La Caja Mágica

This past week's Madrid Open - did I mention that m'man Roger won the title and moved back up to number two - was held in the Magic Box, something I'd never seen or heard of before a week ago but that looks pretty frickin' cool and kinda makes me want to get myself to Madrid to check out the building and the tourney.

See, those big flaps up topside are roof sections that can retract to let the sunshine in over the three stadium courts.



Apparently not everybody loves the stadium - finding it cold, but I love the idea that tourney owner, Ion Tiriac, is making a major push to be the 'fifth major'...

...and that he took a big leap to dye the clay blue and make a huge news splash - even if he racked off a number of the top players. Give the man credit for trying something different...

...and for having an absolutely rockin' 'stache...

Man, I want to see a major clay court tennis tournament.




I'm thinking that the Madrid-Rome-French Open swing would be phenomenally fun.