The Indian Wells Tennis Garden

Home of The Pacific Life Open

By Jack Kirkwood

From the very top of the stadium the view is tremendous.  The Santa Rosa Mountains, almost close enough to touch, frame a picture of a valley with grand expanses of green grass and tall, graceful date palms along broad boulevards and across wall-to-wall golf courses that dot the spectacular area.  Nature made this special place a desert but the viewer at the top of the stadium doesn’t see a desert today.  This one-of-a-kind sight in virtually every direction but particularly towards those mountains is bathed in Coachella Valley sunshine nearly every morning and afternoon the year around.

But it is especially beautiful in springtime.

That would be the season for a famous tennis tournament and the striking beauty of the place completes the setting for international competition at its best.  This is the number 5 tournament in the world as rated by attendance and it is one of only six including the four tennis majors in Australia, France, England and the U.S. which schedules the men’s and women’s tournaments together.  The two-week program of 20 sessions of day and evening matches assures the tennis fan of nonstop action every one of the 12 days of the tournament schedule each year during the month of March.   

That upper grandstand stadium view of the immediate area including 21 tournament and practice courts, broad grassy parking areas and beautiful gardens of every description identifies the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, home of the annual Pacific Life Open.  

One wonders how this stately stadium with its capacity of 16,100, second largest free standing tennis facility in the world, came to be in this quiet and picturesque residential city of Indian Wells with its less than 5,000 population.  Good question.  The answer lies in the vision of its conceiver and prime mover, Charlie Pasarell, a tennis champion of his day and his PM Sports Management Group. With partner, Raymond Moore, PM Sports achieved the improbable when the stadium opened slightly behind schedule but just in time for the 2000 tournament.

The project became essential to the tournament’s future after it had outgrown earlier locations in the valley.  The City of Indian Wells had the land on its east side.  Supporters headed by Mayor Dick Oliphant, had the design and construction contacts and together, with the financial support on International Management Group of Cleveland, Ohio, and a strong lender consortium, this collection of visionaries got it done and the tournament has continued to grow in stature and national and worldwide fame ever since, complete with international television coverage and throngs of daily spectators who greatly outnumber the supportive and tennis-loving residents of their host city.    

But each day in the history of the Tennis Garden has had its questions and problems.  A different and more workable financial organization became necessary in 2005 when new ownership of the Cleveland partners wanted to end the partnership.  Once again although it took a year of hard negotiations, a far reaching solution came about in 2006 with the support and investments of the United States Tennis Association and Tennis Magazine.  Those new partners and advisors helped bring in the star-power PM Sports was looking for and great stars of the American tennis scene of recent years became the final key participants which put the new group on the map.  

Welcome to tennis tournament management, public relations and finance to three of the greatest in American professional tennis history ---

Pete Sampras, holder of 14 major titles, the most in history and one of the game’s truly great champions,

Billie Jean King, the consummate supporter of women’s tennis worldwide and a tremendous winner in her time,

And Chris Evert, a two-time major winner, one of the youngest at the time, and holder of many women’s titles.   

The Pacific Life Open at the beautiful Indian Wells Tennis Garden stands alone today as the best in the American west if not in all the world.  Whether tennis is your thing or not, the garden is something to behold and the tennis is in a class by itself.

Especially in the beautiful springtime.