1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Alex Guthrie of Topnotch Management: April 21st, 2026, 11:00am

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

Alex Guthrie of Topnotch Management talks about upcoming events and more. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

and Farley, y'all can talk about the green meanings anytime you want. But while I'm sitting in the chair, we will disrespect them constantly. Yes, I'm jealous. 402, 464, 5685. These are to Hamid's Ex-Line. You want to be a part of what we're doing. And you do. The rules are, say what's up first.

Before you yell at us from the car, say what's up, and then yell at us from the car. Those are the rules, people. This is how we get down. You know the rules. We greatly appreciate it. And I know how feisty all of you are. So I give you what you request. Bach, you got your ears ready?

I'm ready. It is good for a Tuesday. Let the church say amen. Okay, so now we can bring it in. We have a special guest today in studio. The event is the Lincoln Challenger. Last year, it was, in October. This year, it has been moved. We'll talk about that. It's been moved to July,

and there's lots to talk about it. The company that is handling this is top-notch management. They do events all over the country, some that aspire to the greatest level of my heart. When you tell me that, you know, you've done football tournaments, you've lived my life and you understand. But the director of events for top-notch, Alex Garthi Geinzer, how the heck are you? It's good to be back here in Lincoln. And, yeah, I think, I'd like to say I brought the good weather with me, but usually I don't get accused of that. Coming from Cleveland, Ohio, so. You know, it's part of the deal.

So your history is, I mean, you love tennis to your core. So tell the folks who you are and what your love of tennis comes from. Yeah, so, yeah, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. I played D3 college tennis back in college. And I've been fortunate enough to now work on professional tennis tournaments for a living. So I get to run them in all these great different cities and including Lincoln. And yeah, that's kind of what brings me to town and trying to build an event here in Lincoln. That's a sustainable one that goes on for years and years.

Isn't that funny that when we get it right, the thing we love, we get to do it. I tell people all the time. I haven't worked a day in 35 years. Exactly. Yeah, the intersection of business and tennis, I can't complain. Right. And it's that those of us aren't good enough, we talk about it. and we put on the parties.

Like it's just like every day's a party. Well, my stance was if you can't do it, you coach it. If you can't coach it, that's where I fall down the funnel. So I am managing it. Oh, man. It is a thing of beauty. Talk about last year's event and the nature of the event. So for folks to understand why the idea or how you reach the idea of a tennis,

a professional tennis event in Lincoln, Nebraska. Yeah, so kind of the best comparison just for people out there that aren't familiar with tennis as much. It's kind of like AAA baseball. So these guys are, and it is a guy's tournament. These guys have been playing, they played the U.S. Open. They played Wimbledon, most of them. Now they're coming back to get ranking points. And some of them, including our champion from last year, his name's Rafael Hodar from Spain, when he came to Lincoln last year, he was ranked 250 in the world about that. And now he's top 50 in the world and playing on the biggest stages in tennis. So that's kind of the cool part about this. And the other neat part with the university,

we're playing over at the Sidd and Hazel Dillon Tennis Center at the University of Nebraska. And some of the players usually get to compete in it, the Nebraska players. So they get to really go toe to toe with pro players in the world. And also beyond them playing the pro players, they're also getting to practice with them, see how they train, see how they operate off the court and the level of professionalism with that. So it's really a cool event for the players themselves. The move from October to July, what lead to that and what are the benefits of it? Yeah, so some of it was an ongoing conversation with the ATP Challenger tour.

There's only so many weeks open within the calendar. So we were working hard behind the scenes to get that moved. I just think the Lincoln summer, it's such a full time to have an event here. Also being outside, like on a nice, 85 degree day. Definitely it won't be higher than that, correct? No promises. Zero promises.

