Who’s watching the Argentine Open?

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In a few short days Adolfo Cambiaso’s La Dolfina polo team will meet Facundo and Gonzalito Pieres and the Ellerstina team in the finals of the 114th Argentina Open Championships.

Five of the eight players on the field carry 10-goal handicaps (Cambiaso,Pieres, Pieres, Aguerre, and Castagnola).  The remaining three players are rated at 9-goals (Monteverde, MacDonough and MacDonough).  And it promises to be a great championship match.  The question I have is, “Who is going to be watching?”

Now I understand how popular polo is in Argentina and that there will be tens of thousands of spectators in the stands for the match.  And I know that it is being carried live on ESPN in Argentina, but to the majority of the polo world it is an event they will never see.

Apart from a number of foreign players who have been competing in some tournaments in Argentina and have decided to stick around, or a select few who have flown for the occasion, I would estimate that over 99% of the polo community outside of Argentina will never see one of the games most exciting competitions.

The Argentine Open fields virtually every 10-goal player in the world, and it should be noted that over 80% of the rest of the world’s players have never seen a 10-goaler in action much less a 39 goal team playing a 38-goal team.

In reflection, it is interesting to note that the few countries that have produced 10-goal players outside of Argentina, don’t currently boast that honor today.  Carlos and Memo Gracida (Mexico) and Mike Azzaro and Adam Snow (United States) were the last of the non-Argentines to carry 10-goal ratings.  England, India and Australia have to go way back to claim the honor, so it is unlikely that the locals there have had an occasion to see a top native player in action.

We know that over 95% of the players in the world are rated at 2-goals or less, and that the majority of the polo in the world is low-goal polo, but that fact shouldn’t detract from the splender of the upcoming finals. 

The Open at Palermo is as important to the world polo community as the World Series is to Little Leaguers in America or the World Cup to footballers, and its value cannot be overlooked. 

The problem appears to lie in the lack of promotion.  Yes, the Open will be aired on ESPN Argentina, but who else is going to be able to watch it.  Heck, even the finals of the U. S. Open, which was filmed, has never been aired, and the British Open hasbeen seen by a limited audience while the seasons at Deauville and Sotogrande hardly get noticed at all.

You can’t grow a game if no one gets to see it at its best, but that effort is going to have to come from the various polo organizations and associations around the world.  We can either keep this game as our own personal secret, or we can band together in an effort to promote and publicize it on a global level.

Personally, I think it’s time we shared this wonderful and exciting sport with the rest of the world.

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Filed under Argentine Polo Association, Polo, United States Polo Association

Tags: Argentina, Open finals, Palermo, sports, world cup, world series