Empire Polo Club

Polo club in Indio, California From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Empire Polo Clubmap

33.679811°N 116.237256°W / 33.679811; -116.237256 The Empire Polo Club is a 1,000-acre (400 ha)[1] events venue in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley of Riverside County, approximately 22 miles southeast of Palm Springs. It was founded in 1987 for use by polo players and hosted international polo tournaments. Since 1993, the grounds have been leased out for events, including the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Festival in April.

Thumb
The Empire Polo Club, hosting the Desert Trip music festival in October 2016

Location

The club is located at 81-800 Avenue 51 within the city of Indio, in the Coachella Valley and Colorado Desert of Southern California.[2][3][4][5] It is around a half hour drive from Palm Springs and a 2 to 2-and-a-half hour drive from downtown Los Angeles or San Diego.[2][3]

History

Summarize
Perspective

It was founded in 1987.[3][6] It has twelve polo grounds, making it one of the largest polo clubs on the West coast of the United States.[3][6]

It hosts local, national and international matches and tournaments.[4][6] In 2013, it hosted a match between the British Schools and Universities Polo Association (SUPA) and the USPA Intercollegiate/Interscholastic.[7] It has also hosted events for the Gay Polo League.[8] In 2015, it hosted the USPA Townsend International Challenge Cup.

The grounds are owned by Alex Haagen III.[9] Since 1993, the Empire Polo Club has leased its polo grounds annually to Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, the organizers of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Festival.[10][11][12] Goldenvoice signed a 28-year lease agreement in 2021 for full operational control of the Empire Polo Grounds amid plans to host more events.[13] The polo fields were closed in November 2021 and the staff were laid off on short notice.[14]

AEG began hosting a winter soccer tournament, named the Coachella Valley Invitational, in 2022. It is an annual preseason tournament for Major League Soccer and National Women's Soccer League teams that grew to 30,000 attendees by 2024.[15]

Other events

On October 30, 31 and November 1, 2009 it hosted Phish's Festival 8. During the Halloween show that year, Phish performed The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street in its entirety.

On October 7–9 and 14–16, 2016, it hosted Desert Trip,[16] a music festival featuring legendary rock performers Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and The Who.

On October 6-8 2023 the Power Trip occurred, featured Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC,Judas Priest, Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Tool.[17]

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.