Ft. Pierce Jai-alai is officially gone. The wrecking balls were out there in late July, and the beloved fronton which hosted thousands of games over the years, is nothing but dust.
Special thanks to Jacob Walden, President of the Professional Jai-alai Association sent us these pictures and is getting the museum (along with a few others), a hunk of the front wall to go on display.
Looking closely at these photos, you can get a rare view of the thickness of the front wall made out a granite with the green paint in front of it.
There was a big turnout this past weekend as several players from Miami Amateur Jai-alai made the trip up to play on the other Florida amateur court for the first time.
The fundraiser event to raise money to enhance the already “greatly improved and expanded” public court in St. Petersburg, netted over $1200 in donations to go towards it.
Over 25 players participated as a crowd of about 50 attended the performances.
On Saturday night, about 45 people attended a special party held at the J Laca Museum which included the entire roster from the N. Miami cancha.
The winners of the event were Tampa Bay star players Anthony Sutton and Scott King. Coming in second was Brodie and Corky (also of Tampa Bay) and coming in third was Jeraga and Angula of Miami.
There will be a rematch held at the N. Miami facility at a date to be announced.
The sport of jai-alai will be getting its best opportunity to showcase its sport tonight Tuesday 08/02/22, as ESPN 2 will be broadcasting a Magic City Performance in prime time tonight at 8pm for a full hour.
ESPN 2. This surprise press release came out last night: Click Link to see:
For the first time ever, a large group of N. Miami amateur players are coming up to play at the St. Pete cancha this weekend for a big fundraiser event.
The tournament is being put together by Jon “Belota” Morin, currently a player on the St. Pete “roster”. The fundraiser is being held to raise more cash to further enhance the playing experience at America’s first public court.
The overhead protection netting over the court will need raising up and work on the front wall and above padding will need additional work.
The cancha is the first and only public jai-alai court in America and opened in 2008. Last year, additional funds were raised to expand the court and after a long 6-month period, the court reopened in December of 2021. Under the direction of our contractors, Scott King and Eric Lanctot, the court is now one of the best amateur facilities in the world.
The players from the event are all making contributions. The event is being held at Puryear Park this weekend. There will be drinks, food, and free programs available.
It’s been a little slow in the Jai-alai world and this story doesn’t really have anything to do with our sport, but it is gambling related, and I wanted to get this out there.
By now, as you know, the Mega Million lottery has passed the $ ONE BILLION mark going to the winner of the jackpot. This is the third time in the twenty-year history that the jackpot has surpassed that magical number. Not one ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Tuesday night, so the new drawing will take place Friday night, July 29th. The 11pm drawing will be the thirtieth in the jackpot run which began on April 19th.
The record payout of $1.537 billion was claimed in South Carolina on October 23, 2018 and remains as the world’s largest lottery prize ever won on a single ticket. Interest in the lottery has drawn unprecedented traffic with the website going down for over two hours Tuesday night.
The odds of winning this on a single ticket are 1/302.5 million, but the real winner is Uncle Sam. Most winners elect to claim all the money in one immediate sum versus an getting an annuity of 30 payments over 29 years. That payment would be $602.5 million, but the federal tax will take out another $144.6 million. Doesn’t sound fair, does it? No one lets us deduct money every year we lose money gambling on the lottery, slots, jai-alai or sports betting.
But this lottery news reminded me of a movie I watched a couple weeks ago. I don’t watch movies too often, but when I do, it’s to watch a movie based on a true story. I’ve watched just three movies in a theatre in the past 20-25 years and those were Moneyball, Richard Jewell and Black Mass. All obviously true stories.
The movie I watched is called Jerry & Marge Go Large. I thought the name of it was kind of stupid, until I watched it and realized what an amazing couple they were – and no wonder why they named the movie after them. It was released on the new streaming channel Paramount+ on June 17, 2022. It is based on a true story of a guy that figured out how to legally win a state lottery thru a mathematical loophole. Jerry Selbee had just retired from 42 years as a production line manager for Kellogg’s in a small Midwest town. He was bored with nothing to do until he studied the payoffs in the lottery game called “Winfall”. While reading the fine print, he noticed that the game had a unique feature that was called a “rolldown”. Unlike other high-paying games such as the Mega Millions mentioned earlier, the jackpot keeps building until someone hits all six numbers and wins the big prize. But in this game of Winfall, if the jackpot reaches the top prize of $5 million, and no one matched all six numbers, all the money is rolled down to the winners who matched fewer numbers. Mr. Selbee realized that he was guaranteed to win money if he bought enough tickets.
