Tippy Valley Class Lands Field Trip To Tour Cubs' Franchise
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
The whole trip to Chicago and Wrigley Field will be entirely free to Tippecanoe Valley High School and the students, thanks to the community.
It all started as an idea for Rogers to take his students to a Cubs game.
In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Rogers said he is a big Cubs fan. He thought it would be neat to take his sports marketing class to a Cubs game. He e-mailed the Cubs’ marketing director back in December and asked if there was anything available for a class. The director’s assistant replied there wasn’t anything really they could do for classes. They had group packages available, but the packages were expensive.
Sometimes Rogers shows his class episodes of “Undercover Boss”. The reality show recently devoted one of its episodes to the Cubs. Though no funding was in place and Rogers hadn’t talked to Parker about it yet, Rogers decided to e-mail Cubs co-owner Tom Ricketts, whose brother, Todd, was featured on “Undercover Boss.”
Ricketts is chairman of the Chicago Cubs, and chief executive officer of Incapital LLC, a Chicago investment bank that packages corporate bonds for retail investors. He is also a director of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and the son of Ameritrade founder J. Joseph Ricketts.
In January 2009, a Ricketts family bid, led by Tom, was chosen as the winning bid for the Chicago Cubs. Siblings Peter, Tom, Laura and Todd Ricketts and their parents share interest in the bid through their family trust. The bid was estimated to be more than $850 million for the team and related assets. Ricketts was introduced as the chairman of the Cubs Oct. 31, 2009.
Ricketts responded to Rogers’ e-mail, copying the e-mail to the assistant who said the Cubs couldn’t help out. Ricketts told Rogers he would love to talk to the class and provide a behind-the-scenes tour of the Cubs franchise. Shortly after Rogers got the e-mail, the assistant called Rogers and told him they could help Valley out.
The next objective was to secure funding for the trip, so Rogers and Parker began contacting area businesses.
The Kosciusko County Community Foundation was the first to get on board. Funding then came from BNW Industries, Charles Smith, Nelson Beverage, Rick Moriarty, Splendor Boats, Lake City Group, Lake City Bank, Symmetry Medical, Newlin Associates and Warsaw Area Career Center.
“The Kosciusko County Community Foundation was the first ones on board, and kind of really got it going,” Rogers said.
WACC paid for the bus transportation and the substitute teacher pay for Rogers and Parker.
Rogers said they secured enough funding for the transportation and tickets to the game. The Cubs marketing department also offered a good price to the school for the tickets.
Rogers said they secured enough funding to take the school bus to the Dune Park train station and then take the South Shore line. They will pick up the Red Line to Wrigley Field. Some of the Valley students have never taken a train, Rogers said.
Besides a game ticket, students also will get $10 in Cubs cash.
“It’s really cool to see businesses in the community support something like this,” Rogers said.
Parker said they had to contact some of the businesses back and tell them they had too much financial support and could they give a little less. However, some of the businesses agreed to help by providing dinner in Chicago after the game at Giordanos.
The game starts at 1 p.m., but Valley will be there at 11 a.m. for the behind-the-scenes tour. The Cubs’ marketing director will speak to the students, as well as interns, before Ricketts talks to the 27 Valley students and teachers.
Rogers said for the Cubs organization and Ricketts to do something like this, and on a game day, is “pretty cool.”
Unfortunately, a couple of students have athletic conflicts and aren’t able to go. Since the tickets were already purchased, the two extra tickets will be raffled off Friday.
Leading up to the Cubs visit, and afterward, Rogers said Parker’s and his classes will do some “big-time follow up.” Rogers’ class will look at Cubs marketing, history and will discuss what they learned. Parker’s class did a lot of financial studies and tied it to Ameritrade.
Junior Kameron Larimer said his expectations for the trip were “to have some fun and learn some stuff about the marketing of the Cubs.”
Larimer plays a couple of different sports, including baseball, and plans to study sports medicine in college. He said he hopes that he can learn about how the professionals deal with sports injuries.
As for the game, he said, “I expect the Cubs to win and Rogers to let me wear one of his jerseys.”
Senior Andrew Harness said he expects to learn how the Cubs operate.
“I really want to see how the owner runs things. I’m really interested in that,” said Evan Ball, senior.
“I want to have my own company some day and I want to get ideas from (Ricketts),” he said.
Ball said he is a Cubs fan and that runs in his family.
Besides the business aspect of the trip, Rogers said he wants students to see that if they want something, they just need to go out and get it. The worst the Cubs organization could have done was say “no,” Rogers said.
