Butch wanted to move the franchise to Florida, but Charlie Pasarell, then the tennis director for Landmark, secured an ATP sanction to keep it in La Quinta and became the tournament director. The easy way would be to pay them flat guarantees, big money. He didn't want to do that. He knew the desert was a great place in March. Good hotels were popping up like winter petunias.
Tennis players are suckers for playing golf in their spare time.
So he put together a tidy little temporary stadium at La Quinta. And he brought his old tour buddy, Raymond Moore, into the action. The only way to finance a stadium, they concluded, was to build a hotel that included a stadium. So backed by Wall Street money, they embarked on the construction of Grand Champions in Indian Wells. The original hotel venture went bust, and it was sold to other entrepreneurs, but Charlie and Raymond had the foresight to keep the tournament rights and leased the stadium and tennis facilities.