Live from the US Open: Day One

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1:38Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily. Reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead with insight on the people, companies and trends shaping today's complex economy. plus global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. The Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevec on Bloomberg Radio. It is Bloomberg Business Week on this Thursday, August 28th, 2025. We are not live from the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio today. We are on site at the U.S. Open right outside of Arthur Ashe Stadium here at the 2025 U.S.

2:22Open. I'm Tim Stenevec. That is Molly Smith. She's not just a Bloomberg News economics editor. She's also tennis expert, in-house tennis expert at Bloomberg. Well, our next guest needs no introduction. You know him from the Tennis Channel as a correspondent for 60 Minutes from his many books, including Glory Days, the Summer of 1984, and the 90 Days that Changed Sports and Culture Forever. He also joins us pretty much each year at the U.S. Open. We've got John Wertheim with us. How are you? Good. Good to be here. How are you guys? We're doing pretty well. How's the tennis this year for you? Good.

2:52It's like a three-week event now. So it's Thursday, and it feels like February. Is that because of Fan Week? Yeah, I mean, Fan Week really has gone from sort of this fun novelty for hardcore connoisseurs to this is a three-week event, and they handed out trophies in week one for mixed doubles, and hundreds of thousands of fans came through the gates, and it's really great for tennis. For those of us working, it can be a bit of a slog, but no, it's great. We feel like we're at the halfway point, even though we're only a few hours into round two.

3:24Molly Smith:So as one of these hardcore connoisseurs, I'm going to start using that one. I like that word. Thank you so much. So I will self-proclaimed hardcore connoisseur. I got to hear from you, John. What did you think of the mixed doubles format this year? From one connoisseur to another. Well, I'm interested to hear your, from where I stand, 12 out of 10. Okay, really? Big success. I mean, we sort of had this irony where an actual, the defending champion, so a real committed mixed doubles team won the title over these sort of shotgun marriages of singles players. But, you know, they filled the stadium.

3:57There was great interest. Mixed doubles, it sounds great in theory. It sort of wanted tennis's great virtues as the men and women compete at the same time. Mixed doubles has kind of become a bit of a sideshow. And this tournament figured out how to make it newsworthy and noteworthy. And it was great. Do you think we'll see that from other tournaments because of the success here? I mean, this is tennis in a nutshell. Like, you know, the sincerest form of flattery. I don't think Wimbledon, because of the grass, it's a variable. It would get destroyed.

4:28Molly Smith:Tradition, too. I think the bigger factor than the grass. What about Australian defense? I think Australia is looking very closely. I mean, getting the players on site for three weeks as opposed to two is a bit of a challenge. But, yeah, if Australia doesn't have something similar, I would be shocked. Well, let's talk about the scheduling challenge. It was particularly a nightmare this year. We had the tournaments in Canada and Cincinnati coming into this. some really bizarre scheduling where those finals were played on a Thursday and a Monday, respectively. Didn't know if they were going to get here on time for the mixed doubles.

5:01Molly Smith:Can you tell us a little bit about how packed this tennis calendar is and why this summer in particular was really very jumbled up coming into this U.S. Open? It's like I'm dating myself. Do you remember Tetris? The tennis calendar is just sort of nonstop combinations and permutations, and the players say there are too many events and these tournaments keep popping up, but it's a global sport. So, I mean, it's the great riddle of tennis. It has been ever since I started covering the sport. It has not been solved. I'm not sure overlapping events in Canada and Cincinnati is the end. No, you're right.

5:36We had a final in Cincinnati on Monday. And then this event started Tuesday, and thankfully the Pennsylvania Turnpike was not crowded. No, I mean, even flying private and getting here as quick as you can, it's still logistically, it's a bit of a challenge. Yeah, fortunately, a lot of those players have deals now with these private jet companies. I mean, Iga, hopefully. Exactly.

5:58Molly Smith:I mean, Iga Spiontech's singles final was played at, I believe, 6 p.m. in Cincinnati Monday night. She had a match here in Ash at noon the next day. Pennsylvania turn fact. They've got to figure something out. Exactly. They've got to figure something out. Hey, what kind of toll does that take on the players? I mean, I think people romanticize the life of pro athletes a lot. But if you look at this schedule and you understand these people, and I was going to say in some cases kids, are literally living on the road out of hotel rooms for much of their formative years. Like, that takes a toll. Makes me think of Amanda Nisimova.

