The BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup takes place Monday, March 2 at Madison Square Garden in New York City as four of the best players in the world - Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic - square off in a battle to capture the title in this unique format event. It airs on HBO at 7:30 p.m. in the evening. It is part of the Tennis Night in America promotion as the USTA is hosting a Youth Registration Night to sign more children up to play the great game of tennis. In preparation for the event, USTA.com sat down with Kurt Kamperman, USTA Chief Executive of Community Tennis, and Jerry Solomon, President of StarGames, to discuss how the event came together, its format, youth registration and more.

USTA.com: How did the concept for the BNP Paribas showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup come together—was it a joint collaboration?

Solomon: It really started as a result of what we did last year with Pete Sampras & Roger Federer. There was such a strong desire, we felt, to keep tennis at Madison Square Garden on an annual basis that we looked for something that could grow into something that could be an ongoing event, not just a one-time thing, like that particular match was. We started having discussions with a variety of people in tennis because it was important to us, Ivan Lendl and myself, to create an event that could be a good, strong platform for the game. The USTA had been involved with the event last year, and it led to some conversations with Kurt about this whole idea of using this event as a bigger platform, and we had sort of kicked around this idea of “Tennis Night In America,” brought that to Kurt, and much to our pleasure, he and Kathy (and the rest of your group) really picked up on it and took it far beyond where we had thought it was going to go—I would say it has become, really, a close collaboration

Kamperman: Absolutely. It’s been a collaboration that we’re just at the start of, even though we’ve accomplished more than we thought we ever would in Year One. We all see that we’re just out of the gate because of the long-term commitment that the partners have.

USTA.com: Jerry, you mention the Sampras/Federer Exhibition last year, which was a tremendous success. You think you could equal, or maybe even surpass the buzz that was there in The Garden with four of the best women’s players in the world?

Solomon: I think these events are very different—Sampras/Federer was really sort of a “once-in-a-lifetime” kind of an event—this is, as Kurt says, is a long-term commitment to this program, and the beginning of trying to build something quite different than a “one-time only” event. They’re not really even comparable—but having said that, the amount of participation in this event-- from sponsorship, to the players, to having HBO involved, to what the USTA is doing with “Tennis Night In America,” to what The Garden has done—I think that it’s a completely different animal, and its really grown in ways that we never really imagined. We had a 100-foot banner hanging from Madison Square Garden, and we now have a billboard, I don’t know how big it is, in Times Square promoting the event. And that’s just two things out of hundreds of tennis clubs that are participating, and international television… I don’t know if it’ll be the same as last year, but one of the ways we measured the success of the last year was that there were about 2,000 people at cocktail parties in Madison Square Garden prior to the first ball being hit, and looking at it right now, we’re approaching that same number. If we can successfully integrate all these groups that are involved, we can make this a big night for tennis not only in New York, but across the country—and in some respects, that’s far exceeding what we did last year.

Kamperman: We’ve got over 700 facilities across the country that are going to use this night as a way to rally their youth programs in the community. So, our Youth Registration Night that we tied into “Tennis Night In America,” right out of the gate, first year, will have 700 facilities across the country that will feel an attachment—that will be a part of this event.

USTA.com: Tennis Night in America is scheduled for Monday, March 2nd, which seems pretty advantageous scheduling on your part, given the busy tennis calendar, and then that lull after the Australian Open.

Solomon: Its really the best time to kickoff, because its really during that time in February and March in which most people sign up their kids for youth summer programs at their local parks and recreation centers. We’ve had “Tennis Month” for years in May, but its not the ideal window to really get people thinking about getting into tennis programs, especially kids—it’s a little late for that. It’s a perfect opportunity to take advantage of a what essentially is a free sports calendar on March 2nd, and its also right before Indian Wells and Key Biscayne, so it really kicks off the tennis season.

USTA.com: The Billie Jean King Cup benefits the Dream Vaccine Foundation and the Women’s Sports Foundation. Is that 100% contribution from your part? All benefits are going towards them?

Solomon: They will each participate in different ways, and we’re raising money for them in various ways, each separately and collectively. They share in some of the proceeds from the event itself, the merchandising, auctions that going on the 2nd. We have the ability in MSG to do “text messaging” auctions—we did some last year, and we’ll do it again this year, which makes for a pretty fun and engaging fan experience. We’re just happy to contribute to both great causes—obviously, Billie Jean is so closely associated with the “Women’s Sports Foundation,” and both are doing great things. We’re just happy to help them out and give them the kind of visibility that they need to keep getting their message out there.

USTA.com: Now, was it easy getting BNP Paribas on board, and HBO Sports as a broadcast partner? I understand this is going to be a three-hour television event?

Solomon: Well, it could go longer—it will start at 7:30 and it will go until the matches are over. So, if we have a three-set final which goes late into the third set, we could be going longer than 10:30PM. They’ll also show the tribute between the semifinals and the final for Billie Jean King, and we’ll do some things for “Tennis Night in America” as well. It’s phenomenal to have BNP Paribas—the biggest sponsor in all of tennis—to really understand our event, and have been a really great partner. We’re fortunate to have them as our title sponsor. As for HBO, I hate to use their own taglines, but “Its not television… its HBO.” Having worked with them for four or five months, you can see why. They are as thorough, professional and creative as they come, and they turn over every rock to make sure they create the very best production that they possibly can. To have them as a part of this event-- and to have them back in tennis-- is a great thing for everybody.

