Over the past nine years, the Laver Cup has grown from a new concept co-launched by Roger Federer in 2017 into one of the sport’s most recognizable global events, and has successfully rotated between major cities in Europe and North America, helping attract new audiences and strengthen its international profile.
The Laver Cup is now an ATP sanctioned event in the calendar and broadcast across an extensive international network covering well over 100 countries and territories through partners including the Tennis Channel, Eurosport, ESPN, beIN Sports, and others, giving it truly worldwide reach.
The tournament has now secured major sponsorship agreements, consistently features many of its biggest stars, generates significant social media engagement, and draws fans from around the world both in person and through broadcast and digital platforms.
With the ninth event at London’s o2 now complete, Laver Cup Chairman Tony Godsick and CEO Steve Zacks look back on yet another successful competition with five sold out sessions, speak about the key ingredients required in staging it, and preview the tenth anniversary event next year in Los Angeles.
[Questions by Todd Woodbridge]
Q: Is the Laver Cup everything that you perceived it would become when you and Roger had that chat in the car?
TONY: “We have completely exceeded our expectations. We really had no idea what we were conceptualizing or creating when we started the Laver Cup. We knew that people would come out and buy tickets, because we had the biggest stars in the world playing, but we had no idea if the format would hit, if sponsors would enjoy it, if the fans would come back. We’re doing great. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Q: Can you tell us about the impact of the Team Captains and why they are so important?
TONY: “Most of these players would never have had an opportunity to rub shoulders, get coached by or experience Yannick Noah – who is one of the most incredible personalities in the history of the sport, and he got all these guys singing [at the Team Europe team dinner]. That’s exactly the kind of stuff, when Roger and Steve and I were thinking who would be the next captains. Same thing on the court: Andre’s out there, I think Andre was the first person here on Sunday [before the event] because he wanted to get ready for the mentoring and the coaching of the players.”
Q: It’s the first time the Laver Cup has been back at a venue, London’s o2, where four years ago we were able to celebrate the retirement of Roger. Why return here?
STEVE: “It’s great to be here. We’ve had a wonderful partnership with AEG since the first Laver Cup held here in 2022. We do a pretty significant transformation of the arena. This is one of the great venues in the world. It’s a great showcase for the Laver Cup, and we’re able to move in and get set up very quickly, it’s a great operating team.”
Q. What is it about the event that makes it so appealing for these top players to keep coming back?
TONY: “I think each person plays for a different reason. Obviously one of the most important things is rivals becoming teammates. There is no other platform in tennis where they have an excuse to be on the same team with people that they’re battling, you know, 51 weeks of the year against.
So, I think that’s one of the things that make relationships. Also, the mentorship, they have an opportunity to be coached by Pat Rafter and Andre Agassi, Yannick Noah and Tim Henman, and before, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.
I think people like the competition, they like where we’ve been. These players don’t get a chance to play in these incredible arenas, like Carlos Alcaraz, he’s never played at the o2 Arena. He summed it up perfectly: this event brings “joy” to him, it brings joy to tennis for him. People play for different reasons, but I think the presentation of the event, the camaraderie, is something that I hear a lot about.”
STEVE: “So, I would add that the players come here to compete. We’ve learned from all of them that it’s a different kind of pressure than they have when they’re competing for themselves. They’re competing for their teammates, for a guy like Andre Agassi who wants to win very badly at everything he does. It’s a very different thing.
Yes, it’s not the same as every other tournament on the tour, but at this tournament, there is a different kind of pressure. When you put six incredible athletes against six others for one prize, they really go at it.”
TONY: “Yes, the peer pressure is real. When you’re playing for Andre Agassi and he’s on the bench, and Pat Rafter, another No. 1, is right behind you and you have all these players and they’re playing for prize money, these guys are all like pushing. When the legend Rod Laver and others are sitting there watching, there’s no chance for anything but hard play. The peer pressure is immense. And we’ve seen that year after year.”
Q: Are you considering any kind of changes to it the Laver Cup going forward? For example, could it be every other year or could there be a mixed element?
TONY: “We were inspired by the Ryder Cup, because we saw rivals becoming teammates, it works in golf but they have a 100-year head start on us. We are slowly approaching our tenth year. We didn’t know if the format was going to stick or work, but it actually really works and makes for a competitive weekend each and every weekend. Combined events already exist, for example The United Cup, the Hopman Cup, World TeamTennis.
