Jai alai and concerts make a come back at JAM Arena in Miami.
Miami Jai-Alai Fronton — once the crown jewel of American jai-alai — is back with a new league and a goal of bringing concerts and live events back to the fronton now known as JAM Arena.
Jai alai, (pronounced hi-lie), originated in the Basque region of Spain and France. The modern professional version developed in the late 1800s and came to the U.S. in the early 1900s, flourishing in Florida and Connecticut.
At its peak from the 1960s to the late '80s, jai alai frontons were major entertainment and gambling venues in the U.S. but the sport found its strongest foothold in the Sunshine State.
Jai alai’s popularity in Florida was largely due to legal betting. Frontons became social centers, tourist attractions and nightlife venues, with frontons in Tampa, Fort Pierce, Orlando, Jacksonville and Palm Beach County, along with Dania and Miami in South Florida.
At its height, jai alai shaped Florida’s sports, gaming and entertainment landscape.
Jai alai helped establish pari-mutual gaming laws in the state. It brought Basque and Cuban immigrant communities into Florida culture. The game created one of the first U.S. professional international sports circuits. And the frontons, which were centers for nightlife and entertainment, influenced arena design.
Some of the most important venues in American jai-alai history were in Florida, including the Miami Jai-Alai Fronton, which opened in 1926 seating more than 7,000 and hosting legendary players and music superstars.
After thriving for decades, the sport went from a booming industry to near extinction due to a massive labor dispute and player strike from 1988–1991 (the longest strike in the history of professional sports) along with competition from the state’s growing casino industry and a proliferation of professional sports teams.
In later years, Florida law changed. Frontons were no longer required to host live jai alai to keep gambling licenses. Many venues converted into poker rooms, casinos and entertainment complexes, which removed the economic motivation to keep the sport alive.
Photo courtesy of World Red Eye
While jai alai remains culturally important in the Basque region, Cuba and the Philippines, the U.S. is currently experiencing a revival thanks to the World Jai-Alai League (WJAL), which was founded in 2022.
Part of the WJAL’s development strategy involves celebrity ownership and ambassadorship. Miami’s Pitbull joined as an equity owner, adding cultural visibility. The Renegades, Miami’s flagship team, are owned by Udonis Haslem, the longtime Miami Heat power forward and three-time NBA champion.
As a Miami-based team with a high-profile owner deeply connected to the city’s sports culture, the Renegades play a key role in reviving jai alai’s historical roots in South Florida.
A central feature of the WJAL’s growing profile is the multi-million-dollar renovation of the historic Miami Jai-Alai Fronton, which reopened in February as JAM Arena (short for Jai-Alai Miami) inside Casino Miami.
The venue has been rebranded to reflect a broader entertainment vision, combining jai alai with live events including comedy, concerts and cultural programming.
The venue actually has a long history as a concert venue. After a renovation in 1965, the Miami fronton along with the Sportatorium in nearby Hollywood, Florida, were the only arena-scale venues available for major tours in South Florida.
“There was no [NBA] Heat arena. There were no [NHL] Panthers. This was it,” said Daniel Licciardi, Vice President and General Manager of Casino Miami. “I started here in ’75 so I was backstage bouncer for Aerosmith, Skynyrd, Loggins & Messina did their farewell tour, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Frank Sinatra. I remember James Brown because we almost had a riot that night. Anybody who was anybody.”
Photo courtesy of World Red Eye
“Hendrix played here,” adds Scott Savin, Chief Operating Officer of the World Jai-Alai League. “If you’re a music person — which I am — it’s like, ‘Oh my god, the nostalgia and the acts that have played here.’ I tell our jai alai players, ‘You’re standing where Springsteen stood, or Sinatra.’ They get it a little bit, but not quite.”
The recent renovation restores jai alai to its original Miami roots at a landmark site approaching its centennial anniversary and honors the legacy of jai alai while appealing to a new generation of fans.
Largely unused since 2021, the refurbished 1,800-seat venue was designed with today’s concert needs and fan expectations in mind with upgraded seating, hospitality, LED screens and VIP courtside options.
In February, JAM Arena opened with a series of comedy shows featuring Whitney Cummings, Matt Friend and T.J. Miller.
“We have a lot to work with here,” Savin said. “The plan was to get jai alai back up and running — which it is — and start with comedy because they need a stool and a glass of water. We could play jai alai and then 15 minutes after it’s over, we could put a comedy act out there. The concerts will be the next phase, which will happen in May”
Savin, who has experience booking and producing concerts at regional venues including Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Florida and the league’s former Miami home Magic City, is working with Los Angeles-based Mayflower Entertainment on booking.
“It is really awesome,” Savin said. “The acoustics are amazing in here. The location is good. One thing that we have over everybody else is we have a lot of free parking, and valet is $5. So there is a real value for the consumer that we believe will help us, a lot.”
The 50X25 stage sits in front of the court, which was reimagined with a glass back wall panel system, which is a departure from traditional stone or brick walls. The addition of the glass panels, which weigh about 500 pounds each, provides a more contemporary look and greater visibility for spectators.
JAM Arena’s grand opening as a multi-purpose space launched alongside the World Jai-Alai League’s ninth season. The project combines historic preservation while positioning the sport and venue for the future.
Jai alai is a combination of tennis-like rallying, lacrosse-style catching and racquetball court geometry. Players use a curved wicker basket called a cesta to catch and hurl a rock-hard rubber ball called a pelota against a three-walled court known as a fronton.
Ball speed can reach 150 mph. Players must catch the ball in the cesta, throw it in one smooth motion (no holding), hit the front wall so the opponent can't return it before it bounces twice. Play is athletic, often acrobatic and fast.
Photo courtesy of World Red Eye
The WJAL represents the only professional jai alai league in the U.S. today, and its efforts have turned a fading sport into a modern entertainment experience with 40 professional athletes, broadcast reach, legal wagering options, social media engagement and community partnerships.
The league typically runs two, 14-week seasons a year with matches at JAM Arena on Fridays and other selected days with games live on ESPN3, leaving Saturday night and the off-season open for other programming.
The league operates a modernized competition called Battle Court Jai Alai, which adapts traditional jai alai for a young audience craving speed, but unaccustomed to the sport.
“I’d say 99% of the people have no idea what jai alai is,” offers Savin. “When people come, they are blown away by it.”
Instead of traditional singles or doubles matches, Battle Court features six teams — the Chargers, Cyclones, Devils, Fireballs, Warriors and Renegades — competing each season.
A schedule of matches comparable to professional leagues, with standings, playoffs and a championship that concludes May 8.
In addition to live streams on ESPN3 and heavy social media promotion, the league has partnerships with major sportsbooks like DraftKings, FanDuel, BetRivers and Hard Rock Bet.
“We changed the format to make it betting like you would bet on a football game or a baseball game,” explains Savin. “You can go on any of the major sports betting sites and bet on us. ...So we have the betting in place, and we have the distribution in place, and now it’s really education.”
Teams play six matches a night, and people can wager on a single point, the set or the match.
Teams, which have six players each (many with international experience in the sport), compete across the season, earning wins, ties and championships - with Miami’s Renegades securing multiple titles in past seasons. Beyond competition, the league has a charity partnership program where each team supports a nonprofit. In Miami, Haslem chose his foundation as the Renegades' charity partner. The Udonis Haslem Foundatioin focuses on socio-economic opportunity and mental health support.