WTT Philadelphia Freedoms

The OSC Interview: Philadelphia Freedoms Senior VP/General Manager Barbara Perry

by Fran Stuchbury
Published on July 24, 2015 under World TeamTennis (WTT)
Philadelphia Freedoms


OurSports Central contributor Fran Stuchbury spoke to Philadelphia Freedoms Senior Vice President/General Manager Barbara Perry following the Freedoms' 22-14 victory over the previously undefeated Austin Aces at the Pavilion in Villanova. Perry, who has been with the Freedoms since 2007, was a former Senior Vice President of IMG where she was involved with the promotion and direction of hundreds of events throughout North America including The Kentucky Derby, New York Fashion Week, Virginia Slims of Houston, Chris Evert Cup, Virginia Slims of Indian Wells, Chris Evert Pro-Celebrity Classic and many others. In Philadelphia, Perry was the Executive Director of the Advanta Tennis Championships. She was also the agent for former world number one player and three-time Grand Slam champion, Jennifer Capriati. She was also a former number one singles and doubles player at St. John's and was inducted into the St. John's Hall of Fame.

Fran Stuchbury: What interested you in working for the Philadelphia Freedoms?

Barbara Perry: I was with a company called IMG, and I was managing events for them and I got to know Billie Jean King through my years with that company. An opportunity came where Billie Jean asked me if I wanted to come on board and work with them because of our long-standing relationship.

FS: I see that the Freedoms have a working relationship with Comcast Spectacor to handle public relations, marketing, game presentation and event management. Also the team is involved with the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Flyers with promotions at matches. How did that come about?

BP: One came about after the other. When I was with IMG I ran events that were at the Wells Fargo Center, so I got to know the people at Comcast. So when we were working on the Freedoms a couple of years ago, there came a need for public relations, and I called up the people I knew at Comcast and asked them if we could try to figure something out. We did, and it went so well we expanded the relationship. So now with our marketing, they run the show. It's been something that really works.

With the Sixers, Billie Jean got to know managing owner Josh Harris, so that led to us working together with them and that partnership. The Flyers have always been very supportive, so little by little we tried to bring all of these events to make the Freedoms matches more exciting and entertaining for the fans attending.

FS: How do you like working with Freedoms owner and WTT Co-Founder Billie Jean King?

BP: I love it; she is fantastic, and she is a burst of energy every day. She is always thinking, her mind is always going. She is always pushing to make things better. I think you can see from the product itself, it encompasses all these ideas that really came from Billie Jean, which are to make tennis a team sport. To see men and women playing together, so it promotes gender equality. To make it fan friendly, you can talk and cheer and run around during points; you can keep the ball that gets hit in the stands... everything to make it entertaining and fun.

FS: The Freedoms have been playing at the Pavilion at Villanova since 2010. Will they continue to play there for the foreseeable future?

BP: As far as I know we have a great relationship with Villanova. It's been a long time partnership, wonderful people to work with. That's our plan as far as we can see.

FS: Philadelphia sports fans sometimes get impatient and demand a winner. The Freedoms have not won a WTT Championship since the 2006 season. Would winning a championship help increase the fan support?

BP: I am sure it would. The thing we are trying to do is maintain a team that is more consistent so it's not all new players every year. We started to do that this year; we brought back Marcelo Melo and Taylor Townsend, so that helps build the fan base. The fans get to know them; they get to follow them year round even when they are not here. So that's a big thing for us. We added Robby Ginepri and now we have Abigail Spears. We brought back CoCo Vandeweghe later in the week. We are trying to be very competitive; Billie Jean is a competitor, that's how she started. That's what we are hoping to do; we had a great win over the undefeated Austin Aces, and have won three games in a row. We will see what we can do with them.

FS: The Freedoms season lasts around three weeks, how do you keep the presence of the Freedoms year round?

BP: Going back to our relationship with Comcast and partners like the Sixers, we work with them to do other promotions during the year. We have pop up tennis events all around the city, where we bring our pros, just to do a little tennis at locations such as Eakins Oval, Franklin Square, places like that. We are involved with the Fairmount Park Conservancy.

We resurfaced courts at Hunting Park. Two of the courts there are painted in the WTT colors. We have had tennis clinics there and other times during the year. More and more we are trying to become integrated into the community year round and these are the steps that we have taken initially.

FS: Are you happy with the job new Freedoms public address announcer/master of ceremonies Dave Leno has been doing?

BP: Yes, he's great. He's terrific; he really has so much energy and he has become knowledgeable about the games, so he can really help the fans on what is going on. He's doing a great job.

FS: For fans that haven't been to a Philadelphia Freedoms game, why should they attend?

BP: It's a highly competitive level of tennis in a very fun atmosphere. That's really our goal - those two elements. On the competition side, it's fast. It's the top players in the world. We have Marcelo Melo, who just won the French Open doubles title with partner Ivan Dodig. The Bryan brothers are playing here on Sunday; they are the number one doubles team in the world and have been for quite a while.

So you can see the best players in the world. You can see the up-and-coming players, the next generation coming up as well. Every point counts. Look at tonight, we were ahead in the last set even though we were winning, at the end of the last set you have to win the last game. So you can't let up, you have to play right to the end, and again that is all part of Billie Jean's vision. At the same time we had the Sixers cheerleaders and flight squad and Sixer Robert Covington with other things going on at the same time to make it fun.

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World TeamTennis Stories from July 24, 2015


The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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