How a billionaire built the world's greatest tennis tournament (in the middle of the desert)
Nearly 500,000 people will gather this week in California’s Coachella Valley, roughly 15 minutes from Palm Springs. They will listen to music and eat gourmet food, but they aren’t in town for Coachella; they are in the desert to watch world-class tennis.
Unofficially known as tennis’ fifth grand slam, Indian Wells has become the premier event on the annual tennis calendar. In 2014, the event was voted by the men’s and women’s players as the best tournament on the world tennis tour. This was the first time a tournament had received that distinction from both the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in the same year. The Indian Wells event then repeated the feat in 2015 (and every year over the last decade).
Indian Wells will never be able to match the history of tennis’ Grand Slams; the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open have all been around in one iteration or another for more than a century. However, for what Indian Wells lacks in history, it makes up for in quality. The players love going to Palm Springs every year, with Rafael Nadal previously saying “Indian Wells is the best two weeks of the year.”
Indian Wells wasn’t always like this, though. The real story involves a tournament on the verge of extinction, saved by a tennis-loving billionaire whose meticulous attention to detail has reenergized American tennis for an entire generation of players.
The story starts in 1974. That’s when the Indian Wells Open was founded by former tennis pros Charlie Pasarell and Raymond Moore, with the basic premise being that they could build a great tennis tournament because they knew what players wanted.
Despite being two hours away from the closest major city, the Indian Wells Open was almost immediately successful. Players loved the warm weather and Pasarell and Moore ensured they were treated right. This helped turn a previously small event at the La Quinta Hotel into one of the most popular tennis tournaments in the world.
That required Moore and Pasarell to think bigger. With loans from local banks, the former tennis professionals built a 350-room resort — now known as the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells Resort — complete with a tennis stadium and a dozen courts.
This was an expensive project with a lot of risk, but everything went well. Each year, the world’s top tennis players played in the tournament, hundreds of thousands of fans showed up, and Moore and Pasarell were riding high. They had created the world’s fifth most popular tennis tournament out of thin air (in a remote location).
But success can also bring problems. By the late 1990s, just over a decade after the new resort officially opened, the Indian Wells Open had become so popular that it had outgrown its facility and needed to be moved to a new location with even more space.
So, Moore and Pasarell raised money by selling 50% of the business to IMG. They then took out a large mortgage to build the now world-famous Indian Wells Tennis Garden in 2000.
Complete with a 16,000 seat stadium, this new facility was incredible. It was big enough to support the continued growth of the tournament and completed the event's transformation from the small La Quinta Hotel to a more long-term sustainable venue.
But then everything went south. In the early 2000s, a few sponsorship deals fell through, and the tournament faced high operating costs, jeopardizing its future.
With Indian Wells having to refinance its $77 million mortgage on the facility, investors from Shanghai and Qatar smelled blood in the water. Tennis tournaments essentially own a spot on the calendar, so these groups wanted to buy those dates to move the event internationally, with Shanghai reportedly offering over $40 million.
However, Moore and Pasarell couldn’t stomach seeing their event move to a different location, so they brought the deal to an unlikely source: Oracle founder Larry Ellison.
Ellison started playing tennis in the early 2000s after pickup basketball became too hard on his body. The billionaire received private lessons at his residence five days a week, and his instructor just so happened to be a mutual friend of Raymond Moore.
This is how Larry Ellison ended up buying the Indian Wells tournament for $100 million. He obviously has a lot of money and could afford it, but this wasn’t just a passion project. Ellison had been attending the tournament for several years and wanted to run it like a legitimate business, reinvesting profits back into the fan and player experience to build something truly special — and that’s precisely what he did.
Ellison eventually invested more than $130 million into the facility. This included a second 8,000-seat stadium with three full restaurants overlooking the courts, including a Nobu that is only open for two weeks all year during the tournament.
In 2011, Indian Wells became the first tennis event to use Hawk-Eye line-calling technology on every match court. Ellison partnered with a production company that had worked on the NFL’s Super Bowl to create custom set lists for player walkouts. He also pioneered the now-standard idea that fans should watch practice sessions, releasing practice schedules ahead of time and building stands around practice courts.
Ellison purchased dozens of additional acres around the facility to build on-site parking so fans didn’t have to walk from remote lots. He made the grounds feel like a tropical oasis, bringing in dozens of new palm trees, flower gardens, and water displays. The player facilities even resemble what you would find at a Grand Slam, including everything from weight rooms to gourmet food spreads for player guests.
These improvements have turned a good tournament into an exceptional tournament. Celebrities like Timothee Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Mike Tyson, and Bill Gates have already been spotted at this year’s tournament. VIP suites frequently sell for over $100,000, and nearly 500,000 fans show up each year, making Indian Wells just a little bit smaller (from an attendance perspective) than Wimbledon.
2024 Attendance (for the four Grand Slams and Indian Wells)
US Open: 1,048,669 fans
Australian Open: 1,020,763 fans
French Open: 675,080 fans
Wimbledon: 526,455 fans
BNP Paribas Open: 493,440 fans
The success of Indian Wells has also profoundly impacted the local economy. George Washington University estimates that the 2024 event generated an economic impact of $852 million, including $50 million in tax revenue for city and county governments.
This number is even more impressive when you remember its net-new tax revenue, since 94% of all unique tournament visitors travel to Palm Springs from another city.
But even though Indian Wells generates a substantial amount of revenue over two weeks, the best part about the tournament is that it is still incredibly accessible. The average fan attends 3.18 days of the tournament because grounds passes can be purchased for $40, and if you happen to live in the Palm Springs area, you can even become a full-time member for just a $400 initiation fee and $175 in monthly dues.
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