The Architect Behind Minuto Siete
- 42 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Distance brings the bigger picture into focus. One of the distinguishing factors for Manuel Cereceda, CEO of Minuto Siete—the agency directing operations for some of the world's leading polo clubs—is that he did not enter the sport from the saddle as a protagonist on the field. His journey does not stem from the athletic side, as traditionally occurs in one of the world's most conservative sports; it originates from the operational side of the business: horses, travel, logistics, and the behind-the-scenes work required to turn a tournament into reality. From the very engine room.
“That distance from the ground proved to be an advantage. Polo has plenty of people who understand it as a sport, but very few who understand it as an industry. I approached it from the opposite direction: how a tournament is financed, why a brand returns the following year, and what makes a club sustainable beyond the high season. Those questions are not answered from the saddle,” says Cereceda, who co-founded the agency alongside Daniel Padín, starting with small-scale polo equipment sales and sports travel assistance.
“Step by step, clients began asking for other things, and each new request revealed a void no one was filling. Minuto Siete was built on that demand, not a rigid plan,” he notes.
Since then, much has evolved. Minuto Siete has operated in destinations as remote and exotic as Asia, steering venues like the Thai Polo & Equestrian Club, and in Europe, overseeing the organisational architecture of teams and clubs such as the Polo Club Saint-Tropez. In Wellington, the mecca of US polo, they shaped the inaugural season of PLYRS Polo Club, and in Buenos Aires, they oversee competitions like the prestigious Jockey Club Open, the primary warm-up for the Argentine Triple Crown. Minuto Siete has delivered hundreds of events—from commercial to charity—spanning all handicaps, alongside dozens of clubs operating under the model Cereceda and his team have developed since 2008.
A Company Within a Club: The Formula to Safeguard Institutions
In modern polo, one of the greatest challenges for clubs is balancing a sustainable business model with board harmony. Before the professionalisation of the sport, everything was handled internally in an informal, in-house manner. Today, the fundamental shift lies not in the traditional club structure, but in the ever-increasing sophistication of its tournaments.
“A tournament today is not just a pitch and a trophy: it involves hospitality, content, sponsorship activation, ticket sales, international equestrian logistics, federations, veterinarians, farriers, grounds maintenance, and staffing. That is no longer a department within a club; it is a company within a club,” explains Cereceda.
Therefore, maintaining that level of infrastructure twelve months a year to use it for only six weeks is unprofitable for institutions. The Minuto Siete framework relies on sustaining its solid operational team year-round, amortising those costs across dozens of tournaments in several countries. That is how the equation works. Minuto Siete provides a cost structure that would be unviable for an individual club, yet fits perfectly into the agency’s machinery.
Previously, the entire burden of a season fell on the clubs, often weighed down by heavy administrative structures and slow-moving boards. Minuto Siete’s approach simplifies this: the agency handles the entire operation, developing the necessary services to run a full season from both a sporting and social perspective. The model has proven successful; they currently operate the Ayala Polo Club in Sotogrande, Spain—effectively the Real Madrid of European polo—where the sport's leading figures gather every August.
“We operate, we do not advise. Advice is cheap to copy; execution is not,” he emphasises. The agency's structure is built on six specialised pillars: Club Management, Team Management, Horse Management, Polo School, Player Agent, and Polo Tournaments. A club can integrate just one or all six.
Given the sheer complexity of polo, delivering a comprehensive ecosystem—veterinarians, farriers, coaches, staff, and international logistics—ensures clubs can commit to seasonal continuity through a single partner.
However, when it comes to why clubs delegate, there is an unspoken reason that reflects commercial acumen: “A club is an institution with members, history, and internal politics; a tournament is a business with risk. Placing the latter inside the former creates constant friction. Outsourcing is not merely about efficiency: the club protects its institutional nature, and we absorb the operational risk.”
Cereceda argues: "Properly organising a tournament is barely half the job; the rest is ensuring it is seen, its story is told, and it remains measurable. If polo aims to grow as an industry, that is the path forward."
Entering the Equestrian Map: Building a Global Agency
The beginnings and the entrepreneurial journey were organic and slow, “the two things nobody wants to hear, yet the only path in this business.”
“There are no shortcuts in polo: a club does not hand over its flagship tournament because of a good presentation. Each new client arrived through a recommendation from the previous one,” he notes.
Currently, the team is spread across Argentina, Europe, and Asia, with collaborators in the UK, the US, and the United Arab Emirates. It is a global network where every component functions in complete harmony.