We will tinker with things as we continue to innovate, but changing the format or changing the composition of the teams is not one of the things we are thinking about doing. But there are always ways to improve. We’re obsessed with detail and trying to provide an incredible experience, not just for the players but for the fans, for the media.
We want to get closer to the ATP Tour, and attract players that maybe haven’t played and get them to play. We want to do things and present the players in an atmosphere that you don’t normally see them. We’re not trying to replace what already goes on. We’re trying to be additive, and I think we’re doing that.
We’re investing a lot of money in the business every single year because we’re looking to build a brand of global property over the long term, and so far very successfully.”
Q. Tell us about the players changing over the last decade at this event?
TONY: “We have some history, but we have a new crop of players now. I promise you there are players out there right now that don’t have a major that are going to win a major, and they’re going to win Masters 1000s. They’re out there, and they’re coming. We hope we get more of the players out there on tour to come and join us.”
STEVE: “I remember Novak watching Roger and Rafa together in 2017 and saying, ‘hey, I want to be part of that’, and that inspired him to come. We hear from a lot of the young players now, since we’ve been at it for quite some time, they’ve watched the Laver Cup for years, and that was one of their goals to play and how excited they are to be here. As an example, Rafa Jodar playing this year and Joao Fonseca last year.
It’s great for us when we have someone like Sascha Zverev, who is now a record seven-time participant or Casper Ruud who’s six years in a row, and also a mix of players who haven’t done it, and that’s part of the mentoring too. But seeing it on TV, they understand the expectation. They come here ready to go with the new camaraderie, team and mentorship”.
Q. What can you tell us about next year’s 10-year anniversary in Los Angeles and beyond?
STEVE: “We’re very excited about the [NBA Team] Clippers’ stadium. The Intuit Dome is one of the most innovative, new and award-winning venues. It’s highly digital. It is built for the fan experience. It’s much more vertical, so the views are fantastic for tennis. It’s built for NBA, it has this digital ring called the Halo that is best-in-class.
We expect that we’re going to have a big turnout from the whole entertainment industry. Certainly, we will look for collaborations there. We find a lot of the tennis players just love going to NBA arenas. They follow basketball, a lot of their favourite players are there and they know the history, so that makes it another exciting element.”
TONY: “L.A. is the sporting capital of the world right now. They had some World Cup games, had the Super Bowl. In San Francisco last year, we were sandwiched in between the NBA All-Star Game and the Super Bowl. That’s pretty good. And you have the LA28 Olympics coming up after us. So, there’s a huge attention to that market, not just with sports but with media and culture, music, fashion. We’re really excited.
As we approach our tenth year, we’re looking at all different options where to go in the future, how to make sure that we modernize what we’re doing, how do make sure we continue to get the fan interaction, and we find holes and voids where they need tennis.”
Q. Are there logistical challenges with staging this event in South America or Asia?
TONY: “In any event or in any sort of project or platform, you’ve got to innovate, change, adapt, and that’s what we’re doing. Sure, we’d love to bring this to Africa, would love to bring it to South America. We’ve got to find an indoor arena that can actually handle us for a period of time that has all the specifications.
It’s very hard to find facilities that have a certain amount of seats in a neighbourhood or a country where your sponsors would like us to go. There are so many factors from when we originally conceptualized the idea. But if you see all around the world in some different places, they are building some state-of-the-art arenas, facilities, areas, entertainment areas, and the good news is we are looking at all of them. We hope to be able to go visit other markets at some point.”
Q. Do you have an idea when Roger might be involved as a captain?
TONY: “So, one day Roger says he is ready to be captain, the next day he says, ‘I can’t be a captain for ten years’. He’s got four kids and a lot going on. What I can tell you is one day he will be captain, for sure. Nothing is certain though. I know that he behaves and acts behind the scenes to Steve and I like a captain, he loves this event. I’d love to see him be a captain at some point.
Andre is doing a great job. He takes this so seriously, and so does Pat Rafter. Yannick Noah has been just absolutely amazing, and Tim Henman has been fantastic and great. We’ve got two good captains now. Who knows, John McEnroe or Bjorn Borg can be back again as captains. That’s the beauty of this thing.”
