The U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship brings the focus of an international sport to the Magic City of Miami, Florida. U.S. bred athletes take the court to fight it out in an epic battle of skill, speed and athletic prowess to dominate The World’s Fastest Game – Jai-Alai.
2022 WINNERS
Singles Champion JAIRO Jairo Baroja
Doubles Champions ARRIETA & GOITIA Inigo Gorostola & Inaki Goitiandia
RULES & REQUIREMENTS
All players must be United States citizens [Photocopy of Passport or Birth Certificate required with Entry Form].
Players must be at least 18 years old.
Players must sign a liability waiver and image release form.
Players must wear an approved helmet.
Video required with Entry Form if player is not known to the Selection Committee.
The Selection Committee has final determination of entrants should the Championship entries exceed the available playing slots.
Practice time will be available.
There will be a 1-minute warm-up before each match.
TOURNAMENT FORMAT & PRIZES
MASTERS DIVISION
August 11 & 13
Open to amateurs and former professionals who have not played professionally since January 1, 2019 and professionals who are age 50 or older
Amateurs Singles and Doubles Prize Money
1st Place: $1,000
2nd Place: $500
Limited to 32 Singles entries Limited to 14 Doubles teams All matches played to 6 points Finals played to 7 points There will be a Playback bracket in Doubles only
PROFESSIONAL TOURNAMENT
August 12 & 13
Open to current professional players and former professional players who have played professionally since January 1, 2019 and professionals who are under age 50
Professionals Singles Prize Money
1st Place: $7,500
2nd Place: $2,500
Professionals Doubles Prize Money
1st Place: $10,000
2nd Place: $5,000
Limited to 24 Singles entries Limited to 16 Doubles teams All matches played to 7 points Finals played to 9 points There will be a Playback bracket in Doubles only
Okay, you puppy kickers and girl beaters. Evan W. Coleman has had enough of your bullshit. Texas Jai-alai is going to be the REAL DEAL!!!
Just Google “Texas Jai-alai” and you will see for yourself. Texas Jai-alai has been open since 2009 and is alive and well. Yes, even drawing up to 12,000 fans a night at one time.
Yes, most of you “bad” puppy kickers that read Tigers site have seen the website claiming that Texas Jai-alai is coming. That was in 2009. Today, multiple websites rave about the success of Texas Jai-alai.
Jai-alai.info reports that Texas is the second state in the U.S. What? I recall San Francisco (California), then St. Louis (Missouri), opening frontons. And so did Chicago (Illinois), and New York City (New York). Oh, Connecticut had 3 of them, and Rhode Island had one, too. Talk about sloppy reporting.
Fla-gaming.com reports that Texas Jai-alai, opened in 2009, is located north of the city of Dallas, in the Palermo area. Near the facility, is a commercial complex, so spectators can enjoy shopping and dining as well as jai-alai. There is even a day-care center. The Texas Jai-alai fronton is large enough for 12,000 spectators, including the VIP section. There are concession areas, gift shops, and luxury suites.
Texastatesports.com reports that the “first fronton in Texas was built in Denton in 1977 by a group of investors from Miami. The game was an instant success with crowds flocking to the new fronton the watch the matches and gamble on the outcome. The fronton quickly became one of the most popular tourists attractions in Denton, and it wasn’t long before other frontons began popping up around the state.”
I couldn’t make up more bullshit than what’s when up on the “worldwide web”.
Yes, it is funny that a posting on Tigers site by someone named “Corta Deportes” reports that a recent story published by “El Correo”, a Basque Newspaper says four frontons are about to open in Texas. In 2009. Folks, that was 14 years ago. “Until now, the construction of a new fronton in Texas has been announced, that, next to the new one of Jasper in Florida, will change the negative course of a specialty that has been in a crisis for years.” A capacity of 12,000 spectators. Restaurants, cafeterias and even a day-care center. A 45-man roster. Big pay checks for the players included. The story concluded with a link to the Texas Jai-alai site, the same one we have seen since 2009. Yes, that posting was on April Fools Day. But his other stuff has been up for years.
