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Jai Alai Retires From Connecticut

"Gone now are the players, most of them Basques with names like Arzubia, Txelis, Guisasola and Iturraspe; closed is the aging 4,800-seat multitiered stadium (called a fronton) off Exit 40 on Interstate 95; heartbroken are many of the game's fans, mostly over 50, mostly attracted by the chance to make a few bucks off a $3 bet.

"In a way, Connecticut's odd rendezvous with jai alai, which began before casinos existed even in Atlantic City, was fixed from the beginning. The only reason the sport — a combination of cricket, squash and lacrosse played by men with curved wood-weave baskets tied to their hands — ever came to Connecticut was to make money — for Connecticut.

"In 1972, the year after the state Legislature created the lottery, horse-racing and off-track betting to increase its revenue, it added jai alai and dog racing. Horse racing, for various bureaucratic reasons, remained a stalled idea, but by June 1976, jai alai frontons in Hartford and Bridgeport were among the first, and premier, legal gambling sites run by the newly formed Division of Special Revenue.

"…Bridgeport's fronton closed in April 1995, and a dog track, still in operation, was built adjacent to it. Hartford's fronton closed five months later and just stayed closed. Since then, Connecticut's flirtation with jai alai has focused on the Milford arena, set behind a truck stop and sleepy motel off the Connecticut Turnpike.

"What the place lacks in beauty — the atmosphere is gray concrete, buzzing halogen lights and an electric scoreboard missing a few bulbs — it makes up for in heart.

"…Known as the world's fastest ball game, jai alai evolved from the sport of handball in the mountainous Basque region of northern Spain. Using a curved basket, or cesta, to hurl a ball at speeds approaching 150 m.p.h. against a wall, Pelota Vasca, or Basque Ball, was often played at local festivals, and eventually came to be known as jai alai…"

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