LAVER CUP
Is the event production handled in-house?
We have a little over 20 people who work full time, year-round, on the Laver Cup. When we started out, Tennis Australia came on as partners. They have incredible experience in event production and broadcast, and we have used their people on those elements of the Laver Cup; which enabled us to ramp up from being a brand-new event to being best in class in both those areas right away.
How has Laver Cup’ s production evolved since it was last staged in London?
In the earliest years of the Laver Cup, we were learning what really resonated with the players, the fans, and broadcasters. We made some great decisions off the bat. Obviously, the black court is unique – we picked it so it would stand out as different from everything else, and it really fits with our premium presentation. Other key decisions included putting the team benches adjacent to the court and having all the players out there during the tournament. That has become one of the signature elements of the Laver Cup.
We also invested heavily in the digital boards all the way around the court, the lights and overall production, the level of which has since influenced other tournaments.
In terms of the evolution, the event has become much more sponsor driven. It’ s attracted new brands, many of which are new to tennis. We ' ve really grown our fan zone and a lot of our sponsors create activations there.
You ' ll also see much more focus on the bench activity, which is something people really love. We have provided access to listening devices in the stadium so fans can hear what the players are saying on the benches. We also have additional streams that are available to fans so they can watch either bench while they ' re at home. There is huge demand for behindthe-scenes action, so there ' s been a lot of focus on creating that content – giving fans access to things that they can ' t see or hear from their seat. Some of that is
Steve Zacks CEO Laver Cup
exclusively available to our sponsors as something they can provide to their guests as added value.
Why is the build nine days long? It’ s like a puzzle in terms of how everything is loaded in and then constructed. We ' re going into a building that’ s primarily a concert arena, and we ' re turning it into a tennis venue.
We bring in and build our own stands, we transform the back-ofhouse to make it ideal for the player experience and we bring in our own courts. We have two identical courts that are stored all year long in Hungary. It ' s a wooden surface court, consisting of 460 plates that collectively weigh 25 tonnes. We bring that in and assemble it there along with everything from the lights to the scoreboard. We completely transform the arena bowl, hospitality areas and back-of-house. We try and create a consistent environment, and experience, even though we ' re travelling to a new location each year. There ' s no question, The O2 is a fantastic arena with great amenities, but we do a lot of work to make it look like the Laver Cup everywhere we go.
Back of house that means redoing the locker rooms and setting up gyms – all the things that the tennis players need to compete. The event starts on the Friday, but the players arrive on Tuesday and they want to practice, so we have to be ready to go on Tuesday, even as some of the back of house things are still being built. We set up our second court adjacent to the arena bowl in a dedicated space that we transform into a practice area.
What aspects of the Laver Cup’ s return to London are you most looking forward to?
There are great memories from the last time we were there. The O2 is one of the world’ s truly special venues, and London is a great city. AEG and The O2; you can ' t get much better than that – we know we are going to feel very comfortable there, everything ' s high quality and it ' ll be a great event.
● KEY EVENT SUPPLIERS Designwerk – overlay Fortis Services – security Always Express – transportation logistics and storage
accessaa. co. uk 27