By Mike Sunnucks | Phoenix Business Journal
Jason Rose continues to grow his Scottsdale polo party bringing in additional and new sponsors this year and hoping for a crowd of more than 15,000 fans for this year’s early November event at WestWorld.
Rose — a well-connected and sometimes controversial local publicist — is the architect of the Scottsdale Ferrari-Maserarti Polo Championships: Horses and Horsepower.
It is the third year for the event. Rose expects attendance to surpass 15,000 after drawing 9,100 fans last year and 2,300 fans its first go in 2011.
“It’s going to be the most attended polo event in the U.S.,” said Rose, a principal with Rose+Moser+Allyn Public & Online Relations.
The Scottsdale event has brought on Heineken and Scottsdale Ferrari-Maserati as title sponsors for this year matches. Other major sponsors include Molina Fine Jewelers, Barrett-Jackson Auction Co., the city of Scottsdale and Phoenix Coyotes hockey team.
Rose said he also is talking to sports business executives in San Diego, Orange County and Hawaii about bringing similar polo events to their markets.
He said the Scottsdale event is becoming more of a tourism draw but also aims to be a business socializing and networking event.
Fox Sports Arizona also is returning as a sponsor this year. FSAZ put together a broadcast about the event last year and has similar plans for this year’s matches.
“We will be doing another show about it again this year,” said FSAZ spokesman Brett Hansen.
The tentative air date is Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
The U.S. Polo Association is also planning to hold its annual meetings in Scottsdale next year. Backers of the local event hope to establish Scottsdale as a hub for the sports along with San Diego, Palm Beach and the Hamptons.
Rose, who has specialized in crisis communications, also wants the event to more inclusive and not as geared toward polo’s affluent base.
Phoenix International Raceway — which hosts two Nascar races each year — Russ Lyon/Sotheby’s International Reality and Phoenix New Times also are event sponsors this year.
Diego Fernando Florez, club manager for the Arizona Polo Club, a local team that has been playing at Westworld since 1982, said the Scottsdale event is helping the sport but it still has a ways to go locally.
“In the long term, events like this might help to make polo a more popular sport and people might go every weekend just like going to football or basketball game,” said Florez, a vetenarian and owner of Aztec Animal Hospital in Scottsdale. “Enjoy it as tailgate and bring family and friends to the game. We have polo here all season long from November to April.”
But Florez said there are not a lot of young polo players in the area and the Westworld field is not a full-time facility for the sport.
Still he remains hopeful about the Scottsdale event helping the sport locally.
“It’s one of the best events where people can watch polo, see other people and get to know the game a little more if not too many cocktails are consumed,” Florez said. “Polo is not more expensive than most of equestrian activities or more than an avid golf player spends going from green to green.”
Rose is well known in local business and political circles. His client list has included Fox Restaurant Concepts, Barrett-Jackson, former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods and Tempe restaurateur Michael Monti. Rose’s firm also briefly represented Amy’s Baking Co. after its blow up with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey. He is married to prominent Valley attorney Jordan Rose.
