The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
Last Sunday in Indio, CA at Eldorado Polo Club we saw Graham Bray Captain of “silent no more” Chris Maloney’s team, to the Coachella Cup. Today in a very rained out tournament, I am sure he was even happier as his son, Jesse Bray, was a major cog in Palm Beach Illustrated/Techogym team. They won the first big one in 2016, The JOE BARRY 20-goal championship over Villa de Lago.
WELL DONE TO THE BRAY’s and PBIT
The west coast got under way today and there is no rain to worry about. It is the return of Ben Solemoni, which is good to see. They say Ron Mathesion is also on the way, so maybe it is starting to rub off. If you want a steady schedule come out west where you get polo every week.
The season also continues down South as they may be in for a drying time, at least until the next rain. It is Super Bowl Sunday and Polo catches hell this month. First you have Super Bowl on the 7th and one week later Valentine’s Day on the 14th. It is hard for Polo to win the spectators, so join them and show the Super Bowl at polo or start polo earlier. That is what they are doing in Indio. Empire Polo Club and EDPC will both start the games earlier and have big screens on site to see it all.
Just another subject for interest… I just watched a TV series Madoff. It was quite a show, but it just shows how limited we are in many ways. The banks did 100 times the damage and got us to pay to bail them out and they got a bonus 12 months later. They are still flying. Now we will in the end pay for Bernie, I am sure. He did make a lot of people money. The bankers did to themselves.
Unfortunately banking seems a little like the sport of polo. If you do not think so, try borrowing money the same way with polo. Try building polo with a future. We have one link working somewhat, U.S. POLO TEAM, but how many of these people will be patrons? Maybe none. Why do we not try to start polo schools for the people who can grow polo. We need to attract those who can afford to play. Supposedly we have the money to start supporting places where it could happen. Some great places to build polo schools would be in San Diego, Florida, New York and Chicago. Send a couple of USPA people to Houston and learn the process. Today’s world is not to go out and do it. New players want an education and to know they can get one. Look at every sport and the schools they have for football, soccer, baseball, basketball , racing, tennis, golf and probably even skate boarding. Regardless of the PR, we are not a growing sport in the US. Take out College and retired members, who are people like me, and we are shrinking. That is the way it is.
see ya @Polo