The Challenge of Polo’s Expansion
The most puzzling question in the equestrian industry is why polo fails to take off, unlike other sports. It has not intelligently or strategically leveraged new digital tools to expand, and clubs frequently fail to turn a profit. For the executive, one hurdle is that “the industry sells exposure when it should be selling relationships.”
“There is a deeper structural problem: almost all value is generated in a handful of weeks, during very short polo seasons, and the rest of the year the infrastructure remains idle. This forces the entire model to depend on sponsors funding a peak, rather than a business with distributed income,” he explains.
Proximity is one of the sport’s vital assets. The CEO argues that polo possesses an advantage almost no other sport can match, yet systematically underestimates it: genuine access. “At a tennis Grand Slam, a brand buys a box and watches from above; at a polo tournament, that same brand walks onto the field at half-time and interacts with the players. The audience is small, but no one matches the concentration of decision-makers per square metre. Polo is a premium product still being sold as advertising,” he emphasises.
Cereceda points out: "To attract brands and investors, we must stop asking them to 'support the sport' and start demonstrating a measurable return. That requires measurement, and measuring means professionalising the operation—which is, ultimately, what we do."
The PLYRS Venture: Testing a New Business Model
Polo is rarely disruptive as a business. Like a massive ship laden with long-standing tradition, steering it takes time. Nevertheless, a commercial move that provided a window into a new model, without relying solely on traditional patrons, came with PLYRS in the US.
PLYRS Polo Club was not purchased by a single tycoon or a traditional real estate corporation; it was created and funded directly by a consortium of some of the most prominent families in global polo. The project began as a collective initiative by elite players to protect and develop the sport in Wellington. The club is backed by heavyweights in international polo, including Miguel Novillo Astrada, the Pieres dynasty, and other leading figures such as Mariano Aguerre.
The club was strategically established in response to development pressure in Florida: as real estate expanded in Wellington, many private polo estates were sold off for housing or equestrian jumping centres. Facing a lack of available space, Miguel Novillo Astrada and his partners sought land following the advice of Skey Johnston (patron of the Coca-Cola team), who suggested buying property further south. The collective acquired a suitable estate and developed a comprehensive complex that now features five professional polo grounds.
Designed as a model "for players, by players", unlike traditional clubs controlled by property developers outside the sport, PLYRS was structured under a business model that eliminated intermediaries and optimised maintenance costs.
It was a crucial strategic move. To gain immediate international relevance, PLYRS partnered with Minuto Siete for its inaugural season to oversee high-handicap tournaments.
For Cereceda, this model sets the path forward. “The underlying idea still seems right to me: what happens when the people who generate the sporting value share in the economic value,” he points out.
“For decades, the player was the product and the business happened around them. Inverting that equation is one of the most interesting things happening in polo right now—whoever does it,” he asserts.
Aesthetic Capital: The Content Business and the Battle for Screens
As he did during his playing days, Cereceda is restless. He is always moving in search of new opportunities, preferring to advance slowly but steadily. Cereceda recently secured a strategic alliance with the iconic brand La Martina to transform the Thai Polo Cup Argentina into a La Martina tournament. “The logic is simple: the brand is not a sponsor arriving to see if the sport suits them; it is a brand born from polo that understands the sport from the inside. You are not explaining to someone why they should be there; you are building with someone who already is,” he notes.
The executive recognises that the era of content is not exclusive to entertainment platforms. Polo is a purely aesthetic, visual sport with enormous photographic potential. Through Minuto Siete, they have entered the content arena by acquiring a minority stake in Pololine TV, one of the sport's most established streaming platforms. This forms part of his vision for the coming years: “Being part of Pololine TV is not incidental. Our vision of polo was never solely sporting—it encompasses hospitality, broadcasting, and content generation.”
Polo is undergoing a period of change. New generations are taking centre stage and legendary players are gradually being replaced by new blood. It is a shift in which polo’s emerging stars are choosing to make their mark on TikTok and Instagram. Rising costs, highly professionalised teams, players acting as influencers, and digital-savvy figures gaining prominence over historical ones set the tone for a Generation Z taking the baton from traditional media. These are times of high exposure and dynamic transition. New players are entering the game, though they are not vastly different from those they replace.
Amidst this evolving landscape, Minuto Siete draws on its experience, accompanying the redefinition of the industry's infrastructure. Looking ahead, the agency projects solid consolidation. “Without a doubt, in a few years, the industry will be in the hands of a few key operators. We always prefer to be among those building it so that polo can move forward,” Cereceda concludes.