6:31Yeah. You reference a player who just basically needed a mental health sabbatical. Just basically said, you know, I'm going to take a break. Maybe I'll come back. Maybe I won't. We're seeing that more and more. I don't know. I'm sure your listeners can relate to this. You can stay at the nicest hotel and they can put a little orchid in the room service. And you know what? It's still not your bed and it's still not your sheets. And it's just there's something that's disruptive. You're dislocated and you can have all the amenities and drivers and people fetching you water. It's still not home. And I think that's something that people, you know, we all know in sports right now, we're seeing how sleep and the study of sleep is getting a lot more emphasis.

7:12does not do great things for your sleep to change time zones and change hotels and different pillows. And at some level, yeah, this is an international tour. This is what you sign up for. Taylor Swift plays all over the world. You can't have it both ways. But the flip side is it's a real challenge. I don't think we talk about it enough. Even with the nicest amenities, it still takes something out of you to be on the road as much as these players are.

7:37Molly Smith:It takes a lot of money to do that, too. So, you know, only people at the top are the ones earning enough to actually like make a living, too. And this is where I wanted to come back, actually, to this mixed doubles tournament, because I think what I would personally love to see and what I want to hear your opinion on this going forward, maybe this is the way to get mixed doubles onto the map by having all the singles players doing it as this glorified exhibition, so to speak. But I think sustainably going forward, we want to see the doubles players. I mean, that was really the beauty of Arani and Favasori winning.

8:08Molly Smith:and would you want to I personally, again, I know I'm the connoisseur here, I would love to see the mixed doubles players playing doubles does this format maybe set the stage to get them back in and get a chance at that bigger prize money? They're the ones who need it. It's a good point. I think it's a fundamental question of tennis of any workplace, right? What is the right sizing? What is the right number of tennis players? What is the right distribution of prize money? And I think getting these singles players to play mixed doubles it was a great coup but what did it entail it meant they had shortened sets they had only 16 players in the draw and it spanned two days and i think if they open the draw up and suddenly it's three days and suddenly it's 32 teams the top stars are just going to say you know what i'm trying to win the big trophy here i'm trying to win the singles trophy it was fun when it was you know i knew it wasn't going to take much out of me but i'm not playing three days of mixed doubles before i try and defend my real title of course so that's where the challenge which has been as a mixed doubles, is that it was played at the end of the tournament, and the singles players kept advancing, and we're like, oh, we're not going to pull out now.

9:11Molly Smith:We're focused on the singles. I want to hear from you this last one here, John. We talked to a lot of fans about how, you know, a lot of people, obviously this is such a marquee New York event. They love coming to the U.S. Open. But a lot of people have grown very frustrated about how crowded, how expensive it's become. You talked to so many of the players. What's their experience like being here? From a play, I mean, it's interesting. You're right. We sort of hit on it. So what's the Yogi Berra-ism? It's so crowded no one goes there anymore? I mean, it's... I said that today. Just me and 70 ,000 of my friends here.

9:41Molly Smith:Exactly. You know, I mean, at some level, like, this is great. This is what all entertainment events want, right? You want high demand. You want ticket prices to go crazy. Something would be really wrong if, you know, they were begging people to come. The players, I think, first of all, they like the prize money. $5 million to the winner,$110 ,000 if you lose in the first round. And as you say, this is an expensive sport. And we see the high end and we see the Carlos Alcaraz and$50 million endorsements. There is a whole cohort of players that are on the other side of the net from Carlos Alcaraz that are taking extra bananas out of the players' lounge so they don't have to pay for breakfast.

10:21It's really not evenly distributed. But I think the players are really, they see the investment here. They see this as a great showcase. I mean, not every event on a Thursday afternoon, pick your random tournament spot. They don't resemble this. They're not, you know, marching bands and tens of thousands of fans. What about from the perspective of fans? Because I've noticed in just, this is my fourth. I've been to more than a half dozen U.S. Opens. Molly, you've been doing the 20, you think?

10:46Molly Smith:I think 20. My first was in 1996. Yeah, so you were two years old. We're coming up on my 30th anniversary. So you've seen it change a lot. A lot. But just in the last three years, I remember getting a ticket, a grounds pass for my wife for$115 day of on Ticketmaster or what have you. I mean, if I look at the prices right now, which I did right before because I'm trying to get her a grounds pass for tomorrow, it's like$400. Yeah. That's prohibitively expensive. And I went by the box office, and they don't have it. They've done a great job of washing their hands of this whole discussion and saying, hey, listen, the market is speaking.

