ATP: Hey Becky, are they going to move The Atlanta Open?

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Welcome to the Atlanta Tennis Podcast.

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Every episode is titled "It starts with tennis" and goes from there.

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We talk with coaches, club managers, industry business professionals,

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Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the Atlanta Tennis Podcast, powered by GoTennis!

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where you can also find deals on equipment, apparel, and more.

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In this episode, we talk to Becky Robinson of ChatterHouse Communications,

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the social media management magic behind two ATP events,

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one in Dallas and the other right here in Atlanta.

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Check out AtlantaOpenTennis.com, where single session tickets go on sale Monday, May 15th.

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And if you've been living under a rock, you might not know that Coco Gauff and

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Leylah Fernandez are coming to town for the women's exhibition on July 23rd.

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Have a listen and let us know what you think.

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Tennis being the starting point, whether you're a tennis player or in your case,

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a marketer, you know, somebody actually that's kind of selling the sport.

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I don't know if that's the right phrase.

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Would you say you're selling the sport?

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How would you describe what you do for tennis?

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Yeah, I would say promoting it.

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I mean, I am one of those who want to promote tennis as a sport,

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and get it above some of the sports, some of the sports that do better right now,

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you know, with the whole Netflix show that's helping right now,

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and just for Atlanta for the tournament, you know,

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promoting it obviously locally, but US internationally as well.

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But yeah, I would use the word just, I mean, personally and professionally,

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just a big fan of trying to see what more we can do to get tennis out there, you know.

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Yeah, and you're with Chatterhouse Communications, right?

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So that's what you call yourself, and that means Chatterhouse Communications is tennis promotion,

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or it's much more than that, and tennis is just one of the things you do,

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and I'll do the mention of saying, okay, we're talking with Becky Robinson,

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of Chatterhouse Communications.

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So you're tennis promoter, but that isn't all that Chatterhouse Communication does,

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or is it just tennis all day all the time?

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Correct, it's a big piece of it, but not just tennis.

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I mean, I started the company in 2012 to help start up,

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to like, new to market companies, and got into the tennis world around 2017,

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because I was like, I was doing a lot of IT promotion,

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which is not super exciting, and I'm like, why can I start promoting something that I'd love?

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Love playing, love watching, you know, would love to see it, you know, see what I can do to help.

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So Shatterhouse does, well, we've done, we've done a stand-up paddleboard company that makes boards,

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we've done solar farms, we've done state government, we've done makeup apps, kind of all over the board.

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And a big chunk of my work has come from my tennis colleagues and friends, honestly,

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is our tennis community, you know, kind of supports each other and kind of says,

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hey, she does this and blah, blah, that's where I've gotten a lot of my business.

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And we appreciate that because that's one of our, one of our tenants, so to speak,

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we should just write that down as a tenant, Bobby.

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First, tenants, we are not experts at everything.

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So go find the expert at the thing you need done.

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Right.

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And bring them on board and we say, hey, what would you want from us to say, hey, this is what we're

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trying to do and this is what we want to get going and what we want to have happen?

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So if we have somebody like you that is an expert in what you do from a promoting tennis point of

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you, I like Bobby's quote, and I've probably been quoting it too much recently, which is we often

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spend too much time promoting a player or players rather than promoting the sport itself.

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I would guess that's a tennis promoter, as you said, you mentioned the sport, you don't mention

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a player specifically. It's how do we grow the sport?

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How do we make it better?

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And in tennis, how do you know Bobby?

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Did you meet through the Atlanta open?

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Because you work with the Dallas open and the Atlanta open if I have that right.

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And somehow that gets you to knowing Bobby Schindler.

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So I played tennis out of Windermere.

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He's been stuck with me in Realston 4 and all my crazy my team,

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I'm a captain and a team now out of Windermere.

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So yeah, unfortunately he knows me on the court and off professionally as well.

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It is part of our Tuesday night experience at Windermere. We block it off.

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We don't have anybody remotely close to us.

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They do not listen to our conversations and Tuesday night is

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everybody that's our fun night.

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When all our ADD comes rampantly obvious.

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It does and definitely it's not need to be recorded.

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So the thing jailed out.

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But I mean as Windermere is for such a community, we have some people very

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involved in the tennis community within our community.

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So it does help because we have some good networking opportunities just to mock

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ourselves and of course we've expanded it and we try to help everybody to introduce

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where are we sitting since an ad.

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Close.

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Close.

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Can we get exclusive when you get really close?

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Yeah, well I'll do my best.

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Yeah, um, it obviously seems to know everyone as well.

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I mean Sam just hooked me up in the money open and in the Cadillac box which was great.

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I enjoyed that.

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Sam is awesome and a great partner in Atlanta as well with Cadillac.

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So yeah, it's crazy how you run into people at Girl Maxine's team works for T2 tennis,

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you know, in the administrative side.

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So it's, you know, a lot of people in the industry in Atlanta.

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And hopefully we'll get Joel on here pretty soon, the founder of T2 because in all my years of tennis

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in Atlanta, I always say that he's probably the only person I could think outside of USTA

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and outer that have had a lasting impact and been successful.

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There's been a lot of ideas, but T2 has been the, not even remotely close, the most triumphant

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of the cottage industries that have grown out of the fun and the numbers of Atlanta tennis players.

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Right. Absolutely.

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It's a great organization of the flexibility to play and I was even telling L.A.

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maybe she should try it out.

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And you know, our friend who was in Cincinnati is now going to New York.

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So I don't know how much interest you might have in taking a next step, but so there's,

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oh, yes, it's nice.

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Yeah, so he's going, I don't know what level, but that's where his next step is.

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So, you know, like I said, we're hoping to go to Cincinnati.

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So we want you there because we'd like to do a little trip.

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That's, that's close enough and historically every year it gets the best ratings

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from the players of a tournament that they enjoy being at.

