thu210pm08, Nove02beSun, 10 Feb 2008 18:37:13 +0000 11, 2007...08:46p02
The North American Polo League
I recently came across an e-mail debunking some of the “aims and goals” of the NAPL, and I thought it would be interesting to look into the minds of some of the “leaders” of the American polo community in an effort to understand their motives and the planning behind the NAPL.
I believe that a blogger on the polobarn.com Message Board pointed out that the organization of the NAPL was simply an effort by some of the game’s wealthiest patrons to write off their polo expenses, and I agree. But for the moment, we aren’t going to get into the motivation, just the flawed structuring behind the effort.
We are now looking at a “professional sports league” that is neither professional nor a league. It is one year old has NO sponsor, NO television contract and owns NO facilities of its own.
The “league” is structured to have a 12 month season, unusual for a professional league to have non-stop year-round activity.
The last “season” opened with two tournaments in Wyoming. Now understand that the efforts behind this are striving to open the game up to millions of new spectators. That must be why they chose to begin the season in the least populated state in the country and in a town with a population of 178, Big Horn. That would mean that if everyone in town got a date from another town and went to the polo matches there would be less than 500 people in attendance-hardly a portion of the millions the NAPL is hoping to attract.
The NAPL speaks of “broadening the fan base” but has not addressed the fact that there are only a handful of “fan friendly” polo facilities in the country and less than a half dozen stadium-like structures (Greenwich, International Polo Club, Royal Palm Polo Club and Santa Barbara Polo Club), three of which don’t host any NAPL events.
These are the same brilliant minds that are helping to set the course for the USPA. These are successful business men who seem to be incapable of reviewing the manner in which other professional leagues and franchises are developed, and choosing, instead, to do it “their way”.
The NAPL is a joke, and I believe that the joke is about over.
Only four of the NAPL teams competed in the opening tournament (two supported by the Johnston family and two supported by the Goodman family), they received points for their efforts (right on down to 4th place). But the NAPL is quick to point out that the other teams will catch up when the high-goal season gets underway in Florida. A novel approach to a professional sports league. Half of the teams get a six month start on the other half.
Keep in mind that two of the teams that didn’t make the trek to Wyoming excelled in other competitions with Black Watch playing in the finals of the Mercedes-Benz Challenge and semifinals of the Hampton Cup at Bridgehampton (which attracts tens of thousands of spectators) and Lechuza Caracas winning the British Open-received no points for their efforts. Confusing to the uninitiated, no?
I spoke with a banker who was approached by the NAPL for sponsorship and was told that they had no interest. He told me that when you have a group of billionaires who are not willing to make a “significant” initial investment in their “league”, he and otheres of his industry are not about to step up to the plate, financially.
Another high-goal patron who passed on joining the league cited th fact that until there is a real value established for the teams there is no real shot at a tax write-off.
The “league” has no “members only league schedule”, instead using a number of established USPA tournaments in which to participate. There is no play-off formula, and the “championship” is to be awarded on the strength of points accumulated (including tournaments in Lexington, Kentucky and Big Horn, Wyoming) at venues with no link to large population bases.
The fact that it is billed as a “professional” league ahd has patrons participating is akin to watching the New York Yankees play with George Steinbrenner playing first base.
The charade is over, it’s time to move on.
3 Comments
ndu302pm08, Nove03beSun, 02 Mar 2008 20:44:29 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p03
Dear Backhander, for any professional sports league to flourish you must first be a “student” of a successful niche sport league model (eg: APV - the professional beach volleyball association). Please keep in mind there are other leagues that you can use, but I use the AVP as an example for a couple of reasons, 1.) it is a very niche sport; 2.) they play tournaments in large cities, with small venues; and 3.) they have great sponsorship and a huge network deal with NBC. If Volleyball can succeed, why cant the NAPL?
The NAPL does not need to think out of the box, nor should it try to be NASCAR either (which there were some attempts to try to be last year). The AVP succeeds because the people that go to the tournaments want to be a part of the lifestyle - they have no asipirations to play the game every day. They want to transport into a world that they find interesting, unique or sexy. Yes, what a horrible word when desciribing a sport, but true. Also, the tournaments are quick…they hit a city, they stay a week (maximum) and leave. The quick hit allows the host city to get excited, see the tournament, have a few parties and leave town (kind of like the circus).
