
Thanks again for coming with us here.
Speaker 10 (38:55):
You guys from the set appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (38:57):
So we're still sitting here outside of Arthurs Stadium, Tim,
you're gonna stay for.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
The night session tonight, you know, I'll stay for a
little bit of it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
I don't think I'm in the state untill like one am.
Like you and I did a couple of years ago, though. Yeah,
that was that was till two am.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
That was crazy. Yeah, that was crazy. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
This is the Bloomberg Business Weekdaily podcast, available on Apple, Spotify,
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afternoons from two to five pm Eastern on Bloomberg dot com,
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(39:36):
and always on the Bloomberg terminal
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