In the midst of all of this economic uncertainly the health of polo in Argentina seems like it couldn’t be any better. It continues to maintain its position as the undisputed polo champion of the world, and there is an effort to create an international high-goal (30-goals and above) polo tour. The New York-based entity claims to have signed the top players in the game.
Gonzalo Pieres and Adolfo Cambiaso have created a tournament that coincides with the American Florida season and teams throughout Europe are dripping with Argentina’s polo elite.
And as the South American polistas sit on the verge of world dominance, the alarm clock goes off.
As the top players in the world are demanding million dollar salaries for tournaments and the prices of world class Argentine polo ponies continue to climb, the state of the world economy seems poised to burst the balloon.
The financial bad news was first felt in the US, and reflected in the drop in number of teams participating in Florida’s top ranks this coming winter, but the economic infection continues to spread. As we grow more informed as to how intermingled the finances are from country to country, the markets around the world are beginning to slip.
Too early to judge the effects on polo in England, France and Spain, but there are rumblings of trouble ahead.
The resounding effects will most certainly influence of the growth of the Argentine Polo tour, which relies on the grandiose of its European patrons, with the future of the Propolo efforts uncertain.
I asked earlier if the Argentine polo player had finally hit the ceiling of his earning capacity in America. We have found that Adolfo and Lolo have attained that level of financial success where they no longer need to spent time in Florida. Gonzalo Pieres figured out that because of the Argentine’s total domination of the sport it doesn’t hve to cater to the world, it can invite the world to come to Argentina if they wish to play with the game’s best. The Argentine polo player has pretty much topped out financially in the United States. The coming months will be a certain indication of whether he has topped the markets in Europe as well.
2 Comments
th0000001116am08, 72008vUTC11bUTCSun, 16 Nov 2008 06:08:34 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p11
I just found your site, and look forward to reading your posts.
th0000001118am08, 22008vUTC11bUTCTue, 18 Nov 2008 05:40:58 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p11
It will be interesting to see how the economic standstill will affect the extremely wealthy. I believe it will reflect real estate as to the low to medium goal sponsors, but in all my years in the game, I have not really seen the upper echelons spanked by the economy. I understand El Dorado sponsors are struggling this season..how is it looking in Florida? Maybe this will bring down the prices of the Argentine superstars..at least if they want to compete outside of Argentina and make some bank. We’ll see…