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So, figured it's, it's a nice, a cool little town.

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It's easily accessible, not too far.

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You can fly, you can drive.

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So, you're hoping about road tripping up there.

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Yeah, it's great.

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And just being in Miami just great to see a different tournament and how they do things and,

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you know, experience it as a fan because and then you put on, your marketing hat as well,

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while you're enjoying it.

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Well, it's, I know when I went to grad school, we did something for God was a Hershey, I think.

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With NASCAR and it was such a, it was such an experience.

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I was like, well, if I had to do it over again, I'd certainly go product side because the product

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gets treated like, you know, gold where the, you know, the event organizers are, that's your,

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your, your stage is that however long the event is.

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So, there's a lot of pressure while you're there where I had the privilege of going up to Charleston

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a few years ago with Sam and Cadillac and get treated like a king, be in, you know, be in the box,

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all the, all the best features of the tournament.

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So that is a nice side to experience as well.

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And from your perspective, I'm sure it opens up a different viewpoint of your approach to tournament.

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Yes, very different experience as a staff member because I can tell you my family in French check

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on me during the tournament because it is like, maybe I get four hours of sleep some nights.

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I think one year I lost nine pounds during the tournament because it's just non-stop, so much to do.

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And in Atlanta, you know, we're outdoors, so we have rain delays.

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Sometimes we're, we're playing matches until 1am and people stay.

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It's great.

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But it's a lot of work.

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It's not shipping, same pain like a fan, right?

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It's a lot.

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Wasn't what we did in Charleston is what we do down here.

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Yes, it's a little different.

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Right.

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A lot of interns that just love the sport and want to help and, you know, come work.

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And I, I get a lot of good work at us in interns every year, so I appreciate that help.

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So this is the first year you went to Dallas?

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Yes, second.

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Yeah, this is the second, yeah.

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How long do you stay there when you're on site for the tournament?

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I think this year was 12 days.

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We had a first women's expo there.

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We had Sloan and Madison and we had a little bit of John Isner did a pro, his charity event,

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kind of the night before everything, so I kind of need to get in and then we do like that.

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Chris in the courts with media before it starts, so I have to get there early.

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And then obviously our finals are usually kind of late, like one, five o'clock

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and not go home the next day.

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So yeah, 12 days, but Dallas is a great city.

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They love tennis there.

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It sells out really quickly.

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It's indoor.

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They just are a very engaged fan and fan base and just love tennis air.

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So it's fun tournaments.

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Easy.

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Is it a T-bar?

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T-bar, no, but they're supporters.

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Is that SMU?

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Oh, you said it out loud.

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That's my rival.

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I mean, he's the ECU and SMU.

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That's Georgia Florida right there.

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That's the battle for the Metroplex.

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You probably know Grant Chan who's like the man who knows everybody.

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It's a funny part about T-bars.

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Even though it's in Dallas, it is a very T-C-oriented club.

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I mean, because Tut Bartson, our old coach, had a big influence on the clubs.

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So you see Tut all over the place.

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So even though you're in Dallas, you feel like you're close to four words.

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So we got an SMU does that sense of good players.

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Richie Rennerberg did all right.

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And he was, you know, he was top 10 in the world.

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He's an SMU guy.

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And who my, Roddy Harmon was Roddy?

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Not sure.

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I'm sure you think there's another in my era that was at SMU that did pretty well as well.

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So yeah.

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Bobby doesn't go too far down a road of tennis players.

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The most people have never heard of.

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You have to be, you have to be a pay attention for a while for that.

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But Becky, you mentioned the difference.

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You didn't mention the difference.

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You mentioned something that I noticed is very different.

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You talked about the Dallas fan being engaged at the tournament.

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We're getting a lot of response here that the Atlanta area isn't engaged

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as much as we'd like it to be.

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How do we, is one of the things that go tennis?

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We want to, we want to help promote that, that idea of not only the professional tournament.

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We don't talk a lot of professional here.

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We just talk the business of Atlanta and the social side of how we do tennis here.

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But is there a big difference between people in Dallas and people in Atlanta

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as to why the tournaments are engaged with differently?

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Well, the Atlanta crowd is engaged.

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They're great in their very knowledgeable tennis.

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They love doubles.

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Like we say it land is the double city.

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What we call it, say the largest recreational city in the world, perhaps, US.

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We have the challenge of the heat.

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And the timing of the year, right before school starts back.

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But we do still have great crowds.

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But day sessions can be hard.

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You know Atlanta, Metro is so large and we're down in Atlanta station

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getting the suburbs down there.

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But they still come out.

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But I think the greatest challenge is heat.

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But we still have great ticket sales every year.

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It's like record from the year before.

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But those are the challenges.

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And so how do we get the state to have a holiday?

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A national holiday where the bags can take off whenever Monday they want?

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We partner with UPS and do STEM day, which brings in a lot of kids during the day.

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So that has helped a lot when we have our tennis camps and tennis groups bringing kids in,

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which has helped a lot.

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I've also helped with the Winston-Salem tournament.

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And it's unfortunate for them because they're back in school.

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So that limits their ball kids and volunteers.

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And fan-based during the day sessions and also being the tournament right before the US Open

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doesn't help.

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So it could be worse for us because to have the kids in school, a lot worse.

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That's true.

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I guess we don't need that national holiday in the summer.

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It is a national holiday.

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More excuses to get there, right?

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Listen, we tried to get Alta to take the weekend off when the senior tour was coming.

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And we were met with the resounding dose.

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So I don't think we're going to get real far with schools.

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As Alta said, "No, we're playing.

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I don't care what time.

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We're going to play."

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I was like, "Oh, great."

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So yeah.

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Yeah, Alta won't even give us Easter off.

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I'm dealing with that.

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Yeah.

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I'm so hard.

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I'm just kept, I haven't kept it for a while.

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And I'm back and I'm like, "Why did I agree to do this again?"