But to be outside watching pro tennis in the summertime, I think is something that's a lot cooler. And even though the fall event indoors last year, we made it work. But I think to continue to build this event, it should really be a summer outdoor event. We're going to do a thing that we're going to put you folks in the loop. We're going to offer a pair of tickets to this year's event. and you can pick the day that you want to come. If you can answer the question and answer on the text line,

who won last year's event? Who won last year's event? We'll have Alex give the answer. You guys can shoot it up and take your shot. And we know you're Google Monsters, but at least I know you're going to look now and pay attention to it. The Nebraska players to play, there were a couple of the plate last year.

Do you remember who they were? Yep. So I know Joanne Torres, who's a senior he played, Henry Billisich, he's a senior, he played the doubles. Henry, he has a long last name, but yeah. So I think a total of six Nebraska players ended up playing. So, I mean, for them to get to experience that in person, play a pro event is just, I mean, another, it's a reason to come to Nebraska and play tennis.

You have the opportunity to play a pro event. And we're only, Nebraska's only one of eight college campuses that has this level event in the country. Yeah, I mean, this is part of the highlight and the feature. The relationship with Peter Cobalt and Hermann de Magro from the women's program is to give exposure to tennis and in this space, in this town. And to say that Lincoln can be a major player in this thing, the fact that it has, we look over in Iowa and go, okay, is there one of these tournaments in Iowa? Nope. See, you understand?

Like, listen, we're going to go straight for the jugular. Like, listen, not everybody gets to do this. Yeah. And I think the idea behind it is to push support. So for all of our listeners out there with businesses, great advertising opportunities, great sponsorship partnerships, some great endorsement space. You hold events there.

You have reception areas there that's a way that restaurants and such can be a part of this. Yeah, no, there's good hospitality for the folks too. And it's not a pricey ticket. No, we haven't. finalized pricing, but usually starts at $10 to get in the door. So, I mean, it's, yeah, we don't want to make price a barrier entry just to come check it out. Well, and it's family friendly. Yes.

I mean, the idea and for folks who haven't been to Dylan Tennis Center, especially outdoors, there's 12 courts. Yeah. Like, it's a lot of action going on. It's a, look, I was stunned at, at one, the, the massive beauty of just standing at the tennis center and just going, wow, because there's that perched. you can stand and see kind of see all 12 courts. Yeah. And you can pick a side, six on either side. You can pick that and do that.

But it also is great runaround room. There's grass area to the side. So if you want to bring the kids and have them run around. Yeah. You know, that's the thing. But would you, you would call this event put together for families. Yeah, for sure. And, yeah, the lawn area you're talking about.

Yeah, that's one of the best. Yeah, just in the summer 7 p.m. match under the lights. Like, there's nothing like in my. opinion. And there's a great breeze. Peter talks about it often that the climate affects play. Yeah. Being outdoors, will that change who comes here to play? No, and we're going to be part of the U.S. Open wildcard series. So those that, those players that aren't ranked high enough to get into the U.S. Open in New York at the end of the summer, we're going to be a target stop for them to

try to accumulate points to, yeah, hopefully get that wild card in. Otherwise, they wouldn't have access to getting in and just going back on the family friendly part of it too and with the players i mean the access to the players is unbelievable you you they come off the court they're signing all the grass for the kids like it's not it's not like a i love the big events but it's not like a big event where um the access is limited and you're far away from the players and maybe looking from a nosebleed uh god knows how long away so yeah it's it's a really accessible family friendly event there are no nosebleeds at dillard no no no That's the cool part.

I mean, it's a cool part about intimate stadium. That'll probably be about 500 to 700,000 people that there's really not a bad seat in the house. There really isn't. And you can move around in it. You don't have to, it's not hush, hush. We're not talking about the court. We don't, you don't need to curtsy and keep it down to a dull whisper. No, let's make it a great environment.

The players love the good environment, too. They don't like when everyone's just kind of quiet and hush, hush. They want, they want the energy behind them. Well, there's, I mean, the youth aspect of it, the younger player aspect of it, where it means something. Like, they come here. The players that come here, it means something to them. It's an opportunity. Yeah, yeah.

