St. Petersburg/December 24, 2025: Renovations have been ongoing at Puryear Park, but not actually inside the cancha itself. The exterior walls of the jai-alai court have been repainted with a fresh coat of Evergreen paint. Patching was also done on the walls and on the flooring surface where major holes had been developing. The outside of the court looks brand new and looks great.
If you have ever come to the court and try to play or just visit on Saturday mornings, you likely experienced a major parking issue. With anywhere from 12-16 jai-alai players showing up along with a half dozen or so of our season ticket holders, along with hundreds of soccer players with parents and friends showing up on the two soccer fields that make up part of Puryear Park, nearby parking can be troublesome.
As we reported several months ago, the house nearest the park, and adjacent to the parking lot behind our court, was going to be torn done and paved for much needed additional parking. The house had been flooded in the hurricane that made landfall 165 miles away. The owners had balked at selling the house to the city until he realized that the value of the house had fallen over 25% due to damage and decided it was time to move on. The permitting and environmental process had been going on for the past several months. The house was torn down and contents removed in a one-day period a couple of weeks ago.
It is unknown how many extra parking spaces will be available to the public at this time.
December 16, 2025: Magic City Jai-alai will have a new name, a new home, and an entirely new look when play resumes Tuesday, February 10th.
The World Jai-alai is moving two miles north to the original home of Miami Jai-alai, which outside of a few Don King Boxing Matches, has sat dormant for the past few years. The original home of Jai-alai in the United States (not counting the one that got blown away in a hurricane) will turn 100 years old soon, joining Dick Van Dyke to the centennial club.
This will have an entire new look – with a court inside of a court. A glass back wall has been installed to shorten the cancha to standard World Jai-alai League measurements to 126 feet with its placement around the serving area. The Magic City court was 120 feet long, so this new court will be 6 feet longer than before. Overhead netting has also been installed. Extensive testing for the new ball to be used is ongoing. There has been no decision as to what ball will be used, but for one thing, the real goatskin pelota is out. Right now, it is a toss up between the current ball being used and the ball that was used at Calder Jai-alai. But other balls remain in play. The current Magic City ball makes no noise coming off the granite wall, and that is problem. Another option gaining traction is a revised version of the real pelota by removing the goatskin and wrapping it with the same white tape that had been done at Magic City and at Matt’s court in Connecticut as well as Puryear Park in St. Pete.
The building will be called the JAM ARENA – short for Miami Jai-alai. And jai-alai won’t be the only offering. Concerts, comedy shows, various sporting activities of some sort will take place in addition.
There will be 1,500 seats, many of them recovered, a new refurbished terrace and bar area with a redesigned entryway connecting to the casino. For the past few years, this area has been as secluded and off-limits like the way Dr. Zaius kept everyone away from the “Forbidden Zone” area that had remains of the Statue of Liberty in the classic movie “Planet of the Apes”.
We have no idea how long the lease is but given the millions of dollars likely sunk into this project, I’m sure it will be at least 3-5 years of jai-alai there. Scott Savin is determined to make this work. Plans have included expansion to other states and even having girl players involved.
December 15, 2025:Miami: Jai alai at Magic City is now officially over, with the Cyclones taking the championship with a 4-1 win over the Devils Friday night in Miami. At 9:34pm, Inaki & Manu deposed of Etcheberry & Nichloas in the 3rd set 6-1 to prevent a game 6 from taking place. The cancha was covered with champagne by then. It was the first time when won the championship since the very first one was held – in the Spring of 2022.
A packed house was there to witness the exciting event as $200K goes to the winning team owner and the players get a reportedly $6K bonus apiece.
This was the 4th season of Battle Court action what will resume next February, two miles up the road at the original Miami Jai alai fronton.
Last weekend, within a 16-hour period, I was able to view full performances at the two remaining jai alai frontons in the United States. Yes, it’s a far cry from the nearly twenty frontons that were active at some point of the year in the late 70s to early 80s. Millions of people visited the frontons for basically the only way to legally gamble. Casinos were only allowed in Nevada and then in 1978, Atlantic City. Some state lotteries consisted of scratch offs if they had anything resembling a lottery. Only four states were offering jai alai – Florida, Connecticut. Rhode Island and Neveda. Today, over 40 years later, the gambling options has exploded. Casinos are now operating in 44 states. The lottery is now in 45 states with national ones offering hundreds of millions of dollars to the winner.
Jai alai today is only in one state – Florida – with frontons located in Dania and Miami just 23 miles apart of one another. And the two are quite a contrast of one another, to say the least. Being able to visit the two of them with complete performances within a 16-hour period was a pleasure to watch. I’m going to break down the two frontons with the good, the bad and the ugly. Do note, that Magic City is hosting its last performance this Friday night, before moving north a couple of miles to the original jai alai fronton in America – now called Miami Casino.
Dania Jai-alai
Last Thursday night was Opening Night for their 4 -month tournament comprised of young Basque and French players. The place was fairly crowed with about 200 people in attendance and that included dozens of former pro players and a handful of current Magic City players.
The Good
The quality of play was phenomenal was a treat to watch. I’ve attended opening day every year of this event, and this was clearly the best group of players I’ve seen play there. Kudos to Benny B for putting a great lineup together.