The NAPL needs to be a “copycat” league. Maybe the AVP is the wrong model to follow, but at least its an idea and will certainly stray from the current model. Under the current model, real sports corporate sponsors will not tuch the NAPL. It is a fact that the league leadership can choose to accept or not. Our high goal organization now has three legitimate corporate sponsors; of which it has taken significant time and energy to cultivate those relationships. The key is you have to put in the time and play in venues where those sponsors want to be…South Florida, Santa Barbara, Aspen, etc…
Also, please understand my orientation here - I hope the NAPL succeeds - I think high goal needs this association personally. Also, your comments from my other fellow high goal patron is spot on; what good are the NOL’s in this structure with no basis in the assets. The tax risk is too high for the write-offs, as most of us play the game for our personal benefit. The NAPL can succeed, but they need to invest in a person who has built successful sports niche leagues and has run them effectively (no offense to current management) and has a true vision for the success of the league.
Also, you are spot on, the venues need to shift faster and play in big cities. Why not have a league schedule that looks like this:
Winter - Palm Beach, Boca Raton, South Beach (each NAPL team sends a team to the beach for the weekend for the first of four arena events) and Key Biscayne (yes, there is a great polo field there that needs $150,000 of repairs, the league should lease it for 10 years and fix it).
Spring / Early Summer - Washington DC (yes, there is a polo field on the mall - what a venue!, huge corporate sponsors there to back it), off maybe to Philadelphia (they have a great field downtown in historic Fairmont Park), NYC (weekend event, arena style), then maybe Boston, or Saratoga (a great club with a huge imbedded fan base) and summer finale in July in the Hamptons.
Late Summer / Fall - Santa Barbara, CA (PCO should be an NAPL event), LA (Santa Monica beach polo event #2, or LA Equestiran Center arena event #3, hosted by Tom Goodspeed, a guy with great ideas and knowledge), and finishing in San Diego.
Fall - should be a Texas series hitting Las Colinas and Houston. Both are great clubs, with great sponsors and would host the NAPL teams very well with their local fan base and two well run clubs that have great close-to-town venues.
Winter - league ends in Aspen, CO for the final arena event and a charity gala and awards. Christmas time in that part of the world has more influential CEO’s than you can ever ask for…the venue is in downtown Aspen and the City would embrace it.
I know Wyoming and Lexington are not on the schedule, and I am confident that that may not be popular, but this is where the league has to play to be successful. Maybe one of the seasons gets cut out, as it may be too long to keep fan base interest. But the cities and the venues are key to attracting fan base, sponsors and TV contracts. Keep in mind, last year’s South Beach Beach Polo event had more media and TV credentials than the US Open. None of these ideas are radical ones, but they require the teams to travel together and commit to a certaim number of tournament appearances together! The league has no credibility with real sponsors unless all the teams commit to the same tournaments.
Anyway, you could go on and on about this, but until the league starts to move away from the current business model and management leadership, your conclusion that the league may already be DOA could, unfortunately, be an accurate one; which would be sad for high goal.
Regards, MCG
thu309am08, Nove03beSun, 09 Mar 2008 04:48:41 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p03
I have to say that Marc’s thoughts are to be embraced, at least to some extent. It is an absolute waste of time to think we can get this thing off the ground without some fresh thinking and input. I would like to think that the NAPL is not dead only because its never really been alive. If we can collectively start with some ideas like Marc has maybe we can give the NAPL a life.
The USPA would have to put on the venue a few times before we could potentially get some consistent sponsors in specific areas of the country. I hope that once we have a real plan that the USPA would realize the potential and be willing to at least participate initially. If they don’t think its worth spending money on as an association then what would make a corporate sponsor experiment on this type of venue? I’m all for trying to help get this thing off the ground. Lets keep gathering ideas and maybe those of us with a real interest in the future of polo in this country can get together somehow for a “think tank” if you will. You can rest assured of one thing, if nothing happens soon it will be too late, at least for the NAPL.
thu309am08, Nove03beSun, 09 Mar 2008 05:29:47 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p03
I applaud the ambition and creativity of both you and Marc. There are plenty of pro franchise models to learn from, it doesn’t really make any sense for a bunch of people who have never been involved with a professional sports franchise to decide to create a new blueprint for the league. It’s time to either reload or pull the trigger.
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