North America’s newest cancha is now open in Cancun. Built by the Salas brothers, this fronton has Loren Harris working with them putting on some great events for kids and adults.
The next big event is Labor Day weekend for their International Fall Festival. For more details go to Loren Harris and Fronton Salas Facebook pages.
It was a historical evening in the sport of jai-alai – Monday, August 16, 2021 . For the first time in history, a legal bet could be made on the sport that was not in the form of pari-mutual wagering that has been around for decades.
Pari-mutual wagering is how jai-alai, horses and dog tracks operate. It is a system of placing bets where winning players divide the total amount of bet in proportion to their individual wagers less a fixed “management expense” or house profit. In jai-alai today, that fee is usually around 25%. Pari-mutual wagering was first invented by a Frenchman named Piere Oiler in 1865 and was first used for horse racing in the United States in 1871 in New York. Florida first allowed it in 1935 and allowed jai-alai to have a long successful run for many decades, mainly in the 1970s and 1980s.
Today, anybody in the state of Iowa could bet on Magic City’s H2H performance this afternoon. Many jai-alai fans were wondering what was the purpose of these head to head matches that Magic City was holding – partidos at some strange hours – including Monday and Tuesday late afternoons.
As Straymar first reported today on his Say Hi Li site and the Pelota Press, jai-alai sports betting history was made today at 5pm EST with four Magic City H2H singles matches on the sports betting menu on BetRivers.com in the state of Iowa. They already have sports betting in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Colorado, West Virginia, Virgina and New Jersey and this jai-alai betting might open in those states as the approval process is completed.
Is this the future of jai-alai? That is the big question. Magic City has been hosting a lot of H2H games in order to build up numbers to present to the public a statistic to make bets with. Magic City is already promising $100,000 in prize money to the players – just for this occasion. Their schedule is set to not compete against many other sports betting activities at that time. Betters will bet no matter what. Heck, ping-pong in China has a lot of people betting on it because of their time difference and no competition.
Magic City Jai-alai is thinking ahead here and we really hope it works out. Nothing beats Partido betting.
As you can see from the image, a game featuring Ikeda vs. Spinner both went of at -117 odds. The following game featured Carballo vs. Douglas with Douglas +200 and Carballo -286. Pretty cool stuff!
We all wish Magic City and Scott Savin the best in this new betting formation of jai-alai.
Decoupling of jai-alai went into effect August 1st, but that is not hindering America’s only full-length jai-alai fronton from opening.
Unless you have been to the moon or somewhere, its likely your aware decoupling was passed this past spring allowing jai-alai frontons to continue other means of gambling without having to run live jai-alai games to keep their permit. Of course, most of the other frontons will be closing down. Calder is running out their schedule which concludes in a couple weeks. Miami is free to open year-round Cirque du Soleil or whatever they have planned. Instead of watching Goiko and Lopez out there, you get a completely different show. Ocala can get rid of their black curtains and hope a farmer will buy much of their property. Orlando could give a rat’s ass either way. Ft. Piece could use some night life now – perhaps turn the court into a nightclub?
OK, kidding aside, there is one full sized, goat-skin fronton that will stay open. And that is Dania Jai-alai. As we first reported several months ago, they fully intend on staying open – for a while. They just need your support like showing up!
The season opens September 1st. There will be matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 1pm. The Sunday matinee has been moved from 4pm to 1pm. Evening performances will run Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7pm. Hooray! Prime Time Jai-alai! Great schedule.
The roster has some changes. Bailo has chosen to retire and will not return in the fall. He will not be replaced by another backcourter as they have two frontcourters in Elgezabal and Aratz that are actually both backcourters currently playing the front. The decision on which of the two will move to the back will be made soon.
Dania has brought in two frontcourters to complete in the 26-man roster. One of the frontcourters is number 16 Goenaga who was here a few season ago but had visa problems and could not return. The other one is a young player by the name of Cosme. He is from the same town as Goiko and was heavily recommended by Inali as a prospect for the future. Unfortunately, Dania applied for the visas in April and they have not been approved yet. The are hoping that their visas will be approved soon but enable to start the season in September they are currently looking for a couple of players that can fill those spots until those visa applications are approved.
