Sports Marketing: An Inside Look at the U.S. Open
Harlan Stone, sports marketing pioneer and innovator, and former Chief Business Officer for the United States Tennis Association (USTA), will provide an inside look at the business of the U.S. Open. He will provide an insider’s view of what this entails and how he redefined marketing for the Open at the USTA. He’ll also share some fun stories and trivia sure to entertain us all.
Harlan Stone has spent 40 years in the sports marketing industry and is widely recognized as one of the leading practitioners in the sponsorship discipline. Stone began his career as a promoter of “Legends” tennis events, and then became the Director of Sports Marketing for Golf Digest and Tennis (New York Times Magazines) in 1985 at the age of 27.
Following two years at the Magazines, Stone became the VP Marketing for Advantage International which later became known as Octagon. Stone became President and one of 5 partners when the firm was sold to IPG in 1997. In his 13 years at Octagon, he led the growth of its Marketing division to one of the largest sports marketing companies in the world.
Stone moved within the IPG family to become CEO of Momentum Worldwide in 2000 (part of McCann Erickson) and then in 2002 joined Velocity Sports and Entertainment. As one of five partners, Stone help drive the growth of Velocity across all sponsorship disciplines, and led a variety of client assignments including USTA, Cirque du Soleil, Little League Baseball, Visa, USA Track and Field among others.
After the sale of Velocity in 2007 to Aegis/Dentsu, Stone did a brief stint as President of Major League Gaming and then was recruited to become the Chief Business Officer for the USTA where he was responsible for all commercial aspects of the USTA’s business, most importantly the US Open. Stone set records in securing sponsorship during his tenure and doubled domestic television rights primarily through a landmark $825 million ESPN rights agreement. In 2011 Stone started SJX Partners, which quickly became one of the country’s leading sponsorship sales organizations. SJX was acquired by London based Chime Sports Marketing (CSM) in 2014 and Stone remained Chairman of Chime until the end of 2019. In 2021 Stone was named a recipient of the Sports Business Journal “CHAMPIONS OF SPORTS BUSINESS” award, annually given to “Pioneers and Innovators” who have made “a distinct and sustainable impact on the sports industry.” He was recently inducted into the New England Tennis Hall of Fame.
Harlan is now partly retired spending time on local charity work and occasional consulting. Harlan has 3 grown children and 2 grandchildren, continues to play competitive age group tennis, and splits time between San Diego and Darien, Connecticut.
Speaker arranged by Frank Gallagher
Speaker Summary
Harlan gave a lively, entertaining, and informative talk on his tennis marketing career and especially, his success marketing the U.S Open tennis event. He explained how he “accidently” got into tennis marketing at the Tennis Hall of Fame which became the launching pad for a series of progressively larger positions with several sports marketing companies during which he became known as an innovator and leader in the industry.
Harlan talked about creating the Legends Tennis Event in New Canaan that attracted many of the world’s former leading players (some of whom flew coach from Australia to play for a modest money pool). And he told an entertaining story (at least in hindsight and to the DMA audience) of how the tournament’s run came to an end after 14 years due to the disruptive behavior of one newcomer to the tournament at an otherwise friendly and collegial event.
Harlan noted that the U.S Open is the largest annually attended sports event in the world and that 3 things drive its success: its timing at the end of the summer/the re-start to the “business year” in the fall; the extraordinary audience (average HH income of $253K); and its presence in the business capital of the world that drives sponsorship value. Together, this makes The Open more than a tennis tournament – it’s a “happening”. He talked to the longevity of the title sponsors (and how the sponsorships work for each of them), highlighted by stories about the resolution of a conflict between AmEx and JPMorgan Chase and an ultimately unnecessary trip to Dubai to finalize the Emirates Airline sponsorship.
Stone talked to the 6 elements that drive sponsorship programs and how they have contributed to revenue growth from $203M in 2003 to $472M in 2023 (generating a profit of $250M in 2023). He compared the U.S Open revenue to other major sports and how it exceeds the revenue of essentially all others and compares to that of the average NFL team. He explained the decision to open the bidding for the TV rights for The Open to fund the critical roof for the Flushing Meadows facility (at a cost of $200M), with ESPN paying $825M for the rights package. Harlan closed his comments by noting that the next big revenue opportunity for the USTA is to build a new stadium with up to 200 luxury boxes worth $1M apiece for the two-week event.
Harlan then ran a lively trivia contest focusing on fun facts about The Open where DMA members won U.S. Open merchandise. This was followed by an engaging Q&A session that demonstrated the degree of interest in the topic and Harlan’s insightful perspectives and entertaining style.