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Because it's during spring break and Easter matches.

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It is a thankless job.

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For sure.

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Especially spring.

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Like you said, we get it two weeks.

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And Gwyneth is, if they're not on the same spring break schedule,

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it could be a three week ordeal that we have to go through your rearrange of matches.

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A spring season up here is very difficult.

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It is painful.

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This hard-and-cats.

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It's very available.

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Who can play?

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Okay.

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Can you play one of 16 days?

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You know, it's going to keep us straight.

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So how long do you got, what was your time frame when you started concentrate specifically on

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Atlanta?

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So I worked for Atlanta a year round, which is kind of unusual for some tournaments because

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we do how they pack starting in November, promote those in December.

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We start going on sale around March, April.

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We're actually going on sale next week for our premium week long.

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So that's our first ticket sale.

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So it starts now.

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We're around, I'm posting on social, following the players,

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a typically player tournament, how they're doing in Australia, Indian Wells, Miami, you know,

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trying to keep our social alive and not just during the nine days.

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So it's a lot of prep, a lot of preparation for that week because I do a lot of sponsor engagement

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and also do influencer marketing.

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So I work with, you know, in-signal personalities to promote the tournament to kind of reach

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that audience outside of tennis.

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You know, try to get the fans out.

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They just want to come have a drink and some good food and, you know, some live sports that may not

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really play.

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So there's a lot of prep work for that that we start really early, isn't now.

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Well, that's great.

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I mean, because I've been a strong proponent of that, even again, going back to our senior

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tour days. As a guy, you can't come in here a month and a half before the event and think

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this is going to be successful.

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It just even back in the day when we had the old AT&T, when it was in, you know, the end of March,

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or April, we always had weather issues even then.

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It was a different weather issue, but it was our rainy season.

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So it's always difficult.

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And I always felt that we needed to stay more engaged throughout the year to get those people.

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As you said, the US Open, really, you know, the US Open the first week, it's the party.

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It's the, the corporate sponsorships.

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It's everybody coming for the event where the second week translates more to the diehard tennis fans

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who are there to see the tennis and to see the, you know, who wins.

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So it's tough to create that environment.

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And so it's, that's something we're trying to do.

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We take tennis as the commonality.

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What are the things can we reach and bring people together to strengthen the commonality

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and to expand?

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Because as you said, a lot of the reputation of Atlanta is great participatory city might not

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necessarily show up in the, in the manner in which you would think.

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And I think a lot of the events are sold a lot of times.

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Oh, we got 80,000 tennis players.

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They're going to show up.

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But this is a tier one city.

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There's a lot to do.

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And you know, Alpharetta is growing, coming is growing,

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there's more to do.

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You know, it's just, it's getting more and more stuff to do.

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So it's just competition and it's tough.

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Yeah.

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And it's, you know, the player feels always crucial.

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And, you know, I didn't really understand the levels and still still until I started working,

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now, 250,000 level grand plan.

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So we don't, we're not really going to get an, no, doll, unless we get lucky.

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You have to pay some of them to show up, right?

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So it's still a great talent.

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And sometimes someone will show up that you weren't expecting this great,

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get a wild card, that kind of stuff.

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So the player field is a big deal.

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Nick here is.

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He loves Atlanta.

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He's great to us.

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He is really good to Atlanta.

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And, you know, he can tend to back out of tournaments last minute.

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And so I tend to watch this guy on a stalk him on social before a tournament.

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He could be good at the Bahamas and I'm like, "Do you like he's good?"

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Because he, I mean, it's crazy the level of ticket sales where there's like a handful and then,

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and then not a lot of draw, right?

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For some, unfortunately, which spreadsheets make is when I sit there and watch,

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so I've matched just some like, they're all amazing to watch, right?

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But there's certain personalities that just really sell well.

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And, you know, like, I think, like, I'd just want to, I would, I would like to meet.

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I could, I could hang out, I feel like I could hang out.

Speaker: 00:18:28

With that guy, or at least I'd want to.

Speaker: 00:18:29

I don't know if he'd like me at all.

Speaker: 00:18:31

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:18:31

He's one of those guys that would bring me in because it's interesting.

Speaker: 00:18:35

There's something, and maybe that's what Atlanta looks for.

Speaker: 00:18:38

Something more interesting, rather than even an adult.

Speaker: 00:18:41

I guess everybody shows up for an adult either way, right?

Speaker: 00:18:43

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:18:44

I mean, that sells, obviously, well, Nick sells well.

Speaker: 00:18:48

He's, because he's so different, like he say.

Speaker: 00:18:50

He's great with children as well, which might surprise some people,

Speaker: 00:18:54

you know, if it being single without children yet,

Speaker: 00:18:56

but he's great with children and, and he's great with four in Atlanta

Speaker: 00:19:01

and good to us by showing up.

Speaker: 00:19:03

So we don't know what's going on this year with him and how long he'll be playing,

Speaker: 00:19:07

but, and of course, John Isner, which people laugh and say

Speaker: 00:19:10

we should rename the tournament, the John Isner Open.

Speaker: 00:19:12

But, he's one at six times, and we're always fortunate to have him there.

Speaker: 00:19:18

And the local crowd really loves him as well.

Speaker: 00:19:20

And you can't beat.

Speaker: 00:19:21

We just get the great top American talent like Fritz and Tiafo,

Speaker: 00:19:24

and Brooks being Riley Paul.

Speaker: 00:19:27

So it's great to see our support your American players.

Speaker: 00:19:31

Well, now, and I think that'll help because we are kind of in an uptick right now.

Speaker: 00:19:35

With Chris, you've been with Chelsea.

Speaker: 00:19:37

So are Chris.

Speaker: 00:19:39

Yeah, so I mean, you know, and we have,

Speaker: 00:19:41

I mean, I get the kid who did well in Australia.

