A man with classic style
The ASB Classic tennis event is going from strength to strength. Tao Lin reports.
The upcoming ASB Classic has never looked better, with the 2017 tournament full of international tennis stars and glitzy lifestyle events.
It wasn’t always that way though. The man behind it all, Karl Budge, describes the transformation of the event as going from being like a ‘‘Toyota Camry to a shiny, modern BMW’’.
Budge grew up in the tennis world and worked for the Australian Open as a sponsorship manager.
He also worked at the Women’s Tennis Association as head of sales and marketing, before becoming the ASB Classic tournament director.
He brought over the idea of incorporating food and fashion into the tournament, as well as glamorous parties, to make it more than just a sports event.
This year’s event was the first one to have a dedicated new fan area, which will be doubled in size in 2017, featuring an additional big screen, more bars and restaurants and live music.
And of course, Budge also secured the appearances of world number one Serena Williams, sister Venus and former world number ones Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic.
Good relationships were crucial to bringing the big name players over.
‘‘I’ve been in tennis for 12 years. It helps that I’m Facebook friends with the players. I can have a chat to Ana’s father as much as I can to her agent,’’ Budge said.
Money helps too; Budge said there were at times six figure amounts involved and the ASB Classic was spending more money on player appearances than ever before.
But Budge believed that investing in the right players now meant future events would be more self-fulfilling.
We wanted it to be a celebration of all things great about the New Zealand summer.
The September announcement of Serena led to tickets selling out for both women’s sessions.
This is the first time in the tournament’s 61-year history that the women’s weekend has sold out before the men’s.
Tickets for later stages of the tournament are almost sold out.
Visitor numbers at this year’s event hit more than 64,000, a record number and a 10 per cent increase on the year before.
Budge said he expected another 10 per cent, if not more, growth for 2017 and seven-figure returns.
Ultimately, Budge would like to see 25 per cent of ASB Classic fans not watching any tennis at all, but rather attending the event for other activities such as dining and entertainment.
‘‘Our goal here is to be New Zealand’s best annual event. While tennis will always be at our core, our main focus, we wanted it to be a celebration of all things great about the New Zealand summer.’’
As well as giving Kiwis a great sports event, the ASB Classic was Tennis Auckland’s biggest fundraising tool.
The not-for-profit helped 12,000 kids go through school tennis programmes over the past year and Budge said the organisation was able to do that because of the success of the ASB Classic.
Funds from the event also went towards operating free public tennis facilities around Auckland and the development of high performance tennis players.
The next tournament will be ASB’s 21st anniversary of sponsoring the event and ASB executive general manager of marketing and communications Roger Beaumont, said it felt like the tournament had come of age.
He said the development of the event over the last five years had been dramatic, changing from something that was just a tennis tournament to a stronger tennis tournament with entertainment and a social offering that catered for everyone.
The event was a positive one for ASB, particularly at a traditionally quiet time of year, and Beaumont said the bank was committed to sponsoring it in the long-term.