Meeting Dr.Dale Caldwell : The impact of tennis on communities.

After our 13 hour trip to arrive to New York, we arrived at the Marriott Hotel in Manhattan at 7:30 pm to meet up with our professor Deepak and possibly go out to eat and go to sleep because it was a long trip.

But it didn’t happen that way. In fact, the moment we got in to the hotel to see Deepak, he told us we had 10 minutes to prepare questions and interview his good friend and business partner Dr Dale Caldwell and his daughter Ashley.

It was an incredible moment as we didn’t expect this at all, we had to be prepared and be ready, it was the best start ever for our New York experience.

Dr Caldwell is a motivational speaker and executive director of the Rothman Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in New Jersey. He also teaches smart innovative business.

He told us that in the US, big companies are good because they have the government’s help but the small businesses that are useful too are underrated and not valued as they should be.

Dr Caldwell is also engaged into the fight of racial discrimination and helps a foundation he created with his father to help less fortunate people to find a job and be part of the society. He also helps migrants and refugees to integrate into society by finding a job.

His father ,who created this foundation, collaborated with Dr. Martin Luther King !

After graduating with an MBA, he decided to volunteer at the USTA on the East Cost department. He became president of the New Jersey section.

« When you have an important job, you must make the best choices in order to help others. »

The USTA was created in 1881 and grows by the influence and the revenue they make to run the tennis is the United States. The US OPEN is the main event of the USTA and the revenue from this competition keeps growing since 2009.

According to vocalmedia.com : In 2019, The US OPEN revenue was about $369 millions. It’s the number one grand slam event in terms of revenue.

1- US Open : $359 M

2- Rolland Garros : $265 M

3- Wimbledon : $306 M

4- Australian Open : $214 M

The US Open is very important for New York. Dr Caldwell told us that in 2 weeks, the event has more impact on the city of New York than one complete season of baseball, basketball or football… The US Open is the main event and it became an icon of New York city.

But most importantly, the event is developing tennis and the community around it.

80% of the revenue is redistributed to the different sectors of the US to help tennis grow. It’s about $5 million that each section will receive thanks to the US Open.

Dr Caldwell used to manage and be the president of the New Jersey section so he knows perfectly how to manage projects with a strict budget. For him, the most important thing is to listen to the people that are on the field. One of the main goals of Dr Caldwell

Passionate about tennis, he always considered it an inspiring sport which fascinates younger generations.

Ashely Caldwell, his daughter, is a great example of the younger generations in tennis. She is a very talented tennis player and her dream is to have the same future as Coco Gauff, the 15 year old player who is becoming an inspiration for everyone in the US. She is a perfect example of a student with a promising future by having good grades and a promising tennis player.

Dr Dale Caldwell and Deepak Trivedi started an amazing project : The New York Open, hosted in Central Park. This tournament is free to enter and the objective is to expose tennis to everyone in the community so even those less fortunate can attend it. Music is also a major part of the event. Indeed, music gathers everyone together and it’s a chance for everyone to speak the same universal language that is music. This helps to reunite the community.

By mixing different sectors like music, sports or activites, it’s an opportunity to create more interest in different communities.

For example, during the Coco Gauff game broadcasted by ESPN, Kobe Bryant was commenting the game. Lots of basketball fans got interested into tennis thanks to Kobe Bryant. Another exemple, tennis is more popular in Europe than in the US. But it’s continuing to grow in the US also thanks to celebrity actions like the massive Hip-Hop star Drake, who came to play tennis with kids live streamed on Nickelodeon, the kids TV channel. By promoting tennis in different sectors, it helps to make tennis universal and reach different people.

Throughout this fantastic conversation we had with Dr Caldwell and Deepak, we understood the importance of sport being more than a just a sport and how to use sport to help others.

Show time and bright lights with famous players are a good thing, but it’s important to help others and integrate tennis in different communities in order to help them and use sport as social politics. USTA is trying to make the tennis a sport for everyone and limit the beliefs that you have to be affluent to play tennis.

Associating different cultures together leads to more opportunities in the sports industry to grow and help other sectors to increase.

We would like to thank Dr Dale Caldwell for his inspiration interview and for the generous time he gave us.