Heck, even this very website you are reading had an announcement that Donald J. Trump was reopening West Palm Beach. And this very writer claimed he was building a jai-alai court in his front years for the past 9 years.
But then its was a posting by Evan W. Coleman on Tigers site, also on April Fool’s Day that opened my eyes. Yes, that is the very person who is responsible for Texas Jai-alai. To be fair, he has not made the ridiculous claims that Texas jai-alai has been alive and well all these years. He did state back then that it would take 10-12 years for this to happen. We are past that point now, but we also lost two years of our lives due to the COVID era.
Here is a reprint of his posting:
Gentlemen, Someone was nice enough to forward this web site and the threads to me yesterday and I would like to take a moment to respond to all.
First and foremost, thank you all for your concern about our future. We are very excited about what lies ahead for us, so let me address some of the nay sayers.
When we (jai-alai) are added to the current list of para-mutual sports in Texas, it is our intent to start construction within 6 months. I have personally met with the Mayors and/or City Council members of Dallas/Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Irving, Round Rock, Grapevine, Houston, Katy, San Antonio, Austin, Plano, and Carrollton.
Each and every one of those cities have expressed a huge interest in having us in their city. My job will be to select which city will be the host to the first Fronton. Several of the afore mentioned cities have even offered to build the facility for us.
Unlike the above individual who seems better educated than the cities or me, they understand the economic impact that a new sport will have on their community.
Slots or as they’re referred to in Texas, VLT’s (video lottery terminals), are not something we wish to have in any of our facilites! I do not wish to be associated in any way with something that in 10-15 years will be looked upon another failure in Texas. Slots machines are not a cure for bad business practices.
It will written into our Bill that we WILL NOT be eligible to place them in our Frontons. We also, will not simulcast horse racing or dog racing.
Why? We will be a Jai-alai sports and entertainment facility. Not a casino, horse track, or a dog track. We will offer the finest Jai-alai entertainment that the United States has ever seen, period. If you come in wearing shorts or a tux, there will be a amenity for you. Whether it’s for those who wish to stand or those who would like their own suite for the evening or just to hang in the VIP section.
Bennett, those are P-r-o-t-o-t-y-p-e-s. Jeez……kinda makes you wonder…..
The players will be treated like the professions that they are. Unfortunatly, we cannot pay them like the NBA, but we can sure treat them that way. They WILL be paid better than ever before, but that being said, they will have to train like the pro athletes that they are. They will also be required to meet the fans and do public apperances, but they will also be free to pursue outside endorsements as long as it doesn’t cast a negative shadow on the Fronton.
We will take a pro-active approach in developing a local fan base. We will not hide or shelter the players from the fans. Nor, will we make the game inacessible. This is the reason for the 30 meter court that will be built on the adjacent to the Fronton.
We have no intentions of making the same mistakes that other facilites have made.
The largest facility will have a capacity of 11-12,000….. not seating for that many. I wish. No two frontons will be identical. The size of the city will decide the capacity of the fronton.
Yeah, the stuff is priced like you’d expect merchandise to be priced from a professional sports franchise. Also, it will change a little each year so that no two years merchandise is the same. That’s what will help make it collectible.
And finally for those of you who hope we fail. I truly don’t understand why you bother to use this web site. I thought it was for the fans.
Isn’t there somewhere else that your negativity and your desire to see other people fail, be better served? It is very obvious that you’re not a true fan. I bet you even hit girls and kick puppies.
In closing, for those of you who are fans and wish to speak to me in person, feel free……..even the puppy kickers.
PS……..we are less than one week from our deadline to help the Katrina kids. If you can’t swing a shirt or hat, how bout 5 or 10 bucks on the donation button????
To all, even the girl beaters, have a Happy Holiday Season.
For all this to happen, Mr. Coleman is living a dream. First of all, he will need upwards of $150-$200 million dollars to pull this off – maybe less if he is able to get those cities to build the facilities like he says they might be able to. Good luck on that one.
