2015 Draft Dates

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Joe Sambito
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2015 Draft Dates

Post by Joe Sambito » Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:11 pm

Greg,

Have you guys glanced ahead to 2015 yet? It looks like the MLB season opens on Sunday night April 5th. That feels a touch later than normal. Hence I was wondering if there would still be drafts in Las Vegas over the First weekend of March Madness (March 19 -22). It seems that there are three viable Saturdays (March 21st, March 28th, & April 4th) for drafts. I know some like the live drafts as close to opening day as possible, whereas others really enjoy that Madness Vegas weekend. Curious if you had any early thoughts on it?
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Edwards Kings
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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by Edwards Kings » Mon Sep 08, 2014 1:34 pm

Wow...that late? No wonky three game series played in Timbuktu?
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Greg Ambrosius
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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Tue Sep 09, 2014 10:44 am

Joe Sambito wrote:Greg,

Have you guys glanced ahead to 2015 yet? It looks like the MLB season opens on Sunday night April 5th. That feels a touch later than normal. Hence I was wondering if there would still be drafts in Las Vegas over the First weekend of March Madness (March 19 -22). It seems that there are three viable Saturdays (March 21st, March 28th, & April 4th) for drafts. I know some like the live drafts as close to opening day as possible, whereas others really enjoy that Madness Vegas weekend. Curious if you had any early thoughts on it?
Wow, that is really interesting that MLB is starting the season a week later. You are correct on this:

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-bas ... -than-2014

We will definitely follow MLB and draft on that weekend at the Bellagio Las Vegas. I'm working on the space now. That means our First Weekend of NFBC drafts will be on the Sweet Sixteen weekend of March Madness: March 27th-29th. We will host drafts in New York and Chicago that weekend as well.

As much as we love hosting live drafts in Las Vegas on March Madness opening weekend, we can't ask our owners to pick 2+ weeks in advance of the MLB opener. It's more important to get this right for our baseball owners, so 8 days in advance and the weekend of the opener remains our schedule. It's a bummer for those who love to combine opening weekend of March Madness with NFBC drafts, but Sweet Sixteen weekend is also a blast and being there for the Final Four will be fun, too.

Here's the MLB schedule as posted on MLB.com:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/schedule/?partne ... 04/05/2015
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Greg Ambrosius
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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Tue Sep 09, 2014 12:51 pm

I think we still have to keep those two dates for the NFBC, but I've just learned that Easter is April 6th, so we'll have to discuss how we're going to deal with the Diamond League, the Platinum League and all the rest of the events we've held in the past on the Second Weekend. We have plenty of time to figure all of this out, but nothing is ever easy!! I'm really surprised that MLB pushed this back a week, but we'll get it right for everyone.
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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by BEF » Tue Sep 09, 2014 10:32 pm

Greg Ambrosius wrote:I think we still have to keep those two dates for the NFBC, but I've just learned that Easter is April 6th,
And Passover is both Friday night and Saturday night. All in all, a really horrible weekend for drafting. You might need to rethink the dates.
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Greg Ambrosius
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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Wed Sep 10, 2014 9:43 am

BEF wrote:
Greg Ambrosius wrote:I think we still have to keep those two dates for the NFBC, but I've just learned that Easter is April 6th,
And Passover is both Friday night and Saturday night. All in all, a really horrible weekend for drafting. You might need to rethink the dates.
Damn MLB. This definitely makes things tougher. We will create this discussion shortly, but now we have to determine which weekend is the big weekend in Las Vegas and which weekend we need to host live events in New York and Chicago. It looks like we might need to host New York on the First Weekend, but that could be when folks will be heading to Las Vegas. Lots to talk about once we get closer to the end of the season. I blame MLB for all of this!! :?
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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by Glenneration X » Thu Sep 11, 2014 7:39 am

Greg, a couple years back, there was a similar conflict between the 2nd weekend drafts and the Easter/Passover holidays. You pretty much just switched weekends then and held the events that typically fall on the 2nd Vegas weekend during the first weekend and held a 2nd lesser Vegas weekend and the NYC and Chicago drafts the following weekend.

This allowed most to stay local where necessary and make it home in time to be with their families for the holidays without missing out on the bigger events.

That seemed to work out well and I don't recall any complaints at the time. Maybe we revisit that scheduling option?

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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by 76erfan » Thu Sep 11, 2014 10:55 am

nyc weekend was also started early and thursday night there was an auction.....and then also friday and saturday and nothing on sunday

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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Thu Sep 11, 2014 1:00 pm

Glenneration X wrote:Greg, a couple years back, there was a similar conflict between the 2nd weekend drafts and the Easter/Passover holidays. You pretty much just switched weekends then and held the events that typically fall on the 2nd Vegas weekend during the first weekend and held a 2nd lesser Vegas weekend and the NYC and Chicago drafts the following weekend.

This allowed most to stay local where necessary and make it home in time to be with their families for the holidays without missing out on the bigger events.

That seemed to work out well and I don't recall any complaints at the time. Maybe we revisit that scheduling option?
It does seem like that may happen again. And maybe the Thursday-Saturday schedule in New York on Second Weekend makes sense.
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mdecav
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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by mdecav » Thu Sep 11, 2014 10:13 pm

I will already be in Vegas the "second weekend" (i.e. April 3-5) so I hope Tom/Greg gather input from a number of regular participants (via Survey Monkey possibly?) before making any decisions on dates.

I'd like to participate in the one of the Ultimate Auction leagues so maybe splitting them out (if there are two leagues again) over two weekends in Vegas might be the way to go.

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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by Joe Sambito » Mon Sep 29, 2014 2:00 pm

Looking forward to 2015...
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Re: 2015 Draft Dates

Post by COZ » Mon Sep 29, 2014 2:31 pm

Glenneration X wrote:

This allowed most to stay local where necessary and make it home in time to be with their families for the holidays without missing out on the bigger events.
Like Bryce Harper, time spent with families for the holidays is vastly overrated, rather be drafting. :o

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