Atlantic City hotels

[Rosey]

I am going to promote the idea of not giving AC any business beyond the ticket to the venue. I don't want to encourage the ECAC or AC to want to keep the tournament there: the sooner it gets back to Albany, the better. This is one year where I am truly unenthused that Cornell managed to back its way into a bye and then a semifinal appearance.

Even if you are successful in convincing the entire Cornell contingent to withhold their discretionary funds, I think Atlantic City and the ECAC will notice the difference in overall weekend spending levels about as readily as Andy Noel is going to give a crap that you individually decided not to get Redcast.  I think if the tournament is adjudged an economic failure, it will be because ticket sales themselves will likely be crap, and we already know that Cornell will have a halfway decent showing.

It's about making me feel better, not about having a real impact. :-)

After this weekend we'll know whether there was any merit to the notion that holding the tournament south of the southernmost ECAC school was a good idea.

[Josh '99]

BTW, any advice for fun things to do for those of us who took math don't gamble would be appreciated.

The Borgata is probably the newest and best casino in town. You'd have to pay for parking there. There's plenty of stuff like food, shopping, bars and etc. The rest of the Boardwalk is kind of boring IMHO.

Borgata does have some pretty good restaurants, but i def. wouldnt recommend it if you want to do any sort of shopping (even if its just window shopping).  i'd suggest the outlet mall (lots of reasonable stores), or pier shops (both reasonable as well as very high end) which is connected to the caesars hotel.  i am pretty sure is within walking distance of where the games are played.

I am going to promote the idea of not giving AC any business beyond the ticket to the venue. I don't want to encourage the ECAC or AC to want to keep the tournament there: the sooner it gets back to Albany, the better. This is one year where I am truly unenthused that Cornell managed to back its way into a bye and then a semifinal appearance.

I dunno...  I mean, a lot of us were unenthused when the tournament moved from LP to Albany, in part because Albany has a reputation for being kind of dumpy, but went into it with an open mind and found some appealing local food/drink establishments and came to see it as a pretty decent place to spend a weekend.  Yes, it's inconveniently located (so was Placid), but I still feel like it deserves an opportunity to make a good impression.

(However, they're off to a bad start given the lack of conveniently located affordable hotels.)

[Rosey]

(However, they're off to a bad start given the lack of conveniently located affordable hotels.)

I was never in favor of LP. It's a beautiful setting, but I don't really give a crap about that when I'm there for a day and a half to watch hockey indoors: I always thought Albany was the better choice because it is centrally-located and has lots of cheap hotels within walking distance.

If I were going to make a long weekend out of it I might feel differently because AC, unlike Albany, is a destination (well, I guess it's more of a destination anyway...), but I'm not: I'm going to see hockey and then I'm going to leave, only now I have to spend more time in the car, burn more gas, take an extra day off, deal with driving back and forth between the venue and the hotel, and worry about getting mugged if I wander more than a block from the venue. And it's New Jersey. Bah.

[Jim Hyla]

BTW, any advice for fun things to do for those of us who took math don't gamble would be appreciated.

The Borgata is probably the newest and best casino in town. You'd have to pay for parking there. There's plenty of stuff like food, shopping, bars and etc. The rest of the Boardwalk is kind of boring IMHO.

Borgata does have some pretty good restaurants, but i def. wouldnt recommend it if you want to do any sort of shopping (even if its just window shopping).  i'd suggest the outlet mall (lots of reasonable stores), or pier shops (both reasonable as well as very high end) which is connected to the caesars hotel.  i am pretty sure is within walking distance of where the games are played.

I am going to promote the idea of not giving AC any business beyond the ticket to the venue. I don't want to encourage the ECAC or AC to want to keep the tournament there: the sooner it gets back to Albany, the better. This is one year where I am truly unenthused that Cornell managed to back its way into a bye and then a semifinal appearance.

I dunno...  I mean, a lot of us were unenthused when the tournament moved from LP to Albany, in part because Albany has a reputation for being kind of dumpy, but went into it with an open mind and found some appealing local food/drink establishments and came to see it as a pretty decent place to spend a weekend.  Yes, it's inconveniently located (so was Placid), but I still feel like it deserves an opportunity to make a good impression.

(However, they're off to a bad start given the lack of conveniently located affordable hotels.)

That's true, but there were also others of us that were happy that it did move to Albany. As of yet I haven't heard of any fans happy about this move. If the NCAA wrestling were not in Philly, our plan was to stay in downtown Philly, where there are other things to see for a kid who doesn't like hockey. AC has none of that, Albany was close and tolerable, and this year Philly is full.

[Josh '99]

BTW, any advice for fun things to do for those of us who took math don't gamble would be appreciated.

The Borgata is probably the newest and best casino in town. You'd have to pay for parking there. There's plenty of stuff like food, shopping, bars and etc. The rest of the Boardwalk is kind of boring IMHO.

Borgata does have some pretty good restaurants, but i def. wouldnt recommend it if you want to do any sort of shopping (even if its just window shopping).  i'd suggest the outlet mall (lots of reasonable stores), or pier shops (both reasonable as well as very high end) which is connected to the caesars hotel.  i am pretty sure is within walking distance of where the games are played.

I am going to promote the idea of not giving AC any business beyond the ticket to the venue. I don't want to encourage the ECAC or AC to want to keep the tournament there: the sooner it gets back to Albany, the better. This is one year where I am truly unenthused that Cornell managed to back its way into a bye and then a semifinal appearance.

