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NASDAQ-100 Open Founder &
Chair Buchholz (l) With Federer |
When it comes to tennis, there isn’t much BUTCH BUCHHOLZ hasn’t done or seen. A former player, he’s also been a fundraiser, administrator, marketer, salesman and cheerleader for the sport. A founding member of the first men’s players association, he helped institute the first pension plan for players. Buchholz was Commissioner of World Team Tennis (‘77-78) and Exec Dir of the ATP (‘81-82). In ‘01, he started First Serve, an inner-city program that teaches tennis, life and classroom skills to youngsters. A year ago, he was inducted into the Int'l Tennis HOF. Buchholz is the Founder (in ‘85) and Chair of the NASDAQ-100 Open, which began its 22nd season of play this week in Key Biscayne. He spoke recently to SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.
| FAVORITES |
| Piece of music: I’m a ’60s person, so I would say the music of the Beatles as well as FRANK SINATRA and BARBRA STREISAND. |
| Vacation spot: Aspen. |
| Author: ROBERT RUARK. |
| Quote: TEDDY ROOSEVELT’s “The Man in the Arena.” |
| Movie: “Dances With Wolves.” |
| Last book read: “Younger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You’re 80 and Beyond.” |
| Pet peeve: Negativity. |
| Greatest Extravagance: Too much golf. |
| SHORT QUESTIONS |
| Management philosophy: If you have good people, let them do their jobs. |
| Best advice you received: Don’t quit. |
| Most influential person: My parents. |
| Most creative accomplishment: Getting the men and women together and creating this event, the NASDAQ-100 Open, and making it work. |
| Best player: ROD LAVER. |
| Greatest competitor: Laver, PANCHO GONZALEZ, JIMMY CONNORS, CHRIS EVERT, BJORN BORG. You’ve got to put them in the same category. If you’re a world champion at any time, you had to have been a great competitor. |
Q: You were inducted into the Int'l Tennis HOF in ‘05 as a contributor to the sport. What has been your most significant contribution to tennis?
Buchholz: Two things. In my playing days in the 1960s, there was a group (TONY TRABERT, Pancho Gonzalez, PANCHO SEGURA, KEN ROSEWALL, Rod Laver) that fought for open tennis -- when amateurs and pros can play together. Once we turned pro, we weren’t allowed to go back and play the major events again. JACK KRAMER, the father of open tennis, convinced Wimbledon in 1967 to let eight of us play in a tournament. The chairman of the time, HERMAN DAVID, said, “If you fill the stadium in your eight-man tournament, I’ll let you play next year.” I was very proud to be a part of that initiative and of bringing open tennis. That was so long ago that people don’t remember that pros weren’t allowed to play up until 1968. The other thing, my brother and I built a facility and a tournament that is now the fifth-largest prize-winning tournament in the world.
Q: Any regrets?
Buchholz: In my early playing days, I got too involved in the sport. We started the players association, and I think it hurt my tennis. I might question whether I turned pro at the right time. I played grand slam tennis at 17 and turned pro in 1960, and then I didn’t go back again until 1968. I missed maybe having a chance to win a grand slam. On the other hand, I got a great deal of satisfaction out of playing the best players in the world at that time who were pros. I won 33 tournaments over that period. I’m very proud of being a part of that alumni.
Q: You have been called a tennis pioneer. Is there any unchartered or undeveloped territory in the sport?
Buchholz: I’m still pushing for changing our product, and our product, in my opinion, is the best men and best women in the world competing together more than four times [per year]. I believe that’s our best way of competing in the sports entertainment business. I think the sport, particularly the ITF, should look at the Davis Cup format. Maybe it’s time to adjust and change: men and women together. It would be terrific.
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Buchholz Would Like To See More Events
Like NASDAQ-100 Open On Schedule |
Q: Tennis has been criticized as being slow to change. What would you change about the sport?
Buchholz: If I could play tennis god for 24 hours, I would have four or five events like the NASDAQ-100. I would consider having a no-ad scoring system. I would make our telecasts more fan-friendly in terms of being able to have coaches at the end of a set talk to a player. In other words, get the fans involved in what’s going on in the players’ minds. I would also like to see us have more courts wired for TV, so that when there’s a match on the stadium court that isn’t all that interesting, you could move over to another court.
Q: There have been some attempts to become more fan-friendly: blue courts for television and allowing the fans to keep the tennis balls that fly into the stands, for example.
Buchholz: Yes, and this whole new thing with the line-calling system, “Hawk-Eye,” that we’re trying. That’s going to be revolutionary from a player’s point of view. No player wants to go out and lose a match because of a bad call. It might be expensive for tournament directors, but I think it’s something the sport is ready for.
Q: Are you in favor of instant replay?
Buchholz: Very much so.
Q: What in the sport would you not miss if it were eliminated?
Buchholz: Five-set tennis.
Q: Anything new or exciting in tennis in ‘06?
