Dollars and sense: Is the 1914 Club worth the money? One reporter dared to find out

“Dollars and sense” is a sports business and media column running regularly at The Athletic Chicago. Previously we wrote about Cubs tickets. 

How much is a clean bathroom worth to you? If you’re a season ticket holder with access to the new 1914 Club at Wrigley Field, that’s something to weigh very heavily when it comes to renewing your seats for 2019 and beyond.

Advertisement

Of course, nice bathrooms are just part of the 1914 Club experience, a long-awaited (for some) Xanadu inside the cozy confines. But that amenity is something that 1914 clubbers are praising when they give feedback to the team.

The American Airlines-sponsored club, located just behind home plate, is a world within a world of luxury, privacy and carved pigs. On Tuesday evening, I was part of the other 15 percent (OK, 1.75 percent, 700 of the 40,000 or so at the game) that got to experience it.

I went to the game with family, my cousin-in-law Chuck Reeder. He’s a mensch, the coach of a very successful 18-and-under traveling baseball team Chi-Town Cream (Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo is an alum) and a Cubs’ season ticket holder for more than 30 years. He wasn’t thrilled when two of his long-held seats were shoehorned into the 1914 Club. I believe his response was, “My tickets are going up 300 percent for a prime rib slider?”

Fair. But the joke was on him. There were no prime rib sliders in the 1914 Club on this night.

The 1914 Club is the realization of a dream — the dream of Crane Kenney and every sports executive from Boston to Seattle to separate wealthy fans from their money with the promise of exclusivity and relative opulence. It’s all about providing an unforgettable experience at a very healthy profit margin.

For years, the Cubs only had the Audi Club (an upstairs private dining room near the corner of Addison and Sheffield), the Assurance Club (that relatively new suite in left field), the Dell EMC Legends Suite, the center field Fannie May Bleacher Sweet (Has anyone ever sat in there?) and, of course, the plain old luxury suites, as pampering provinces for the elite among the unwashed Wrigley Field masses. 

But in their renovation of the stadium, the Cubs wanted a home plate type club in gamboling distance from the premier club box infield seats, just like they have in New York, Los Angeles and every stadium in between. The 1914 Club is the first of four new clubs that are going to open in the next year, but it will remain the largest.

Advertisement

The first base club will be the Maker’s Mark Barrel Room, while the third base one will be the W Club. For some reason, they’re opening a nautical-themed one in the upper deck, underneath the press box, called the Catalina Club. The first- and third-base clubs will have views into the batting tunnels on either side, something the 1914 Club does not have. Let’s hope the Catalina Club doesn’t have a view into the press box. We might have to start dressing up.

Lauren Comitor took the official tour of the club weeks ago, but since I’m more into guerilla journalism, I wanted to see it in game action, so I bugged Chuck enough until he agreed to take me. Like I said, he’s a mensch (and a subscriber).

While I think you would expect something akin to the Yankees’ famed home plate club where the lobster tails are piled higher than Brian Cashman, Chuck already forewarned me that the food was just OK. “Not as good as the Audi Club,” a first-world problem which I understood as “still way better than the press box.”

We get to use a private entrance that puts us into the concourse directly across from the door to the club. That means there is limited opportunity to bump into the hoi polloi. There you get a special wristband before you walk in.

We walked down the stairs to the main room where I immediately saw Jed Hoyer carrying a plate of food to go and trying not to be noticed. I was also trying to stay incognito, and that plan lasted like 10 minutes. Next thing you know I’m talking to Colin Faulkner, which led to him listening to Chuck’s complaints about the food and the lack of chairs and how Dodger Stadium has a much nicer club. (“It’s like a Wolfgang Puck restaurant!”)

Faulkner hasn’t gotten many complaints in the early days of the 1914 Club.

“I would say when I’ve been in there, the two reactions I get from people are one, ‘Wow, this looks better than the renderings. I can’t believe it’s in Wrigley Field.’ The second reaction has been, ‘What was here before?’ It’s hard for people to place what was there before or what that space was. The general reaction is it feels very appropriate for Wrigley Field. It feels like Chicago and Wrigley Field. We didn’t build a Miami nightclub down there. It’s very appropriate.”