Speaker: 00:19:44

And then she else and I keep talking to my son, my son.

Speaker: 00:19:48

I said, all right, you know, little Giovanni is like, you're six months old now.

Speaker: 00:19:51

You're going to grow up to be six foot four left handed with a two handed back hand.

Speaker: 00:19:55

All right.

Speaker: 00:19:56

Ben, so Atlanta was Ben's first ATP tournament.

Speaker: 00:19:59

And he did well.

Speaker: 00:20:01

It was great to kind of see him start.

Speaker: 00:20:03

And now he's just really doing great.

Speaker: 00:20:05

Yeah, but I mean, that I think so that'll help.

Speaker: 00:20:08

Obviously, the more it's tangible.

Speaker: 00:20:10

And since he's got a backstory,

Speaker: 00:20:12

having Ben and Atlanta certainly will help.

Speaker: 00:20:14

And what you're talking about too is as far as the players showing up.

Speaker: 00:20:17

That's it.

Speaker: 00:20:18

Unfortunately, that's in rampant intense

Speaker: 00:20:21

in every event outside of the Grand Slam's.

Speaker: 00:20:24

Because it's a really schedule.

Speaker: 00:20:26

I mean, you know, these guys are, they're less than a month away from Wimbledon,

Speaker: 00:20:29

or you know, from Wimbledon and they're less than a month away from the US Open.

Speaker: 00:20:33

It's a tough, tough time of the year and then throw in 100 degrees.

Speaker: 00:20:38

And yeah, that flight might get diverted.

Speaker: 00:20:40

So you literally hold your breath and just make sure everybody shows up.

Speaker: 00:20:45

You're, you're hoping.

Speaker: 00:20:46

That's where you can get a beat up on social.

Speaker: 00:20:49

And they're like, man, we can't force them to show up.

Speaker: 00:20:52

So you don't be hating on us.

Speaker: 00:20:53

Like we didn't plan for them to back out.

Speaker: 00:20:55

Like we sold tickets and they backed out.

Speaker: 00:20:57

Like we can't foresee the future.

Speaker: 00:21:00

But we want everyone to show up, right?

Speaker: 00:21:01

I get 250, they don't have to.

Speaker: 00:21:04

You know, that's, that's the, they have more leave-like with the 250,

Speaker: 00:21:09

than, you know, higher level tournaments.

Speaker: 00:21:10

So it is.

Speaker: 00:21:11

It's kind of, and then you try to explain to people,

Speaker: 00:21:14

well, we can move and we should do this.

Speaker: 00:21:16

We should, you don't understand.

Speaker: 00:21:17

All you bought is the date.

Speaker: 00:21:19

That's what you want.

Speaker: 00:21:20

That there's, there's nothing else.

Speaker: 00:21:22

That's what you have.

Speaker: 00:21:23

You have this weekend.

Speaker: 00:21:24

If you, if you can't do it this week,

Speaker: 00:21:26

you're not doing it here.

Speaker: 00:21:27

So I mean, the Dallas event originated in New York.

Speaker: 00:21:30

And they sold it to that week to Dallas.

Speaker: 00:21:33

And you know, it was, did fall better in Dallas.

Speaker: 00:21:35

So that's a great for the game.

Speaker: 00:21:37

But, you know, it's, there's not always a choice.

Speaker: 00:21:39

We can't move it.

Speaker: 00:21:40

That's, you know, that's hard.

Speaker: 00:21:41

We can't.

Speaker: 00:21:42

And people say, why would you do it in Dallas?

Speaker: 00:21:44

We would prefer not to be outside.

Speaker: 00:21:46

And we don't mind if we don't,

Speaker: 00:21:48

can't to say, let's do it.

Speaker: 00:21:50

And nobody else wants July either.

Speaker: 00:21:52

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:21:53

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:21:53

But we're part of the US Open series.

Speaker: 00:21:55

So we're the first tournament that kicks it off.

Speaker: 00:21:57

So.

Speaker: 00:21:58

So what would you say your role in the situation?

Speaker: 00:22:02

What, what is a social media manager

Speaker: 00:22:04

do for a tennis tournament?

Speaker: 00:22:06

So, so for 250, you know,

Speaker: 00:22:10

it's definitely different with the different level tournaments.

Speaker: 00:22:12

We'll have lower teams.

Speaker: 00:22:13

But I oversee all of our channels,

Speaker: 00:22:15

which for us is, you know,

Speaker: 00:22:17

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

Speaker: 00:22:19

And my obligations are not just, you know,

Speaker: 00:22:22

ticket promotion, which we do more on the paid media side

Speaker: 00:22:25

and paid ads.

Speaker: 00:22:26

But promoting the tournament, I mean,

Speaker: 00:22:28

the players special events, because they have STEM day.

Speaker: 00:22:30

We'll have like sometimes wind down Wednesday.

Speaker: 00:22:33

We can crawl for.

Speaker: 00:22:34

Umisushi thinks like that.

Speaker: 00:22:36

So promote another event,

Speaker: 00:22:37

pushing volunteer registration.

Speaker: 00:22:39

When we need people, again, I said earlier,

Speaker: 00:22:42

sponsors promotion is a big piece.

Speaker: 00:22:44

Would you fun content with more sponsors like Kim Crawford?

Speaker: 00:22:48

I worked with influencers to really showcase the wine

Speaker: 00:22:50

and leading up to the tournament.

Speaker: 00:22:52

So the sponsor piece for Atlanta is a really large piece of what I do.

Speaker: 00:22:56

Again, the influencer marketing.

Speaker: 00:22:58

Checking practice score schedules, you know,

Speaker: 00:23:02

let's make sure we get cocos arriving today.

Speaker: 00:23:04

Get her videographer, photographers,

Speaker: 00:23:06

graphic designers to cover everything.

Speaker: 00:23:10

Sometimes it's very spur of the moment,

Speaker: 00:23:12

Isner was in his 500th typewriter, I believe, in Dallas.

