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would be enough to start with – and he
was right. Polo takes time to discover, and
rushing it is the best way to have people
drop out after two years. So we attended
our lessons with patience, spent a lot of
time at the club, and explored polo with
a passion. After a couple of years, the
owner of PPZ approached me. He saw
our interest in the sport, and wanted
a fresh set of eyes for the club. When
he offered to sell it to me, I said yes.
As the owner of PPZ, I started to think
about how we could improve its atmosphere.
People were coming to play, but they weren’t
sticking around for a drink or a chat and
I wondered why. Meanwhile, I hired some
professional players full-time, bought more
horses and started to organise small drinks
gatherings and barbecues for the pros and
grooms. I only really did so because I enjoyed
the socialising myself, but slowly people
began to join in, bringing along beer or
bubbly or some food. And although not
a formal, regular get-together, it happened
that friendships in the club grew.
I’ve noticed that the best way to make
things happen in the world, whether in
business or otherwise, is to do it yourself.
If you lead by example without asking for
anything in return, people tend to join you.
This was also the reason why I hired five
full-time polo professionals: I wanted to
ensure that I could play at a quality level
any day, without having to ask who was
available. As a result the standard at
PPZ increased and people started to hire
their own professionals to join in. What
I undertook for myself, in essence, gave an
impulse to others and the club as a whole.
The presence of more professionals at
the club, along with more horses and their
grooms, meant that there was always
someone around for beginners or other
players to chat with, which made it an
even friendlier place. This is my ultimate
goal because for me, polo is a family lifestyle.
Sure, there is the Coronation Cup, the
Palermo Open and all the great tournaments,
but it’s first and foremost a congenial and
family-friendly sport.
This leads back to my earlier point: why
were people not sticking around after games
or practices? There are many reasons, of
course – work, meetings, appointments –
but I think there is also something vastly
overlooked in many polo clubs, and that
is the importance of non-playing family
members. Polo players spend time and
money on their passion, but if it’s not shared
with family, they will feel the pressure to go
home to spend time with them.
The polo club must, therefore, be more
than a place to play the game. It has to be
a meeting place where polo just happens,
almost as an after-thought. When I bought
the club, it consisted of two fields, a plastic
toilet and a storage container that also
served as a changing room. It was a disaster
for the women and not particularly enticing
for men. It’s unsurprising that spectators
had no interest in staying for hours during
and after a sweaty polo practice in a place
without a proper toilet or showers.
So I built a proper clubhouse with
a bar, sofas and a fireplace, separate
changing rooms and showers, plenty of
toilets, a laundry and nine apartments. And
to ensure that members and their families
understood the philosophy of the place, we
changed the name to Polo Park & Country
Club Zürich. It is now in full swing with
people even coming to watch practices, and
joined by their families. The non-players
don’t feel like polo is an enemy of family life
any more, but a friendly group they can join.
This includes members of local communities
who had never been to the polo park, despite
being its neighbours for 19 years. The local
impact has been huge, with many of these
people now visiting daily to watch and chat.
Once the clubhouse was up and running,
I began to focus on the players themselves.
Our philosophy is to offer polo to as many
people as possible, at all levels. The three
things players complain about the most
are lack of horses, bad or bent umpires and
poor fields. So, I built another 57 boxes with
all facilities for horses, including a covered
walker. We have two umpires of different
T H E P O L O C L U B MU S T B E MO R E T H A N
A P L A C E T O P L AY T H E G A ME , I T H A S
T O B E A ME E T I N G P L A C E
