Former Destination Club Founding Family Purchases Chicago Cubs

By: Destination Club News
Date: February 6, 2009

J. Joe Ricketts, the founder of ultra-luxury destination club Ciel, is most widely known in the destination club industry as the man who made a last minute, unsuccessful $108 million offer to acquire the assets of Tanner & Haley late in 2006 after a near $100 million offer from Ultimate Resort had been accepted. Fifteen months later, the family is making another lucrative offer for a "club" that has seen only slightly more success then Tanner & Haley, the Chicago Cubs.

Headed by Joe's son Tom Ricketts, who lived across the street from the famed Wrigley Field during college and met his wife in the bleachers, the Ricketts family has been selected as the final bidder in the purchase of the Cubs, reportedly for approximately $900 million. While the final offer is reviewed by Major League Baseball and other stake holders, Tom and the rest of the Ricketts family have been mostly silent until the sale is finalized, only saying "My family and I are huge Cubs fans. We share the goal of Cubs fans everywhere to win a World Series and build the consistent championship tradition that the fans deserve."

J. Joe Ricketts, the founder and former CEO of TD Ameritrade, launched Ciel Club as the most exclusive destination club in the industry. Limited to only 100 invitation only members, Ciel would have a member to property ratio not to exceed 5:1. Despite property values ranging between $5 and $10 million, Ciel focused primarily on the service aspect of their luxury club. Each of the six homes in the Ciel portfolio had culinary trained chefs, bilingual nannies and tutors could be arranged, and the club had partnerships with Marquis Jets, Forbes, and hundreds of VIP airport lounges worldwide.

Financially, Ciel offered many terms still unique to the industry even today. In addition to allowing members to pay their membership deposit over three years, members could be redeemed in a zero in, one out basis. Ciel used 60% of membership deposits to acquire real estate and the rest was held in segregated accounts and used to purchase T-Bills. Resigning members would get paid out from these accounts.

While Ciel existed for over a year, they never achieved the lofty growth they sought and late in 2007 announced that they would change their business model to become a land conservation trust, leading CEO Jonathan Harding to say "2008 will not be a year of selling, it will be a year of building."

The club planned to purchase large tracts of land and would return to the market in 2008. Members would serve as trustees and benefit from the tax benefits associated with the conservation focus. Prior members were given the opportunity to have 100% of their membership deposit refunded to them if they elected not to move forward with the club's new focus.

Since this announcement, the Ciel Club website is no longer in operation and no news has been heard of the club.

Contrary to the lack of news from Ciel, the Chicago Cubs remain one of the most storied franchises in all of sports. The much maligned club has not won a World Series since a hotly contested 1908 season that many believe is the reason the Cubs have not won since.

On September 23, 1908, the New York Giants faced off against the Chicago Cubs at the Polo Grounds in New York in a game that would likely determine the National League pennant. The Giants starting first basemen, Fred Tenny was injured, leading Giants' manager John McGraw to replace him with the youngest player in the National League, Fred Merkle. With Moose McCormick on first in a 1-1 tie with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Merkle singled, moving McCormick to third. Giants' shortstop Al Bridwell lined the next pitch past Cubs' second basemen Johnny Evers, scoring McCormick from third, winning the game, and likely the National League pennant for the Giants. As the crowd spilled onto the field, Fred Merkle made his way to the Giants' dugout, neglecting to touch second base. Evers, a student of the game, saw Merkle leaving the field and began searching for the ball amongst an ever increasing number of Giants' fans now on the field to force Merkle out at second, and thus cancel the winning run.

Future Hall of Famer and Giants pitcher Joe McGinnity noticed Evers searching for the ball and made his way out to collect it himself. McGinnity won a struggle over the ball and heaved it into the stands where it was collected by a fan who began to leave the stadium. Two Cubs chased him into the crowd, tackling the fan when he resisted and grabbed the ball. The ball was thrown back into Evers who touched second base as Giants' fans continued to celebrate.

Two days later, the Giants run was disallowed and the game was set to be replayed at the end of the season if the clubs were tied. Inevitably, the two teams were deadlocked at the end of the season, and were forced to play a one game playoff of October 8, 1908 to determine the pennant. The Cubs won the game and had to sprint for the clubhouse to avoid an angry mob of Giants' fans.

The Cubs went on to win an anticlimactic World Series against Ty Cobb and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cubs haven't won the World Series since.

Merkle was vilified in the press and although he played until 1926, never lived down the mistake. Commonplace for runners to forgo touching the next base following a winning run at the time, many believe that taking advantage of Merkle has led many Cub fans to believe in the "Curse of Fred Merkle."

While Ciel has never officially ceased operations, we hope that the Cubs enjoy more success in the coming years than the Ricketts family destination club venture. The question now is what will we see first. Ricketts' Ciel returning to the destination club industry or his beloved Cubs winning the Series? Let's hope we don't have to wait another hundred years to find out.