And talking about the younger folks that, yeah, Peter Kobout, the coach at Nebraska, he said his kind of North Star, when he was growing up in Cincinnati was the Cincinnati Open. You get to see the next level of players. So now all the young kids in Lincoln could come here, watch these players up and close, and hopefully be inspired, even if it's not tennis, just be inspired by sport and how good these athletes truly are. Are you working with the high schools and the tennis clubs locally to kind of get exposure and get that in the door?

Yeah, so we've been working with a good advisory board of some tennis stakeholders here in town, and we've really been, we're about to make a big marketing push towards those high schools and how to get the teams involved, whether it's through ticketing or volunteer opportunities, and there's a lot of full volunteer opportunities with the event, being a ballperson and literally being the best seat in the house, being on the court, being an usher, being a driver.

So there's a lot of cool ways to get involved in the event and see behind the scenes. Well, I talked to Coach Colbert, and here's what I suggested, that it is a Husker coach's serve challenge for serve challenge, right? Biggest velocity. Yeah. Accuracy. Peter's not included, right? No, no, he and Hermann are out.

He thinks Coach Hoyberg would be the favorite. Yeah. But if you can get Matt Rule to come out and take a swing, right? You get Rhonda Ravel to take a swing. Well, I would imagine place tennis pretty, pretty frequently. And then maybe some of the, you know, maybe get Bach's been hiding from taking, doing first serve duty. Yeah, how's your serve good? No, no, not at all.

Well, we're working on it. We're trying to get, we think we can help get some Husker Hall of Famers to come down and do. like an honorary first serve for you. And of course, they'll sign autographs and take pictures along the way. Alex Guthrie, top-notch band is rent. The event is the Lincoln Challenger. And then the question, we go back, why Lincoln? So one thing is the passion here from the Lincoln task community.

So when we started this event, just a brief history lesson, we only had six weeks to plan it. It was a last minute fill in 2004. for and um and literally from day one i was on the phone with visit lincoln asking can we really do this here and they uh they've been nothing but helpful and um credit to derrick bombback and jeff mall over over there they've been instrumental to helping get us like get our eyes on lincoln um the other thing is the uh the facility is one of the top college facilities um in the nation so between the community here the city well the tennis community the city of lincoln um and then the facility, it's been, yeah, nothing, nothing short of spectacular.

To hear you say it, to hear the outsiders say it, that this is one of the top college facilities in the country. Yeah. What makes it so? Number of courts, you mentioned earlier. We have 12 outdoor courts. A lot of colleges only have six. So that's, I mean, from the get go, that's an easy one.

Also, the indoor spaces that they have, too, inside. So obviously, this is an outdoor event, but we need a lot of indoor. spaces for offices, um, physiota, uh, training room, um, player lounge TV set up. Well, a lot of place to play just to go warm up and hit shots. Yeah, exactly. And, um, yeah, and I feel like it never rains here. I don't think I've ever been here where it's raining. Knock on, knock on, like on. Especially for July. Yeah, totally. But, um, but, but and also the ease of the facility, it's literally right next to the outdoor courts. So there's, the footprint is relatively small for something

with 18 courts. I've seen setups all over the country where, yeah, the indoor courts are here and then the outdoor courts are at the cornhusker, you know? So we found out that Penn State only has four ports. Exactly. And I just thought the top of my head popped up. Like how does a major university with all of its resources do that? So it is, it really is the feather in the cap. Yeah. of Lincoln University of Nebraska and this tennis program to have that facility. And I think that tennis officinados know more about Dylan than some of the local folks. Yeah. And this is kind of something that no one ever thinks about.