We don’t want to spell the beans on how this turned out, but the consortium he put together quickly netted them $26 million and an appearance on 60 Minutes in 2019. The distribution of the funds makes this a heartwarming story and is a must watch movie if you like this kind of stuff about mathematical geniuses and gambling. Maybe Jerry could figure out a way to win the billion dollars Friday night?
You can download Paramount+ for free for seven days as a trial without turning over any credit cards or information. The movie is only 96 minutes long and is more like a comedy-draw film that will keep your laughing and cheering especially when Jerry has a run-in with some smartass college kids. * * * *
Twelve years ago, Matt DiDomizio saved any form of jai-alai in Connecticut by building an amateur court in Berlin. A couple of years before that, Paul Kubala did the same thing on the west coast of Florida by lobbying the City of St. Petersburg to construct America’s first public court. Last year, Dania jai-alai announced they were closing shop after Florida legislators approved the decoupling of the sport while allowing parimutuel facilities to keep their other forms of gambling going such as slot machines and poker. That would have been the last remaining full size, goat-skin fronton in America, leaving “short court” Magic City as the last place to watch professional jai-alai.
The ancient Basque sport is still of life support, but there is still hope. Dania Casino earlier this year announced they were reopening for two months in December and January with a full roster and parimutuel wagering. The institution may see its 70th anniversary after all. Matt retired as being a mailman in his post pro jai-alai last year, and now devotes fulltime efforts on his cancha. The St. Pete court got a huge makeover last year and is now an excellent amateur facility with visitors coming hundreds of miles just to play.
Meanwhile, down in Miami, Magic City’s COO Scott Savin announced that they were committing to a 6th season to their unique version of rubber ball, small court jai-alai. But as he told Mark Saxon of USBets recently, the owners of the highly successful racino are going to have to start seeing a profit to keep jai-alai alive beyond 2023.
Savin told Saxon in the interview that “The owners give me a lot of latitude and they’ve been great about it. As long as we are increasing revenues, they’re good to go with it. If we stagnate or drop, they would tell me, and I would agree with them, that this was a wonderful experiment that didn’t go where we wanted it to go. But right now, everyone’s enthusiastic that we’re still very much in the growing phase and everything looks like it’s unfolding positively.”
Savin was the one that came up with the idea of opening jai-alai as an alternative to running dog racing at what was previously called Flager Greyhound Park. Dog racing had been running there since 1932 but it was costly to operate, and it took up a lot of land. There was a seldom known clause on the books that allowed parimutuel facilities to switch from dog or horse racing to jai-alai. Pompano Park was about to do the same thing a couple years ago by switching from harness racing to jai-alai. Plans were already in place for a newly constructed fronton. Calder did the same thing by opening their “fronton” and ditching horse racing that was actually being held at Gulfstream. They converted a second-floor concert hall into a condensed jai-alai court with glass walls due to weight issues a traditional court made of granite and concrete blocks would have presented. Savin had previously been involved with Dania Casino and apparently fell in love with the sport like the rest of us have. Ironically, Dog racing was banned in the state of Florida after animal rights activists got it on the ballot that was easily passed by the public in a referendum. But the jai-alai court was already operating at the time. Magic City still had to option to phase out jai-alai at that time because they were still operating “legally” as a dog track, but they elected to keep it going. Then jai-alai was later decoupled but the jai-alai action continued – even with longer seasons and much more experienced players.
As one of the most successful racinos in the Broward-Dade area in terms of slot machine revenue, Magic City certainly has the resources, and from what we have heard, the profits are enormous.