Unlike other seasons, the Dania season will end November 28th, which is the last Sunday in November. Normally they play two weeks in December but this year they will end at the end of November. It is too bad that there will be no jai-alai over Christmas thru New Years’ time, usually the busiest tourist season time.
Dania is currently scheduled to return in February and play thru the end of April. They intend on adding a month to the winter season to make it four months in total – but have not made the final decision if that will be January or if it will be in May. Nonetheless, the season in the winter time, after the three month fall season will be a total of four months.
Dania is looking forward to the beginning of the fall season and are also hoping that they will be able to continue the fall challenge with a Partido action that they have had in the last three fall seasons. Those decisions will be made in September. Hopefully they bring those back. Nothing beats those partidos.
Its time to support Jai-alai folks. There’s no guarantee how long this will go. And kudos to Scott Savin at Magic City for all they are doing there!
Chris Spidle is a licensed unlimited General Construction Contractor and is Managing Member for Envisage Development LLC of Scottsdale. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa and is a licensed pilot with an extensive military background. His goal of bringing live jai-alai and on-site and mobile betting on it in Arizona begins now.
Since its inception in early 2000s, the National Jai-alai Association has pulled off a few “miracles” in the jai-alai world.
Their first project, led by Paul Kubala, was convincing a municipality to build a public jai-alai cancha. Getting something like this most likely had never even been attempted before. But in 2007, with help from private funds from the NJAA, the City of St. Petersburg became the first municipality to have its own public jai-alai court. And equally as amazing as this story is, in late 2020, the NJAA was able to get plans approved for the court to get totally remodeled to serve as a more “legitimate” court by increasing the wall length, height and width. Basically an entire new court will be in place of the old one. As you can see in the accompanying blogs of mine, work is ongoing now at a rapid pace and should be completed by the end of the summer.
Another accomplishment by the NJAA was assisting in the famous Dos Equis Beer Jai-alai commercial featuring Johnathan Goldsmith as the “World’s Most Interesting Man”. With help from our senior writer Marty Fleischman, who was General Manager of Dania Jai-alai at the time, virtually all the footage and ideas were obtained with our help. The beer company’s ten-year run was one of the most successful ad campaigns in TV history and made the beer and its overall image a household name.
The NJAA has assisted in putting together dozens of national and international tournaments, presented school demonstrations, assisted hundreds of people over the years with questions on jai-alai and has consulted with producers from the movie Black Mass and TV shows like “The Odd Couple” (a remake a couple years ago).
But last Saturday evening, I got an inquiry that caught my eye instantly. I was in Miami and had just attended the Magic City performance that afternoon and was heading out to watch the Yankees-Marlins game. The email was from a Chris Spidle of Envisage Development. He was reaching out to make contact with us regarding their interest in building a new fronton in Tempe Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) in a new commercial development.
They want a full-blown fronton with limited seating, upscale dining area, a few luxury boxes. What? Are you kidding me? Jai-alai is on the decline. It was recently decoupled in Florida meaning pari-mutual facilities can continue their card cards (along with slots in Broward and Dade counties) without running live jai-alai games. The Connecticut and Rhode Island frontons are long gone. Hello lottery. Hello casinos.
But Chris Spidle and his group have other ideas. Chris is a type of guy who thinks “outside of the box”. Sports betting was just approved in the State of Arizona in April and plans are underway for the Tribe and sports teams to handle the betting action. Another huge bonus is mobile betting. That has been approved also. A huge 46-acre complex to be built in Tempe, Arizona is under planning stages and another sport franchise is required to be brought in. They already have others lined up (see Chris Spidle blog on this website for more details). The complex will include 1,000 upscale residences and 200,000 square feet of retail. All of this will be adjacent to Arizona State University entertainment district. An upscale jai-alai fronton would be attached to a small basketball arena hosting their ABA team.
How far can this project go? They will be putting on a presentation to AECOM and the City of Tempe next week. Initial reaction has been good. Money will not be not object if AECOM is involved. They are one of the largest engineering firms in the world and number 157 on the Fortune 500 List. They have built some of the largest airports and buildings, and stadiums in the world including JFK, LA, Logan Airports, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, AT & T Stadium, Barclays Center, and the World Trade Center.
