What if we decided to all get together one of these summers? I picture us having a weekend retreat somewhere that is more or less centrally located. We would sit around, drink some grown-up pops, and do Restricted Free Agency, then the Draft, and then the Auction. It would be epic. I’d eat so many chicken wings.
Given our interactions via the internet, it feels like I know most of you, but I haven’t met many of you. I’ve been playing fantasy football with Enright since I was in college, and I’ve never met the dude in real life. I feel like we should meet in person, given he’s my one true rival.
Of course, there are challenges with such an endeavor. People need to get time off, the blessings of their significant others to abandon their families for a weekend, and cold hard cash to make the trip. We would need to find a location that is cost-effective for the most people.
Time off
I think a weekend in the summer might be feasible for most of us. I know the teacher types often have more flexible schedules in the summer. I would picture us doing this sometime in June or July; maybe early August. Even with me, though, the summers fill up fast with vacations, alumni weekend at my grad school, kids’ birthdays, etc.
Hall Pass
Another challenge is convincing our significant others that it’s important for us to go off on our own mini-vacations without them. I’m pretty sure I could probably do this if it wasn’t too costly (but I already leave them for writing retreats and stuff, so there may have to be a negotiation and a sizable deposit into the emotional bank account.)
Accommodations
This is where things get tricky. We would need to find a location that can accommodate 12 of us, that is easy to get to (close to an airport, etc.), and that doesn’t break the bank. I’ve included a map below that indicates where I think people live, based on what they put in their franchise info (though this list might not be accurate.) It’s looking like we should just crash Ryan’s house as he is more or less centrally located.
Timetable
I think it’s too late to plan for this summer, but we might want to start a conversation that could conceivably put something in place for next year. That would also give time to save some bucks for such an endeavor. But the most important question is: Are you guys even interested in this? If it sounds like more of a headache than a good time, then obviously it doesn’t make sense to do it. But for my money, I’d like to have a true fantasy football weekend before I die.
Let me know what you think in the comment section!
© 2019, Josh Hammond. All rights reserved.
I think this is a great idea!!!!
I also think this is a great idea!
In reference to fantasy football specifically, nothing would make me happier than talk shit in person to each and every one of you. See if some of you have thumbs, as a lack of them would explain the unresponsive texts and emails. Of all the league members, I’ve only met Franssen in person; it was okay (he said generously). Like Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters, I’m down for 2020.
Ryan’s email about only meeting Adam had me wondering how many people I’ve actually met. I think I’ve met about half the league in real life and haven’t met the other half.
Also, I’ll throw out Austin, TX as a possible meeting place because I’ve never been there and I want to go.
I’m down with this. Personally, Summer 2020 will most likely be undoable. The Pershey family has mega plans on the works for insane travel. That being said, this should happen!
Dude so many great places in the Charleston SC offer huge beach homes (6-10 bedrooms) for rent for couple thousand bucks. It would be dirt cheap and the views there are amazing. Plus so many tasty restaurants. It’s the #1 vacation destination in US for many years. Charlotte is pretty cool too.
I’m totally down with that.
This is a good idea. So good, in fact, that I’m starting a local league just so that I can hang out with guys in my fantasy league on the occasional Sunday. I doubt we’ll ever get to the glory days of running our own combine and pre-draft football game, but the dream of drafting in the same place can be realized.
Since I’m going to invest the required resources for a local league, though, I’m probably out for an Immersion gathering. If for some reason we hold it at Matt’s place in Maryland or Weldin’s in SC, that’s an easy drive. My place can host the whole group, but Farmville, VA isn’t exactly a destination that I’d inflict on ya’ll.
I’d go to Farmville for fantasy football fun.
Here’s a companion proposal: Is there any way we could find a weekend where everyone could do all three of Restricted Free Agency, the Draft, and the Auction live? As in, might it be possible to do the off-season live via WebEx or some other video platform?
Geographically, it’s almost certain that Matt, Weldin, and I could get together to represent the East Coasters. Thinking as I type, it might work for us to rotate draft rooms annually such that we were in Baltimore one year, then Richmond, then Charleston. It’s not worth the trip for the draft alone, but could make for a fun day and a half if we did everything at once.
The Midwesterners and West Coasters could do something similar. That leaves outliers (like Marcot and Ryan) but they could still WebEx in. And maybe they could get involved with another group once in a blue moon. I can see both of those guys trekking up to Chicago to join that draft room one year.
It’s not Hammond’s dream, but I could video conference in every year w/o a problem, so there’s that.
I think Weldin’s idea about Charleston has some merit, cause beaches plus cheap enough housing plus Adam gets to go. Of course, that’s a bigger travel pain for the west coasters. However, if we get a beach house that might be more enticing in terms of paying for the big airline ticket.
Btw, that map showing us spread over this country is sweet!
Seems like a sweet idea to me, although for it to work it would have to be 2020. And not cost too much. But I like the concept.