Quotes - Winston-Salem Open Press Conference
12/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Dec. 13, 2010
Winston-Salem Open at Wake Forest University
Press Conference Quotes
December 13, 2010
Don Flow
"It is my pleasure to announce some exciting news for our community. We have arrived here today as a community because of the extraordinary support that has been provided by so many generous people and hundreds of volunteers in the community. Hundreds of people have given their time, talent and treasure to make this happen. At our first tournament 24 years ago, The Flow Motors Invitational, there were three guys who really came together to make this happen - Harold Pollard, Doug Roberts and Gray Smith. They're really the three musketeers. They've done everything together now for 24 years. Our original partners were Wake Forest University, Sara Lee/Hanes and the Winston-Salem Journal. That tournament in 1999, and we were bold enough to think that we could actually get a USTA/ATP sanctioned event here. We were unable to acquire a tournament, but he was sufficiently impressed with our community to invite us to bid for a Davis Cup tie. In 2001, many of the people gathered here in this room joined us in a successful bid for the tie against India. It was one of the first international sporting events held in the United States after 9/11, and it was an extremely emotional experience for most of us. From that we developed a much deeper relationship with the USTA. In 2007, we were successful in our bid for the Davis Cup tie against Spain. The support from our community was spectacular. In 2008, we were successful again in our Davis Cup bid against France. We were determined to secure an ATP World Tour event in Winston-Salem. There is one problem. It's pretty tough to play an event without a stadium. You can't play a tournament without the courts. The past several years we've been in discussions with Wake Forest about the possibility of building a tennis stadium at the Wake Forest sports complex. When we were contacted by the USTA this fall to consider the possibility of acquiring a tournament, we immediately sat down with Wake Forest. President Nathan Hatch and athletic director Ron Wellman were very supportive in the concept of partnering to build a stadium."
"We decided to bid for the ATP Men's World Tour 250 Tournament that operates in the 34th week of the tennis calendar. Today, I am pleased to announce that Winston-Salem Professional Tennis - a non-profit 501C entity - has secured and purchased this tournament. The inaugural Winston-Salem Open at Wake Forest University will be played in Winston-Salem during the week of August 21, 2011 on the courts that will be built by Wake Forest. The tournament will be part of the U.S. Open Series. The total prize money with $625,000. These courts will be located between the Indoor Tennis Center and BB&T Field. The tournament will be broadcast by the Tennis Channel and ESPN2 and the finals will be televised on CBS Sports. The event will be broadcast internationally, bringing Winston-Salem into many more households around the globe each year. All the funds that were used to acquire this tournament were from the private sector. Any operating surplus will be reinvested in our community. We will work with the Forsyth County School System and North Carolina tennis to develop a number of educational and sport initiatives that will focus on our middle schools. This major, international sporting event now effectively belongs to this community in perpetuity."
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines
"On behalf of city council and the citizens, I want to thank Don Flow for his personal involvement and work in making this happen. You can't make this happen without the people who make our city a much better place. This announcement today clearly moves our city forward in creating the energy, vitality and enthusiasm that we need to continue to grow. It helps the city tremendously to have organizations like this and events like this and a new tennis facility like this. It adds to the mosaic that makes this such a special place."
USTA Chief Professional Tournament Officer Jim Curley
"The USTA goes back a ways with Don, and it would be hard to find a more committed individual to the sport of tennis than Don Flow. We wish we could clone him and bring him to other part of the country, but we're not quite there yet. We brought three Davis Cup ties to Winston-Salem in 2001, 2007 and 2008. In the 100+ year history of the Davis Cup, I don't think we've come to the same city in consecutive years. The tournament has found a great deal of local support here, and we're very pleased to be a part of this event on the campus of Wake Forest University."
ATP Executive Chairman and President Adam Helfant
"We're very excited about this new partnership and the prospect of a fantastic event at Wake Forest - a university which obviously has a very rich sporting history. Although it has been a while, North Carolina is no stranger to hosting ATP events. Charlotte and Pinehurst played host to the ATP's U.S. clay court championships between 1991-1996 before that event moved to Orlando and then Houston. I'd like to thank Don Flow for bringing ATP Tennis to Winston-Salem. We're thrilled about our new home here."
Wake Forest University President Dr. Nathan O. Hatch
"It's a great honor for Wake Forest to serve as the host for this tournament. We are only one of two American universities that host ATP Tennis tournaments. We are excited to bring spectators from all around the country and all around the world to our campus to meet our students. They will then be able to grasp what we so value about Wake Forest University. The date of the tournament is ideal. It will be the week our students return back to campus, and it will be a week before the beginning of football season. We know that the entire university community will embrace this event as they did with the Davis Cup in recent years. With that support, we hope to make this one of the premier tennis tournament in North America."
Wake Forest University Director of Athletics Ron Wellman
"The courts will be right behind the East stands of BB&T Field and the indoor tennis facility. We have not dug the first spade of dirt yet, but in the next seven and a half months you will begin to seen tennis courts rise out of the ground, and what a complex it is going to be. We will build 11 or 12 tennis courts that we believe will comprise as fine a tennis facility as there is in the ACC and maybe even university or college tennis. We will be able to use the facility for way beyond what we are talking about here today. That has us extremely excited. When you think about this area of the city - the football stadium, the baseball park, the coliseum and now the tennis facility all in this small quadrant - this is quickly evolving into the athletic area of the city. If you think about the vision that we have for Deacon Boulevard and how this feeds into that vision, this will become the entertainment district of the city eventually, as well."