But changes have been on the way in the way they continue to operate the jai-alai action. It is no secret that parimutuel wagering on jai-alai is no longer a money maker like it was for decades before. Dania has been losing millions over the years with their jai-alai operation. Magic City is no different. Their players are paid a yearly salary and are offered generous bonuses for wins, places, shows and for end of year totals. A top player can easily make six figures a year. They even hold tournaments yearly for amateurs and ex-pros who have not played in years with total prizes of over $20,000. When Magic City first opened, many jai-alai loyalist were furious. They did not care at all for the short court, the glass walls, and the use of a rubber ball. The rubber ball had to happen as the real pelota – harder than a golf ball and covered with two layers of goat skin – was penetrating the front wall glass around the “seams” and causing the panels to crack. It certainly didn’t sound like jai-alai either when the ball hits the front wall. And as Mark Saxon cleverly wrote in his article to USBets- “Savin’s group has altered the rules enough to make the Basque inventors from the late 19th century roll over in their graves”.
Right now, Magic City Jai-alai appears to be in a transition period that might not make jai-alai loyalists in Florida and Connecticut too happy. The parimutuel wagering format has been cut back from 5 evenings and a couple of matinees a week down to just 3 afternoons – in the odd days and times of 1:30pm on Sunday, Monday and Tuesdays. At 5pm on those same days, a head-to-head format takes place with fix odds betting allowed in just seven states thru a site called BetRivers Sportsbook & Casino. You can bet on a team to win just like you could bet on the Cowboys or any other sports team. It’s a best of 3 with the format just like in tennis. It’s exciting and fast-paced. But it is not available in Florida and Connecticut and might never be with Connecticut outlawing jai-alai gambling and the fact that Magic City were the ones that sued successful and shut down sports betting in Florida. There had been an exclusive agreement with the Seminole Tribe that anyone in the state of Florida could place sports bets on the phone. It was simpler than ordering a pizza. A judge stopped it after it had legal for about a month. While it’s being appealed, nothing will be resolved until next year – at the earliest. The argument is that the better would have to be on tribal property in order to place the bets, not using their phones offsite that go to a server on the tribal property. There is also an issue with another group contesting it that sports betting is a “common game” found in casinos and must pass a recently approved voter amendment that requires a statewide vote with 60% approval for any future gambling top take place.
No one knows how well the sports betting format has been going but Savin did tell US Bets that wagering is up 30% this season and that the sport has moved into BetRivers’ top 10 in handle – ahead of sports like rugby, darts and Major League Lacrosse. It is just slightly behind the Canadian Football League.
Why is the sports betting being held only on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesdays at the weird hour of 5pm? Because there is very little competition in that time period. There is a certain number of gamblers out there in the USA that want to gamble at that time, and generally there are no horse races or sporting events being held at that time. Savin had mentioned in the past that Chinese Ping-Pong had a decent betting audience because of the lack of competition at those hours.
Scott Savin has even more plans for jai-alai. They are looking into a “league” expansion. Inquiries from interested investors from Las Vegas and foreign entities have looked to expand the leagues footprint. Savin dreams of an Eastern Conformance competing at the Magic City fronton and a Western Conference competing in Las Vegas with the winner playing in something like the “Super Bowl” of jai-alai.
Savin also envisions growth in the sport in selling teams for $100,000 that compete in the “Battle Court” Season that will start in September. A draft is expected to be held next month where the new owners call all the shots. The winner of Battle Court gets $50,000 in prize money, plus whatever revenue sharing is handed out. Sports betting? Broadcasting revenues? There is a potential if it takes off.
During the firsts season ownership was offered, two of the four teams were “bartered” to a couple of media companies for free publicity. The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz was one of them. In a nice gesture, the prize money will go to a charity of their choice.
Will this all be successful?
“That’s what everyone is clinging to, with a wide-eyed optimism for what the sport potentially could be,” Savin said. “But right now, everyone’s enthusiastic that we’re still very much in the growing phase and everything looks like it’s unfolding positively” he told Saxon.
Less then a month away now is the Magic City’s 3rd annual National Jai-alai Championship to be held in Miami, Florida. An overwhelming number of players have signed up at a free crack to win some of the $2,800 up for grabs in prize money.
The event will take place over 3 days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday and will feature a Masters Division and a Professional Tournament.
Masters Division
The Master’s division is open to amateur and former professional players who have not played professional since December 21, 2016, and professionals who are age 50 and older. The event will be held on Friday and Sunday for the Master’s with a first place finish winners collecting $1,000 in singles and in doubles with second place finishers collecting $500 in both singles and doubles.
There is a limit of 28 singles entries allowed and 14 doubles entries allowed with games played to 6 points and the finals to 7 points.