Speaker: 00:23:16

Or like, oh, like a record.

Speaker: 00:23:18

Go make me a graphic really quick.

Speaker: 00:23:20

So as much as you prepare, there's a lot of on the spot,

Speaker: 00:23:22

sponsored, spontaneous stuff happening.

Speaker: 00:23:25

And, you know, really kind of pushed a community piece of it as well,

Speaker: 00:23:32

as far as who we have on site.

Speaker: 00:23:34

We have tennis, you know, we have A-Tef.

Speaker: 00:23:37

We had them on site.

Speaker: 00:23:38

We had kids come and interview come for our players,

Speaker: 00:23:41

which was adorable.

Speaker: 00:23:42

So it's kind of thinking of different ways to do content of the event.

Speaker: 00:23:46

So and so one, come back tomorrow, you know, fun ways.

Speaker: 00:23:50

My favorite part is I get to sit down with the players at the beginning of the week

Speaker: 00:23:53

and try to do some fun recorded video content as you used throughout the week.

Speaker: 00:23:58

And you put those on the major platforms?

Speaker: 00:24:01

That's the user's tripping?

Speaker: 00:24:03

Yes.

Speaker: 00:24:03

So we add, because you probably know, I probably go for humor every time.

Speaker: 00:24:07

So it's like, what's funny?

Speaker: 00:24:08

It hasn't been done by A-T-P tour, which is they've done everything.

Speaker: 00:24:12

There's no such thing as done everything.

Speaker: 00:24:13

If you haven't, if you haven't sat down with me and Bobby,

Speaker: 00:24:16

you say, hey, we need something new.

Speaker: 00:24:18

Just give us five minutes to talk and we'll come up with something new.

Speaker: 00:24:21

Oh good. Perfect. Let's have a comment.

Speaker: 00:24:22

Sweet because I need to go ahead and

Speaker: 00:24:24

weaken. We can come up with something new.

Speaker: 00:24:25

Or all of a sudden we'll realize we're not as awesome as we thought we were.

Speaker: 00:24:28

We came up with 47 different things and they've done all of it.

Speaker: 00:24:31

Yeah, yes. It's insane.

Speaker: 00:24:33

I start with let Nibbari start wings this long every year.

Speaker: 00:24:36

What else can we do?

Speaker: 00:24:38

You have a range of personalities with the players, right?

Speaker: 00:24:40

We got some that are funny and some that don't really love doing it,

Speaker: 00:24:43

but they were forced to go in that room with me and try to do something funny

Speaker: 00:24:48

or just to read something for us.

Speaker: 00:24:50

Yeah, I think that's the thing that Bobby and I kind of think the same way.

Speaker: 00:24:53

Oh, you know what?

Speaker: 00:24:54

I could come up with something.

Speaker: 00:24:56

But then probably everybody thinks that too, right?

Speaker: 00:24:58

Yes. We've had ideas and we start filming it.

Speaker: 00:25:01

I'm like, this is terrible cut.

Speaker: 00:25:06

We were going to do funny town names in Georgia and have the players read it.

Speaker: 00:25:10

But my intention was international players to read it with accents,

Speaker: 00:25:13

but I didn't get international.

Speaker: 00:25:15

I was getting all Americans said it wasn't funny.

Speaker: 00:25:17

So we cut it out.

Speaker: 00:25:18

Or died.

Speaker: 00:25:19

Like they're just saying, "Ludowiki" and you know, like funny names and

Speaker: 00:25:22

Dillanica and it was just like, "Rump."

Speaker: 00:25:25

Pushed in. That'd be my favorite.

Speaker: 00:25:27

He was on there.

Speaker: 00:25:28

Pushes got to be on there.

Speaker: 00:25:30

But what was the one?

Speaker: 00:25:31

I saw the other day where they were interviewing the players and they had them

Speaker: 00:25:34

put on the headphones and they had to guess the grunt of another player or try to

Speaker: 00:25:38

fit.

Speaker: 00:25:38

Something like that is just is fun, I think, for the fans, for the engagement.

Speaker: 00:25:42

So that's kind of the stuff you get to do all the time.

Speaker: 00:25:45

Yeah. The week of the chairman I do, unless sometimes we'll have somebody come in early,

Speaker: 00:25:50

like John or Riley to promote the chairman a few months out to kind of build some excitement.

Speaker: 00:25:56

But yeah, I get to try to work with the guys and ATP to sit down and do funny stuff.

Speaker: 00:26:01

Like we did funny laws in Texas and Dallas.

Speaker: 00:26:04

There's some insane laws from like 1800s.

Speaker: 00:26:07

Like you can't drink a beer standing up on a Sunday after six.

Speaker: 00:26:10

It's like really weird stuff.

Speaker: 00:26:11

We haven't read out on camera.

Speaker: 00:26:13

That's a lot of fun.

Speaker: 00:26:15

I think there's some strange laws from the 1980s.

Speaker: 00:26:17

So we don't have to go that back that far for that.

Speaker: 00:26:20

Right.

Speaker: 00:26:20

No, no, no.

Speaker: 00:26:21

Texas because of the, I had to take one religious class at TCU and I had to take Texas State

Speaker: 00:26:28

history because of the uniqueness associated with Texas.

Speaker: 00:26:32

Texas is the only state flag that can fly above the American flag.

Speaker: 00:26:38

And that was one as a concession to get them to join the union.

Speaker: 00:26:41

So Texas had some power in the negotiating and they used it.

Speaker: 00:26:46

So it is, it is, if you will have some funky stuff on, I mean, literally back in 1986 when

Speaker: 00:26:52

the drinking laws were changed, Texas waited to the absolute last day.

Speaker: 00:26:57

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:26:58

Before they would allow it.

Speaker: 00:27:00

So I went nine days, or I'm sorry, 1987.

