NFBC 20th Anniversary Live Events: THANK YOU!!!

[Greg Ambrosius]

We said that our 20th anniversary season was going to be a historic season and you didn't disappoint. We finished the season with record numbers that included:

** Over 21,000 NFBC teams
** A record 795 Main Event teams
** A record 2,460 Rotowire Online Championship teams
** 4,845 Draft Champions teams
** A record 195 Auction Championship teams
** A max out of 840 Online Auction Championship teams
** A max out of 720 Best Ball Championship teams in its debut season
** A max out of 1,500 Gladiator teams in its debut season
** Sellouts for the Diamond Challenge Roto AND Points contests, a first in a long time
** Sellouts for our debut Online $1500 AL-only AND NL-only Auction leagues
** Sellouts for our Platinum, Diamond, Diamond Auction, Ultimate and Super Leagues
** Expansion of the EARTH leagues with private drafts across the country

We could go on and on with the success of our contests, but the successes of 2023 goes well beyond the contests. It goes into the community aspect of the NFBC and the fun of the live events.

As proud as we are about all the contests selling out and our software holding up and even improving this year, we're most proud of the camaraderie that continues throughout the year. You see it on all of the NFBC-theme podcasts that are out there now. It's amazing even to us how many podcasts are dedicated solely to NFBC content and its players. WE LOVE IT!!

And then you see things like the NFBC Gladiator contest that was devised by our players and became a Twitter staple of draft boards during the heart of the fantasy football season and you love it. You see the camaraderie during these EARTH drafts, during the fast drafts that MTM runs and most of the online drafts. It's a special community of like-minded people.

But this year's live events -- especially in Las Vegas -- brought the aspect of community to a new level. In Las Vegas, from the first night of hanging out with NFBC veterans in the Mirage sportsbook on Wednesday to the Thursday MLB Opening Day back in the Mirage sportsbook with friends, it was just a special, special time.

We had 135 people who stayed at the Mirage this time, which allowed you to bump into someone after the draft at the sportsbook or the Center Bar or at the Pantry or anywhere else within the Mirage. The Mirage Convention Center was only 3-5 minutes from the Guest elevators and the hotel contained so many cool bars/restaurants that a lot of people hung out together into the wee hours of the morning. We haven't had that setup since probably the Stardust or Rio days and it was great.

The Friday Night MTM party was also special as the Portofino restaurant was the ideal setup for a party like that. I had a blast that night and I had a chance to sit and talk with a lot of NFBC veterans. Our 2022 NFBC Main Event champion Bob Cramutola made a generous donation, which allowed the get-in price for everyone very reasonable. The Saturday Crapshoot event also allowed 60+ people to hang out that night, look at draft boards and spin the wheel for some free items. Next year we'll get some live drafts out of it, but at least everyone had a venue to hang out that night and have fun together.

And we added the NFBC Contract League and the Monday $1500 Auction Championship League, two events that I think will be a staple of events going forward. Heck, that Monday morning auction group was so cool that we finished the auction portion in a record 3 hours and 29 minutes and those folks get first dibs to return to that event next year. It was so much fun.

As for next year, I've already met with my Mirage sales rep and space is available next March, but they obviously can't book out shows this far in advance. That being said, they know we want to return and they want us to return. I'd love to host baseball and football there in 2024, but we'll see if they can obtain space for us. I think the Mirage is an ideal venue for everything we want to do there and I know we can get an affordable room block again for those who want to stay there. We'll see what happens, but my hope is to return to the Mirage in 2024 and to get that booked early.

In fact, I'm thinking about returning to Las Vegas for two NFBC weekends again. If we returned the week before, it would be the Opening Weekend of March Madness and I know a lot of our players are out there at that time. I think we can fill 2-3 auction leagues from Friday through Sunday and 2-3 Mains like we did in the past. We even filled an early Super in past years, so I'm seriously looking into two Las Vegas weekends in 2024.

As for New York City, I'm undecided about a return there in 2024. We know that our players want a destination city and I'm afraid too many players over the last three years have said they don't want to go to New York City. We've hosted five live events each of the last three years and that just doesn't get it done in New York City. We've also shipped all of our equipment out to Las Vegas as we could see what was happening in New York City. Dave & Busters can work for our 12-team leagues in football, but I'm afraid that it gets a little tight for NFBC 15-team leagues and we heard from some people who said they likely wouldn't return if we held it there again.

So we'll think long and hard about New York's future and consider two weekends in Las Vegas. Again, we haven't finalized anything for 2024 as it's still a long ways away, but we'll take your feedback on all of this and we hope you had as much fun as we did at this year's live events. Again, your feedback is welcome and it could shape what we decide to do in 2024, so feel free to post on this thread or email me.

