Compensation surged at the U.S. Tennis Association by 18 percent to $37.6 million in 2007, according to the group’s most recently released tax return. The number of USTA employees also rose during the year, up 14 percent to 293.
With the increase, compensation at the USTA over a four-year period starting in 2004 rose 60 percent. Growth in revenue more than made up for the rise in pay over that time, said USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier, who added that the group began bringing business functions in-house after 1999, when the organization posted a financial loss.
Tax documents also showed the Open
Series losing $1.6M in 2007, though it
broke even in 2008, the USTA says.
The only disclosed salaries in the most-recent filing are for the executive director position. Gordon Smith, the current USTA executive director, earned $80,769 in 2007 for his less-than 2 months on the job, according to the filing. His predecessor, Lee Hamilton, earned $794,114 during the year.
The tax return also, however, discloses that the U.S. Open Series, the branded circuit of summer hard-court events organized by the USTA, lost the group $1.6 million in 2007. In 2008, the series broke even, Widmaier said, because of cost-cutting and the signing of Olympus as a title sponsor.
In addition, the return shows the USTA wrote down the value of its 25 percent stake in the Los Angeles women’s event, which is owned by AEG. The USTA pegged that investment’s book value, defined as the acquisition cost minus depreciation, at $948,999 at the end of 2007. That’s 15 percent less than the year before, a reflection, Widmaier said, of lower ticket sales and an unsettled title sponsor situation that year.
The value of the USTA’s stakes in Tennis Channel and Pilot Pen Tennis remained consistent at $2 million and $500,000, respectively.
The employee head count increase was due in part to the group bringing information technology in-house, Widmaier said. The rise in compensation costs in 2007 was also driven by the addition of a chief legal officer and chief financial officer, inflation, and increases in the accounting department.
