July 2021 Polo Players' Edition- Come Indoors

The cost of land in Los Angeles makes owning a grass field prohibitive. The California Polo Club has five instructors for its thriving polo school and offers polo all year long.

Come Indoors

Interest in less-expensive arena polo growing

By Abi Abel

Arena polo is finally (and deservedly) no longer looked at as merely a stepping stone for outdoor grass polo. Many clubs are looking to their arenas to attract players and the success is rivaling that of some of the top grass clubs. All this means great things for polo clubs and polo players across America.

Arena polo hits on all cylinders by providing opportunities for players to enjoy higher levels of polo more often and more affordably than on the grass. It also offers accessible polo at a lower cost for beginners with the added safety of the enclosed arena. Plus, it packs an extra punch by bringing unparalleled excitement to spectators that can safely cheer on the action only a few feet from the thundering hooves and quick-precision mallets.

Considering the often-daunting financial obligations grass polo can carry—including the cost of transportation, number of horses needed, grooms, club fees and pro fees—it is not difficult to see how the proposition of paying an arena entry fee and leasing or buying and boarding a few horses while still enjoying opportunities to play higher-level polo with higher-rated players is fast growing in popularity.

For clubs, arenas require a third of the space a grass field needs and the cost to maintain an arena is significantly less than a grass field. Further, good arena footing can easily handle chukker after chukker, accommodating numerous players even when its wet.

Legends Polo Club has become a polo hub in Texas. Students take lessons each night and the club hosts arena tournaments year round.

The OC Polo Club in Silverado, California, is strong in the arena polo development game. A top arena club and polo school, OC Polo has two polo arenas, stabling for over 60 horses and a newly renovated event and clubhouse space impeccably designed by Lithe Sebesta.

OC Polo’s father-daughter team of Danny and Shelly Geiler have created a polo oasis capitalizing on all the wonderful things arena polo has to offer.

“Arena polo is a perfect way to get new players into the sport because the controlled space is safer and makes it easier to teach the rules,” said Heather Perkins, club manager for OC Polo. “The competitive and exciting games in the Pacific Coast Arena League are easy to watch and understand because the fans are so close to the action.”

Legends Polo Club in Kaufman, Texas, is also finding great success through its arena polo programs. With 140 stalls, a polo field, an exercise track, an outdoor arena and a covered indoor arena, Legends fast became a unique hub of polo in Texas. About eight to 10 polo school students take lessons each night in the Legend’s arena and the club hosts arena tournaments year round.

Legends, voted Texas Arena League Best Host Arena the past two years, hosted two TAL weekends this year with 30 teams playing each weekend. Ignacio “Nacho” Estrada founded the club in 2016 with the aim of keeping the sport alive through making teaching and training affordable and accessible to students, and the plan is working. Offering arena polo lessons and arena tournaments is a key element in the club’s success as the arena means accessibility for new players through lower costs and with lights, the convenience of playing after work.

Great Meadow Polo Club in The Plains, Virginia, has a long-standing tradition of arena polo with Twilight Polo every Saturday night from June to September. Not only has Great Meadow been phenomenally successful with its arena program, polo school and bringing along new players, but Twilight Polo is a spectator favorite with cheers of team loyalty and excitement for the up-close arena game.

Opportunities for players and spectators to be involved in arena polo mean great things not only for the future of the sport but also for the future of polo clubs. Arenas provide more opportunity for new or lower-rated players to play with higher-rated players on a regular basis while also providing a venue for the higher-goal pros.

Professional Tommy Biddle points out that arena can sharpen a player’s skills. “Arena polo helps people with their riding. As you play more and more arena polo, your anticipation skills improve,” he explained. “Players learn how to get quicker.”

USPA certified polo instructor at Triangle Area Polo in Hurdle Mills, North Carolina, David Brooks says the cost of maintaining its two arenas is far less than the upkeep on one field. Brooks also says their spectators enjoy (and some prefer) watching arena games.

“In the past, we have moved spectator events to the arena from the grass because the field was too wet and spectators generally preferred the arena game and being able to see up close,” he explained.

Brooks offers a traditional model to get new players into the sport by first offering lessons, then encouraging a club membership with the goal being to play in tournaments. Triangle Polo also has youth and interscholastic teams.

Tommy Biddle is one of only four players to reach a 10-goal arena handicap. He would like to see regular high-goal arena leagues.

“Having a covered arena and a full-size outdoor arena we can start new players, grow them into club members and maintain them as members. The arena allows more people to play, and to play at a higher level than they can play on grass because of the affordability,” said Brooks.

“Team USPA strategies for developing talent have shifted from time to time,” said Goodspeed. “Sometimes Team USPA focused on developing highgoal talent, other times it was to make our young business professionals better at polo and to bring their abilities into the clubs. There is a place where we can realistically do both: high-goal arena polo. Arena polo is a destination for those with limitations that do not lend well to the financial expectations of high goal outdoors. It is also a safer option for developing amateurs.”

