Indian Wells: How a Desert Tournament Became a Billionaire-Backed Powerhouse

Just 15 minutes from Palm Springs, the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells drew global attention, multimillion-dollar spending, and a who’s-who of celebrity guests.

This wasn’t just a tennis tournament—it’s tennis’ fifth Grand Slam in everything but name. Indian Wells has become the blueprint for what modern tennis events can be: commercially dominant, meticulously curated, and deeply profitable. The players know it, the fans know it, and so does the man behind the transformation—Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

A Palm Springs Reinvention Story To understand Indian Wells today, you need to look back 50 years. In 1974, tennis pros Charlie Pasarell and Raymond Moore launched a modest tournament with a simple premise: players should be treated like royalty. Even though it was located two hours from the nearest major city, players kept coming back. The weather was perfect, the hospitality unmatched.

By the 1980s, Pasarell and Moore were all-in. They raised local bank loans to build a 350-room resort (now the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells) with its own courts and a purpose-built stadium. It was a bold bet—and it worked. The tournament grew rapidly, drawing top talent and huge crowds.

Then came a crossroads. By the late ’90s, Indian Wells had outgrown its first act. To meet rising demand, Moore and Pasarell sold 50% of the business to IMG and secured financing to build the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in 2000. The new 16,000-seat stadium was impressive—but costly. Soon, operational expenses ballooned, sponsorships wavered, and refinancing pressures mounted.

Billionaire Intervention: The Larry Ellison Era That’s when Moore and Pasarell turned to an unlikely savior. Rumors swirled about potential international buyers from Shanghai and Qatar, looking to scoop up the event's calendar slot and move it overseas—deals that reportedly valued the tournament at over $40 million. Unwilling to see the event leave American soil, the founders made a call to a tennis-obsessed tech titan.

Larry Ellison, worth north of $100 billion, had been playing tennis seriously since retiring from pickup basketball. A friend of Raymond Moore’s tennis coach, Ellison wasn’t just a fan—he was a regular at the tournament and saw the potential to scale it like a business. In 2009, he bought Indian Wells for $100 million.

This was never going to be a vanity project. Ellison took the reins with a CEO’s mindset and a tennis player’s passion. Over the next decade, he poured in another $130 million to transform Indian Wells from a strong Tier 1 event into a commercial and experiential benchmark for the entire sport.

Innovation Meets Experience Ellison’s vision was player-first, fan-focused, and deeply immersive. He built a second stadium seating 8,000, added luxury dining—including a Nobu that only opens during the tournament—and redesigned the grounds into a botanical retreat. Hawk-Eye line-calling was implemented across all match courts before any other event in the world. Practice sessions, often overlooked elsewhere, were given showtime treatment with public schedules and bleacher seating.

The result? Indian Wells now feels less like a tennis tournament and more like the Super Bowl meets the Masters—except it’s open to the public for just $40. VIP suites routinely sell for over $100,000, and Hollywood’s elite—from Ben Stiller to Bill Gates—are regulars in the stands.

A Financial Juggernaut In 2024, Indian Wells welcomed 493,440 fans over two weeks—just behind Wimbledon (526,455) and the French Open (675,080). But what truly sets Indian Wells apart is its economic impact. According to a George Washington University study, the tournament injected $852 million into the regional economy this year, including $50 million in local tax revenue. Nearly 94% of visitors traveled from outside the region, making this impact genuinely additive.

Yet, unlike many exclusive sporting events, Indian Wells is surprisingly accessible. A basic grounds pass is just $40. Local residents can even become year-round members at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden for a $400 initiation and $175 monthly dues. That dual identity—global prestige with local roots—is rare and powerful.

The Blueprint for Racket Sport Events What Ellison achieved at Indian Wells should serve as a wake-up call for the entire racket sports industry. Yes, location and weather help. But it’s the infrastructure, fan-first innovation, and elite-level polish that turn a tournament into a cultural and financial engine.

From a business standpoint, Indian Wells is a case study in reinvestment. Instead of siphoning off profits, Ellison funneled revenue back into the product: the fan zones, the player lounges, the tech stack, the landscaping. Even seemingly small touches—like staging choreographed player walkouts—contribute to the immersive quality of the experience.

The tournament’s success also offers a cautionary tale. Moore and Pasarell nearly lost control because they didn’t scale capital as fast as they scaled ambition. In contrast, Ellison brought both deep pockets and a scalable operational model—similar to what we’re now seeing in the private equity push into padel and pickleball.

What's Next? Indian Wells is now at an inflection point again—not one of survival, but of expansion. With court-side AI, next-gen streaming deals, and a global audience hungry for year-round spectacle, the tournament could easily double its digital footprint. There’s chatter about more immersive fan tech, mobile-first ticketing, and even future tournaments in the Ellison sports ecosystem.

But Indian Wells doesn’t need reinvention—it needs replication. The real question is whether the model can be copied elsewhere. Could padel, for example, support its own Indian Wells-style major? Could other U.S. cities support a second-tier event of similar scale?

For now, Indian Wells stands alone. It’s a private project that achieved public grandeur. It’s tennis elevated—and racket sport entrepreneurs everywhere should be taking notes.