He then takes a stab at “Bennett” and says, “those are P r o t o t y p e s”. I would assume he’s pointing fingers at the same Bennett, who I would say has been the most respectable poster on Tigers site over the past 18-years. It must have been a previous posting he made that I was unable to locate. But I’m not sure. This Texas jai-alai site has been brought up a few times over the past 14 years on Tigers site.
The next fallacy is the 11-12,000 capacities of each of the frontons. What!!! Are you kidding me? That’s more than the Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins or the Oakland A’s average at their crappy ballparks.
He then takes a stab at Tigers site and wonders why people use it. He even goes to the extreme of calling them as those that would go around hitting girls and kicking puppies! Again, I couldn’t make this stuff up.
He also talks about having no slot machines. Texas does allow horse and dog racing, with the latter all but gone now. Competing against slots would be like me competing against Goiko in a singles match. Its only a matter of time till casino’s are allowed in Texas.
I wonder if that Coleman posting was by Ralphy Boy himself. He does a great job of checking on anyone before anyone can post there, and Coleman is Mr. Texas Jai-alai. But I’ve never seen a posting by Coleman in the past.
If it was April Fool’s Day joke all along, it was pretty clever! And a “Happy Holiday Season?” Wasn’t that a few months ago? Jeez. I’ve had enough.
Time to go kick a puppy, I guess. On second thoughts, no I won’t.
April 1, 2023: Word has leaked out that former President Donald Trump, a Palm Beach resident, is purchasing the long-closed building that was once West Palm Beach Jai-alai fronton and intends on bringing back jai-alai. Details are still emerging , but it is believed that he wants this to get more involved in the gambling business in the state of Florida. Currently, the Seminole Tribe hold exclusive rights to all gambling, with sports betting currently on hold after briefly operating 16 months ago.
There are no details on what will happen to the building, but we understand that current owner Don King may want to get more involved with boxing events to be hosted alongside jai-alai and working in conjunction with the former president, who is running for reelection again.
America’s first and only public jai-alai court is getting a makeover. After major expansion work in late 2021 that brought the cancha close to regulation amateur sizing for international tournament play, a couple of wrinkles needed to be addressed. The overhead protection screen, designed to protect wild throws from going into a soccer practice court adjacent to the cancha (and tennis courts further east of the court), was a few feet too low. On top of that, the netting was sagging, getting into the play of action on throws that normally would land in play. After 14 months of extensive playing, parts of the walls – both in the front and side were cracking apart. The overhead black paneling above the front wall was not able to protect multiple balls from getting thrown up and stuck on top of the 8” wide front wall. A tall ladder is needed to retrieve the “lost” Matt balls, often getting left up there for days till someone has the balls to go up there.
The entire screen area has been raised by about 4 feet, with the right side the most critically needed. The walls have been patched; with new thick black padding added along the entire right side just outside of the front wall. Work has also been done to the metal chopa and the paneling below it.
The next phase will include work on the rear sunshades, to help players better see the ball attempting to make rebotes coming and blinded by the sunset, usually right behind the back wall facing the west.
The goal is to ultimately raise the center cable to 8 feet above the walls, doubling the amount it is now after the first phase.
Then finally, the “makeup” gets put on the cancha. The unsightly white effervescence, “leaking” from the cinder blocks that were added to the court on its expansion work in late 2021, will be cleaned up and then the walls all getting a fresh coat of green paint.
A fundraiser by Belota last summer along with construction work run by NJAA/Sunshine League contractors Scott King and Eric Lanctot were able to pull this project off. Puryear Park jai-alai founder Paul Kubala was director of the project. And a special thanks to all those that donated their time on the 3-day project that was competed over the previous weekend.
It was quite a week for America’s first and only public Jai-alai cancha in the United States.
Last Saturday, former French star “Danny” brought along his buddy Jean “Olharan” for a visit to the Museum and then an appearance at the St. Petersburg court. Danny was a catching machine and played in various frontons including stints in Hartford and Miami. His French buddy, 33-year-old Olharan, is a world-class frontcourter who plays in tournaments internationally and is considered by Danny as among the top 3 frontcourters in the world today.