Goodspeed also notes that when an arena facility can be built on just a few acres it creates the possibility of being closer to larger metropolitan areas resulting in a larger crowd base.

Doug Barnes, owner of Destination Polo and cofounder of Polo in the Park at Morven Park, said, “The arena is the absolute hands down best way to grow polo across the country. I could probably design and tell someone how they could take 12 horses and start an arena program with a built-in polo school that would be a success right from the start. We have been able to do this year after year and it works.”

Barnes is a big fan of arena polo for many reasons—a player can enjoy the game on fewer horses (sometimes only two); arena polo can be played at night under lights, meaning increased opportunities for play; polo can still be played in a covered arena when it rains; and spectators are engaged and always close to the action.

With more and more clubs looking to develop their arena polo programs, it is of some interest to look back on a bit of the history of arena polo in this country.

The first polo game ever played in America was an arena match in Dickels Riding Academy in New York City in 1876. Arena polo became very active in the late 1920s with numerous armories in cities around the country holding matches. The Squadron A Armory in New York was one of the largest, with 100 stalls and seating for thousands of fans at its high-goal Saturday night matches. It was home to national championships and was where the first arena league, the Metropolitan Polo League, was introduced in 1930. Back then, many matches were played using a split-string format. Winston Guests was the first 10- goal arena player ever, reaching the milestone in 1929. It took World War II to stop the momentum.

Arena polo is more affordable because fewer horses are needed.

In 1984, the National Polo League was formed by Dr. Robert Walton, Bil Walton, promoter Paul Lippman and Los Angeles Equestrian Center board chairman Al Garcia. The league hosted teams from around the country ranging from 18 to 25 goals.

Soon after, the partnership divided and the Waltons moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, forming the Dallas Dragoons and the Fort Worth Argonauts. Games were played in publicly-owned facilities: Fair Park in Dallas and the Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth.

Biddle cut his teeth in arena polo in Dallas. “One of the first times I ever played in the arena was in Dallas, in the professional league there. ... We played that game in front of 4,000 people and it was awesome,” he recalled. “I broke a mallet and ... chucked [it] into the stands and the crowd thought it was awesome. During the trophy presentation, a kid came up with the broken mallet for me to sign.” Biddle went on to become one of only four players to ever reach a 10-goal arena rating.

Al Garcia brought in Tom Goodspeed to develop the American Polo League at the LAEC, attracting celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone, Doug Sheehan, Juice Newton, Mickey Dolenz, Dorrie Forstmann and Jameson Parker.

Goodspeed formed the LA Colts, a team with Joe Henderson and Dan Healy. Healy was later replaced by Herman Louis-Decoite. Henderson, the third player in the history of the sport to reach a 10-goal arena handicap, enjoyed arena polo (perhaps even more than the grass) because of the high levels of play in such a fast and challenging game. They competed against the country’s top players, who were flown in, picked up in limousines and treated like stars.

Playing spring and fall seasons, both the Texas league and APL had their own horses and used splitstring formats. Texas played eight four-minute chukkers while LAEC played six five-minute chukkers.

The APL, which required players to be 5 goals or higher, followed the script of most professional sporting events with music, food, merchandising, sponsorships and announcing. A color guard presentation, the National Anthem, team introductions and a celebrity throw-in preceded each game. The APL also kept the capacity crowds, 3,500- strong, involved by having halftime shows, post-game player interviews and meet-and-greets. It created a fan base of 20,000 and the polo school associated with it taught more than 600 people how to play.

Charles Smith, who played in the NPL in Texas, explained, “The high-goal arena league games in California were a real magnet. That got a lot of people started in polo the same way we did here with the NPL.”

OC Polo Club’s arena in California is spectator and player friendly. Fans get an up-close experience and players enjoy excellent facilities, including a fast, smooth surface.

In the 1990s, promoter Randy Russell established arena polo in Scottsdale, Arizona. Six arena games were played, but scheduling difficulties stood in the way of really establishing league play. Chuck Rogers took over the program, and tried to create more interest and bring along new players. Rogers put together a league team called the Scottsdale Thunder and followed the APL format with exhibitions and theme nights. Rogers said that after a couple of building years they were hosting sell-out games.

Sadly, none of the professional leagues lasted very long. Financial woes ultimately put an end to them.

Rodney Fragodt was involved with polo at the LAEC, and when it shut down, he and a handful of others split off to be able to continue playing polo.

Fragodt, along with Ralph Rosato and Carlos Figueroa, opened California Polo Club, an arena club in Los Angeles, in 1995, with a polo program that has proven to be more sustainable.

