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Inside The Thermal Club: What a $5.2 million membership gets you (and why IndyCar is testing)

Courtesy of Nathan Brown Indianapolis Star - Photos: Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun

The start/finish line of the main race course is seen at The Thermal Club in Thermal, Calif., Monday, Jan. 30, 2023.

NOTE: Sheri Dettman & Associates has our own in-house Thermal Club expert, Betsy Justice. If you are interested in more information or seeing Villas for sale, contact us!

THERMAL, Calif. -- Tim Rogers heard the figure and scoffed.

More than a decade ago, an acquaintance was talking about the prospect of opening a lavish “country-club-meets-car-meet-up,” a one-of-a-kind, exclusive club for gearheads and racing enthusiasts alike. Rogers had spent the last 20 years striking it rich, selling gas to 7/11 across 36 states for $7.5 billion then owning a string of local grocery stores that, he boasts, each sell $2,000 in fried chicken everyday.

“And I told him, ‘You’re wrong, you need $30 million,’” Rogers remembers.

“And I was still wrong.”

Around the time The Thermal Club opened in 2012, Rogers and his wife, Twanna, had spent close to $90 million. By 2018, that had grown to $150 million. And Monday afternoon, as he sipped on his club’s own version of the Coachella Valley’s famous date shake, Rogers wore like a badge of honor the fact they had now poured $275 million into a club that’s grown to 210 members, 75 properties and 135 lots sold.

What was once a $1,200 per month membership fee has doubled over the last five years, on top of a $175,000 initiation fee and the cost of purchasing a lot and building a 30,000 square-foot home within five years of joining, which is now roughly $5 million.

A three-person design review committee that includes Rogers, his construction manager and main architect, hold an unyielding veto over the exterior design of any home on the property. And if, after passing a rigorous, though informal, interview process to gain membership, someone were to run afoul of the Club’s tight-knit, jovial group, Rogers boasts the right to kick a member out, no questions asked.

“I want to make sure we have all the amenities I would expect for a high-end club, because if someone’s going to spend $5 million, they’re going to want to have a nice restaurant, a spa, a hotel for their guests, fitness center, tennis courts, a pool,” Rogers detailed. The grounds of his oasis include 48 guest casitas, three restaurants, a new 1.1-mile go-kart track and a 70-car storage facility for members’ race cars with untold millions worth of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches, Mercedes and LMP2 race cars inside. Next to it, the heir to the Clorox brand houses his own 40-car Ferrari collection in a vault that would make Batman grin.

To top it all off, the grounds feature all the gas pumps, car washes, detailing equipment and full-time mechanics and driving instructors. And when members wish to sell that classic Ferrari for the newest Porsche, Rogers has trusted car salesmen onsite who serve as the middleman to ensure Club members get a fair price.

“I’ve spent over $275 million developing this so far, and we’ve got $500 million in property we’re trying to sell,” Rogers continued. “We don’t advertise. We use word-of-mouth.”

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And IndyCar, he hopes, will help continue to build his 300-plus acre empire inside the 18-foot brick walls. “I always wanted to have a race here, but we didn’t want to until we built things up,” he said. “'Cause you only have one shot at a first impression.”

A pairing 10 years in the making

Rogers is nothing if not welcoming and inviting, but, as he jokes, publicity isn’t often the goal. He occasionally gives media members a hard time, in between grins, before revealing he expects to host more than 70 on Thursday and Friday as he throws his doors open for a never-been-done-before test of his club’s mettle.

Since Rogers hosted then-IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard at his ribbon-cutting ceremony more than a decade ago, and after his numerous phone calls with current series owner Roger Penske to help find the right asphalt consultant, The Thermal Club’s owner has held a distant connection to the premier American open-wheel series. Among its owners include Mike Long, who recently stepped down after more than a decade as CEO of Arrow Electronics – the title partner of McLaren’s IndyCar arm – and Don Cusick, who for the last three years has backed Stefan Wilson’s Indianapolis 500 entries.

