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Pilot Pen Move Doesn’t Worry Worcester
by Paul Bass | Aug 29, 2008 2:48 pm
(4) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Sports
The company’s moving. The tennis tournament’s not.
At least not for two years. And, officials predict, probably not after that, either.
As the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament brought hot tennis and cool evening entertainment to Westville’s Connecticut Tennis Center this month for an 11th year, local employees of the Pilot Pen company were told by supervisors that their jobs are moving south.
Company officials told the 90-odd employees at the Trumbull corporate headquarters that their office jobs (in marketing, credit, data, accounting, graphic arts) will gradually be shifted over the next two years to Pilot Pen’s 270,000 square-foot manufacturing complex in Jacksonville, Florida.
But that’s the pen company, not the tennis tournament that bears the same name.
Both company chairman Ron Shaw and tennis tournament director Anne Worcester said Friday that there’s no need to worry about the likes of Amelie Mauresmo (pictured above), James Blake or Marin Cilic following along to the Sunshine State to return serves the week before the U.S. Open.
“For us the location of the headquarter would have no bearing on the sponsorship contract,” said Worcester (pictured in file photo).
Pilot Pen spends more than $1 million to serve as lead sponsor of the $4.8 million annual tournament, the last stop on the USTA tour before the U.S. open.
Its lead sponsorship contract runs two more years.
Connecticut Professional Tennis, the organization that runs the tournament under a lease with the USTA, is talking with Pilot Pen about extending that contract.
Location, Location, Location
If Pilot Pen decides not to continue, the tournament would then seek another sponsor, not seek to move the tournament, according to Worcester.
The New Haven location, so close to New York, is vital to the tournament’s success because the U.S. open takes place the following week, Worcester said.
“That’s the asset we have,” she said.
“Could somebody offer us jobs in California [to move the tournament there]? There’s no obligation to stay. But as a practical matter, the only way this tournament is going to be successful the week before the U.S. Open is to be proximate to New York … Players have 60 tournaments in 30 countries 11 months of the year to choose from. The only way they’re going to play the week before is to make it easy” by being close by.
Local Booster
A sponsor’s decision to back a national tennis tournament generally has to do with network television exposure, not with local ties, both Worcester and Shaw said.
“The company has nothing to do with running the event. All we do is put up the big bucks to put our names on everything” and be seen on ESPN and CBS, Shaw said. “You don’t want to be the title sponsor unless you have television coverage. If you have television coverage, it doesn’t matter where the company is.”
On the other hand, a local tie did lead to Pilot Pen’s sponsorship of New Haven’s tournament: Shaw, Pilot Pen’s longtime president, lives here. He loves tennis.
In the mid-‘80s he had Pilot Pen sponsor a lower-profile tournament on Yale’s courts for “young kids that just turned pro.”
“During that time I got this wild middle-of-the-night idea,” Shaw said. “The amount of press I was getting with players nobody knew — imagine how much we could get with a big-time event.”
So Pilot Pen proceeded to sponsor a tournament for three years in Palm Springs, California.
Fast forward to the 1990s. The state of Connecticut spent $18 million to build a tennis stadium in Westville (under the direction of New Havener John DeStefano, who was between government jobs). The stadium was built to host a USTA tennis tournament. At the time the sponsor was Volvo.
Volvo later dropped out. Shaw had Pilot Pen assume the lead sponsorship of a revived tournament, which has been running for 11 years now.
Shaw since retired as Pilot Pen’s president. He remains its board chairman until next April 30.
He said it’s up to his successor whether to have Pilot Pen continue to sponsor the tournament beyond 2010. The fact that the company will have left Connecticut will have no bearing on that decision, he predicted.
Attendance dropped and the tourney lost money at the Pilot Pen tournament this year in the face of competition from the Olympics for both players and viewers. Shaw noted that four years from now that won’t be a problem: The London Olympics will take place two weeks before the Pilot Pen.
Or whatever it’s called then.
Post a Comment
Comments
posted by: walt bradley on August 29, 2008 3:18pm
How about we just let the 90 families keep their incomes and we scrap the tournament. This thing has been a joke the last several years. When the city incorporated the molson / miller fest and actually made a deal out of it, it was cool.
However since the festival was axed, and for some reason the city or whoever the hell actually calls the shots there - nixed concerts, the stadium has been nothing more than a landmark i give to out of town friends coming to visit me, and the tournament has drawn the interests of dozens of people through the region.
Destefano was one of the guys who supposedly helped bring this thing here, yet he ingnores the potential of the sight 11.5 months a year as an income generator for us. He should have kept the colliseum and blown op the tennis center.
Viva the New Haven Ninjas!!
posted by: Steve on August 29, 2008 9:16pm
The Connecticut Tennis Center should get more use, but regardless it needs to be supported and not dismissed.
However, the Coliseum comment is what got me to type in. We should still have our Coliseum, not just for the hockey team he mentioned, and the arena football team that was also there- and the circus, wrestling, shows, and for local sports. It was also one of the last venues to see diverse crowds together for entertainment downtown.
With the 325,000 people that went to the Coliseum each year, you would think we would still have wanted that for New Haven. With more people living downtown and with the need for large shelters, etc in this post 9/11 world, even a smaller New Haven Coliseum makes a lot of sense.
posted by: Peter on August 30, 2008 11:07am
The tennis tourney only ran properly with Jim Westhall at the helm. He was quite a promoter.UNfortunately he was promised a bill of goods including major local sponsorships which never panned out. Therefore, he lost money and was forced to sell the tournament
Remember top notch players, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, MIchael Chang,Ivan Lendl, JImmy Connors, and even John McEnroe played th efirst year. Mr Westhall had all the famous hall of famers including Rod Laver attending the event. Mr Westhall had major sponsorships with Polo Adidas Reebok and others throughout the years and they gave thousands of dollars worth of apparel to the volunteers.
The current owners do not want to spend money on the players, thereby, the revenues have fallen and if it weren’t for Pilot Pen corporation, the lights would be dark forever at the Tennis Center
As far as television goes, Mr Shaw says that he likes the exposure on television. Well the tourney pays to have it televised and the ratings are pathetic.
If the tournament wants to survive they need to pay the likes of Nadal. Roddick and others,otherwise don’t charge box holders $2400 for a box with inferior tennis. The New Haven public deserves good tennis
