From the first time a mallet struck a ball on the West Coast of the United States it was a second class member of the American polo community. Like Rodney Dangerfield, the West didn’t get any respect. Not even after Cecil Smith, Elmer Boeseke , Aidan Roark and Eric Pedley jousted with, and beat the best in the East in a three game series in Lake Forest, Illinois in 1933. The success was short-lived, and in a few years it was forgotten and the attention returned to the Eastern players.
The opportunities in the West are unlimited. The response by the USPA, pathetic. For years, arena polo at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center was a magnet to thousands of spectators and hundreds of fans. It introduced movie stars to the game, many of which took up the game. It promoted a professional polo league that fielded the country’s first 10-goal player in nearly 50 years, but it received nothing in the way of support from the USPA. When troubles arose surrounding the LAEC, no one from the USPA paid any attention to it. No one tried to salvage it. And sure enough, polo disappeared there. Polo disappeared from the biggest polo factory in the country and the USPA wasasleep at the wheel.
Sue Sally Hale was laughed at when she went tirelessly about recruiting women players-today’s largest growing membership sector. Her clinics were legendary, her efforts. unselfish and tireless.
Today the Eldorado Polo Club is on the brink of disappearing. Fifty years after the club was organized in Palm Springs, it is on the verge of disappearing, and with it, polo will disappear in the desert. The club owners, now too old to play the game, are looking to cash in, and there is no one there to carry the torch. There are no plans for anoher club in the desert. There are no plans for a winter home for polo on the West Coast.
Why is this significant? The Eldorado Polo Club is/was the largest winter polo club in the West. It attracted hundreds of players who competed in several different levels of polo competition. It sported high-goal polo until several years ago. Then, Joel Baker, Corky Linfoot, Mike Conant got older and fell out of high-goal play and the rest of its high-goal stars scattered.
The West represents about half of the membership of the USPA. California was the home of dozens of school programs and a myriad of clubs, but boasts no high-goal USPA tournaments.
All of the high-goal tournaments are located in the East. All of the top tournaments are located in Wellington. There appears to be little or no concern for the present or future welfare of California or the West.
I wonder if the members and the member clubs of the West really do have a say in the direction of the USPA. I wonder if there is any concern over the disappearance of the Eldorado Polo Club; the LA Equestrian Center; polo at Pebble Beach; the home clubs of Dr. Billy Linfoot and Will Rogers; the fields that Walt Disney had built on the studio grounds or the international fields at DelMonte. Then again, I really don’t wonder. The leadership void in the association has already uttered its silent voice.
“Remember, you’re only fifty percent of the membership. Who needs you?”
6 Comments
nd0000001202pm07, 72007vUTC12bUTCSun, 02 Dec 2007 19:04:39 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p12
NO SUGGESTION IS GIVEN FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS POLO SPORT.
nd0000001202pm07, 72007vUTC12bUTCSun, 02 Dec 2007 20:12:56 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p12
horse shirt- Thank you for commenting, please read and comment on my next blog, I will attempt to address these very issues in it.
rd0000001203pm07, 12007vUTC12bUTCMon, 03 Dec 2007 20:39:07 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p12
I am enjoying your polo coverage. As a player just returning to the game after a 20 year hiatus I am surprised to see the same complaints/concerns being expressed as they were long ago. I don’t really know how to respond. I feel enjoying polo is the responsibility of the individual participants. As a school teacher my funds were limited but I worked hard and got my share of good polo. I became a student of the game paying attention to detail when it came to horse care and taking advantage of pro advice and things worked well for me. I didn’t look for others to make my experience successful. It seems that is what is going on now. The USPA leadership was always a conglomerate of wealthy individuals who were in charge of the business end of things. They had the means to play such roles and obviously still do. They can afford the time to participate in these endeavors and therefore make the calls. Not always to my liking but it sure is not going to stop me from playing. As I was told by an 8 goaler, “If it was easy everyone would be doing it.” I think some expect more from the leadership than they are capable of giving. This is a reality I choose to ignore. My energy is reserved for the field. Thanks for letting me comment, keep up the good coverage, sorry about the longwinded response.
th0000001204am07, 22007vUTC12bUTCTue, 04 Dec 2007 00:04:06 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p12
Mike CO-thanks for the feedback. Yes, I too used to play under the leadership of a volunteer organization, but times have changed. Possibly its the lack of quality and unselfish leadership or the addition of paid staff members (between the USPA and the PTF, I believe there are nearly 20 paid full time employees). Perhaps it is the lack of credentials that many of these employees have to apply to their jobs or the simple fact that we don’t need 20 employees to deal with nearly the same number of playing members (about 3100, according to the Executive Director’s column in Polo Players Edition just a couple of months ago) as we had twenty-five years ago (at that time we had three paid full time employees).
I think the concern many club members have is “What amI getting for my $200?” For many, it’s damn little.
But when the few wealthy individuals manipulate the association for their own personal gain, it is time to question the leadership that allows it.
Now Mike, if you want to just take the rules and play polo without any assistance or interference from the USPA, that’s fine. But there are a number of people who joined to excell at the game. Players who want to have the opportunity to play on a US team in International competition or have the chance to see high-goal polo in their part of the country once in a while, or limit the number of foreign players participating in USPA tournaments at the expense of promising Americans. If you have no such desires, why would you care what the USPA did? Take the rules and play the game under the supervision of your own non-USPA club. That’s pretty much how it used to be played in the early days of polo in the West.
th0000001204am07, 22007vUTC12bUTCTue, 04 Dec 2007 07:05:40 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p12
I am always perplexed by “woe is me” attitude that some take on west coast polo/uspa
Polo has been and always will be a sport which is defined (at the highest levels of the game) by those who have the ability to write an check for the pleasure of playing the game.
If those individuals decide that they want to play in Wellington, then Wellington becomes the mecca of polo in the US, period. If those 20-30 patrons decided they wanted to play in Santa Barbra or Eldorado then those locations would become the de-facto US polo capitol.
The USPA has absolutely no bearing on where those individuals choose to play.
This is no where more evident then in Wellington…the reason it is the epicenter of US polo is not because of the USPA but because of two brilliant businessmen William Ylvisaker and John Goodman.
Both built world class facilities that attracted patrons which then attracted the best professionals, horses, and grooms etc.
So now lets jump to the bottom line — if you want to improve high goal/polo on the west coast do something about it yourselves!
California has one of the most robust economies in not only the united states but the entire world for that matter. The amount of wealth in California is absolutely staggering….
Have the top 10 wealthiest polo patrons on the west coast draw up a list of 10 people they know who would be wealthy enough to sponsor a high goal team. Have a tournament (similar to what Memo Gracida did in Wellington) that allows them to be introduced to the game gently and make sure they enjoy the experience.
Its just a numbers game if you can find 10-15 future patrons (within the billions and billions of individual wealth in California alone) that enjoy the game you will then have a west coast polo scene to match the climate!
This is the one and only solution to any gripes or complaints about west coast polo!
Start making the calls today and instead of an embarrassing 3 team US Open (which happened last time the Open was held in Eldorado) you’ll have more quality high goal polo then you could ever imagine!
Best of luck!
th0000001204am07, 22007vUTC12bUTCTue, 04 Dec 2007 09:07:19 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p12
Steve- Thanks for sounding off. You made a lot of good points. I hope someone is listening.