Speaker: 00:27:03

Nine days where I was not allowed to drink in a bar in Texas.

Speaker: 00:27:06

But I had been drinking since I was 17.

Speaker: 00:27:09

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:27:09

So Texas is its own country.

Speaker: 00:27:12

So yeah, that would probably be a pretty creative place really for you.

Speaker: 00:27:16

Yeah, they had some fun.

Speaker: 00:27:17

We did funny town names and funny laws and we give them a real one in a fake one in that

Speaker: 00:27:21

to guess which was Texas.

Speaker: 00:27:22

So that's not-

Speaker: 00:27:23

You got a Paris, you got a Libya, you got all sorts of.

Speaker: 00:27:26

Do you think you're in international in Texas?

Speaker: 00:27:28

You have a ding dong Texas, by the way.

Speaker: 00:27:30

You have a Wimberley Texas and I actually would go.

Speaker: 00:27:33

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:27:34

And we did.

Speaker: 00:27:35

We did find athletes names in Atlanta which were really funny.

Speaker: 00:27:39

There's some funny ones out there as well.

Speaker: 00:27:41

So.

Speaker: 00:27:41

Very cool.

Speaker: 00:27:43

So what are the challenges I could say in my back of the day?

Speaker: 00:27:46

Traditional media, the AJC looked us and said,

Speaker: 00:27:50

"Listen, if you're not going to sell me a newspaper,

Speaker: 00:27:54

just really not a lot of things I'm going to help you out with."

Speaker: 00:27:57

Radio is so difficult because the demographic is so small.

Speaker: 00:28:01

What are the- how do you overcome the challenges of where do you say this is where we're going to concentrate?

Speaker: 00:28:08

Outside of Alta but you know that comes with-

Speaker: 00:28:10

because it's the Alta magazine isn't a weekly.

Speaker: 00:28:15

If you're in the wrong cycle, it could be a month and a half old sitting there on the shelf.

Speaker: 00:28:19

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:28:21

Even if we were on like, you know,

Speaker: 00:28:23

Roku TV every three seconds, you still find some ice as I didn't know you were happening

Speaker: 00:28:28

because it just happens.

Speaker: 00:28:29

But I mean, every year you have to adjust because especially with COVID it changed media,

Speaker: 00:28:33

paid media a big time.

Speaker: 00:28:34

Or at home more, they weren't in their cars as much.

Speaker: 00:28:37

Digital Roku YouTube TV was exploding.

Speaker: 00:28:41

So, you know, digital is where it is, but you have to adjust it every year.

Speaker: 00:28:44

And so it's like print media obviously, not so much.

Speaker: 00:28:50

Social ads do great because you can really, you know, pinpoint and

Speaker: 00:28:54

find to the targeting a lot better there as far as most things, but digital really help.

Speaker: 00:29:00

So it's kind of, you know, every year seen what works with everybody that does pay is

Speaker: 00:29:05

what works and what didn't.

Speaker: 00:29:06

And you can adjust it as you're going along as well to put more money behind something working.

Speaker: 00:29:11

Like for another fine amount it was Roku or YouTube was doing really well.

Speaker: 00:29:16

And something else wasn't.

Speaker: 00:29:17

So I just shifted.

Speaker: 00:29:18

So, you know, yeah, we're in the USDA Southern and Atlanta and ALTA,

Speaker: 00:29:24

but you may not pick up your magazine in the mail.

Speaker: 00:29:28

So that is the challenge, you know, and then we do some community work, you know,

Speaker: 00:29:33

with clubs and things like that, but you just kind of have to evolve.

Speaker: 00:29:38

That's what Bobby always says.

Speaker: 00:29:39

You got to get on people's phones, right?

Speaker: 00:29:41

Yeah, so, you know, in the ticketing guys, they're constantly calling and

Speaker: 00:29:47

doing the packages and reaching out to the organizations and that kind of thing.

Speaker: 00:29:52

And for us for me, like around her much time, it's just huge for the players to share and comment,

Speaker: 00:29:57

which some are not great with, but back to neck.

Speaker: 00:29:59

And it does a great job with that for us.

Speaker: 00:30:01

It's huge for my number to like, thank you.

Speaker: 00:30:04

And Jack, sox, great about that.

Speaker: 00:30:06

And, you know, some of the players really help us out, which makes a big deal because they're like

Speaker: 00:30:12

next followers sizes.

Speaker: 00:30:14

Hemongus.

Speaker: 00:30:15

Well, the good news is you mentioned his name and his dad is involved in something very

Speaker: 00:30:19

fun with Riley in swing vision.

Speaker: 00:30:22

And, you know, so that I think from a participatory standpoint to have a court where people could see this,

Speaker: 00:30:29

I think there'd be great interest in Atlanta.

Speaker: 00:30:31

And as we're finding out, there is an explosion of virtual reality tennis going on.

Speaker: 00:30:37

We've got, yeah.

Speaker: 00:30:38

So I think that's another thing that we've spoken to three different companies so far.

Speaker: 00:30:43

And they're all trying to figure out how they're going to unlock the key.

Speaker: 00:30:48

And so I think that would be a blast just to have people with their headsets on,

Speaker: 00:30:53

just spaced out, of course, so they're not whacking each other,

Speaker: 00:30:56

but nonetheless, you know, playing some virtual tennis.

Speaker: 00:30:59

And these companies are all dying to get into it.

Speaker: 00:31:02

Yeah, you know, I was just like, I don't want to get the players doing that because it's really

Speaker: 00:31:06

funny to watch someone on the headset doing things.

Speaker: 00:31:08

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:31:08

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:31:11

And you can't see themselves. So it's funny. You get to laugh at them while they got the goggles.

Speaker: 00:31:15

Yeah, that's exactly like, that could be pretty good right there.