11:20More so than any other year when colleagues came up to me, when friends or even people I'd never met who realized I was going to the U.S. Open, they asked me the same question this year since the pre-sale. What is going on with tickets? Supply meets demand at a very extreme point. You're talking to an economics editor here. I can give you my spiel, my riff, which is, you know, it's fine, right? We have luxury goods. Not everyone gets a Rolex. At some level, like, this is what you want, right? You want the supply curve to look like it does here. I do kind of think that you can't have it both ways.

11:57And there's a lot of talk here about inclusion and you have various tributes and kids. And you come here and it's like, wait, Chicken McNuggets are$26? My grounds pass is$400? It seems to me you can't have it both ways. Either you are this populist event that takes place in a public park and we want everyone to feel welcome. Or you are this commercial and this transactional, which is fine. You know, I get it. We're running a business here, not a philanthropy. But I think it's a little bit strange that they sort of try to play it both ways.

12:28Molly Smith:I mean, I guess that would be their answer to that is fan week, of course, that this is this, you know, couple days where you can come in and watch for free. But now that has also become increasingly a ticketed event as well. That, you know, yeah, it is free to come in here. You can watch the qualifying tournament. You can watch some players practice. You can watch a lot of DJ sets, that's for sure. but like you don't ultimately watch a lot of really what people want to see you know why so so wimbledon does not have dj sets but wimbledon has a lot of this this this sort of high end and you know you you've got the private jet set that that's come in but they also there are 10 000 seats that are set aside for the cures people i mean you know you got to spend the night in a field to get these tickets they know there are 10 000 fans that come through the gates wimbledon this sort of bucket list location and the tickets are like 30 bucks strawberries and cream you know the signature dish, it's like two pounds fifty.

13:19It's like three dollars. And so they've really done a nice job of, yes, you've got your high end and you've got your debenture group and your club seating and you could spend thousands of, you could also spend thirty bucks and have a great day. That's so interesting because it looks from the outside like such an exclusive event and so much more formal and buttoned up. John, we always love hanging out with you. You are a busy guy. Thank you so much for spending so much time with us and being generous with your time. John Wertheim, he, you know, from the Tennis Channel, correspondent for 60 Minutes He's got more than 10 books that he's authored and co-authored, including Glory Days, the summer of 1984, and the 90 days that changed sports and culture forever.

13:53This is Bloomberg Businessweek Daily. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Businessweek Daily coming up after this.

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15:19Tim Stenevich and Molly Smith live at the U.S. Open here in New York City. We're in Queens right now at Flushing Meadows. It's still a windy one, Molly.

15:28Molly Smith:Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. I just got distracted. I'm sorry. Andre Rublev is walking by in front of us. I am distracted everywhere. That's okay. That's part of being here. I mean, that's what makes the U.S. Open magical. that you're just sitting. I mean, granted, we're in the media area, so we're close to the players. But the way that Andre got here was he walked through the entire crowd. Yes, he was flanked by some security. But if you're out there, you can get pretty close to these players, which is pretty cool about the U.S. Open. I mean, our seat is really, I would say, the most accessible to the players from where we are.

15:58You've got to stay here. You can't get up and go and talk to the players, just so you know. I'm good.

16:02Molly Smith:I mean, we've got a great guest here to stick with. We do. So I'm pretty excited. Let's talk a little media here, because last week, ESPN, which is the largest sports media company in the world, did something that just a few years ago, I think many observers thought it would never do. They undercut the traditional pay TV business, which generates billions of dollars in profits for its owner, Walt Disney. Yet it was time to just go straight over the top. We've got Tim Bunnell with us, senior vice president of programming for ESPN. He joins us here on site at the US Open in Flushing, New York. So in my earlier career, I covered media and streaming.

16:37And one thing that analysts told me over and over again was live sports holds the bundle together. And in a few very short years, that narrative has seemed to shift. And I think this is a sea change moment for ESPN to say, you know what, in order to watch everything, you don't need to pay a pay TV provider. What's the thinking here? Yeah, look, I think it's, I would agree that sports holding the bundle together is an accurate description. But I think what we're seeing now is as you aggregate services, whether it's Peacock or whether it's Paramount Plus or whether it's the ESPN direct-to-consumer offering.

