Urban Polo: Fueling Evolution & Modernization of the Sport for 20 Years

Most popular sports undergo substantial changes once a generation or so to make them more appealing to watch, play and televise.

From improvements to tennis rackets to increase speed of the game to redesigning soccer balls in order to give them greater flight and curving ability, these changes are accompanied by a plethora of rule changes, resulting in the abandonment of technical rules in favor of a faster and more exciting game.

Polo, a sport dating back approximately 2,500 years ago, first served as a means of training mounted cavalry and keeping them fit. It was not designed as a spectator sport. But today, polo is a billion-dollar industry thanks to sponsorships, horse breeding, streaming services, exclusive club memberships and ticket sales. Today, polo is definitely a spectator sport, but the spectator experience varies wildly from venue to venue.

In 2005, urban polo was first introduced in Australia with the intention to bring the sport further into the 20th century by making it the more spectator friendly. Urban polo’s defining features include a significantly smaller field (approximately 140-meters long rather than 300-meters long), which brings action closer to spectators. As a bonus, urban polo can be played in many more open city spaces rather than the traditional polo club. This is exactly how Australia’s urban polo promoter, Janeck Gazecki, brought urban polo to city centers of major hubs like Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. Gazecki imagined polo being played in grassy parks in the afternoon shadows of high-rise buildings and city traffic congestion, separated only by a perimeter of pristine white tents. City chaos is urban polo’s fuel and young, well-heeled professionals are its consummate consumers.

For 19 years, urban polo excited and entertained in Australia under Gazecki’s guise and often even his participation on the polo field. The short-format iterations of the ancient sport are now widespread across Australia, reaching a total of 10 events staged annually: Polo by the Sea, Polo in the City, Pop-Up Polo, and Polo in the Vines. It is the world’s largest national polo series of any kind. According to Gazecki, urban polo was the genesis of other staged, contemporary polo events like London’s Polo in the Park and Veuve Clicquot’s bi-coastal Polo Classic in the USA.

While the 2025 series is canceled due to a legal dispute with prospective urban polo licensees, Gazecki said he looks forward to resolving these issues quickly and resuming plans to establish a formal and coordinated international Urban Polo circuit across the world’s capital cities, much like the F1 has done for racing.

“Polo is such a niche industry that we really must work together closely as an international polo community to grow the sport, through passion and cooperation, any way we can,” said Gazecki.

All Photos Courtesy Urban Polo