Speaker: 00:31:17

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:31:19

Especially if we get this couple of seven footers out there, they're looking weird with a tennis

Speaker: 00:31:23

rag going to begin with.

Speaker: 00:31:24

So then you put virtual glasses on them.

Speaker: 00:31:27

And obviously they're going to play.

Speaker: 00:31:28

They're going to get down like they normally do because it's just instinctive at this point.

Speaker: 00:31:32

So I think that would be some good television.

Speaker: 00:31:34

So the challenge and just, and tell me if I'm wrong here,

Speaker: 00:31:37

how, what kind of production, like if you had something incredible happen on a Tuesday night,

Speaker: 00:31:43

how long does it take you or do you have the means to turn it around and make that into

Speaker: 00:31:48

a YouTube clip, two nights, you know, the next day to get people, because I know the challenges

Speaker: 00:31:54

historically has been, we're going to get you here one time, when you're talking about the suburbs.

Speaker: 00:31:59

How do we get you to come back?

Speaker: 00:32:01

How do we get you to be part of the weekend crowd?

Speaker: 00:32:03

Right. So today I have great support there.

Speaker: 00:32:07

I didn't have it in 2017, like ATP tennis TV.

Speaker: 00:32:11

You know, we're on what's up.

Speaker: 00:32:12

I'm like, he just hit a Twitter that's amazing.

Speaker: 00:32:15

I want it right now.

Speaker: 00:32:16

I can get it within like two minutes and put it out.

Speaker: 00:32:18

I didn't have that ability in 2017.

Speaker: 00:32:21

I also have this amazing videographer, Drew, who does Wimbledon Indian Wells.

Speaker: 00:32:26

And he's always there.

Speaker: 00:32:27

He's like my guy.

Speaker: 00:32:28

And so he's flipping things.

Speaker: 00:32:30

And Dallas, we had President Bush show up in TAP Raleigh on the head.

Speaker: 00:32:34

And it was hilarious.

Speaker: 00:32:34

I'm like, give me that right now.

Speaker: 00:32:36

So now I have the ability to get things pretty quickly before I didn't.

Speaker: 00:32:41

And there's a lot more I would be would like to do, but I'm just like,

Speaker: 00:32:45

head down constantly in your tournaments.

Speaker: 00:32:46

I would ask them and people to help me.

Speaker: 00:32:48

If you need someone to be there the whole time and watch all the matches

Speaker: 00:32:54

and just have to do with something interesting happens, let me know if you can come up with somebody.

Speaker: 00:32:58

I can join the air conditioning suite in the team.

Speaker: 00:33:01

Properly.

Speaker: 00:33:01

This is I will help.

Speaker: 00:33:03

Okay, I'll note that down.

Speaker: 00:33:04

I have some friends that I've offered as well.

Speaker: 00:33:06

So.

Speaker: 00:33:06

Now Ashley, you're paying.

Speaker: 00:33:11

She's not even an intern anymore, right?

Speaker: 00:33:12

Ashley, you're having a pay.

Speaker: 00:33:14

Now she's I just hook her up with, you know, the app.

Speaker: 00:33:18

And she does work for me.

Speaker: 00:33:20

Yeah, she's she's hooked in now.

Speaker: 00:33:22

That's costed me money.

Speaker: 00:33:24

She's not as flexible with drills that she used to be.

Speaker: 00:33:28

I just just two weeks out of year.

Speaker: 00:33:29

Well, it's like said, it's fun that we're all in such a small community.

Speaker: 00:33:34

We all are bouncing a bunch of things off one another.

Speaker: 00:33:37

What are you guys doing to get the crowd younger?

Speaker: 00:33:41

Because that's a big challenge for tennis across the board.

Speaker: 00:33:44

Yeah, I mean, on my side of things, I've worked with some younger organizations like

Speaker: 00:33:49

Atlanta professionals and, you know, groups like that, especially from the social side.

Speaker: 00:33:54

We've been some actually paid work with these kind of groups to kind of

Speaker: 00:33:57

reach that audience.

Speaker: 00:33:59

Again, that's where you can do the you can target the paid media for the younger

Speaker: 00:34:04

spectrum like Instagram is younger than Facebook.

Speaker: 00:34:06

And my audience there is, well, say younger, I say 25 to 35, you know,

Speaker: 00:34:12

every email for us on Instagram.

Speaker: 00:34:15

So and then our crowd is, it depends, you know, who it is, right?

Speaker: 00:34:20

Our women's exhibition match can draw in a different crowd for us, which is always good.

Speaker: 00:34:26

Last year we had Coco and Taylor Townsend.

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It was awesome.

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We've had Venus.

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So the player kind of matters a little bit.

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But the other crowd is coming out because you got at Atlantic Station with all the

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restaurants and bars, right there at it.

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So that definitely helps.

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Definitely without it to get more of the young crowd out.

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Like I said, not even just a tennis player, they just want something fun to do.

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You know, we've worked with that with kind of on the influencer side.

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We needed influencer.

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I mean, that's one of our tags is how to make tennis cool again.

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You know, the classic Mac and Row as James Dean picture, you know, when he was the rebel without a

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cause, we're 10 and into the Agacy era where tennis was cool.

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You know, and that's trying to reshape it.

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Again, we talked about the athleticism involved in playing tennis today is so beyond what it was

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from the 70s.

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I mean, these guys are phenomenal tier one athletes.

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And unfortunately with America being a little behind, it hasn't really grown in this

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country like you think it would because it's a spectacular sport.

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I mean, as a skill sport, as I tell my students, guys, this is the most difficult skill sport there is.

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I mean, yeah, where you have to combine hand-eye and foot.

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You know, I always, hitting a baseball is probably the hardest single thing to do in sports.

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But combination-wise, tennis is right there with anything.

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Yeah, that's why I say, I mean, just even come out to qualifying, the skill level is insane.

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And I love watching it.

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And the doubles matches aren't saying.

