USTA Managing Director of Event Services Chris Studley Talks Food and Drink at the US Open

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**Tim Stenovec** (0:07)
It's about tennis here at the US Open, but it's not just about tennis. Anyone who has been here understands that the tennis gets almost as much attention as the food and drink. And the man who makes that happen is Chris Studley. He is back with us. He's managing director of Event Services for the USTA. He joins us here at the US Open. Chris, you did not bring any chicken nuggets.

**Chris Studley** (0:27)
I'm so sorry.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:29)
Caviar nuggets.

**Molly Smith** (0:30)
Or Heineken's, but we got those earlier.

**Chris Studley** (0:31)
We did get those earlier. They're delicious, aren't they? They're pretty good.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:34)
Can you just give us, we talked to the folks at Bacardi yesterday, just some staggering numbers of expecting close to 800,000 Honey Deuces sold this year. What are the other numbers that you can tell us about what goes into the food and drink at an event like this?

**Chris Studley** (0:48)
You know, everything's up this year. The fans are up everything. We did over 300,000 people during fan week, so you're seeing more sales across the board just naturally. But the Honey Deuces number is always like the tracker, right? So that 800,000 number, it would be a jump from the 738 we did last year. Fans love it.
Across the board, the salt tank experience, I think everybody's seen that.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:10)
Mine was too long for us today.

**Molly Smith** (1:12)
We were hoping you were going to bring us one.

**Chris Studley** (1:14)
We could probably make that happen a little later. We'll get one dropped off.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:17)
I will tell you that we'll have to pay for it guys.

**Chris Studley** (1:19)
So you know, we pay for everything. Absolutely. But no, they usually do about 300 sandwiches in the city a day, and they're doing over 1,500 a day.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:28)
They do 300 sandwiches a day in the city.

**Chris Studley** (1:30)
And then they close. Oh my God.

**Molly Smith** (1:32)
I think I saw it from the founder who's been out here. He was saying, what is it, like 1,500 pounds of beef they go through every day or something crazy?

**Chris Studley** (1:40)
Yes.

**Molly Smith** (1:41)
I mean, we've talked a lot about influencers on this show. And yes, a lot of them are out there with the ring lights, showing you the outfits, what to wear to the US Open. There's a lot of food influencers too.

**Chris Studley** (1:51)
There are. There are. And to touch on the influencer thing for a second, we have a code of conduct and we've educated our staff to try to make that all stop. And the ring lights you're saying, playing during points. Exactly. There's a whole new element of fan that's out too, that's helped grow in the game of tennis. And we want to make sure people are enjoying it properly in the way it's meant to be. So never want to impact the fan experience whatsoever.
But there is the food influencer that's out. And I mean, it's a culinary experience when you're here watching tennis. So we do enjoy it.

**Tim Stenovec** (2:20)
How do you guys choose the restaurants that are here and that are allowed to be here?

**Chris Studley** (2:24)
Yeah, so we work with our partners, Levy Restaurants, who run a number of major arenas, stadiums across the country. And they're best in class in everything they do.
And we look for what is the latest in food, right? I mean, in your own personal lives, you probably experience different foods. And sometimes you're into things, sometimes you're not. And we'll look at what's hot at the moment and also what fans are craving. When you come to the US Open, you're spending more time here than you would at any other sporting event, right? You go to a baseball game, they've actually sped it up. And it used to be one of the longer length of stays. Hockey, football, you know.

**Tim Stenovec** (2:55)
Well, let me hold on. I just want to pause there because not everybody listening or watching right now has had the experience of being here. But just to give some context, you could get an 11 o'clock entry here during this week and you could likely be here until 10 p.m. watching tennis with that one ticket, even if you don't have a night pass.

**Chris Studley** (3:12)
You can even come at 9.3 in the morning this week. You know, we don't switch our gates until 11 till next Thursday.
So, you're going to spend multiple meal periods here. So we want to have the best offering in all of sports and enable you to try one thing. Let's say you go to Ms. Naan, which is new with us this year at Court 7, and you want to try their special green beans. And I am not a healthy eater, but they're amazing, so I do recommend them. And then you go to Saltank later on for dinner. I mean, you can have those great experiences across.