Dania reopening December 1st – You Can Bet on It!

Dania Jai-alai is officially going to reopen this year – starting December 1^st 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 1^st 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 70^th 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 1^st 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.