NATIONAL ARENA CHALLENGE CUP
TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The National Arena Challenge Cup is a 0- to 3-goal tournament established in 1987. After a decades-long hiatus, the tournament was revived at Commonwealth Polo Club in Paris, Kentucky, where it was hosted for three years. The National Arena Challenge Cup found a new home in 2020 at Great Meadow Polo Club (The Plains, Virginia), where Celebrity Cruises-Hotels at Sea captured the title 13-11 over Mystique Jewelers. As part of the USPA Tournament Prize Money Matching Program, the 2020 National Arena Challenge Cup offered $10,000 in total prize money.
Moving to Brandywine Polo Club in 2021, Marlan Farm (Brennan Wells, Kylie Beard, Isabelle "Izzy" Brockett) and THF (Katie Mitcham, Sarah Martin, Enrique Garcia, Alan Medina) met in the final with Wells captaining his team to a decisive 19-2 victory. Read the article here.
Relocating to the West Coast in 2022, this year's edition of the National Arena Challenge Cup will be hosted at Orange County Polo Club (OC Polo Club) in Silverado, California, and will feature four teams including, OC Polo, Top Guns, HYT Polo and Lakeside.
OC Polo Club will be taking advantage of the USPA's Tournament Support Program (TSP) for the National Arena Challenge Cup, which provides eligible USPA member clubs with waived tournament fees, trophy reimbursements up to $1,200 for a national tournament, one professional umpire and $2,500 in prize money at no extra cost.
The USPA originally created the Tournament Stimulus Package (TSP) to help member clubs host USPA events when the United States was emerging from the first wave of the COVID-19 crisis. The USPA wanted to continue to support member clubs with TSP benefits in 2022. Therefore, it extended and expanded TSP under a new name - the Tournament Support Program. Each USPA member club can obtain TSP benefits for two USPA events.
Photo: 2021 National Arena Challenge Cup Champions: Marlan Farm - Kylie Beard, Izzy Brocket, Brennan Wells. ©Elizabeth Hedley