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The whole trip to Chicago and Wrigley Field will be entirely free to Tippecanoe Valley High School and the students, thanks to the community.
It all started as an idea for Rogers to take his students to a Cubs game.
In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Rogers said he is a big Cubs fan. He thought it would be neat to take his sports marketing class to a Cubs game. He e-mailed the Cubs’ marketing director back in December and asked if there was anything available for a class. The director’s assistant replied there wasn’t anything really they could do for classes. They had group packages available, but the packages were expensive.
Sometimes Rogers shows his class episodes of “Undercover Boss”. The reality show recently devoted one of its episodes to the Cubs. Though no funding was in place and Rogers hadn’t talked to Parker about it yet, Rogers decided to e-mail Cubs co-owner Tom Ricketts, whose brother, Todd, was featured on “Undercover Boss.”
Ricketts is chairman of the Chicago Cubs, and chief executive officer of Incapital LLC, a Chicago investment bank that packages corporate bonds for retail investors. He is also a director of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and the son of Ameritrade founder J. Joseph Ricketts.
In January 2009, a Ricketts family bid, led by Tom, was chosen as the winning bid for the Chicago Cubs. Siblings Peter, Tom, Laura and Todd Ricketts and their parents share interest in the bid through their family trust. The bid was estimated to be more than $850 million for the team and related assets. Ricketts was introduced as the chairman of the Cubs Oct. 31, 2009.
Ricketts responded to Rogers’ e-mail, copying the e-mail to the assistant who said the Cubs couldn’t help out. Ricketts told Rogers he would love to talk to the class and provide a behind-the-scenes tour of the Cubs franchise. Shortly after Rogers got the e-mail, the assistant called Rogers and told him they could help Valley out.
The next objective was to secure funding for the trip, so Rogers and Parker began contacting area businesses.
The Kosciusko County Community Foundation was the first to get on board. Funding then came from BNW Industries, Charles Smith, Nelson Beverage, Rick Moriarty, Splendor Boats, Lake City Group, Lake City Bank, Symmetry Medical, Newlin Associates and Warsaw Area Career Center.
“The Kosciusko County Community Foundation was the first ones on board, and kind of really got it going,” Rogers said.
WACC paid for the bus transportation and the substitute teacher pay for Rogers and Parker.
Rogers said they secured enough funding for the transportation and tickets to the game. The Cubs marketing department also offered a good price to the school for the tickets.
Rogers said they secured enough funding to take the school bus to the Dune Park train station and then take the South Shore line. They will pick up the Red Line to Wrigley Field. Some of the Valley students have never taken a train, Rogers said.
Besides a game ticket, students also will get $10 in Cubs cash.
“It’s really cool to see businesses in the community support something like this,” Rogers said.
Parker said they had to contact some of the businesses back and tell them they had too much financial support and could they give a little less. However, some of the businesses agreed to help by providing dinner in Chicago after the game at Giordanos.
The game starts at 1 p.m., but Valley will be there at 11 a.m. for the behind-the-scenes tour. The Cubs’ marketing director will speak to the students, as well as interns, before Ricketts talks to the 27 Valley students and teachers.
Rogers said for the Cubs organization and Ricketts to do something like this, and on a game day, is “pretty cool.”
Unfortunately, a couple of students have athletic conflicts and aren’t able to go. Since the tickets were already purchased, the two extra tickets will be raffled off Friday.
Leading up to the Cubs visit, and afterward, Rogers said Parker’s and his classes will do some “big-time follow up.” Rogers’ class will look at Cubs marketing, history and will discuss what they learned. Parker’s class did a lot of financial studies and tied it to Ameritrade.
Junior Kameron Larimer said his expectations for the trip were “to have some fun and learn some stuff about the marketing of the Cubs.”
Larimer plays a couple of different sports, including baseball, and plans to study sports medicine in college. He said he hopes that he can learn about how the professionals deal with sports injuries.
As for the game, he said, “I expect the Cubs to win and Rogers to let me wear one of his jerseys.”
Senior Andrew Harness said he expects to learn how the Cubs operate.
“I really want to see how the owner runs things. I’m really interested in that,” said Evan Ball, senior.
“I want to have my own company some day and I want to get ideas from (Ricketts),” he said.
Ball said he is a Cubs fan and that runs in his family.
Besides the business aspect of the trip, Rogers said he wants students to see that if they want something, they just need to go out and get it. The worst the Cubs organization could have done was say “no,” Rogers said.
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