This year's
festivities kick off with the Opening Ceremony beginning Friday, January
18, at 6 p.m. followed by the wildly entertaining "Friday Night with
Ryan Dempster," presented by Budweiser. Saturday's programming continues
with the always popular "Joe Maddon & the Coaching Staff,"
"Baseball Operations Update" and "Business Operations Update" panels as
well as the "Kids Only Press Conference," presented by Advocate
Children's Hospital, and long-time Convention favorite "Cubs Bingo," presented by Budweiser.
- Opening Ceremony - 6-7 p.m. CST Friday, January 18
- "Friday Night with Ryan Dempster" - 7:30-10 p.m. CST Friday, January 18
- "In the Batter's Box" - 11 a.m.-noon CST Saturday, January 19
- "Cubs in Cooperstown" - 3-4 p.m. Saturday, January 19
Overall the concept of the convention is great. However, it is very misleading as to what to expect if you haven't gone in previous years. That being said, we heard from multiple families that stated the system for autographs is getting worse every year. We attended for the first time this year and will not be going back. It is great to see and get autographs from the older players. However, when you have most of these autographs already, you go to see the current players. Unless you are lucky enough to get a winning voucher to meet one of the current players, you wont! The only player we could get to from the 2016 World Series team without a winning voucher was Carl Edwards Jr. The voucher system is terrible, at best. We saw groups get 3,4, and up to 8 vouchers for the same player. Most individuals attending the convention do not get a voucher. Clearly the vouchers are not mixed up or random enough to give people a fair chance to meet players. In the end, you do not even get close to most of the current players. You can of course try to arrive early enough to spend an additional $300 on a voucher for a specific player...since you haven't spent enough already.
ReplyDeleteAnother debacle was waiting in line for the "surprise" autograph on the opening night of the convention. After waiting and waiting and waiting, out came Rowan Wick over an hour later than expected. No offense to Rowan, but I could have stayed up in the opening ceremony and skipped the wait that seemed to go on forever. We were told that this was not the original surprise player and that the player it was supposed to be had a family emergency. I will not name this player because I can't confirm he was the surprise guest. However, it if was the player we were told it was supposed to be, this same player came down and signed autographs for approximately 20 minutes before leaving with a "hand cramp" on the 2nd day. Needless to say I am not impressed with this players first year with the team. Either way, the Cubs dropped the ball with the surprise signing. Have a back up plan that doesn't leave fans waiting for over an hour past the initial start time. Have a plan for one of the million dollar players to come out and sign for an hour. Do something that makes sense for all of the money paid to come to the convention, to the games, etc. The owners and the team owe the fans this much. Yes, the payroll is big...but so is the money they bring in every year. Plus, let's not forget the money soon to be coming from the TV deal as well as the other investments made by the owners. The fans are the reason you have the ability to make the money you do from this team. We won an World Series and I am grateful that I was alive to see it. However, that doesn't give you the excuse to forget how long we waited or to think that you can live off of that for years to come.