Bang goes the gun and there is still fire in that hole called Polo. From West Palm Beach, FL to Indio, CA there is motion to the best that play Polo. Lets start in the West with Eldorado and Empire Polo Clubs. They are two clubs residing side by side. They have polo every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The featured match games and Sunday crowds will to blow your mind. I was there today, so I do not need any add ons. At 2p.m. I drove from one to the other in all of 40 seonds.
Both Clubs on the general admission sides of the field were impressive. This is the East side looking into the Sun. The weather was 83 F. There were 270 cars at Empire and 207 at Eldorado. Both were also packed on the VIP West side. What this means … spectators like polo. So lets make it a favorite weekend activity. One Club was charging $10 per car for parking. The other $0, with only a small difference in spectators.
It shows that people like the sport and we can use the opportunity to bring people to play the game. That is what we need … new people in the sport. It is a simple fact that the USPA has stepped up to support the young polo players, but like U.S. soccer, we have so many kids playing Soccer, but a below average team. Why they never get a chance to grow as athletes and they never will if they cannot compete. With the way it is they will seldom play this game. You need horses and guess what? Horses cost money and a lot of it. In order to play polo, players/patrons need a real job to pay for horses and polo. This is where it starts. Why are American Patrons against this ? One thought is they have little time to excel, so they take the easy route and hire a force all ready in place. # 2 they are manipulated into it by their big guns (pros) use my friend, cousin, brother, etc. It will be cheaper. It is until you mount them and then it will cost 10 times as much with expenses which are usually included.
This is where I get lost. Most, if not all, current Patrons are very successful business men and women. So why do they do it? They never even consider the American Kid. Like soccer, it will not change until it is a rule to have a specific number of American players on each team. Look at it this way. If they had baseball or American football in England,. Argentina or Chile do you think they would let 9 to 11 U.S. players START? Give me a break and a answer, I have no problem with Argentina or England or Chile or anyone else, but I do have a problem with the way we do it. Right now the only Country we constantly leave out is Canada and they support more teams in both places than any other country. It sstill looks to supporting U.S. Players. Patrons are a big part of the USPA total membership. Neither CA or FL would be the same without their Patrons. That is simply a fact.
Back to the games … Polo is in March Madness in the state of California. They finish the season with big money tournaments and Florida sets up for April flowers … the US OPEN which starts pretty quick and ends April 20.
At the moment in CA money tournaments play for over 50 grand at each club in the desert. It looks like this to date at Empire Polo Club, maybe the most exclusive looking club in America … A Houston team run by Superman Tim Kelley (LOCKTON Polo Team) and taking on almost a definite challenge from ReMax. Re/Max Team, led by Gordon Ross, is a new version of speed from Calgary similar to the Mannix boys. Over at Eldorado it is the same. Canada has been the kings for several years, but it may be John Rooney replacing Ron M and his High River team with Blizzard this year. They are at 2 and 0 with 2 to go on the other side. It looks like a contest with Los Banditos led by Dave Dollinger, who is returning from a layoff with super guns Jesse Bray and Mr. Speed Fassetta. I like David heading to Winners circle.
These two Clubs fields are equal to any fields in Florida right now. With a warm winter they are awesome. Empire’s could use a little more TLC, but they have a a monstrous schedule other than Polo. Eldorado last looked like this in the Open in 1991. I think it was all because they hired Graham Bray and left out the front office to get it done. It took less than 2 years. Goldenvoice can now say they did buy a Polo Club not a patch of grass.
Down South in Palm Beach it was a Colorado squad led by Bob J. and his Valiente crew stopping Canadian Julian Mannix to win the big one known as the Gold Cup. It looks like AC is still the King.
Polo ends one week from today in the desert as the concerts start setting up for Coachella and Stagecoach Music Festivals. In South Florida the big one begins with the U.S. OPEN, where it looks like an 8 team contest at 26-goal level. If out West look for a fantastic weekend, but it will be the last one for a while as Empire Polo becomes the most talked about place in the Music World with Coachella Fest. They do not get any bigger ANYWHERE they tell me. In Florida well it is Open time as the US OPEN starts Sunday in the Grandaddy of them all. Who is the favorite? I would guess the Team from the Rockies VALIENTE, but nobody knows. It is March Madness turning into April showers, but send those showers to So. California as we have no Polo.
see ya @ the finals