During a four-week competition-free window at the Wellington International showgrounds in Florida, a lot of improvements have been accomplished—but more are to come once showing is over for the season.
Murray Kessler, Wellington International’s CEO, gave a report on progress at the facility to the Village’s Equestrian Preserve Committee Wednesday night.
The retired executive and former U.S. Equestrian Federation president took his post last fall because he was “concerned with the direction it might go” following the showgrounds’ purchase by its former owners. Since then, more investors are joining the group.
The venue, the home of the Winter Equestrian Festival, employs 500 people during the height of the show season, when 2,700 horses are competing weekly. The “root problem” of the horse show is that the grounds were built for a third of the number of horses that are there today, Murray said.
He believes Wellington International, formerly known as the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center, is “the anchor of this community and it can’t be a healthy community unless the horse show is healthy. I care about the horses first and I care about the sport first and everything else good that will happen to Wellington will happen on that basis.”
Murray Kessler addressing Wellington’s Equestrian Preserve Committee.
His vision is “to keep Wellington International the premier horse sports destination in the world.”
Murray noted that is not to say it’s the best horse show individually in the world, pointing out there are some great ones. But “there’s nothing like Wellington anywhere else in the world where there’s 1,000 horse farms in close proximity.”
A key improvement will be the addition of additional land from “Pod F” to expand Wellington International and enable dressage to move from its current home at the Global grounds a half-mile away, where a golf community will be built. Murray doesn’t expect that to happen before 2027 and it could be 2028. That’s the deadline for completing work on Pod F, as it becomes an operating part of the showgrounds and takes 1,000 horses off the area of what is the current facility, leaving room for dressage and hunters to have their own space.
In the meantime, three rings have been built on Pod F to give riders a place where they can work their horses away from the crowded main showgrounds. FEI stabling is set to expand to 14 acres.
There will be a better opportunity to grow sponsors and hospitality when there is a better design for a unified showgrounds. Murray noted at the moment, there is no hunter VIP, and he criticized the VIP arrangement for dressage at Global, where the food must be driven to the site from a small kitchen at Wellington International.
“Believe it or not, we don’t make money on entries,” he stated. “We make money on sponsors and hospitality.” While the existing grounds is profitable, money for improvements is self-generating.
There has been a flurry of cleaning, painting and landscaping at the showgrounds, where 3,000 stalls were power-washed. Bathrooms are being cleaned around the clock, eight tractor-trailer loads of junk have been taken off the premises.
“While we still have a long way to go, the property is in better shape than it’s been in a very long time,” Murray reported. He has appointed an advisory committee with reps from hunters, jumpers, dressage and para-dressage to be his “eyes and ears” about what is needed at the showgrounds.
The entrance to the International arena at Wellington International.
Improvements that have been installed at Wellington International since he came on board include new stadium LED lighting, which makes the setting in the International Arena as bright as daylight, and offers flexibility in terms of special effects that can be created. With the old vapor lights, once they were turned off, it took a half-hour to get them going again, and the illumination they offered was “gray,” which Murray deemed to be getting unsafe. A new jumbotron will do split screens and replays with graphics that are “terrific.”
As Michael Stone, Wellington International’s president pointed out during a Thursday press conference, production values are being improved “so it becomes much more like any sort of major sporting event. By increasing the level, you’re going to enhance the sport, and enhancing the sport is going to attract more people to come. That’s why we need enhanced production, to show people this really is a top class sport, like the U.S. Open or the Masters.”
The last grand prix at WEF in March will be worth $750,000, a record for the show. It is the finale for a new series from Rolex, a longtime sponsor of Wellington International.
Still to be accomplished are more improvements to wi-fi, refurbishment of footing in the rings and other details that will happen during a break in the schedule.
Murray pointed out that equestrian is the biggest sport in Palm Beach County, with $400 million in economic impact. The next biggest sport in the county is minor league baseball at $60 million. Wellington International is the big time–there are 35 Olympic riders who will be showing at WEF and Global dressage, with eight of the world’s top 10 in show jumping scheduled to be on hand.
Murray is pleased at the feedback he’s getting for what has happened in a short amount of time. In the past, there has been an over-promise and under-deliver situation at the showgrounds, which didn’t have the resources or leadershp to fix things. Murray is operating on the opposite basis, and it’s working.
“I feel a sense of excitement from the community,’ the CEO said, stating the reaction is, “Wait a minute it’s turned a corner and the uncertainty is behind us.”