That pair helped push for a formal sit-down between the two sides last spring, as IndyCar made its annual run around the streets of Long Beach, just a few hours down the freeway from Rogers’ racing hideaway. Talks ramped up later that summer about the Club hosting IndyCar’s preseason open test, and by the fall, the makings of a deal were in place. For the series, in need of a consistent, reliable – and most importantly, warm – preseason testing spot for its entire paddock, the deal makes clear sense.

Three years removed from a disaster of a full-field test at Circuit of the Americas in Austin with temperatures rarely above 50 degrees as biting rain fell almost constantly, and without any other permanent tracks on the calendar housed in a moderate winter climate (save for finale track Laguna Seca, where IndyCar will test in September), the marriage was perfect, if not curiously out-of-the-box and slightly inconvenient.

Coming on the heels of IMSA’s Rolex 24 season kickoff last weekend on the other side of the country, nearly half the IndyCar paddock had to juggle flying from Daytona to the west coast Sunday night. Before testing Thursday and Friday, nearly 30 drivers will weather their preseason media responsibilities Tuesday and Wednesday.

IndyCar president Jay Frye told IndyStar he’d heard nothing but excitement from his paddock members about the exotic trip. Privately, however, some of the series’ veteran drivers and successful team owners, who must foot what is said to be a roughly $1 million bill for a three-car team to travel across the country, the mood has been, at times, different.

“We think this is going to be great for the teams,” Frye told IndyStar on Monday. “We see the members here, influential people in the world, and they’re car nuts, and we’re bringing our cars to them. Hopefully, we entertain them for a few days, and maybe our drivers and teams can leave with some new friends. I never got any pushback in any way. It was really the opposite. There’s been enthusiasm because people understand the end game."

IndyCar's potential high-rolling, made-for-TV future at Thermal

As Frye roamed the grounds Monday afternoon, helping his team connect cables, inspect the track and set up marshalling and timing equipment, he couldn’t help but notice the early makings of a lavish high-rolling party around him. Outside homes across the property, he spotted vans bussing in speaker systems and caterers getting the lay of the land.

Though IndyCar’s two-day open test is famously closed to the general public, Rogers is expecting dozens of members’ guests to take in the action. The track owner has permitted each member to invite up to 20 guests onto the grounds Thursday and Friday, from which each member can then rotate through six paddock passes for up-close-and-personal access to the IndyCar world.

“One guy said he’s going to have a head chef, two sous chefs, two bartenders, cleaning people and servers, and I told him, ‘You can only have 20 people!” Rogers said. “And he quickly replied, ‘Oh, I’m inviting other members!”

Picture a bustling college town on a Friday night, with slightly inebriated revelers roaming the streets, and swap the dingy, sometimes rundown rental homes for $5 million desert villas.

Though IndyCar’s two-day open test is famously closed to the general public, Rogers is expecting dozens of members’ guests to take in the action. The track owner has permitted each member to invite up to 20 guests onto the grounds Thursday and Friday, from which each member can then rotate through six paddock passes for up-close-and-personal access to the IndyCar world.

“One guy said he’s going to have a head chef, two sous chefs, two bartenders, cleaning people and servers, and I told him, ‘You can only have 20 people!” Rogers said. “And he quickly replied, ‘Oh, I’m inviting other members!”

Picture a bustling college town on a Friday night, with slightly inebriated revelers roaming the streets, and swap the dingy, sometimes rundown rental homes for $5 million desert villas.

On Rogers’ potential wish list is a made-for-TV preseason showcase that would be part PGA Tour pro-am, part NASCAR Clash, part MLB home run derby, perhaps with a little SRX flair sprinkled in. Initial talks have been held between the two sides to host a type of pro-am series of races featuring IndyCar drivers, some of the club’s best member racers and a high-stakes pot. In Rogers’ vision, for a $250,000 buy-in, the clubs’ drivers would be randomly paired with an IndyCar driver.

An opening members’ race that might last 40 minutes, typical of the Club’s monthly race series events, would then set IndyCar's starting grid based on their partner’s finish. The IndyCar drivers would then try and beat out the field for their duo’s shot at a multi-million-dollar payday in a preseason non-points-paying event akin to NASCAR’s kickoff just down the road at the LA Coliseum later this week.