Thanks all and now go out and win some of that almost $5 million in prize money we will be giving out in 2023. Wow, what a 20th anniversary season it has become.

[Philippe27]

Thanks to you Greg, Tom and Darik. Had an amazing time at the Mirage and it was amazing having so many people stay at the same hotel. I think most of us go to Vegas for live drafts to hang out with friends and it was the perfect setup for that. The ballroom was also perfect for the Saturday morning main with 8 live drafts and seems like there would have been space for one more in there.

Only recommendation I'd make is to find a solution for power, even if it's power bars plugged to 100 ft extension cords. My computer battery is terrible but I did see a lot of people scrambling to plug in their computers before drafts and during breaks.

[Glenneration X]

Agreed Phil, power strips would be helpful.

Greg, you guys always put on a great show, for baseball, for football, doesn't matter. This year was no different. Thank you for a fun time as always. And as always it was a true pleasure to once again see all the great players and amazing people who attend these events.

I think the Mirage is perfect for what we do, and though the Bellagio was always amazing, as they say availability is a skill.

As far as NYC, would truly be sad to see it go. It's where I attended my 1st high stakes event back in '09 and where I call home base. Even though I haven't attended an NFBC draft there since 2019, my intent was always to return someday soon. I do realize that the days of Hilton ballrooms or Citifield have given way to Dave & Busters, and that the business side of our hobby though an unfortunate reality is an understood one. At least I'm pretty sure NYC will always have a place with the NFFC.

Congratulations Greg, Tom, Darik and all at the NFBC for an incredible 20 year run and an amazing 20th year. Catch you all at the football drafts.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks to you Greg, Tom and Darik. Had an amazing time at the Mirage and it was amazing having so many people stay at the same hotel. I think most of us go to Vegas for live drafts to hang out with friends and it was the perfect setup for that. The ballroom was also perfect for the Saturday morning main with 8 live drafts and seems like there would have been space for one more in there.

Only recommendation I'd make is to find a solution for power, even if it's power bars plugged to 100 ft extension cords. My computer battery is terrible but I did see a lot of people scrambling to plug in their computers before drafts and during breaks.

Thanks Champ and I agree, the Mirage setup was perfect for our needs. Yes, we could have gotten 9 Main Event leagues in that Grand Ballroom and even a 10th if we wanted. Let's shoot for that next year if we can get the same space!!

As for power, we are at the mercy of the outlets and when you have ballroom walls there are never any plugs on those temporary walls. They are on the actual walls and even those are sometimes hard to find. There is one plug that comes through the floor of each ballroom and we use that for our laptop and HD projector, but maybe we can look into adding one more power strip from there. It's just impossible for everyone from position 1 through 15 to hook into that one power strip in the middle and still have a facilitator/auctioneer walk around without unplugging everyone.

Available power is always tough in these big ballrooms, but we'll give it some added consideration. At the very least, maybe we can have enough power strips to let more people power up during the breaks in one set location rather than during the entire drafts or auctions. We'll give it some more thought because we understand the need, but these big ballrooms are tough. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Agreed Phil, power strips would be helpful.

Greg, you guys always put on a great show, for baseball, for football, doesn't matter. This year was no different. Thank you for a fun time as always. And as always it was a true pleasure to once again see all the great players and amazing people who attend these events.

I think the Mirage is perfect for what we do, and though the Bellagio was always amazing, as they say availability is a skill.

As far as NYC, would truly be sad to see it go. It's where I attended my 1st high stakes event back in '09 and where I call home base. Even though I haven't attended an NFBC draft there since 2019, my intent was always to return someday soon. I do realize that the days of Hilton ballrooms or Citifield have given way to Dave & Busters, and that the business side of our hobby though an unfortunate reality is an understood one. At least I'm pretty sure NYC will always have a place with the NFFC.

Congratulations Greg, Tom, Darik and all at the NFBC for an incredible 20 year run and an amazing 20th year. Catch you all at the football drafts.

Thanks Glenn and yes we'd love to stay and grow New York City live events, but it's been tough. We are the only live events company to ever host live events in New York City and there's a reason for that: It's tough to make ends meet in New York City.

When we had the Stewart Hotel, we had 10 live events in 2019 there and we had 10 full events in 2020 before it was cancelled by the pandemic. People wanted to come into the City then; now I call people who have been there before and they say there's no way they're going into the City. I thought it was great, but we need a bigger venue for 15-team leagues and right now they are tough to find. Tout Wars did like their facility on 49th Street and we could inquire there, but again if we just get 5 leagues on that weekend it doesn't add up economically.

