INDOOR POLO : Nights of Elegance and Violence Attract Throngs to Equidome, but Party May Be Over for Pro League

And now, introducing one of the fastest growing spectator sports in Los Angeles . . . what’s this, indoor polo ?

Quite. Take the traditional excuse-me-could-you-pass-the-champagne outdoor version, squeeze it into an arena the size of a football field, put up hockey boards and you’ve got everything a sports fan hopes for--lots of scoring and plenty of bashing and bumping.

Still, the indoor game, technically called arena polo, is far from a blue-collar attraction. The professional indoor league games, played in the Los Angeles Equestrian Center at Griffith Park, are fashionable events. Actors William Shatner, Stephanie Powers and William Devane, Pamela Sue Martin, Alex Cord, Robert Logan and Tommy Lee Jones, among others, frequent the 3,500-seat Equidome.

The scene is basically upscale: There are no vendors yelling “ beeeer here” in the stands. Waitresses scurry here and there taking orders of Perrier and white wine. Fur coats and ambitious looks abound.

And there’s a lot of the traditional look. Lots of guys wearing horn-rimmed glasses and carrying plaid blankets who appear, for all the world, like they just flew in from Cambridge, Mass. People such as the Maharajah of Kashmir initiate the action on the field by throwing out the first ball. The parking lot is filled with BMWs and Rolls-Royces.

But, now and again, you see a beat-up Toyota. And in the bleachers, some guys wearing Dodger caps scream and carry on like bleacher bums. Interestingly, these are the people the equestrian center is trying to attract.

“Some people are intimidated by polo,” says equestrian center spokesman Syd di Craiker. “But, indoor polo is the people’s polo. We’ve been drawing between 3,200 and 3,500 every Saturday night.”

For those who have never attended an indoor match, herewith are some particulars. See if you can keep this straight:

Arena polo is played on a dirt field 100 yards long and 50 yards wide. Bordering the field is a 4-foot wall. Each team has three riders--as opposed to four in outdoor polo--who attempt to hit a six-ounce rubber ball with a wooden mallet into the opposition’s goal. In the process, there’s a considerable amount of pushing and bumping, all of which is legal unless a rider “bumps off” his opposition at an angle greater than 45 degrees. If a player exceeds that angle of attack, the collision usually results in an injury, oohs and ahhs from the crowd and a penalty shot.

A game is divided into six chukkers, or five-minute periods. Between chukkers, a John Deere tractor smoothes the dirt much like Zamboni machines smooth the ice in hockey.

In fact, indoor polo is sometimes called hockey on horseback.

“There are many similarities,” says Tom Goodspeed, captain of the Los Angeles Colts of the professional league. “Hockey is its closest relative. There’s the speed, the checking and the stick work.”

Not to mention, gentleman’s game notwithstanding, the cheap shots.

Adds Goodspeed: “One time I was heading toward goal and another player came toward me at an angle. I slowed down to maintain control of the ball, but the other player hit into me just behind my saddle--a particularly vulnerable spot. He knocked my horse 10 yards and I went down like a bullet. I took all the shock in my back. I had numbness through my arms and legs.”

Goodspeed, it turned out, had suffered a broken back. After an eight-month layoff, he recovered and began playing again.

Another time, Goodspeed said, he fell off his mount just in time to be run over by three other horses. He broke three ribs and his hip.

“Most people think when you’re riding a horse it’s a joyous occasion,” Goodspeed says. “But these horses don’t have power steering. You have a lot of momentum to change, it takes a lot of effort. Your body absorbs a lot of bumping.”

Indeed. Once Goodspeed and his pony were once bumped over the boards and out of the arena. “There’s no doubt it’s risky,” says public address announcer Peter Cullen, who in his two years at the Equidome has seen more than a few injuries. “You definitely can get hurt out there.”

A player’s best insurance against injury is a well-trained horse that can accelerate, turn quickly and, most importantly, stop.

“The horse is 85% of the game,” says Cecil Smith, considered by many to be one of the greatest polo players ever. “If the horse can’t get you there, you can’t make a play.”

Most professional players use thoroughbreds or three-quarter thoroughbreds, although the animal’s agility is as critical as its speed. Endurance is also important: The ponies run up to four miles in one chukker.

For the player’s part, according to Goodspeed, “The bottom line is your horsemanship skills, not so much your ability to hit.”

All qualified polo players are rated by the United States Polo Assn. from 0 to 10 in “goals,” and purists are prim and proper about the pecking order. Of the organization’s 2,400 playing members, according to USPA executive secretary LouAnn Koop, 65% are rated at two goals or below. There is only one 10-goaler in the United States.