It all sounds good on paper, but Rogers is clearly still not nearly convinced.

“That’s a lot of pressure on our members to ask them to write a $250,000 check to do each time,” he said. “So we’ll have to see how this goes.”

Though he dances around the topic, it seems clear he was expecting a bit higher level of promotion and publicity for his track’s help in lending a testing home for the all-important start to IndyCar’s season. In the initial plans was a full-test stream of all the on-track action, either to be aired on NBC’s Peacock platform or IndyCar’s YouTube channel.

Rogers’ staff even went through the process of ordering all the cabling that would’ve been necessary to line The Thermal Club with the cameras and equipment. Then somewhat last-minute, a call came in.

“All a sudden, they contacted us and said they’d decided not to,” Rogers said. Though Frye wouldn’t say so directly, the couple-hundred-thousand-dollar cost of a outfitting a robust camera setup with towers, miles of fiber and cords and the use of NBC’s full TV compound and broadcast team – for a series trying to build a deeper marketing budget – is said to have been the downfall. Still, IndyCar has said it will provide wall-to-wall social media coverage of the event, including in-car camera footage, live timing and scoring and post-session video breakdowns on the IndyCar app.

For IndyCar, the execution of a clean, productive couple days of testing would make for a somewhat subjective tell on whether this pairing was a success. For Rogers, things are a bit more cut-and-dry. Within another 10 years, he hopes, The Thermal Club will be full, with all the nearly million-dollar lots and $500-a-month race car storage spots filled or spoken for as he fulfills his initial $30 million dream.

10 Things to Know About Acrisure Arena

Before you head out to enjoy an event at this new venue, here are tips and insights into what your fan experience will be like.

The main entrance on the east side of the building will focus on creating an indoor-outdoor feel and will feature an outdoor food court.
RENDERINGS COURTESY ACRISURE ARENA

Since construction began in June 2021, you’ve likely driven by Acrisure Arena and viewed the immense structure rising from ground level on the north side of Interstate 10, just off the Cook Street exit. Or maybe you’ve seen the renderings that depict people milling in and out of the multipurpose venue.

It wasn't that long ago that the arena was planned to be developed in downtown Palm Springs as part of a partnership with the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. However, when issues like parking and squeezing the arena next to a residential area became problematic, the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation stepped in and offered a parcel of land by Interstate 10.

In less than three weeks, fans will gain their first real look inside Acrisure Arena when comedians Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock entertain in the round (Dec. 14), followed by The Doobie Brothers (Dec. 15), Grupo Firme (Dec. 16), and then the Coachella Valley Firebirds’ first official home hockey game (Dec. 18).

This aerial rendering shows 3,000 parking spaces including 500 for VIP.

John Bolton, senior vice president of entertainment and general manager of the arena, has decades of experience around venues like Acrisure Arena. In fact, he’s helping the parent company, Oak View Group, develop the grand opening and entertainment plans for eight new arena projects. He’s seen Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert go from an architect’s concept to reality, and he likes what he sees.

“Some of the interior spaces are even better than I thought,” Bolton says. “Being in the bowl [the main seating area], you really understand how wonderful this is going to be from an artist’s perspective and a fan perspective. Just knowing that you’re going to be so close to the action, so close to the artist when they’re playing based on that basically one lower bowl design, I think is really, really incredible.

“I’m really impressed with all of the work on the exterior of the building and how it fits in with the landscape around the facility as well, and the beautiful mountains that are there. I think it fits well from that perspective and also from a color perspective, and I think our friends at the Berger Foundation have done a really amazing job in all the parking lots and the landscaping that's coming on board as it relates to that part of the facility as well.”

In his conversation with Palm Springs Life, Bolton addresses many of the facets of the fan experience, and why there is as much attention being paid to what goes on outside the arena as there is inside. Here are 10 things to know about Acrisure Arena.

