Chris, the Aria was very, very nice and it worked very well for football. We could have had those same ballrooms for the First Weekend drafts and auctions, but Second Weekend was much tighter for them. They still haven't released space yet and I certainly didn't want to have two weekends of drafts at different locations. The Aria just added on 100,000 more square feet of convention space and they now have much more convention space than the Bellagio. We have a great contact there and will continue to stay in touch with them for future needs. But once we got the right space for both weekends at the Bellagio and didn't have to worry about this anymore, it was an easy choice. Let's make it work at the Bellagio and have a great time.COZ wrote:Drafted at Aria for football this year & I'll be the first to say it...as I did to Greg this year....Aria > Bellagio. Beautiful drafting rooms, great food & service, & easy to get to especially if you stay at Vdara which is superior to the Bellagio in my opinion. But I guess some of the East Coasters need the cache & name recognition to stroke their egos that comes with saying look at me everybody "I"m such a high roller I'm drafting at the Bellagio in high stakes fantasy baseballI." I say OVER-fucking-RATED & especially if the NFBC is going to be Plan B at the Bellagio, year in, year out. Quit lapping up the casino-mall that is the Bellagio like a lap dog as if it is the be-all, end-all, folks. Drafting at Aria > Bellagio.
The First Weekend drafts are tentatively scheduled for the Renoir Ballrooms, which are the exact same ballrooms we had for First Weekend last year. They are back in the corner just past the Monet Ballrooms and will work fine. If you plan on staying at the Bellagio that weekend, the Guest Tower works best.
Second Weekend we have space in the Grand Ballrooms, which is where we were two years ago. It has the Grand Patio across the hall and it's across from the Wedding Chapel. It's right in the middle of the convention center, so staying at either tower is fine. I'm still going to stay in the Spa Tower, but either one will work. If you stay at the Aria or Monte Carlo or Cosmopolitan, just take the Tram, go down one set of escalators, turn left into the convention center, go past the DaVinci Ballrooms and the Grand Ballrooms are around the corner to the left. Maybe 200-300 yards walk into the convention center. Easy enough.
Hope that helps. Stay well all.