Polo celebrates 10 years in Miami Beach

Beachgoers can expect some company on the sands of Miami Beach this weekend: polo ponies and players, gathering for the 10th year of beach polo.

Organizers expect La Martina Miami Beach Polo World Cup, held on the beach between 20th and 22nd streets, to draw at least 10,000 visitors. The event started Thursday with the women’s tournament and continues through Sunday.

Bruce Orosz, CEO of The Polo Life, which owns the tournament, and ACT Productions, which produces it, said the event has grown in international recognition since it debuted.

“The attention we get, not only domestically but internationally, is something polo does not typically get,” he said. “It’s because it’s a unique, special circumstance that we created in the Miami style.”

For this year’s festivities, the event is working with the Lou La Vie exotic car rental company to put on Auto Art Miami in nearby Collins Park on Sunday.

Orosz said the idea is to give attendees “a bigger, broader event this year with more dimensions ... more horsepower, as we say.”

Later this year, Orosz is planning the long-planned debut of beach polo in China. Originally scheduled to kick off last year, it is now planned to make its first outing July 3-6 in the coastal city of Dalian. One thing less abundant at that location: a built-in sand field.

“We’re building a sand pit on a marina,” Orosz said. “They’re actually going to open the ground and drop sand in it.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2014 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Polo celebrates 10 years in Miami Beach ."