They're very well staffed over there too, that they're, I mean, the condition of the facility is in great shape. Something like that, I see other facilities. They might have like a part-time manager that's overseeing the facility, but they really take care of the facility too. It's not just that it's there. they do a really good job. So the opportunities for Lincoln and local businesses to be a part of this event. Yeah. What are some of the opportunities in ways that they could be a part of it? Yeah. So sponsorship levels start at $750. So again, it's doable. Yeah, doable and a low barrier to

entry. But yeah, so we have signage opportunities on site, hospitality opportunities for to entertain, whether it's your friends or your business clients. Beyond that, We usually do like a player panel where, yeah, you could hear about the player stories. And that's usually closed off the sponsors. We do a sponsor party as well. So we try to hit all the checkboxes, tickets throughout the week, obviously. So we try to hit all the tick boxes for people getting the best bang for their buck and sponsoring our event. For the hospitality, who are you in partnership with?

and then what are the kind of the spaces of need so no it's a good question we're we're kind of uh it's an error mark facility so we we kind of work with them a little bit but then we also have catering needs outside of that that um and some respects we're open for business for and um that's why i asked that's why i ask we know restaurants especially the uh the volunteer community too we we're going to provide meals for volunteers who are there working and helping the event so there's other trade partnerships available to maybe a meal for week-long tickets and branding and stuff like that. So there's a lot of different unique ways to get involved. How many volunteers will you need for an event? Throughout the course of the week, 100 to 150. Right. So what are the

requirements for those volunteers? What would you say? Usually for the ball people, it need to be at least 10 years old, but then 10 to, we've seen all ages of ball people. Um, back, Bach. Yeah. Opportunity. We have done celebrity. So there's opportunity.

He's quick. He's quick. Yeah. Nimble. But otherwise, um, yeah, for the drivers need to be 25. Um, in the tournament, um, provided vehicle. So you don't have to worry about driving people in your own thing. And yeah, ushers, it's a great, it's a great way to be involved with the event.

Get to see the event for free and help people. enjoy their experience at the at the tournament so if folks are interested in partnering being a part of it volunteering uh give folks the website and any of the social media information that they may yeah so for all the all the information it all the information it's at lincoln challenger dot com and there's uh interest forums within that so if you just fill out the forum one of our team members if not me will get a hold of you and follow up um additionally uh instagram we're at lincoln challenger So, yeah, Instagram, you could find us on our website. You can find us.

And, yeah, we're easy to get a hold of. Well, I think it's fantastic. One to point out that Lincoln, Nebraska is elite in being able to put on this event. The fact that you, the top notch and the tennis gods decided, hey, of all the places we can go and be, let's choose Lincoln, Nebraska. literally one of eight college campuses. So from a recruiting standpoint, I mean, it's night and day. That's big. That's big.

Is there any inclusion or space for the women's program to be involved in this sort of thing? Yeah. So I know they currently do run a lower level tournament. It's called a futures event. So that's a good way. Typically, they're doing it the normal way of starting with the futures and then building up interest. We kind of fast track this challenger. A couple years ago.

But yeah, the women's program, they have a smaller event in November. But again, that's something that could also grow as well. And what are the other events around the country? The other cities. So for college campuses, Ohio State, Illinois, those are the two big 10 ones. Kentucky has one, Virginia, Tennessee. And I'm drawing a blank on the other ones. But those are.

But you're all over the place. Yeah. Right? I mean, for each of these events, it takes a community, a village. Totally. To put these events on. Well, here's the thing. Once again, Alex Guthrie, top-notch management, the Lincoln Challenger of the event is July 12th through the 19th.

He's just provided one more time, let him know how to find you. So if they want to find you directly, because I know my listeners. I want to talk to that guy. Yeah, yeah. So my email is Alex at top-notchmanagement.com. But again, if you go through the Lincoln Challenger.com in career reform, I'll see it directly and we'll get in touch with you as well. No matter what your budget, no matter what your level of interest, there's something for you. We'll figure it out.

Yep, we'll figure it out and get a part of Alex. Thank you, kind, sir. And thank you for bringing this event to Lincoln, Nebraska and making it a part of it and then allowing the ticket to be a part of it. We want to be down there. We want to be in the middle of it. So we appreciate it. No, excited to be here. All right.

will be right back. Black DP, one-on-one. The ticket. Download our app by searching 93.7, The Ticket in your app store. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 937 The Ticket and The Ticketfm.com.