The Polo Report
By Steve Crowder
March 21, ’10

I think that many people will be upset with this but I think they should be. Why ? It is very much like Dr. Paicius describes in his “The Death of Eldorado” article.  It is like having cancer you. You deny, you fear and finally you go to the Doctor who tells you in the first place and ask for help. The smart people find out, get another opinion and haul ass to treatment.

Well it was a cancer and Eldorado has had it for sometime. It was caused from greed more than bad habits, but in many ways because so few owners were involved at the time and the club was easier to sell than to be bothered with.  So it must be said that it was greed and a very easy way out.

These people knew things at Eldorado were going to hell in a hand basket, but they were not getting involved until it was too late. When they did realize things were bad not only in Polo, but the economy world wide was in bad shape too.  It  is a very simple to explain.  If people can afford to play Polo they can sure as heck afford not to play Polo. That is why we need Patrons (customers).  It is the only way Polo survives.  As long as I have been around the sport and that is 30 years now,  the only reason me and the majority of polo people are here in polo is because of wealthy people do play Polo, so we can to.

Do not feel bad , 99.99% of the people in the world do not play polo or go sailing, but we do!
Polo Clubs do not make money on Polo they make it on events. Empire Polo  Club (next door to Eldorado) is probably the most successful club in the world at making money at events.  The other way polo clubs can make money is by selling the land at some point such as Royal Palm PC and El Dorado has done in the past.  If Polo pays their own way it is a very good club.

When the owners of  Eldorado Polo Club finally did get involved in the management of their Club,  I am not sure what the heck they were thinking. They hired people who do not even know what POLO is. Whether it be because of money or ignorance they did it twice and that” fried” people and that is a problem.  Even the not so rich want to be treated rich in this sport because it is expensive no matter how you do it. They play it because it is something they want to do for fun.

Like it or not Polo is a sport of the rich, but only if the rich play polo not because they own it. That is why Doctor Rick is right.   He is representative of what Polo is today.  He is wealthy and he wants to play polo.  The customer is right.    You do not ask me or Pat Nesbitt or the brilliant Mike or Bill Meeker. You ask Dr.Rick ,Jenny Luttrell , Tommy Lee & Dawn Jones, Scott Woods, Dan Horn and the people paying the way so others can play.  And yes I mean the lower goal leagues. Without the top flights the lower goal leagues cannot exist in an operation like this. The benefit of the low goal polo at better clubs is it pays a lot of bills and most of all it is a stepping stone for the people who are looking for more.

I am not being mean, it is the simple truth. Look at high-goal Polo today around the World. It has not fallen very much. The US Open has 9 or 10 teams, the 22-goal had 10 teams, the UK High-goal had like 14 to 18 team,s the 20-goal in SB has 8 teams  and could have had 10. The 8-goal league has 4 and the 12-goal none last year maybe 4 this year.  The 14 -goal in FL. two years ago they had 5 tournaments all full.  Over the past two years most do not exist now.  All together have maybe 10 if they are lucky in April. Its tough but that’s the way it is.

If El Dorado is to survive, it has to get back to Polo and and my advice … DO NOT   fight with your neighbors because it is not worth it.  You all (the owners of Eldorado) do not play polo anymore ,your land will come back and with some easy transitions it can exist at least to pay the bills and to be green. Sometimes it takes green to make it green. It is time to close the bunkhouse and open the CLUBHOUSE . Where are Fred Mannix, Bob Jornayvaz and Kelly Beal?
JUST MY OPINION … BUT DON’t FORGET TO LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMER!!!!!!!!!!