NFBC Message Boards

Major League Baseball hasn't officially announced its 2016 schedule, but rumor has it that MLB teams were told that Opening Day will be Monday, April 4th for most teams. If that's true, the Sunday Night Game would be on Sunday, April 3rd. Again, this is all tentative and speculation, but it does make sense and is consistent with this year's schedule.

Easter is on Sunday, March 27th this year, which would be the First Weekend of NFBC Drafts. That would leave Second Weekend as the big weekend in Las Vegas. It's not ideal for everyone but this would be the Schedule of Events if everything holds true with the MLB tentative schedule:

Las Vegas: March 24-26, 2016
Las Vegas: March 31-April 3, 2016
New York: March 24-26, 2016
Chicago: March 25-26, 2016

This is all tentative, of course, but I am getting more and more questions about the Schedule as people are interested in looking at travel plans early this year. Hope this helps. It's the second straight year that New York and Chicago have to work around Easter weekend, but the good news is that Easter is on April 16th in 2017 and it won't be a factor then. But in 2018, Easter falls on April 1st. Plan accordingly.

We don't have hotels secured yet, but we are talking with our current partners. We'll see where that brings us soon. Thanks all and thanks for planning ahead this year.

Just a heads up that we're strongly considering moving the New York Super to Saturday night March 26. That's been my preferred day the past few years but we have avoided doing that. However, we have several people who want to play in both the $2,500 Auction and the Super who can't do both because they're both on Friday. Moving the Super to Saturday will eliminate that and also cap off a great three-day weekend of events in the Big Apple.

Nothing is official just yet but for those who want to do both and haven't been able to the last few years we are strongly leaning in that direction when we set up the schedule for 2016.

Tom Kessenich wrote:Just a heads up that we're strongly considering moving the New York Super to Saturday night March 26. That's been my preferred day the past few years but we have avoided doing that. However, we have several people who want to play in both the $2,500 Auction and the Super who can't do both because they're both on Friday. Moving the Super to Saturday will eliminate that and also cap off a great three-day weekend of events in the Big Apple.

Nothing is official just yet but for those who want to do both and haven't been able to the last few years we are strongly leaning in that direction when we set up the schedule for 2016.

This is great news. I hope to be lucky enough to get the invite from MTM and Lisa A. this year.

Jason

Very large NADA convention first weekend of April 2016. Weekend hotel rates already high 6 months out.

KJ Duke wrote:Very large NADA convention first weekend of April 2016. Weekend hotel rates already high 6 months out.

With Peyton Manning as the keynote! Hardly enough time for him to get over his Super Bowl loss to Rodgers and the Pack.

Yea KJ, I like that first weekend better too. Won't get any cheaper as the days go by either. Not to mention meeting spaces will be higher or harder to get that weekend too.

Was looking at the flights as well for that second weekend. Nothing under $600 from the major carriers I see. Not sure that they will get any cheaper.

Fourslot40 wrote:Was looking at the flights as well for that second weekend. Nothing under $600 from the major carriers I see. Not sure that they will get any cheaper.

NADA is definitely a big show that is being held at the Las Vegas Convention Center and I'm sure there will be side exhibits and conferences at the major hotels on the Strip. I don't have space secured yet at the Bellagio, but have reached out to my contact again today to see what those weekends look like. We'll see what he says.

Once we have everything in place we can plan accordingly, but hopefully we can still make it work. I'm looking on Southwest and seeing fair prices for those two weekends and Bellagio has rooms at $204 for March 31-April 3 through the NADA site. That would seem low for that March Madness weekend even without NADA.

Let's keep in touch on this Second Weekend and see if we can help each other with flights/hotels/space. We're a ways out yet, but good to know what's ahead of us. Thanks all.

Okay, the 2016 MLB Schedule is official now and the season does start for most teams on Monday, April 4th:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/schedule/index.j ... 04/03/2016

So with that in mind, our Schedule of Events remains as we first posted:

Las Vegas: March 24-26, 2016
Las Vegas: March 31-April 3, 2016
New York: March 24-26, 2016
Chicago: March 25-26, 2016

Just a couple of notes right now as we are still working on everything:

** Easter is on Sunday, March 27th, which is First Weekend in Las Vegas, New York and Chicago. That's not ideal for anyone, but we have to deal with it again. We won't have any live drafts on Easter Sunday, but we will add Thursday events in New York City like we did last year and will consider that in Las Vegas as well.

** We don't have a contract at the Bellagio yet for baseball, but early conversations are good that space won't be an option for both weekends. Plan accordingly for now and we'll post when we have space finalized. I think we should be in good shape this year at the Bellagio, but search for the best hotel rates and feel free to post here to help others if you find some bargains. Also book your travel early as rates won't go down as the year goes on.

** Tom is working with the New York Hilton again for space. We don't have anything definite yet, but they've been very good to work with and Tom feels good about returning there again. We're having discussions now.

** We are tentatively returning to Chicago, but we had troubles filling leagues in football this year, so we will watch early signups. We filled two Main Event leagues, a Primetime league and an Auction League last year in baseball and we'd be happy with at least that much this year. We will likely return to the Sheraton Northbrook again if demand warrants it as it's an easy location for most people to get to and we have a great relationship with management there.

** We will announce our tentative plans for the Primetime soon.

** We will likely add a $2,500 Auction Championship League as part of the NFBC Auction Championship to Las Vegas Second Weekend this year. Maybe the late Friday Auction time slot.

** We'll reach out to the Platinum League owners this week to discuss price point for 2016.

** We have plans to change the entry fee in just one contest this year: We would like to move the Auction Championship from $1,200 per team to $1,300 per team. That would keep it consistent with our AL and NL Auctions and add to the league and overall prizes. We don't believe it's a huge jump and demand is there for better prizes in this contest. That is the only contest we've changed the entry fee on for 2016.

** We will debut the NFBC Cutline Championship this season. The points-style scoring is working well in the NFBC Post-Season Contest and will be used in the Cutline Championship. Look for more details on that 10-team format soon.

** Our goal is to have Registration and Draft Champions Leagues ready to go in early November, shortly after the World Series. We're working on this now.

Look for updates throughout the week and feel free to post your feedback to us. Thanks all and enjoy the MLB Post-Season and the NFBC Post-Season Contest. Next season will be here before you know it.