The Bad
One thing that did shock me was that there were no player introductions of the roster at the beginning like in the past. No parade – no nothing. Game one started right after that god awful version of the national anthem. You would have had no idea of it being Opening Day, and several players making their pro debut were not acknowledged. On top of that, the scoreboard went dark after the first point or two, leaving betters clueless of how many points your team(s) had. To make matters worse, you could barely hear a word out of the announcer’s booth. It’s still a mumbled tone-deaf sound system. With only 400 seats vs the 6,500 it used to have shouldn’t be an issue! Perhaps you would have been OK if there were 20 people in the building and not 200. Dave Lamont is a great announcer with a great voice, but why have him announce if you can’t hear him?
There was no mention on the home page of the Dania Casino website that jai-alai was being held, which is troublesome to say the least. I didn’t notice any marquee sign anywhere outside the building mention jai alai being held either. Not one word of it being Opening Night on the program either. There were 200 diehard fans in the fronton – about triple what was in the entire casino.
Magic City Jai-alai
The Good and the Bad
When I first entered Magic City Friday afternoon after watching Dania only hours earlier on Thursday night, I was in shock. Yes, I’ve been to Magic City Jai-alai before, played there in the tournament September 5th and have been to Dania Jaia-alai hundreds of times since 1976. I had sticker stock. The court is almost 60 feet shorter than Dania, and the sound of the ball hitting the front wall sounded like a prisoner pounding on rocks with a pickaxe. Yes, envision Paul Newman and George Kennedy in “Cool Hand Luke”. It’s that horrible sound I can’t stand. There is nothing like the sound of the goat skin pelota hitting a wall comprised of a foot thick or more of granite. But that opinion quickly evaporated as the night went along.
Luckily, this will sound of pelota hitting the front wall will drastically change as they move a couple miles north and will be throwing against a granite wall that will be 100- years old! Unbelievable. The court will still have a glass back wall, but this allows for great viewing of the court and video angles that make viewing on TV or your phone a huge advantage. The shorter court does not bother me – it does allow for fast action and some great non-stop catches off the side wall. As someone recently posted on Tigers site, this is the case especially watching the division 1 and 2 players go at it. Manu makes it look so easy you almost expect a great catch every time. Watching Urrutia serve is something else. The ball is moving so fast, one can barely sese it. Even Benny got plunked in the belt with a serve Friday night.
The crowd was totally different than in attendance at Dania the night before. The crowd of about 70 was festive with music in between points and cheerleaders dancing between games. Spectators were given nice big 14-page color programs on top of it. Team owners were all there, including former NFL Hall of Famer Ray Lewis.
I’m confident the new fronton and layout will be ideal. Management is testing the new court and experimenting with other balls to find the right pelota to use. We’re using the Magic City ball now at Puryear Park and most of the players like it. It is the same weight as the real pelota and roughly the same size. Perhaps the goatskin ball may come into play at the new venue? Of course,, the concern is cracking the glass back ball, but that is taking a lot less force than a Unda bomb or an Urrutia serve. I did have a long talk with Arra I and forgot to ask him about that in between performances Friday. The horrible sound of the ball hitting the glass wall will be gone and I see an opportunity for more kill shots. The ceiling should be higher too, which will be a big factor.
The fixed odds sports-like betting is a game changer. Using the Hard Rock app on your phone is easy and convenient. Your involved in EVERY point of the game, a big positive.
Who’s Better?
So, who’s better – Dania or Magic City? This is like asking who’s better – Joey or Bolivar? Flip a coin. But, perhaps this summaries it:
Viewing wise – Dania
Betting wise – Magic City
I enjoyed both and I’m really looking forward to next year when JAM Arena opens! Hopefully, they will get more performances with the Battle Court format as Pelota betting will not initially be instituted for the February start from what I understand, but return in the summer.
Miami: December 8, 2025 : The Cyclones will be taking on the Devils in the final “Jai alai Super Bowl” held at Magic City Jai alai this Friday night at 7pm.
With $200,000 at stake to the winning team, and tens of thousands to be dished out to the players, there is a lot at stake here.
Friday’s doubleheader featured performances that started at 2:30pm and 7pm. The first playoff round featured the Cyclones defeating the Warriors 4 games to 2 with Jairo and Stan securing the Game 6 Match with a perfect 6-0 win in game 3 of their set. Warriors team owner, Ray Lewis, watched the entire performance in the VIP area.
The second half featured the Devils defeating the Fireballs in “overtime” with Benetrix and Roque defeating Joseph and Ikeda 6-2 in a one game playoff. The teams were deadlocked at 3 games apiece and were decided by Division 5 players in a winner take all game to 6 points. An enthusiastic crowd of about 70 were in attendance including team owners. When opened to the public, it’s an entirely different atmosphere. The DJ cranks out songs on a phenomenal sound system right up till the serve is made and then resuming right after the point ends. Young girls and couple of boys did cheerleader-like dances between games to entertain the crowd. A huge difference then the sterile atmosphere from all other performances when no one from the general public is welcome to watch. Unlike Dania Jai alai, you can hear Stu and Andrew announce the games. Nice color programs were available to all and loads of gift baskets were given away to dancers in the crowd. Even former Dania pro and current Puryear Park regular Bob “Garby” got one!
As you likely know, Friday night will the final performance at Magic City Casino before moving two miles north to the original Miami Jai alai, which will be celebrating its 100th anniversary when the new season starts at “JAM Arena”.