Advertisement

The club’s denizens weren’t just the stereotypes of rich Cubs fans. Given the soft secondary market for these seats (almost all seem to be sold at a loss, given the high prices ranging from $400 to $695), it was a pretty basic group of Cubs fans. Some suits mixed in with a lot of ballpark gear.

I realized I wouldn’t exactly be rubbing elbows with Chicago’s elite when I saw our own Kevin Fishbain there. (How much are we paying him?)

As for the Levy Restaurants food, well, it’s bad form to complain about free stuff, but since I’m doing this for work, I’ll agree with Chuck that it’s just OK. And that makes sense since it’s being rolled out (much of it coming from the big Wrigley kitchen on campus) for hundreds of people. This isn’t fine dining, but rather upscale ballpark food. 

As an example, here’s what I sampled before the game: an Arancini rice ball, some Caesar salad (Caesar was misspelled on the card), a small Italian beef sandwich (good), pizza (passable), with a Goose Island Midway IPA beer.

Later, I got pretzel crostini and a spicy beer cheese dip and after that, some nachos at the make your own nacho bar and another beer.

I grazed through the desserts before I left — a coffee for the road was nice, though I passed on ice cream.

You can take your plates back to the seats, but there’s also a to-go section that includes bottled pop (Pepsi products, gross), water, veggies and dip, fruit, kids options like yogurt sleeves, chocolate milk and juice boxes and pre-made sandwiches. You can also grab popcorn, peanuts and pretzels. There are dedicated vendors in the club section with fancy wooden vending boxes supplying basics like hot dogs, popcorn, peanuts, beers, soda and water as part of the ticket. No licorice ropes or giant foam claws, though.

As for other food I didn’t eat, there were burgers (veggie and meat). There were hot dogs, plenty of side dishes, varieties of pasta and salads, some roasted turkey. On Tuesday, the carved meat section was a giant suckling pig.

When I asked him to give his thoughts, Chuck suggested more fish, a healthy alternative to the other fare. Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney, who is used to fans complaining to him, said he had fish twice already, salmon and trout, this season, but he would think about it being an everyday option. I’d add chicken — grilled, fried, whatever — to those demands as well. I’m sure there usually is some chicken, but I didn’t find any Tuesday. Then again, bad chicken is worse than no chicken. If I were the Cubs, I’d think about occasionally adding vendors in food categories where they don’t have official sponsors. 

I would also add a sizable candy bar with theater-style boxes and bulk options. Everyone loves a bulk candy bar.

Advertisement

As for the boozing, I didn’t drink much. But the bar is stacked with all of your basic alcohol as part of the package and some of the more higher-end booze and wine options costing a separate fee. For instance, if you want a glass of 21-year-old Glenfiddich, that’ll run you $86. Some 18-year Yamakazi goes for $68. There are a few more affordable options as well, in the mid-teens, but most cocktails are in the deal. Beer is included, though it’s a pretty limited selection as it is in most places inside Wrigley Field.

“What we tell season ticket holders is you shouldn’t have to get out your wallet,” he said. “It’s a non-tipping bar, but if you want to tip, you can and people do. It helps keep good service and the level of service is very good down there.”

(I tipped $5 for two beers.)

The atmosphere was cool. Faulkner is right in that it’s not gaudy or obnoxious. It does feel very high-end Chicago. If I were in charge, I’d dim the lights a little bit. No one needs that clear of a view of all the white guys in shorts and jerseys.

Chuck’s big complaint, which was borne true, was that there aren’t enough tables before the game during the rush hour. The club is supposed to comfortably hold 700 people (the number of tickets attached to it), but the Cubs are likely adding 40 to 60 more seats, Faulkner said. They didn’t really get into the space until close to the season, so some of the layout is up for debate.

Faulkner also showed us the adjoining bunker suites, which include a TV monitor for the bullpens. If you care so little about the game that you’re in a bunker suite, I doubt you care when Carl Edwards Jr. is warming up, but it’s cool nonetheless. I was looking for some of Todd Ricketts’ dark money donors, but I didn’t see any. (Or did I?)

The small store has some nice, affordable Cubs gear and some expensive junk. I bought my wife a hat, so no one can say I’m not immune to the pull of impulse shopping.