Hockey drove this arena to Greater Palm Springs where the Coachella Valley Firebirds will play home games through mid-April.

PARKING

There will be 500 VIP parking spots on the west end of the arena and 2,500 spaces around the south and east ends. If needed, there are 1,000 additional spaces available at nearby Xavier Prep High School with shuttle service to the arena. Kiosks at the arena will allow you to pay after you park, so you won't be held up by an attendant asking for payment.

Using Patriot One’s SmartGateway, fans will walk through screening areas that detect concealed guns, knives, and other related threat objects, giving customers a green arrow to proceed through or a red warning to staff that shows where the detected threat object is located on the customer. “We think this frictionless, smart walk-through system makes it really easy for people to enter,” Bolton says.

TICKETING

All tickets are digital and sent to your cell phone. You won't need a printout, a screenshot, or any other method to get in. The barcode is scanned on your mobile ticket to gain access to the event.

JUST FOR THE HOLIDAYS

You’ll likely see the 54-foot Christmas tree from the freeway that sits by the main entrance.

FOOD

Before you even step into the arena, there will be food court area by the main entrance that will include five restaurants. The specific restaurants will be named this week, Bolton says. “Obviously we’re taking advantage of the weather and extending our indoor-outdoor [offerings],” he adds.

SEATING

Acrisure Arena's capacity is 11,000, with roughly 10,000 seats for hockey games. Twenty VIP suites surround the lower bowl seating area. “It’s pretty clear to me that there's not a bad seat in the house,” Bolton says. “You’re entering at ground level and then going down to your seat.”

One seating area to consider: The very back row of seats is separated by a counter, where the attendee can plant a drink. The seating is similar to a bar seat, but it allows for more space between you and the person next to you when compared to regular arena seating.

ACOUSTICS

Following the Dec. 14 opening night stand-up show, The Doobie Brothers will be the first band to play in the arena on Dec. 15, followed by Grupo Firme on Dec. 16 and Maroon 5 on Dec. 31. Acoustic technology has changed dramatically over the years, and Acrisure Arena is taking full advantage of that. Workers installed 10,000 square feet of acoustic lapendary panels, Bolton says.

“The fact that we don’t have a very high elevated upper bowl, where sound bounces off and then comes back down, will create a much better sound overall for our events. The goal is to make sure the sound system is really awesome. That plays a part into people’s enjoyment.”

Chairman’s Club 29

LED SCREENS

At the west end of the arena, a giant screen will broadcast the action during hockey games and also be utilized during musical and other live performances. In addition, a wraparound ribbon screen will surround the bowl seating, and many of the concession areas will have TVs to keep track of the action.

CHAIRMAN’S CLUB 29

There is a special room located in the arena’s lower level where Chairman’s Club members can hang out, complete with comfy lounge furniture, bar and food offerings, and plenty of TVs to view the event.

ARENA WITH A VIEW

Check out the north and south bars. They are open-space areas that overlook the arena, offering dramatic views during hockey games. (Though they might not be as good during concerts, since the bars are parallel to the stage.)

COMMUNITY SKATING RINK

A community Iceplex is poised to debut in late December, offering the public a chance to enjoy the same rink that the Coachella Valley Firebirds will use for practice. Daily public skating opportunities range from open skating sessions to adult/junior hockey leagues and theme nights.

“I think people haven't totally grasped that 360-day operation that’s under the same roof,” Bolton says. “As we grow and we all go through that first six months, I think that’ll be one of the most pleasant, interesting things that people probably haven't quite realized yet.”

And in case you were wondering, there are three Zambonis on property to keep the ice skate-ready.

Six months from now, it’s safe to say many of these areas will be tweaked and adjusted as more shows are held at the arena.

“We’ll be constantly looking at that and making sure that everyone has a good experience," Bolton says. "If there are things that we can change to make better, or things that we haven’t recognized or been able to predict, we have the ability to go in and make those tweaks and changes to continue to improve the operations and really build upon our opening here in a couple weeks."

• READ NEXT: The Doobie Brothers Bring 50th Tour to Acrisure Arena.

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