“In an area like Los Angeles, as far as the cost of land goes, it is almost prohibitive to have grass polo or many fields,” Fragodt said. “Arena is by far the best place to learn polo. It is a controlled environment and if anything does go wrong, there is not too far the horse can get away.”

Fragodt said the emphasis at the club is to promote the beauty of the game to spectators and turn out players. The club has five instructors and offers polo 12 months of the year. Club members also compete at area grass clubs, such as Santa Barbara and Will Rogers, and the club has an agreement with Empire Polo, offering 1-goal grass polo in the winter.

“We are a feeder club for many grass players and it is purposefully structured that way. If I lose some players to grass polo, I still have new players coming in,” explained Fragodt. “They get exposure at Empire and it is a way to introduce them to the grass if they have progressed enough. It is like people watching their kids go off to college, going off on their own. By going out to the desert, I can watch over them and protect them a little bit. ... It is a way I can give them a taste of both sides of polo.”

Biddle said his current sponsor came through Sam Ramirez’s arena program at New York Polo Club, another club offering year-round polo. Players can play on the club’s outdoor field in the summer and its arena when it is too wet or too cold to play outdoors.

Offering a year-round lesson program keeps the interest of participants as well as spectators, leading to new memberships and interest in club involvement, league games and tournament play. Arena leagues can be played concurrently with grass seasons, or can be stand-alone.

Smith, USPA secretary, five-time winner of the U.S. Open Polo Championship and a Polo Hall of Famer, said sustaining interest is key to growth in polo, and a program that includes high-goal arena polo and attracts spectators is the start of getting people interested in playing the game. When someone watches a high-goal arena game with stands full of cheering spectators, it gives them something to aspire to. They might take a lesson, then move on to a coaching league and progress to tournaments.

“It is important to have a target,” Smith explained. “Arena polo can do that now just as the APL and NPL worked to attract people who said, ‘Wow, I want to do that! How do I get there?’”

Biddle believes that getting polo to the masses requires a discussion about piggybacking on bull riding events, rodeo arenas and getting into big cities. “[With] outdoor polo, sometimes the play happens on the other side of the field, but playing indoors with 3,000 people is amazing to play and watch,” he said. “People can see up close the aggressiveness of the play and the skill of the players and really see the horses.”

After the pro leagues faded, there have been a few high-goal events over the years, like the Townsend Cup, and the U.S. Arena Open, but unfortunately, high-goal arena polo isn’t currently available on a regular basis.

Fairfield Polo Club in Haysville, Kansas, is taking advantage of PDI matching funds to upgrade its irrigation and give the arena walls a facelift.

“TAL is great and is offering 3 to 6 goal and 6 to 9 goal, but there aren’t really any opportunities to play higher than that,” Biddle said.

Currently, 60% of the polo clubs in America have arenas, and these are consistently developing and growing. Many other clubs have arena facilities in the plans.

For clubs looking to build new facilities or improve existing arenas, incentives are available. Smith said the USPA, through its Polo Development Initiative program, is helping the current infrastructure by improving existing arenas and adding things like lights, scoreboards and grandstands to make a better experience for players and spectators.

On the ground, the USPA Arena Committee, led by Chairman Robin Sanchez, is developing and promoting existing arena programs and establishing and growing new ones across the nation.

“What Robin is doing is the foundation for growing polo and making new players. What she is doing with the Arena Committee is greatly valued; she is making a huge difference,” said Smith.

Sanchez, a USPA certified polo instructor, umpire and governor-at-large, said arena polo has proven itself. “From the professional leagues of the 1980s and 1990s to today’s ‘Friday Nights’ and ‘Polo Under the Lights’ events, spectators are flocking to arena polo. And for clubs with polo instruction programs or polo schools, the arena is key. It is safer for new players and they are immersed in play,” she said.

Arena leagues provide the opportunity for fun, competitive action between clubs and players in a state or region, as we are seeing in the Pacific Coast, Texas and now Chicago. These inter-club competitions are serving to steadily raise the level of play and number of players while continuing to be accessible and affordable.

Sanchez said, “An arena club with on-site stabling makes it easier for new players to transition from polo school to horse-owning player. No need to invest in a huge string, truck, trailer, etc. It makes polo very accessible for people with a lower level of discretionary income.”

Clubs with arenas can also capitalize on the great opportunity found in offering an intercollegiate and/or interscholastic program.

“Arena polo through colleges and interscholastic programs is how a multitude of new players are introduced to the sport,” said Sanchez. “If I/I isn’t the backbone of polo, it is at least several vertebrae.”

The many success stories serve as testimony to the value of having an arena polo program. With a history of consistently viable programs, an increase in opportunities of play, a dramatic increase in team entries for the current leagues, the accessibility and affordability for beginners, the rise of arena polo is here.