The finalists in singles and doubles will automatically be entered in the Pro Tournament Division.
Professional Tournament
The professional tournament will beheld on August 20 and 21st and is open to current professional player and former professional players who have played professionally since January 1, 2017, and professionals who are under the age of 50.
Here the prize money is a walloping $10,000 in prize money for first place and $5,000 for second place.
This is limited to 24 singles entries and 24 doubles teams with games played to 7 points and the finals played to 9 points. There will be a Playoff bracket in Doubles only.
The event is open to the public with no restrictions or masks required for the first time in its 3-year history.
We will have the list of participants in another week or so as rosters are still being fine-tuned.
A couple of readers tipped us off on a listing on eBay of perhaps the most unusual jai-alai helmet ever made. It was a combo package consisting of an old jai-alai cesta and a helmet. It’s not the old jai-alai cesta that really mattered. It was the helmet. It’s certainly one-of-a-kind.
It appears to be made from the same materials that a jai-alai cesta is. And believe it or not, it’s very durable, too. I believe it could hold up against a Belota fast ball off the skull without too much damage being done.
Inside the helmet is a liner and straps to put on and play with. But it won’t be used for playing. It will go into the J Laca Jai-alai Museum, perhaps next to the most photographed item in there – the Sea Cow Leo 2.0 cesta. Juice and Rastock will need to get back in there and retake their photos!
Dania Jai-alai is officially going to reopen this year – starting December 1st for a two-month season. The State of Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation – Division of the Pari-Mutual Wagering, has issued the license to conduct pari-mutuel wagering on the game of jai-alai in Dania, Florida.
The season starts with an evening performance on Thursday, December 1st and concludes Sunday, January 29, 2023.
Performances will run Wednesday thru Sundays with action in the evenings Wednesday thru Saturday and matinees on Saturday and Sunday, meaning the good old-fashioned twin-bill on Saturday’s – just like before. Hooray! Prime time jai-alai – and you can bet on it!
Management is working on getting a roster of around 24 players and nothing as been finalized yet. Neither has the possibility of high-definition broadcast video that would replace the “1980s” version still being used today. But who’s complaining? Dania Jai-alai may get to see its 70th anniversary after all.
Like Magic City, we all need to support Dania jai-alai to keep it going. There are a couple good things going here – Magic City will be closed the two months that Dania is open, so there will be no overlap of the two remaining frontons in the United States. Dania will also be open during the holidays with a matinee performance on Christmas Eve, but no performance that evening or Sunday – Christmas day. On New Year’s Eve – Saturday – there will be a matinee performance only. There will be a New Year’s Day matinee on Sunday. For the past ten years or so, Dania had been closed completely during the last couple of weeks in December. Traditionally, Florida pari-mutuels all did very well during those two weeks with lots of tourists from up north in town.
The Florida “fiscal” year for parimutuel’s runs July 1st 2022 thru June 30, 2023, so this will be on the only time Dania jai-alai can be open and excepting bets thru the next 13 months.
The Pelota Press will keep you updated on full details as they develop.
Puryear Park “alumni” Rocco was recently in the news for being the only former jai-alai player in history to become a jockey agent.
Rocco, who named himself after his grandfather’s name, learned to play jai-alai as a teenager off the walls of a movie theatre on Dale Mabry in Tampa and then playing a few years at Puryear Park. As mentioned in the story, a stranger one day gave him a cesta, and to this day Rocco has no idea who that person was.
It led to a jai-alai career that started over ten years ago on March 9, 2012, in Orlando under the name of “Roco”. Have no fear, former Tampa player “Corky” was on that roster under the name of “Korky”. Another former Puryear Park alumni “Sebio” was on that roster as well as a comeback by another former Tampa player, and current Puryear Court player – Scott King. Eric Pignataro later played on the Dania jai-alai roster as well as Ft. Pierce and Calder. In between jai-alai gigs, he became a dealer at the Hard Rock in Tampa before taking up an offer to head to Sacramento California for the opening of The Hard Rock Casino. However, Rocco and the State of California (politicians and the people in general) did not get along and he boogied out of there as soon as his lease expired and headed back to the Tampa Bay area.
The article takes over from there and you can view it by clicking this link.