The NJAA will offer their assistance if this project moves along………….
Whitey Bulger’s sharpshooting partner, Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi has a date with the a Florida parole board on August 18th for his freedom.
He has served 26 years, so far, of a life sentence for his role in the back-to-back murder of World Jai-alai President John Callahan in Florida, and World Jai-alai owner Roger Wheeler in Oklahoma along with at least 8 other “gangland” executions.
In the state of Florida, prisoners can ask for a “compassionate release” where those who are at least 65 years old, experiencing serious deterioration in physical or mental health due to age and have served at least 10 years or 75% of their sentence. Flemmi is now 87 years old and is locked up in Florida prison unknown to the public because he has been labeled as a “Rat” for the deal he received in testifying against Whitey Bulger to avoid the death penalty.
There’s at least one person not too happy about this. Mary Callahan told the Boston Herald “I don’t think so. He’s talking about compassion? I didn’t see him having any compassion for his victims”. Her husband John was shot to death and left in a truck of a car at the Miami airport in 1982 because he knew too much about Bulger and Flemmi working as informants for the FBI. Bulger went on the run for 16 years before getting captured nearly 3 years ago at the age of 89. He was sentenced to a penitentiary in Hazelton West Virginia and was murdered by inmates just hours after arriving in a wheelchair.
Flemmi is hoping to gain his release- just like his former FBI handler, John Connolly, who was released last February. Connolly has claimed that he is terminally ill. Flemmi actually got his nickname “The Rifleman” during the Korena War as a member of the Army and ran the Boston Winter Hill Gang with Bulger and was the plot of the movie “Black Mass” starring Johnny Depp that was released in 2015 and featured a phony jai-alai scene. There are no details on the condition of Flemmi’s health at this time. I guess we will find out next month.
We ask that no one goes on the court during construction. Someone could get hurt, and that would give us a black mark, tarnishing what has been a good relationship with the city for nearly 15 years. Thank you.
Meanwhile, work is delayed as Elsa is passing by – perhaps becoming the first hurricane to hit the Tampa Bay area in 100 years. And yes, the bottom one foot of the J Laca Museum has been lifted in anticipation of flooding from the storm hitting exactly at high tide.
Photos from 06/22/21 thru 06/24/21 (right click any photo and open in new tab to see full size)
The jai-alai folks on the west coast of Florida are excited as renovations to America’s first public jai-alai court are now underway. On Tuesday, NJAA volunteers Paul Kubala, Scott King, Corky, Anthony, Garby, Mike, Rule, Joe C and Rick B (yes Rick B my buddy!) pitched in to tear down sections of the side wall. On Wednesday, the bulldozers were out and begun tearing down the front wall – which had been in existence for yearly 40 years as a racquetball side wall – was torn down. Additional work included tearing down some of the fencing.
The teardown of the wall, which served as the front wall for Puryear Park jai-alai for over 30 years, was gone. The new jai-alai court will expand into the next racquetball section, bringing the court to 104 feet long. The height of the walls will be extended to 20 feet high in the front and side walls with 16’ on the back wall. The back wall is only being raised by 6 feet to 16 feet – purposely to prevent “home runs.” The width of the walls is being expanded 4 ½ feet on top of it. Extensive fencing will protect the pelota from leaving the premises and that work will start soon. The end result will be an entirely different cancha and that is what has the NJAA organizers excited. Our logos have also been approved to go on the front wall pending donations. We are also asking for donations from players and supporters to contribute to the construction of the court now to enhance the side wall with more concrete block. Mike, Laca, and Cachin contributing photographs and videos.
We will keep you posted as the court renovations resume.
Back row (left to right): Oyarbide, Garby, Gino, Laca, Rule, RickB, Brodie Front row (left to right): Armndo, Echeva, Cachin, Alex, “Magic” Mike, ScottK (Denver missing in group but in picture below on right)
America’s first public court ended its first “phase” of operation Sunday afternoon with a big tournament. The court, nestled around a bunch of soccer fields in northeast St. Petersburg had a big run of over 30 years of amateur jai-alai action – the last 14 as the first municipally owned cancha. Fourteen players participated in a 2 hour and 42 minute tournament before a crowd of about 40. We even added a substitute for Corky with Oyarbide (a former pro) from Spain.