I dunno...  I mean, a lot of us were unenthused when the tournament moved from LP to Albany, in part because Albany has a reputation for being kind of dumpy, but went into it with an open mind and found some appealing local food/drink establishments and came to see it as a pretty decent place to spend a weekend.  Yes, it's inconveniently located (so was Placid), but I still feel like it deserves an opportunity to make a good impression.

(However, they're off to a bad start given the lack of conveniently located affordable hotels.)

That's true, but there were also others of us that were happy that it did move to Albany. As of yet I haven't heard of any fans happy about this move. If the NCAA wrestling were not in Philly, our plan was to stay in downtown Philly, where there are other things to see for a kid who doesn't like hockey. AC has none of that, Albany was close and tolerable, and this year Philly is full.

I didn't mean to imply that everyone was unhappy; if "a lot of us" was misleading language I apologize.

[Josh '99]

(However, they're off to a bad start given the lack of conveniently located affordable hotels.)

I was never in favor of LP. It's a beautiful setting, but I don't really give a crap about that when I'm there for a day and a half to watch hockey indoors: I always thought Albany was the better choice because it is centrally-located and has lots of cheap hotels within walking distance.

If I were going to make a long weekend out of it I might feel differently because AC, unlike Albany, is a destination (well, I guess it's more of a destination anyway...), but I'm not: I'm going to see hockey and then I'm going to leave, only now I have to spend more time in the car, burn more gas, take an extra day off, deal with driving back and forth between the venue and the hotel, and worry about getting mugged if I wander more than a block from the venue. And it's New Jersey. Bah.

And certainly if this is your set of priorities ("I don't really give a crap about [the setting] when I'm there for a day and a half to watch hockey indoors") then all that matters to you is accessibility and the quality of the facility, and obviously given its relative distance from where you live it's less accessible for you.  Obviously, however, different cities have different merits beyond just being centrally located and having conveniently located cheap hotels, and those other various merits are part of the whole package that might make a city a more or less apt host.  I think it's only appropriate to give AC a chance to show that it has merits even for people who are just interested in getting in, seeing hockey, and leaving (for instance, I've heard that the Boardwalk Hall is a beautiful venue, whereas the Times-Union Center is pretty clearly a dump with awful boards), before we decide we hate it.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Give it a few years and I can suggest we hold it in the new home of the Philadelphia/Adirondack/soon-to-be-Lehigh Valley Phantoms (God, I hope they change the name!)  

Until then we'll deal with A.C. for a couple years.

[mha]

Even if Atlantic City doesn't get your hotel dollars because you're staying outside town, they'll get your parking dollars and at least some of your food dollars.

It seems possible that some of the ECAC room blocks at the hotels will end up with extra rooms as fans from teams that didn't make it cancel their reservations, but it's also possible that those cancellations will put the rooms back in inventory at rack rate (full price) rather than the ECAC rate. That's a very common, if irritating, practice among convention and event hotels.

Enough of the hotels in town are simply sold out, not just offering rooms at around $400/night now that their ECAC blocks are sold out, that I suspect most of the hotels will do fine regardless, and don't care whether we're there or not. In a sense, we're not the guests we want anyway; we'll be so focused on hockey that the majority of us won't be spending the long hours in the casinos and bars that give them their bread and butter.

[mha]

Big time Hotel Score:  Just used priceline.com.  Selected the region of AC where the game is, selected 3.5 star propteries, and was sucessful at bidding 165.00 per night...Give it a shot.   I ended up here http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=270.  Sheraton Atlantic City

I actually took a look at Priceline for Atlantic City several days ago, but decided the region they might put you in was just too big to take the chance. It's all KINDA walking distance, but some of that is LONG-walk distance, and late at night it's beyond the area you want to be walking in. If Priceline let you say "Thanks but no thanks" to its selected hotel, I'd be more likely to use it more often.

I do have to say, it worked out well in New Haven a few weeks ago. I figured that I could bid practically nothing, when looking for a hotel room at 10pm on a Saturday for that night. I thought calling the Courtyard near Yale a three-star property was a bit of a reach, but I got a decent room for just $45, parked for free on the street rather than paying the hotel $15 more, and had the bonus of waking up the next morning to see a Popeyes across the street.

[Tcl123]

Time to play devils advocate here.......I, or I mean we, have known the tourney was in AC since at last year. Altho our overall team outlook for the year wasnt as promising as "usual", a little foresight may have been helpful here guys. I booked a room in AC (Ballys) thats roughly 5 minutes by foot on the boardwalk before the season started, with the idea that "if" they make it, I have a reasonable room with a prime location. And if they didnt? Then cancel the room before the 48 hour deadline and voila!! No penalty. Fyi.....the room was 115 plus tax.

[Rosey]

Fyi.....the room was 115 plus tax.

$115 is way more than I have ever paid for a room in Albany. Just sayin'...

[Tcl123]

I completely understand you there, but its a whole helluva lot better then the 300+ its goin for now. And with 3 people in the room, its easier to swallow. Plus, I plan on winning the room money back at the tables!! ::thud::

[Trotsky]

I think we can all agree the tournament should be held at Lynah.

[Jim Hyla]

Just got this FW from Coach Schafer:

Code Select Expand


All-

Attached pls find an updated hotel list for Atlantic City as the Trump Plaza has reduced its room rates and provided a special phone number to call for reservations.

Thanks.

ESK

Edward S. Krajewski

ECAC Hockey

Assistant Commissioner

51 South Pearl Street

Albany, New York 12207


I've attached it, see someone listens.:-DI love that the ECAC office is still in Albany. Good enough for them, not for us.::dribble::

[Rosey]

I think we can all agree the tournament should be held at Lynah.

Now that's something I can get behind. :-)