Advertisement

As for the seats for the actual game, the Cubs put padding on them, which is great. What isn’t as good is the seats aren’t very comfortable from your elbows out. Maybe I just have Paul Sullivan’s tiny seat exposé in my head, but there isn’t a lot of arm room for luxury seating. Are the seats smaller?

“That’s not true,” Faulkner said.

Whatever, but I didn’t think it was very comfortable sitting next to someone and I’m used to being crammed into the press box. 

The flow in and out of the club during half-innings seemed manageable thanks to the entrance in the tunnel, and it leads to the biggest advantage no matter what your tastebuds are: the bathrooms. People who pay a lot of money for tickets like nice, uncrowded bathrooms. Who knew? 

“That goes back to the research we did,” Faulkner said. “We did a lot of focus groups and surveys and talked to fans. They wanted more comfortable seats, quick access to clean bathrooms and they wanted more baseball.”

And they like actually watching the game. The inside crowd thinned out during the game action (the weather was good), though the Cubs should turn up the volume on the TVs. We missed the first two homers Kyle Hendricks gave up.

“They wanted less time waiting for restrooms and food,” he said. “They want to be in their seat watching the game. We don’t want the image on TV of a bunch of empty recliner seats like you see in some ballparks.”

Would I pay $400 (the price of our tickets was $425) and up for this deal? No, not on a one-off basis. If you have the money for season tickets (for personal or corporate use), I can see joining up. You’d certainly get used to the lifestyle change. The first four rows between the dugouts were already paying higher prices, so those fans were receptive to the club’s pricing. The next three rows saw more people opting out and choosing different seats. The Cubs gave those fans, many of whom who had been season ticket holders for decades, an 18-month head start to relocate. 

While this club is aimed at deep-pocketed customers, the good news is the average fans can still experience this space for a cheaper price. Season ticket holders are struggling to get face value for these seats on StubHub, so you can get one at a decent rate if you plan it out right. Chuck told me he had sold his tickets for around $200 earlier in the season and when I checked before the game, most of the available ones were going for $300 to $400. 

So for a few hundred bucks, you too can watch a Cubs game like minor royalty and possibly, just possibly, talk about your experience with Crane Kenney. You might want to eat and drink more than I did, though. Then again, I didn’t pay.

Media notes: I caught some of Ryne Sandberg’s regular spot on the Score’s post-game show Tuesday and let’s just say the job he’s best suited to in his post-Hall of Fame career is being Ryne Sandberg, Cubs legend. Even if Sandberg were charismatic on the radio, he can’t really criticize the team because of his role as ambassador. So when angry fans were calling in, he was left to offer awkward positive statements. Then again, the Cubs flagship doesn’t exactly want Doug and OB in that role. … Zach Zaidman, who hosts the pre- and post-game shows, is doing a nice job in his new role on Cubs broadcasts. Good to see him freed from the shackles of the Bears sideline. … I got the new Hawk Harrelson autobiography Wednesday and I’ll have a review coming out. In thumbing through it, there isn’t much about his Chicago career as I would’ve liked. (Jay Mariotti only got a page!) The Jerry Reinsdorf adulation is a little much, even for Hawk. … On Thursday, Media reporter Robert Feder broke the news that VSiN, the Las Vegas gambling network with major Chicago ties, is going to air reports on the Score’s “McNeil & Parkins” Show. With the possibility of legal gambling on the horizon, this is a smart play. Hopefully we hear our friend Sam Panayotovich doing some of them. … Dan McNeil, whose old gambling bit “Who Do You Love?” was a classic, returned to his aforementioned show Thursday as he continues to suffer from serious vocal cord issues. There isn’t a lot of sympathy for McNeil in local media circles, but I feel for the guy. It’s like a situation out of an old horror comic book when someone makes a deal with the devil. “You can get your dream job back, but you can’t talk!”

(Top photo: Chuck Reeder/For The Athletic)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57km1nbWplZH9xfZdoZ25nYGh8pbvLpZirq12Wu6V50p6lrJ1dnsBuwMeeZGpxYWl6pLjUm2Swp6KptW7Ax55kpqeemsZuu82eZKudoKS%2FtbHRZpuaqpWZerW7jJ%2Bgp5xdpMK1ew%3D%3D