A couple of days earlier, a former world champion player, France’s “Oleveair” came by to check out America’s public court. It just so happened that a group of about 6 players were out there playing, and he immediately jumped in and played. He last threw a pelota in France over twenty years ago and based on what we saw after just a couple of throws and catches, this guy was good. Real good. He borrowed my basket and was throwing some nice pills. Due to some serious language translation problems, we were not able to get the full details on him and where was he a world champion with, etc. Research by our historian Mark K produced a player by the name of “Olha”, but Benny confirmed that was not him.
Olharan had made a point to visit the jai-alai museum and was able to make the trip while on his last full day in the United States with Danny, who was making the four-hour drive to photograph some nature wildlife at St. Petersburg’s Fort DeSoto Park, regarded as one of the top beaches in the United States.
Incredibly, the next day, Olharan was on a 17-hour flight back to his home and then to Guernica, Spain to compete in the Jai-alai Winter Series and going up against Goiko in a doubles match.. After losing the first game with Basque in the backcourt, they won the second and third 15-point matches for the win. He also won his 15-point game while playing in St. Pete too, adjusting to the court in no time at all.
Following a two-month delay, West Flagler Associates (owners of Magic City Casino) has gained “conditional approval” of the sale their casino in what is being considering the biggest casino deal in the state of Florida’s history.
The sale, estimated to be around $600 million dollars in cash*, would turn over operations to PCI Gaming, which is owned and operated by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. They would have control of the slot machines, electronic casino games and poker, but would have no effect on Magic City Jai-alai which will continue to operate as normal.
The Havenick family has owned the lucrative property for decades which for most of the time was known as Flagler Dog Track. Today, it is the highest grossing “racino”, or former pari-mutual venue in the state of Florida that is allowed to operate slot machines and poker.
The CEO and President of Wind Creek Hospitality, Jay Dorris, said there is big plans coming to the property. The closed dog track, comprised of 30 acres of property unused, would likely become a huge luxury casino and entertainment resort. Plans like this sound like something on the line with the Hard Rock but without live blackjack and other card games and could make the casino even more profitable than it is now. There would be nothing like it in Miami, especially with no further casino expansion expected, especially from some powerful gaming companies like The Genting Group from Asia.
All the current employees of Magic City Casino will continue employment, except senior executives like Scott Savin, who will continue to run the jai-alai portion of it. They could also investigate opening that jai-alai and poker facility in the Edgewater neighborhood (near downtown Miami) that they had gained approval on a couple years ago.
For us jai-alai fans, this is great news. Magic City jai-alai would have the potential to reach many more people (if they open their doors more often to the public) at that site or investigate building a new court in Edgewater in a nice location while operating poker at the same time. West Flagler would also have control of the Bonita Springs Poker room, which is between Ft. Myers and Naples. A dog track operated on that site for decades also.
Two months ago, the sale of the casino was put on hold by the Florida Gaming Control Commission, the nearly formed entity that was part of the Governor Ron DeSantis’ “gambling package” that included jai-alai decoupling and sports betting to be exclusively run by the Seminole Tribe. Ironically, the West Flagler group successfully sued and had the sports betting deal halted after a 40-day run. The decision is now under an appeal before a three-person circuit appeals panel, and a split vote, expected to go either way, should be coming sometime in the next few months. It is not known what will happen if the appeal is upheld or overruled and if West Flagler would be involved anymore.
According to the Windcreek website, the new owners are adding properties “faster than you can spin a roulette wheel”. They are no strangers to Florida and parimutuel wagering, as they do own the Pensacola Greyhound Park. They own several casinos in the United States and the Caribbean.
Sounds like a win-win situation for everybody involved including the new casino owners with their plans on the dog track location, the Havenick family ($600 million!!*) and our jai-alai visionary guys like Scott Savin and Stu.
*Not disclosed but the figure has been estimated by “industry experts.”
Here is some brief video from the Cancun tournament that was just held the first weekend in February. Photo and video by Arturo Salas. More images and details to come.
I was fully booked to attend and play in the event, but a death of a close friend caused a late change in plans, thus no full details and images for now. Sorry for the inconvenience.
