Windy City ThunderBolts

Let’s play ball! Sadly, it’s only a 7 inning game at this minor league baseball field!
Anyways, I don’t really go to minor league games, but I like this stadium. It might be small, but the service is excellent, and the staff are very nice and friendly!
It’s your average baseball game layout. The entertaining races of the horses happen. There is a concession stand. At the end of the baseball field, there is a bounce house for the kids, and those kids love it! There is a suite for birthday parties on their 2^nd floor.
The executive suite is very nice. It’s small and there isn’t much room, but there is plenty of seating. Outside seating is also available in the executive suite. Everyone that was with me loved it!
The food was pretty good. The Italian beef was tender and tasty! The staff put cheese in the refrigerator for cheese for the Italian beef. The pizza came from Beggar’s and it was thin crust. It was delicious. Great sauce and great crust! The chips with the salsa and dip were great!
All in all, great service and great food! I will be back!

Fun! This is a fun place to catch a game for an inexpensive night out. The concessions have a good variety and are not outrageously priced. Try the jumbo pretzel!

We visited the Thunderbolts last night as they played the Miners and unfortunately lost to them 8 – 3. This was my first time at this park and a baseball game in general in quite a few years. I have to say we had a great time and it was very inexpensive entertainment. Game tickets were only $ 9.00 with very reasonable concessions.
I.E. hot dogs only $ 2.00 super large great tasting pretzel only $ 3.50. At the game we were greeted and welcomed at the gate as well as thanked for our attendance upon leaving. There were free tee shirts tossed into the crowed between innings, as well as other fan contests too. There were fireworks after the game and quite frankly I did not expect much considering the low admission price, HOWEVER… the fireworks were awesome ! and worth every penny we paid. We found the stadium to be very clean and easy access to restrooms and concessions. I highly recommend a visit to this stadium for a economical evening out with friends or family.

Opening Day for Windy City should’ve been the proverbial «Ball Drop», wherein the ThunderBolts begin their 2012 season on a quest to the top of the Frontier League. Unfortunately, it was more «dropping the ball» than anything else. Inefficiency and unpreparedness seemed to be the underlying themes. To start, ONE ticket taker at the front gate was tasked with herding in a large crowd of people. Fail. Lines piled up quick at the concession stands, staff was minimal, and aside from pre-​packaged and prepared food or delivered local pizza slices, several items had yet to be removed from their frozen packaging and prepared for consumption. Beer/​alcohol stands were overwhelmed, and lines were absolutely horrid. At one point, the concession stand along first base, consisting of 4 stalls/​windows, 3 serving ONLY food, and 1 serving ONLY alcohol, failed to post or advise the line goers of liquid/​solid segregation, forcing many people to turn around from their already 30 minute wait only to enter an even longer line in search of food/​drink. Sadly, this continued throughout the night. The decisions were made 1.) swarm the beer man immediately after he restocked, and 2.) make an El Gallo run immediately following the game. The game itself was great and the crowd seemed fairly energized, but whoever is tasked with overseeing concessions and overall efficiency at the ballpark needs to take a serious look at their playbook and rethink their plan of attack, so to speak. Better planning and staffing would have, without a doubt, benefited the park, in probably the most obvious way, the wallet. We may be back throughout the year, but after visiting sooo many major and minor ballparks along the way, Standard Bank Ballpark and the Windy City ThunderBolts have seriously underwhelmed and failed to provide a memorable ballpark experience for myself and my family. Definitely ranks at the bottom of my Ballpark list.