“I wish we had an easy solve”: Stacey Allaster talks scheduling conflicts with Andy Roddick

US Open tournament director Stacey Allaster, the first woman to ever hold that position at any of the four Grand Slam events, joined the Served Podcast to dive into one of the overarching concerns across the sport: scheduling conflicts.

“I want to create a better understanding for viewers of the mechanics,” teed up host Andy Roddick. “For example, moving 24,000 people out of Arthur Ashe stadium while simultaneously needing to move in 24,000 people.”

To which Allaster responded, they review it every season. This year, she mentioned, there were two late nights in question.

“We looked at starting earlier on Ashe. We cannot start before seven, that’s an ESPN thing. That’s just reality. We are not going to go to one match. Players don’t like having to stop or not going on, they don’t. We’re not changing men’s matches to best of three, that’s not on the table,” Allaster said.

Unlike Wimbledon, who has strict curfew laws stopping play at 11:00 p.m., Allaster assures that avenue will not be pursued.

“What I hear from players is that you’re ready to go, and you want the referee to say, ‘Hey guys, come back tomorrow?’ No. Exactly,” she said.

Roddick shook his head in agreement.

“From a player’s perspective, whenever you’re following a match, you’re a rolled ankle away from being on in fifteen minutes,” Roddick said. “Basically, when the match before you goes on, you need to be twenty minutes away from going on at all moments, and you can be twenty minutes away from going on for six hours, depending on what match you’re following. I’m already losing half of a day recovery, minimum.

“If I go to the next day, and all of a sudden, I get caught in a five-hour throwdown match and then I have to go back-to-back, that’s not a realistic scenario for me if I can buy ten hours on the front end. So, pretending as if there is a scripted version of this problem isn’t the place to start this conversation, in my opinion.”

Even if they “buy an hour” and begin the match day at an earlier time, there’s nothing happening on Ashe at 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon, the two said, with Allaster adding that that wouldn’t solve it 100% either.

Another scheduling concern is the competition among broadcasters. At the tail end of the US Open, tennis suddenly finds itself battling for viewership against the likes of NFL's opening weekend and numerous college football showdowns.

“We’ve been dealing with this for decades,” Allaster said. “Labor Day is key for us. At the end of the day, so many variables contribute to ratings. You are destined to how the matches unfold.”

She continued, “The best thing about tennis is the variety of personalities that make up this cast of entertainment. Then it’s the competition, and the competition is heavy with the NFL. We are in a highly competitive entertainment space and that’s why this energy within the entire US Open team is how we’re going to continue to drive.”

Although these conflicts have yet to be fully resolved, tournament organizers enjoyed another record-breaking year.

“The game that we love is bigger than one champion, and that’s not a slight to any of the champions, it’s a credit to the sport of tennis,” Roddick said.

“I also think, and I want to talk about this sensitively, but during Covid, participation in tennis goes up thirty-seven percent. People playing tennis in 2020 for the first time weren't necessarily tennis fans yet…are these people who started playing tennis during Covid, are they becoming fans now because they've been around it for three or four years, and does that have anything to do with the success of the US open or am I just trying to tell stories?”

“There's no doubt that we have new fans because we have new players that have come to come to the game,” Allaster replied.

“I think also at a real macro level, the US Open’s the largest international event in the world annually. Almost sixty percent of the fans who join us in New York don't play tennis, and it is the place to be in New York City for three weeks. Look at the power of the stars that come out, it's the event of the summer, and how great for our sport because at the end of the day we all inspire a love for tennis so that more people leave from the ground or from watching and go out and pick up a racket and hit balls.”

At the end of the day, so many variables contribute to ratings. You are destined to how the matches unfold. —Stacey Allaster

Roddick notes that MLB teams don’t see the kind of numbers in a calendar year that the US Open hits in three weeks’ time. And a big part of the New York major's success is Fan Week, which the two discuss in depths.

The idea was first implemented in 2017 and has since become a much-anticipated week for players and fans alike.

“I know that qualifying are some of the best matches,” Allaster said. “We are the only professional sporting event in the world where the grounds are free to come on and see the world’s best practicing for eight days. “How are we going to take this US Open, this incredible gift to tennis, and, I’ll use my Canadian term here, hockey stick this growth, not just in attendance but in revenues.”

The next Slam is four months away. For the US Open, the planning period is just beginning for 2025, and Allaster is already asking, “how are we going to surprise and delight,” let alone improve scheduling conflicts and make the US Open a better tournament experience.

“I wish we had an easy solve,” she said. “So, if anyone’s got great ideas for us, we’re wide open.”

Watch the full episode on Served Media Channels everywhere, and look out as Episode 41 of the show is just a week away.