USTA.com: If fans can’t make it to the Garden, Kurt, I understand there will be special viewing parties in different facilities across the country?

Kamperman: Yeah, a number of facilities are hosting these viewing parties where they’re actually bringing multiple facilities in one location. If they have DirecTV, HBO is opening up that signal for them. A lot of these viewing parties will have five, six, seven, or eight different facilities will be coming together in one location.

Solomon: And this is where, when I said earlier that we had this concept of having this big, one-night celebration for tennis, and we thought we were being creative for having come up with this idea for the USTA—if you think about it, there’ll be 700 tennis clubs that are participating in this undertaking, and that’s in the very first year of the program. As we look at that, to me, it drives home a whole different message: This is not just a one-night event in New York City, but this really is becoming a night for everyone in the country who loves tennis to get behind tennis, participate in tennis, to get it out to the kids… so, as one of the guys who got things started, to see where its all going, its really exciting.

USTA.com: Serena Williams is on the heels of winning the Australian Open—given her big name, big matchability and toughness, and loving a big crowd—do you see her capturing the hearts of the crowd and maybe winning the cup?

Solomon: One of the things that drove us in the direction of bringing in the women was that Serena saw what we were doing with the guys last year, and actually approached her agent and said: “Hey, we should be working out something to play in the Garden!” In some respect, I look at this as her event, and certainly, she looks like she’s coming in in good form. I guess whenever she goes out to play, you have to think she’s the favorite—the one to beat, for sure.

USTA.com: For fans who may not know, what exactly is the format for the cup?

Solomon: There’ll be two one-set semifinals with no add-scoring, first to six games, win by two. Six-all will play a super-tiebreaker, 13 points—at six-all in the tiebreaker, next point wins. That’s a Billie Jean King creation, so that’s another collaboration we’ve done with her. There’ll then be a half-hour break after the second semifinal, during which there’ll be the aforementioned tribute to Billie Jean, and then a best-of-three set regular-scoring, regular tiebreak final for the championship.

USTA.com: You mention that Youth Registration Night is being viewed as a big part of the Billie Jean King Cup at The Garden, and a real opportunity to get more youngsters, families, and facilities excited about tennis. Tell us about what the USTA is doing on Tennis Night in America and going forward in those efforts.

Kamperman: We’ve got a turn-key package for all these facilities—they’ve got posters, fliers, door decals, and banners to hang that are all customizable with their own local messages. If they host a viewing party, they’ll get the same event programs that the people at MSG will get. It’s a ready-made promotion to plug their own program into. All of these facilities have been running junior programs of some kind, and most of them have been running team tennis—but they haven’t had a magnet to help draw in the kids, so we’re trying to turn this into “Opening Day” of the tennis season for kids.

USTA.com: There’s been a fair amount of buzz in the press lately that after the Billie Jean King Cup was announced that maybe after the Sampras/Federer match, and this upcoming match, its time for MSG to support a professional tournament or event again.

Solomon: That’s the whole reason that we brought this to Madison Square Garden. When we had to opportunity last year to have Pete and Roger play, we could have brought it anywhere—but I say there’s only one place for this, and that’s The Garden. Ivan had such a great run at MSG when he was playing, and he agreed. We’re very fortunate to have gotten in there at the right time, when they were looking for tennis. The problem for The Garden in having a longer event is that the place is pretty busy-- to get a week in there at key times during the year is very tough. In fact, we actually wanted this year to have this event back-to-back with the Davis Cup in MSG in the same week, but we couldn’t fit it in there with the Knicks and the Rangers and other events on the calendar. What we hope happens is that this becomes such an event that it will be annual, in MSG, expanded to two days—if we can do that and keep it in this spot on the calendar… two days in New York City at that time of the year, with no football or baseball, and the NCAA basketball tournament having yet to begin, we can really turn “Tennis Night In America” into an extravaganza which brings the whole tennis world to New York. This year, the tennis industry association is having their board meeting around this event—we’ve talked about having a “FanFest,” where we open The Garden to the people either the day before or the day of the event so they can hits balls on the court and see the latest in tennis equipment. We think in two or three days, in New York, at this time of the year, we can build that kind of support.

USTA.com: Finally, has either of you spoken to Billie Jean? She must be thrilled that she’s going to be honored, and that these four great women’s players are going to showcase their skills.

Kamperman: She’s extremely excited about this—she loves having tennis back in The Garden. She thinks its great to have these four female superstars playing for a cup with her name on it—she couldn’t be more thrilled.

Solomon: And let me just say on top of that, as thrilled as she might be… I think the honor is really ours to be able to honor her. As much as she’s done for tennis, she’s really been someone who’s made a mark far beyond tennis. I feel lucky for us to be able to have that kind of a relationship with her, and to be the ones who are creating this event for her. Its so well-deserved, and to me, that’s really an exciting element to all these other aspects of (the event). Having her at the core of it makes it even that much more meaningful.