Dania vs. Magic City – A Contrast of the Two Jai-alai Frontons
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.
Magic City Photos:
Dania Photos:
