Take polo's most historic venue, a wealthy entrepreneur with the chutzpah to change the rules of play, a professional sports marketer, a governing body ready to recognize potential and you have a new version of the traditional grass game, capable of drawing big urban crowds.

Mint Polo in the Park, a three-day event at London's Hurlingham Club, attracted more than 29,000 spectators this June and earned plaudits from the sport's governing body in the U.K., the Hurlingham Polo Association.

"The organizers have got the format and marketing right and we must applaud them," said David Woodd, the HPA's chief executive. "Their new rules, which the HPA has approved, make for fast, more continuous play and the smaller ground, less than half the size of a traditional grass ground, brings spectators much closer to the action.

"I saw very few polo people there," observed Woodd. "and I'm sure most of the Londoners in the crowd were new to polo. Even if a small percentage of them show a keen interest, this would be a big plus for our sport, bringing us hundreds of new supporters to watch polo at our clubs."

This is high praise indeed from officialdom in a sport steeped in tradition and not always prone to readily accepting change. It clearly reflected the HPA's current drive to widen polo's spectator base amongst the general public.

Over the past few decades, new versions of equine polo other than the traditional game on grass (disregarding gimmicks like polo on elephants, camels and yaks) have become well established around the world. Snow polo started in Switzerland in the 1980s and is now played regularly in France, Italy, Austria, Argentina and the USA. Beach polo is played in Miami, in Dorset and Cornwall in the U.K., in Mexico, Germany, Thailand and Australia.

Of course, arena polo, indoor and outdoor on artificial surfaces, has existed since the 19th century and is big in the USA and the British Isles, although it is little played elsewhere.

The U.K.'s Polo in the Park, dubbed "city polo" by the organizers, falls between arena polo and the traditional grass game: three-aside like arena polo, on a turf ground about a third the size of a standard grass ground but more than two and a half times that of an arena.

This year the three-day event saw six teams competing, named after major cities: London, New York, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Sydney and Abu Dhabi. These were names only; for example, those first three sides were made up entirely with players from England's national squad. Teams were handicapped at 14 goals, equivalent to high goal. The highest-rated players were Argentine Piki Diaz Alberdi, 8, playing for Abu Dhabi and Aussie Glen Gilmore, 7, for Sydney.

Abu Dhabi won the MINT Polo in the Park Trophy on the final day by defeating Gaucho Buenos Aires 8-5. City AM New York downed Otkritie Moscow 10-9 in a penalty shoot-out to take the Camino Real Plate.

The venue for London's city polo could not be more appropriate historically. The Hurlingham Club was where the first rules for modern polo were written in 1875. Polo at Hurlingham inspired James Gordon Bennett to import the sport into the U.S. in 1876. In the 19th and early 20th century, Hurlingham was the epicenter of world polo and the club's polo committee eventually became the HPA.

Polo at Hurlingham ended with the outbreak of World War II. During the war, officers and men of the British Army and Royal Air Force were quartered there with an anti-aircraft battery and balloon barrage unit. The main polo ground was turned into allotments for growing vegetables. German bombs landed on the estate, with serious damage to the clubhouse.

After the war, the club's polo grounds were compulsorily purchased by the London County Council for a school, public housing and a public recreation area, Hurlingham Park. Meanwhile, the Hurlingham Club has continued to flourish as a private club with some 40 tennis courts, a dozen croquet and bowls lawns, a full social calendar—but no polo.

London financier and polo player Daniel Fox-Davies first devised Polo in the Park in 2009. He struck a deal with Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council: he would pay to construct a small polo ground in the council's Hurlingham Park, in the area once occupied by the Hurlingham Club's famous ground. Polo in the Park would have the use of it once a year, with free or discounted tickets to polo for local residents and with the area reverting to public use for rugby and soccer the rest of the year. Fox-Davies even got the backing of London mayor Boris Johnson for the inaugural event.

The first Polo in the Park, returning the sport to Hurlingham after 70 years, attracted the spectators, but drew criticism and a certain amount of ridicule from the polo community. The matches were played four-a-side, too much of a crowd for the small ground. The event was hyped by the inclusion of polo-playing supermodel Jodie Kidd in the roster of "world class players." The innovation of an ice-hockey type "sin bin" seemed out of place. Matches appeared choreographed and some of the players engaged in on-ground theatrics that fell far short of Shakespearian.

Most importantly, the HPA did not approve the new rules and the association expressed serious concern about player and pony safety in such an unauthorized event. It was all changed in 2010 when Rory Heron, formerly of Mark McCormack's International Management Group, took over organization of the event.

"Daniel (Fox-Davies) deserves every credit for coming up with the concept and investing his money—a lot of money—in getting Polo in the Park off the ground that first year," Heron said. "Now our relations with the HPA are excellent."

In planning the 2010 Mint Polo in the Park, Heron consulted with the HPA in advance on such aspects as safety, the rules and the choice of players. As a result, the event got the full support of the governing body. Last year the Hurlingham event was named London Sport Attraction of the Year at The London Lifestyle Awards.

I saw Polo in the Park for the first time on the Friday this year, which is known as "corporate day" because of the large number of city types—bankers, stockbrokers and the like—amongst the 7,500 ticket holders. After a champagne reception and luncheon in the Hurlingham clubhouse, VIP guests strolled the short distance to the adjacent Hurlingham Park and into the corporate enclosure.

Like at other equestrian events where lavish hospitality is laid on, including horse racing, corporate guests spent much of their time boozing, gossiping and talking business and only occasionally watched the action. The general public in the stands were far more attentive to what was going on out on the ground.

The ground, 218 yards long, is lozenge-shaped, 93 yards wide over most of its length but with the four corners chopped off. Yard-high advertising hoardings form a wall around the playing area. The turf was in good shape. "We've spent [over $550,000] installing the ground and reinstating it every year after it's been used for rugby and soccer," said Heron.

At the far end of the ground was a large public area that included a kiddies' playground and catering for the public, including Harrods Food Hall and the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bar.

Saturday was a sell-out this year, with 12,000 tickets sold. The gate was 9,500 on Sunday. It rained heavily on that last day, but thousands of spectators remained in the stands under a sea of umbrellas, enthusiastically joining in Singing in the Rain played over the loudspeakers.

"I can see this new version of our sport catching on in cities elsewhere, in innercity parks where there is not enough space available for a full-sized grass ground," says the HPA's David Woodd. That is, in fact, part of the grand plan of Fox-Davies and Heron, now joint owners of Polo in the Park.

"We're currently negotiating with possible venues in the Middle East," Heron says, "and hopefully we will be able to come to a major city in the U.S. within the next couple of years."