The court is now closed and will be undergoing extensive renovations, making it more in line with the old N Miami court and Matt’s in Berlin, Connecticut. The improvements will take 2-3 months and officials hope to have the court open by Labor Day weekend – assuming the weather, manpower and materials all fall into place.
The tournament featured 7 front courters, 7 back courters with each player taking on 5 players with total points accumulating. A win would add 3 extra points, a place would add 2 extra points and a show would add 1 extra point to each persons scores on top of the number of points they accumulated. Seven games were played to 10 points and then two partido’s were held with the 3rd place qualifier from the front joining the 3rd place qualifier playing the 4th place qualifiers of both the front and back.
The first 15-point partido would determine 3rd place and the game featured Magic Mike and Gino (who had subbed for Thomas who had to leave just minutes before the performance with an unfortunate death in the family). Mike and Gino held a commanding 14-9 lead but lost the next 6 points to former Dania pro Garby and J Laca who ended up winning 15-14. Garby/Laca were awarded the 3rd place trophies.
The final game played featured Brodie and Cachin vs. Scott King and Rule with the latter taking the game 15-10. This gave Scott King and Rule the 1st place trophies with Brodie and Cachin taking 2nd place.
Sunday June 20 2021 Post Time 1:00pm. Fathers Day Final Tournament.
Game # 1 to 10 points 06-20-2021 Start: 13:06:53 Ended: 13:17:36
Garby/Rule 10 Win
ScottK/Oyrbde 1
Alex/Cachin 3
Brodie/Gino 4 Place
Mike/Laca 4 Show
Game # 2 to 10 points 06-20-2021 Start: 13:26:26 Ended: 13:39:30
Echeva/Oyrbde 1
Garby/Cachin 4 Show
ScottK/Gino 10 Win
Alex/Laca 1
Brodie/Denver 7 Place
Game # 3 to 10 points 06-20-2021 Start: 13:43:13 Ended: 13:53:13
Armndo/Cachin 10 Win
Echeva/Gino 2
Garby/Laca 3
ScottK/Denver 3 Show
Alex/RickB 4 Place
Game # 4 to 10 points 06-20-2021 Start: 14:01:15 Ended: 14:15:39
Mike/Gino 9 Place
Armndo/Laca 2
Echeva/Denver 3
Garby/RickB 5 Show
ScottK/Rule 10 Win
Game # 5 to 10 points 06-20-2021 Start: 14:21:58 Ended: 14:30:18
Brodie/Laca 10 Win
Mike/Denver 0
Armndo/RickB 2 Show
Echeva/Rule 4 Place
Garby/Oyrbde 2
Game # 6 to 10 points 06-20-2021 Start: 14:34:45 Ended: 14:45:17
Alex/Denver 1 Show
Brodie/RickB 0
Mike/Rule 5 Place
Armndo/Oyrbde 1
Echeva/Cachin 10 Win
Game # 7 to 10 points 06-20-2021 Start: 14:49:26 Ended: 15:06:18
ScottK/RickB 6
Alex/Rule 7 Show
Brodie/Oyrbde 8 Place
Mike/Cachin 10 Win
Armndo/Gino 1
Game # 8 to 15 points 06-20-2021 Start: 15:14:04 Ended: 15:27:01
Mike/Gino 14 (4th Place)
Garby/Laca 15 Win (3rd Place)
Game # 9 to 15 points 06-20-2021 Start: 15:30:38 Ended: 15:47:21
Brodie/Cachin 10 (2nd Place)
ScottK/Rule 15 Win (1st Place)
Game #4 of Tournament on Fathers Day 06/20/21 (Laca Catch (12:46) costs Mike/Gino game pt)Game #9 Final Playoff Partido for 1st and 2nd Place (ScottK/Rule 15 – Brodie/Cachin 10)