“Magic” Matt DiDomizio has changed the dates of his upcoming jai-alai tournament this spring in Berlin, Connecticut.
The event has been postponed two weeks till the end of April – the 28-30th, again on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The reason for the change was that several players would not have been able to make it that mid-April weekend, which was reported here on the Pelota Press a couple weeks ago. It was also changed to coincide with his 13th anniversary date. If you recall, last years event was held on basically the same dates.
The change was made as a few players from the Tampa Bay area were getting to book their flights, and already they have booked their flights for the new dates were finalized this Friday morning.
The weather should be a little nicer and the dogwoods should just starting to bloom around that time.
Matt Extravaganza Jai-alai Tournament April 28, 29. 30, 2023
Friday, April 14th – 6:30pm
Spec 9 version of jai-alai – all played in Singles Games – Special Edition
$10 Spectator Fee for non-players
Saturday, April 15th – 10am
Doubles Day tournament
Handicapped Teams by Matts pickings
Partido’s to 9 points to determine playoff brackets
Sunday, April 16th – 10am
Partido Challenge Day
Sign up your team. Matt will match them up – OR –
Sign up 2 teams to make your own partido match
You only have to be there for your game
25-point Partido unless both teams agree to go to 21-point game
Kill shots allowed unless both teams agree to “no shots”
Fee Schedule
Play 1 Day – $25
Play 2 or 3 Days – $50
There will be a $100 insurance fee paid by April 1st to Register. The money is reimbursed when you play.
Deadline to Register is April Fools Day. No Late entries allowed.
Contact Matt for full information regarding that matter and all other details.
To clarify, on Saturday’s schedule, Matt will determine the teams to make it as fair as possible to all. A weaker player will be chosen with a stronger player. This is the reason for the strict rules on paying up front and to be fully committed.
The two-month Dania Jai-alai Invitational Event is now over, with Urutia/Mandiola taking the championship by beating Iturbide/Oyhenard 21-12 late Saturday night in the finals. It was an exciting two months for the fronton, which had appeared to be destined to be a “hotel lobby” or something when it was announced jai-alai was over for good. Decent crowds and handle helped spark bringing lot of people into the building to watch some real exciting jai-alai action.
Jai-alai will return – likely on Friday, December 1, 2023 for at least another two-month season. Using the same format makes sense – its economical and avoids the “pesky” visa issues. We do know the owners were pleased with the results. Of course, a longer season would be desired, but not feasible in these days.
The accounting team will do a deep dive and produce their analysis of the two-month season so actually see if it was profitable or close to it.
On the players side, all the players (not heading to Magic City) have been invited back for next season. So far, only two players have indicated they cannot return. In the springtime, Benny will start actively scouting players to fill out the roster.
Here is a bunch of charts on the season of just about all the odds you could imagine (special thanks to Mo Crank of the SayHiLi Site for preparing these):
Berlin Connecticut will once again be the jai-alai capital of the world, with Matt DiDomizio staging a huge 3 day – all separate events of their own – tournament. The event will take place April 14-16, 2023, just as the weather starts to warm up in the Nutmeg state.
Each tournament will play to its completion the same day. Here is how it will work:
Extravaganza Jai-alai Tournament April 14-16, 2023
Friday, April 14th – 6:30pm
Spec 9 version of jai-alai – all played in Singles Games – Special Edition
$10 Spectator Fee for non-players
Saturday, April 15th – 10am
Doubles Day tournament
Handicapped Teams
Partido’s to 9 points to determine playoff brackets
Sunday, April 16th – 10am
Partido Challenge Day
Sign up your team. Matt will match them up – OR –
Sign up 2 teams to make your own partido match
You only have to be there for your game
25-point Partido unless both teams agree to go to 21-point game
Kill shots allowed unless both teams agree to “no shots”
Fee Schedule
Play 1 Day – $25
Play 2 or 3 Days – $50
There will be a $100 insurance fee paid by April 1st to Register. The money is reimbursed when you play.
Deadline to Register is April Fools Day. No Late entries allowed.
Contact Matt for full information regarding that matter and all other details.