Buchholz: The doubles format has changed. They’ll now be playing an extended tie-breaker in the third set. The players weren’t all excited about that, but it’s very helpful in scheduling. It’s very helpful to be able to put them on show courts, which has been difficult to do in the past. I think it’s going to elevate the interest in doubles.
Q: What is there to look for among the individual players?
Buchholz: I think [ROGER] FEDERER is going to be challenged by [RAFAEL] NADAL, which is going to be interesting. I also think Federer has a chance to win the grand slam.
Q: You have been around tennis since you won your first tournament at age 7. What has been the major development in the sport since you began playing?
Buchholz: I can remember when we started our first players association and BARRY MACKAY saying someday there’s going to be a $100,000 tournament. This was in, like, 1965 or ’66. The U.S. Open now is almost $14[M]. Tennis is a big business. The players are stars. That wasn’t always the case. Also, women’s tennis has gotten so much better, with MARTINA [NAVRATILOVA] and Chrissie [Evert] kicking it off. When people go to a pro tennis tournament, men or women, the product they see today is the best product our sport has ever produced. The athletes are bigger, stronger, better, and in better shape.
Q: MCENROE, Connors, Borg, LENDL vs. today’s stars. What is the difference?
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Buchholz Says Today’s Players
Like Nadal Are Better Athletes |
Buchholz: I think these kids today are better athletes. I shouldn’t say that. Borg is the best clay-court player that’s every played. [PETE] SAMPRAS had the best serve the game has ever seen. [ANDRE] AGASSI has the best return serve. I think the other thing that’s very significant is that it’s much harder to win a tennis tournament today than it was just five years ago. There are so many good players. We used to have to look to see who we were going to play in the round of 32, 16, quarterfinals. These guys now have to worry about who they’re going to play in the first round. So, the quality is just so much better.
Q: What’s the biggest challenge facing tennis?
Buchholz: Getting everybody in the sport to work together. The sport has been so fractured. But I believe the two executives, the chairman of the ATP, ETIENNE DE VILLIERS, and the head of the WTA, LARRY SCOTT, are doing a really good job of trying to bring people together. The slams need to be more involved in the overall governance of the sport.
Q: Can the schedule be improved? It’s confusing to some fans.
Buchholz: That’s our biggest problem. People don’t know what’s important and what isn’t. There’s a lot of discussion about 2007 and 2008, and I believe it’s time to make some major calendar changes. With that will come some pain. Tennis tournaments aren’t going to disappear. Tennis has got a great asset. It’s a global sport and we need to put all our assets in a basket and manage them collectively.
Q: Larry Scott said the challenge is to make sense of it to the fans.
Buchholz: Yeah. You’ve got a situation where there’s one tournament in San Jose and another somewhere else, and no one really knows what’s important. The Masters Series has moved in that direction, but I think it needs to be elevated even higher. You have only two of the Masters Series that are combined events. And I believe we need to pay more attention to the Far East. China is going to be a huge market. We should be in there, and manage what happens to China and make sure we don’t do to China what we did to Germany, where we had so many events, there was so much going on, that we killed it, killed the market.
Q: According to Scarborough Research, the proportion of U.S. residents who say they are fans of professional tennis has decreased since ‘02 (from 14% to 10.3%). How does tennis attract more fans and convert casual fans into something more passionate?
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Buchholz Feels Increasing Accessibility
To Players Will Help Attract More Fans |
Buchholz: I think it’s a combination of things. We need a little more help from the players. They need to be more accessible. Again, if I were the tennis god for 24 hours, I would open up the locker room. Every sport has an open locker room. We don’t. Consequently, the media looks at tennis and says, you know, “These guys are inaccessible, blah blah blah, the heck with it.” I think the players can be helpful there. You need to change what people perceive is important. They know the four grand slams are important. I think they know NASDAQ is important but they’re not really 100[%] sure. They know it’s a big event. I think you need one of those strategically placed around the world. You’ve got two in the States. You need one in Europe. I think you need one in China and maybe one in Latin America.
Q: You once said, “DAVID STERN would love to have the demographics of tennis on a worldwide basis.” Is that still true?
Buchholz: Absolutely.
Q: Why?
Buchholz: Because tennis is a worldwide sport. Basketball is an Olympic sport. They’re starting to play NBA games in Japan, and I think they might have one in Brazil coming up. They would like to expand. You’ve got the European league, which they’re now starting NBA players in. Same thing with the NFL, which is trying to get Europe, a huge market, into football. Tennis already has that. We just haven’t marketed it. If you put all those assets in a basket and go out there with a good marketing and PR machine, we could achieve that. But there’s not a unified marketing/public relations office for the sport of tennis.
Q: What in the NBA, or in any of the other major sports, for that matter, would tennis love to have? Would it be some of that PR machine?
Buchholz: Absolutely. One person speaks for the NBA. One person speaks for the NFL.
Q: Does tennis need a commissioner?
Buchholz: It would be helpful, but I don’t think it’s mandatory. I do think it’s mandatory that the ATP, WTA, ITF and the slams start to think about marketing the sport and understand that we’re in a competitive sports entertainment business and if we work together, it’s only going to benefit everybody.