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And then you're going to go work down there and get autographed from the winners after every match at our tournament,

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which is an experience you don't get everywhere.

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So that's the benefit of being a little bit smaller is that kind of more intimate experience.

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So how do you, and this is the old ass, as you brought it up again, I think NASCAR was built in a

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lot of ways with accessibility to the players.

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It's the drivers.

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You know, you go to a booth and you'd get the autograph.

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And like you said, no matter what level, and I was amazed we did, as I said, with Talladega

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with Hershey's back in the day.

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And I was amazed because I was not an NASCAR follower at the time.

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You would ask Terry Labani, and they would, the fan of Terry Labani would literally

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rattle off every sponsor that was on his car. And you won't, I mean, that's the kind of brand loyalty

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that any sport would die for.

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And that's where NASCAR had cornered the market.

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And you know, there's plenty of theories out there of why tennis hasn't been able to accomplish it.

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And in a lot of it, like you said, the players, they're not the most social.

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Hey, you know, a lot of them dropped out of school at a very young age.

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So, you know, there's, there are challenges to overcome.

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Yeah, I mean, even if I want to, like do something special for Sam with Cadillac,

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I have to check, they have to check where their agents at this athlete can get in this car.

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You know, you have all the challenges as well.

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But if he first got really fun for the guys like we took JJ Michael Moe to the Dallas Cowboys

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State and they're like, we're in, so it depends what you're throwing at them, right?

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The Mercedes Benz is a pretty nice stadium. We should be able to get somebody in there, right?

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Yeah, we should do that next. So they're, they're easily we want to do that.

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Some of the things we ask them to do, they're like, hmm,

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not today. Yeah.

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Depends what it is.

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Nothing like Kudzu. Go go to the guerrilla land of Zue. We have a great Zue. I love

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our Zue. Yeah. So the challenge with these guys is practice schedules and match schedules.

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And so we try to get a lot in the beginning of the week before the main draw players are going,

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because some of them don't, they don't start playing until Wednesday, Thursday. So we have to get

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everything kind of earlier in the week. And then, when do they historically get here for,

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if you like you said, if they play a Tuesday, Wednesday match, when are they arriving in the city?

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It's all over the place, but they're coming in the weekend before like Saturday, Sunday,

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Monday, generally. I try to get them like Monday, Sunday, Monday. This one most of them are

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for sure there are not too busy yet. I get my 15 minutes with them, not a minute over.

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That's right. There's somebody's on the clock. Yes. And then you see comments sweating from

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practice or something, you know? Where do they, where do they practice it now?

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So, you know, we were, we had three courts right there at the stadium. Right.

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Probably going to have to practice it in Georgia Tech, because that lot was purchased.

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And that's my last question then, Sean. She's all yours. When are we going to move it to the

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North 400 corridor? So I know everyone asked me about them. I'm like, I'm not involved with

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the location discussions. I don't know. I just like to throw it out there to see if anybody's listening.

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I'll get Peter on here soon. Please, please, this, I know Peter, but you have this, just curiosity,

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Peter, why are we not, I mean, the Olympics, the Olympics kill this, we understand that by putting

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it in Stone Mountain. Can we reverse history and put something up here?

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That's my, all right, Sean. She's all yours.

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Okay. Thank you. Well, Becky, first of all, thank you so much. It's been fun for me to get to know

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you and then hearing you and Bobby go back and forth is fun because I know you guys know each other well

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and learning and talking with it with an expert in what you do and is connected as you can be

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in doing what you do. We get to learn a lot and I made a comment through the day that at some point,

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I looked at my wife and I said, at some point, is this plays out in the right direction?

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Is this going to make me the Joe Rogan of tennis? And it wasn't, it wasn't me comparing myself to

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Joe Rogan. It was the concept. It is, if we can talk to all of the experts, at some point,

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we get all the expert information that no one else has been able to compile. And that's one of

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the things Joe tennis wants to do as well is that compilation of information, especially at Lana

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specific, not trying to take over the world, not trying to make it too big, one calendar, one place,

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everything right there, making it simple and making it in one easily navigated system as opposed

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to everything else going on out there. And you get that concept with the scheduling that you've got to do

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in your job, but also finding time to play tennis for yourself and being able to get out there

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and play and get yourself on the court. And so I always ask at the end and I love this question

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because it gets not only that expertise and that personal point of view into it, but also everything,

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everything that you do and everything that we've talked about usually feeds into the answer that

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we get. But if you were if you were queen of tennis for a day or a month or a year, however long it took,

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you were queen of tennis and you could change or improve anything about tennis, whether it's at Lana

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specific, United States globally, is there anything you would change?

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Good question and I saw that on my cheat sheet and I thought about it. So there's two answers. One is

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like for me as a player versus me as a marketer. And I already said this, can we not have Easter

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ultimate actions in spring break? Can we all do that? I'll just get a little bit, but that's just as a

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captain speaking. I mean, professionally, I couldn't really think of anything kind of two part,

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like one, I love to see American win a grand slam. I mean, that's just kind of like as a fan, you know,

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that's coming up happening. We've got like Bobby said, there's so many ones that are just like on the,

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it's you know, so close to doing that. And just really look for our US fans to really appreciate our

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American players, you know, I mean, it's fine to be a big fan of an international player or get it.

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But really appreciating them and supporting our players here in the US, I think could be better,

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you know, just for me, but I'm a big fan of pushing the American players as an American tournament. So

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from my perspective, but we also like we love to give love to our international players to come. We

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get a lot of Australian players and Asian players as well. So just great to see the tennis and meet

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good people and good players overall. Well, there you have it. We want to thank rejuvenate.com for

Speaker: 00:42:54

use of the studio and be sure to hit that follow button for more tennis related content. You can

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go to Atlanta tennispodcast.com. And while you're there, check out our calendar of tennis events,

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And with that, we're out. See you next time.

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