Oak Brook Polo Club postpones 2024 season

The Oak Brook Polo Club officials have decided to postpone the 2024 season.

Danny O’Leary, the club’s chief executive, announced on Wednesday that the 2024 season would be postponed to 2025 as the club makes “significant changes in leadership and operations.”

Noting that “it’s a very expensive sport,” O’Leary told the Daily Herald on Thursday that the vast majority of changes would be operational.

“It’s about balancing the economics of it all,” he said. “As part of these changes, we will be more focused on supporting our fans, the polo community and the residents of the Village of Oak Brook.”

Larry Herman, Oak Brook village president, hopes the 102-year-old club’s history continues.

“Having lived in Oak Brook my entire life, I am aware of the historical importance polo has to our community. We will miss the crowd-pleasing games this summer as events are redesigned to meet current needs,” Herman said in an email.

“I am confident they can make the most of this short break to come back as an even stronger organization in 2025,” he said.

Under the heading “2024 Sunday Season Schedule” on the club’s website, oakbrookpoloclub.com, an announcement from Oak Brook Polo Management stated: “The postponement will allow us to focus on restructuring and improving various aspects of our organization and ensure that when we return in 2025, we can deliver an exceptional polo season now and in the future.”

The statement said details of the restructuring would be announced “in the near future.”

O’Leary did not give a timetable.

“We have worked diligently over these six months to implement a variety of different models to maintain what we have created over the last eight seasons (under the current leadership), and that is very, very difficult,” O’Leary said.

The club’s online magazine “2023 Score” listed 10 Sunday events last summer at Cecil Smith Field, 700 Oak Brook Road.

Club President James Drury stated in his foreword to the 2023 magazine that visitor numbers have quadrupled since 2016.

The club was founded in 1922 by Paul Butler. From 1967 to 1989, the club was run by his children Jorie Butler Kent and Michael Butler, who died in 2022 at the age of 95.

The polo club originally operated on land owned by Paul Butler, founder of Oak Brook and the Butler National Golf Club, and has leased land from the village since 1977, when Butler sold about 270 acres that are now used as the Oak Brook Sports Core multi-use facility.

The Oak Brook Polo Club once had 13 polo fields and used a field that had been converted into a public driving range until it entered into new negotiations with Oak Brook and Butler National a few years ago, Herman said.

In 2022, the polo club returned to the Butler National Driving Range, known as Cecil Smith Field.

The Oak Brook Polo Club has hosted the U.S. Polo Championship a total of 24 times, including 22 between 1954 and 1978, according to Score magazine, and in 1986 it hosted the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles.

“Oak Brook is an important club for the USPA (United States Polo Association) because of its location in Chicago and also from a historical perspective,” said Justin Powers, USPA executive director of polo development.

“We will continue to support our member clubs with strategic planning and strategic changes as they appear, providing resources or guidance as needed,” Powers said. “We have done this with other clubs across the country that have gone through ownership changes or leadership changes.”