17:12We're starting to see aggregation in a different way. But I think where we feel we've done well is manage that transition that you referenced from a 500-channel universe. Because when direct-to-consumer offerings first were sort of a thing, the leagues were doing their own services, I think that the feeling at the time was, why doesn't ESPN go out and they should just become the Netflix of sports. There's a very good reason we didn't do that right away. And you cited it, Tim, that we were walking away from billions of dollars of revenue and you have to kind of manage your existing golden goose business with the future.

17:51Well, you also had those negotiations that in those long-term rights agreements that you've made with leagues that sort of kept things together too, right? Yeah. I mean, those deals typically, particularly for the U.S. sports, as we try to do as long-term deals as we can and i think the understanding going into them is the world's going to given the pace of change in the media business the world's going to change it's going to look very different by the time these deals you know expire and so we've had to kind of you know whether it was the launch of espn plus or our direct-to-consumer service you know more recently um you had to kind of manage that transition within deal terms and that's what these partnerships and these

18:25Molly Smith:league relationships are all about let's come back to that just for our listeners who maybe don't know the difference between what is the ESPN direct-to-consumer app now and ESPN Plus? Yeah so actually one contains the other is the way to think of it so the ESPN direct-to-consumer app simply enough is all of our video services available in one place direct to the consumer that includes all of our linear networks it includes ESPN and ABC and ESP what we know today is ESPN Plus and so when we launched the Plus service number of years ago it was didn't include any of the linear networks. It was just incremental programming that we, you know, anchored by UFC and a bunch of other big properties.

19:03But the direct-to-consumer product takes ESPN Plus and all of the networks and available content we have and puts them in one place. That's called ESPN Unlimited. You can also still subscribe to just ESPN Plus, called the ESPN Select Package. So if you're only, you know, we would prefer that people not do that. We'd actually like them to go for the full package. But if you're only interested in making it up Bundesliga or something, that's your passion for sports. We have all the matches on ESPN Plus and you could do just that as well. You know, pre-COVID when retailers were trying to figure out how to respond to the rise of online shopping, there was this sort of thing that people said, which is, okay, what can we provide in the store that you can't replicate online?

19:49So Lululemon was doing yoga classes and stuff to try to build a brand and build an audience. I feel like there's an opportunity with a direct-to-consumer media offering where you can offer something that you can't offer in a traditional pay TV package. We saw that with Peacock in the Olympics, where you could kind of choose different camera angles and watch a bunch of different stuff. I see that being, and granted, I've been watching the US Open linear on ESPN. I see it being promoted, the direct-to-consumer app being promoted in a way that says, wait a second, I kind of would rather be watching this on the app because I get to watch whatever I want.

20:23Yeah, look, I mean, I think some of it is just having all of the content available in one place just builds consumer choice. I think the other big piece of the app launch and of the product launch last week is the improvements to the ESPN app and the expansion of the app. So whether it's some of the stats and data and fantasy and betting info you can opt into, or the multi-view experience that we're providing, SportsCenter4U, vertical video, and there are a bunch of things that came along with what I would call the content offering at the same time. And so if you're asking sort of what is it that says to the consumer, I really need this product apart from just the content it's provided, it's all these features and functionalities that come with it.

21:04Molly Smith:So with the U.S. Open specifically, you guys have had the broadcast rights here for a number of years. This year got a bit longer with the mixed doubles at the beginning, a lot more programming that you guys probably had to offer. Can you talk about what those conversations were like with the USTA when they were talking to you guys about this format, how that goes into planning the rights and the deals around this? Because more airtime, that's got to be a lot more work for you guys. Yeah, and a lot more fun. So I would say that really there was two big innovations that affected us directly. One was the Sunday start, which we were totally in favor of.

21:40I mean, we've talked about this before, Molly, that I always felt like the U.S. Open beginning on a Monday morning at 11 a.m. It just began quietly. And this is New York City. Like, it should be a festive opening. And so that Sunday telecast and that Sunday start, in addition to being good for the tournament as a whole, gives us a window on ABC on Sunday afternoon. We're able to program it there. That allows us to be on ABC opening Sunday, middle Sunday and the men's final. And then and then the other big thing was obviously the mixed doubles. So that's another one where all of the Grand Slams that we work with talk about building a week that leads into the tournament that means something.