The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
Can the American dream really be anything other than a dream for an American? I know the majority of Patrons don’t like the American Rule in polo. I have no answer for that. Many of them are also American citizens. The patrons want to play polo and if their sons or daughters do then I guess they will pay for it. I still do think that there is no reason to play 26 -goal polo in the USA. If we want a big game, play another 30- to 40-goal game. The 26-goal does nothing much other than provide foreign aid in my opinion. In addition, it costs U.S. Patrons a fortune, as we are not competing with Argentina, England, France or Australia. So what is the drive to play 26-goal polo when we could fill out a big tournament at 22? If the patrons and teams will not drop to 22-go to 24-goal, but at least do something to build and develop Americans players in polo. There are a lot of smarter people in polo than me, but what is smart about sending 80% of the dollars spent on the game out of the Country? That is the way it is now. Why not help build the local game and help the American players advance to higher handicaps?
If someone would respond I would love to hear your opinions and input. I would also like to hear why we need 26-goal polo? As a Patron how much of the team are you at this level? Tell me please.
Also I would like to guess how many USPA officers compete or have competed in highest level of polo or who have ever competed at all? So where do they have info. ? They remove people like Tony Coppola, Charles Smith and others who know the game, the politics and the competition. They still are happy with no American youth and 26-goal polo.WHY???????????
We should as Association Members be able to vote them into office, but we really do not. It is much like U.S. Govt . Layoffs are every where in private business, but not in the government as they need to look the look and who keeps paying for it? U.S. Polo is going the same way. How much of the money paid out stays here? Tell me it will never reach 50% and well that is the way it. This is just an opinion and we all have one. Lets hear yours.
IT is time to clean house and let a polo player run POLO maybe. I vote for Sunny Hale or Dale Smicklas. THE SPORT HAS CHANGED.
see ya.
Crowder
Funny how after twenty or thirty years one sees the results of their actions. Now you change your opinion after being the one to mount and employee foreigners for the past twenty or so years. Is your complaint that no one is using your services to hire your horses anymore? International Polo Connection says it all and yet takes no responsibility for pushing the trend while you ran off every American from CA who did not use your services. What goes around comes around to bite you in the butt. The trend to hire low goal foreigners is passing and the USPA is doing a good job of encouraging a larger group of youth to start filling in the gap of American players needed for these teams. In the past the young American players did not have the horses needed to play and now the trend is changing so give it a few more years before you say the American rule is not working. No one wanted to pay twice as much to support an American who had to charge more to support his string when they could hire a foreigner through you, when you took money to mount them. Now we have zero and one goal pros making money playing polo so the trend is changing, Also we have two and three goalers going to Florida and trying to break into the elite life style of the rich. The problem I see in polo is that we are not producing high goalers and polo level has dropped to having twelve or more teams playing in the one goal and still only four or five in the twelve goal so something is changing. Where has the 32 teams of six goal polo gone? People play polo until they realize that they can not support a family on a low goalers salary and can not travel once the children start school so there is always a gap between generation of players and their children playing so give it time and the numbers will go up and down. I still have yet to see the player who came into polo without any other family member that was involved in horses make it big into the higher level of professionalism. It takes a village to raise a superstar so lets get busy and support our young players. we need to keep pushing horsemanship first and the opportunities to play will come but if we push making money first the horsemanship gets put aside and that is what the downfall of making it to the top is all about.
“The USPA is doing a good job”. You must be kidding or drinking too much. This problem is their fault and they have done northing but PR bullshit to solve it. Team USPA is a joke. 50 kids, many with no horses, participate. How does that fill the gap? The I/I program. How many pros have come out of the collage ranks in the last 10 years? ZERO! With seven years left in their 2020 program how many goals are they on the road to accomplishing? ZERO! Stop buying into their “spin” and look at the facts. They claim 3,400 members. Only 1,400 are actually playing real polo. Who will be the next 10 goal American? Certainly not anyone from Team USPA. They have wasted thousands of dollars traveling to China and England only to take advantage of a developer who has given more to polo than the USPA ever will. Nacho has done more for polo in the last three years than the USPA has even done. They are low goal a amatures who pretend to be big shots back home in Smallville. The politics in polo is worse than Washington. The Good Ol Boys are back with $70 million dollars to waste. WAKE UP ! !