The 12-team leagues are easier to host at Dave & Busters, but if NFFC guys don't come out in September then we'll have to re-evaluate plans there, too. I think we can get 7-9 leagues there for football, which would definitely keep us coming back. We love the exposure we get from SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio -- both for football and baseball -- and don't want to lose that, but we think we can retain that for both sports.

Good luck in baseball and we'll see you in NYC and Las Vegas for football.

[JohnP]

Thanks to you Greg, Tom and Darik. Had an amazing time at the Mirage and it was amazing having so many people stay at the same hotel. I think most of us go to Vegas for live drafts to hang out with friends and it was the perfect setup for that. The ballroom was also perfect for the Saturday morning main with 8 live drafts and seems like there would have been space for one more in there.

Only recommendation I'd make is to find a solution for power, even if it's power bars plugged to 100 ft extension cords. My computer battery is terrible but I did see a lot of people scrambling to plug in their computers before drafts and during breaks.

Thanks Champ and I agree, the Mirage setup was perfect for our needs. Yes, we could have gotten 9 Main Event leagues in that Grand Ballroom and even a 10th if we wanted. Let's shoot for that next year if we can get the same space!!

As for power, we are at the mercy of the outlets and when you have ballroom walls there are never any plugs on those temporary walls. They are on the actual walls and even those are sometimes hard to find. There is one plug that comes through the floor of each ballroom and we use that for our laptop and HD projector, but maybe we can look into adding one more power strip from there. It's just impossible for everyone from position 1 through 15 to hook into that one power strip in the middle and still have a facilitator/auctioneer walk around without unplugging everyone.

Available power is always tough in these big ballrooms, but we'll give it some added consideration. At the very least, maybe we can have enough power strips to let more people power up during the breaks in one set location rather than during the entire drafts or auctions. We'll give it some more thought because we understand the need, but these big ballrooms are tough. Thanks for the suggestion.

I echo what Phil and Glenn say! Add a power strip or two to each leg of 5 teams. These can be taped down nicely as to eliminate trip hazard as they do to power the power strip that runs the projector. Puzzling that this is still a thing where many are scrambling for power. Football is different - much quicker drafts and longer time between drafts. Baseball auctions can go 4.5 to 5 hours unless of course it is auctioneer Ambrosious on the mic.

[JohnP]

Mirage was great! Fantastic event. Great job by all involved! So organized. Mikey / Cramutola party was exceptional. Really great to put more names with faces. Thank you Greg, Darik, Tom, Mike, Brady, Kim, and the rest! Shout out to Mike....that guy doesn't stop working.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Mirage was great! Fantastic event. Great job by all involved! So organized. Mikey / Cramutola party was exceptional. Really great to put more names with faces. Thank you Greg, Darik, Tom, Mike, Brady, Kim, and the rest! Shout out to Mike....that guy doesn't stop working.

I would give Mike a raise, but he drinks so many Stella's during the course of the weekend that it's a wash!!!

[Bronx Yankees]

Greg, Tom, Darik, and Team:

Congratulations on a great 20 years! It is great seeing so many contests growing and selling out. Season-long fantasy baseball is alive and well!

Thanks so much for putting on great live events year after year. I had an awesome time in NYC and Vegas. It's like Christmas in March for us fantasy baseball diehards. Two of my favorite weekends every year, without question. I also thought the Mirage was fantastic - a great set-up for drafting, hanging out, and the venue for the MTM Friday night party was perfect. It was great seeing so many friends and also meeting some folks for the first time.

I have mixed feelings re NYC for next year. I thought Dave & Busters was okay; the space definitely was a little tight at times, but that really didn't detract from my enjoyment of the actual drafts. While I would love to preserve NYC live events somehow, I understand that the weekend needs to make sense economically for the NFBC and, unfortunately, attendance has been lighter than desirable the last few years. Maybe take a poll of former NYC drafters to see if they'd be willing to commit to drafting in NYC to save the tradition? Alternatively, I wonder if a location outside of the City would get more people if some folks just don't want to come into the City. For instance, is anywhere in Westchester or New Jersey that would work? I'd have to think that the meeting space, food, and drinks would be cheaper outside of the City but, of course, understand that you need to be confident that enough folks would come to make it worthwhile. I'm in the Albany area, about 2.5 hours north of NYC. For me, it's an easy train ride to NYC and I was able to get three live drafts in within a day and a half. I'd be willing to drive to someplace outside of the City if the drafts were moved. If you stop doing NYC and go to two weekends in Vegas, I'd probably try to extend my Vegas trip by a day, but I'd still be limited to the midweek through the second weekend period. Totally understand whichever way you decide, and congrats on another successful year.

Mike