Players must be rated at five goals to play in the professional league at the LAEC. Goodspeed estimates there are 70 to 100 players on that level internationally. “The pros out there (at the equestrian center) are rated very high,” says Koop.

Conversely, in previous years, there has been a condescending attitude among the polo Establishment, players included, toward arena polo. It was a deviation from real polo, as they saw it.

Besides, you could get your face mangled playing it.

The Larry Bird of the polo world, 10-goaler Memo Gracida, formerly of Mexico and now a U.S. citizen, says he’s interested in the professional league, even if it is more violent than the traditional game. Now other world-class players are expressing interest in the indoor version.

“I’ve talked with them and I’d like to play in their league,” says Gracida. “I’d like to see a national league in the United States.” Gracida also said he would like to participate in international competitions at the Equidome.

“The crowd response we’ve had is what’s drawing the highly rated players,” says Di Craiker. “Players are taking our league seriously.”

Although the Professional Polo Assn. is drawing near-capacity crowds to the Equidome, it remains to be seen if the public will take the league seriously.

Truth be told, the American Polo League isn’t really a league.

The format calls for the home team, your Los Angeles Colts, to play teams supposedly representing New England, Toronto, Milwaukee, Miami, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Hawaii. Sounds good. But the league’s only facility is the Equidome. The Colts play all of these teams, but none of the other teams play each other. Essentially, it is an eight-game exhibition season that runs from April to June.

Visiting teams in the “league” are really pick-up squads stocked with various players who, in effect, get together and decide to represent New York, Chicago or another of the visiting teams.

“The players can choose up among themselves and put their team together. The only requirement is that they must be at least five-goal players,” says Goodspeed, a seven-goaler himself, who besides his duties as captain of the Colts, is also general manager of the equestrian center and an official of the professional league’s governing body, the Professional Polo Assn.

The PPA’s boss is J. Albert Garcia, who, as chairman of the board of the equestrian center, pays the players $750 plus travel expenses for playing in his exhibitions.

For the PPA to have an authentic league, teams would have to be franchised and facilities provided in participating cities. That is a possibility, according to Garcia, but no concrete proposals have been drafted.

“Houston is interested, so is Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Antonio and Dallas,” says Garcia. “It won’t be easy, but from the reaction we’ve had, I think with good planning we’ll see it develop.

“We’re trying to model it and see the most cost-effective ways to do it.”

Presently, Garcia’s equestrian center--which, besides polo, sponsors grand prix show jumping and rodeos and offers other equestrian-related services ranging from training horses to training riders--is hampered by financial woes of its own.

The LAEC filed for protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on Sept. 28, 1984, after reaching a financing impasse with its senior lender, Gibraltar Savings. The equestrian center has since sued Gibraltar for $50 million in Superior Court in Los Angeles. Sources at the equestrian center, however, believe an out-of-court agreement between the two groups is near.

“I don’t know if we’re close or not,” says Gibraltar legal counsel, Cliff Meyer. Representatives from the bank and the LAEC planned to meet this week.

Meanwhile, the fact remains that people are coming out to watch pro indoor polo. For the fun of it. For a quick fix of tradition. For the pregame acts, like Xanadu the Peruvian peso --a pony that glides around the arena, its rider not spilling a drop from his glass of wine. OK, he sloshes a little. But it is impressive nonetheless.

Perhaps people come for the postgame parties. Ah, the parties. There’s dancing in a members-only club for those in furs and tuxedos, dancing in the dark for people in leather jackets and Dodger caps.

Last week, after the Colts whipped a team supposedly representing New York, 14-5, an unofficial and unscientific poll taken by a reporter found the edge going to people who came for the polo action--until a bald guy named Frank tied it up. He said he came for the party action.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, “the polo is fun to watch, but the party . . . don’t miss the party.”

INDOOR POLO: HOCKEY ON HORSEBACK

THE GAME Arena polo is played on dirt field 100 yards long and 50 yards wide.

Bordering the field is a 4-foot wall made of wood or cement.

There are 3 riders per team.

Object is to hit 6-ounce rubber ball with wooden mallet into goal.

Bumping opponent at 45-degree angle results in penalty.

Play includes 6 chukkers, or periods, of 5 minutes each.

THE LEAGUE Professional Polo Assn. governs the American Polo League.

Players must be rated at 5 goals or better by U.S. Polo Assn.

Each is paid $750 plus expenses per game.

All games held in Equidome of L.A. Equestrian Center, Griffith Park.

LAEC Chairman J. Albert Garcia is also president of the PPA.

LAEC is currently in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding.