re: Bama boys staying at the Fountainbleau. Good idea or Bad ?

saw a tweet from amari cooper said that he has been lost in the hotel like 5 times.

Some quotes from WVU last year:

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Mike Montoro, WVU's director of communications for football, happened into a Fontainebleau restaurant the other day for carry-out. He only wanted a chicken salad sandwich.

It was a $22 gulp.

To call it the most luxurious hotel on Miami Beach might be an understatement.

It has the so-called "Stairway to Nowhere," part of architect Morris Lapidus' Art Deco design when the hotel was built in the early '50s.

The Mountaineers seem to feel like they've come from Almost Heaven to heaven. They've been all a-Twitter about it.

"This FountainBlue is crazy," senior offensive tackle Don Barclay tapped into a smartphone. "Never been to a better place than this."

Jorge Wright, WVU's starting junior nose tackle, grew up fewer than 15 miles from the resort where he has spent the last few days.

"I'd never been there before," Wright said Sunday. "It's the most amazing place I've ever seen in my life.

How?

"My room," he said. "I've never had a room that had an actual computer, right there, in the room. The balcony, the view, the overhead shower. It's just an amazing place."

WVU junior receiver J.D. Woods, from cross-state Naples, also is enjoying his first stay at the famed resort.

"I love the Fontainebleau," Wood said. "It's very, very nice hotel, an experience I'll never forget. It's my first time there, and it's leaving a lasting impression."

Obviously, WVU standout quarterback Geno Smith hasn't been the biggest star for Fontainebleau lobby watchers.

"That lobby is pretty sick," Smith said Monday. "The other night we saw the Hilton sisters there. Rihanna. I think everyone has passed through since we've been here."

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saw a tweet from amari cooper said that he has been lost in the hotel like 5 times.

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It is huge and the FB, Eden Roc, Liv, Akadia are all interconnected. About 6 different pools, pool decks, etc. It probably covers 500 yards from North to South when you included everything.

I would guess the bama team is staying on the top floors though. I've been in some rooms pretty high up and they are not affected by the night clubs or bars or lobby as far as noise goes.

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Tiger n Miami AU83

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They had access to Bourbon Street last year and how did that turn out?

Bama didn't choose it. The OB puts one team in the FB and one in the Diplomat each year.

Apparently the last two teams that won the OB stayed there.

I will say that this year, it is a bigger party there the weekend of the game than in the last few years. Paul Oakenfold is often ranked as the #1 DJ in the world and they brought him in this weekend. It will be a bigger party than usual at Liv. Oakenfold is immensely popular here.

Schools don't choose where teams stay.

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Once they arrive, they stay in lodging preselected by the bowls. Under the contracts that create the championship system, bowl organizers arrange the lodging, and the teams pay. No school can negotiate its own lodging costs.

For example, Ohio State University was required to take 150 rooms for at least six nights and pay at least $172 a night per room for its team and coaches to stay in the New Orleans Marriott during this past season's Sugar Bowl. The lodging cost at other bowls sometimes exceeds $300 a night.

The bowls say they are able to negotiate better group rates and guarantee larger blocks of rooms than a school could at the last minute.

The Fiesta Bowl's contract requires its teams to stay in Scottsdale-Paradise Valley hotels, and a recent Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau study shows that during the last Fiesta Bowl, rates there were nearly 85 percent higher than in the rest of the Valley.

Schools say they don't take issue with the accommodations, as it's part of playing in a BCS game.

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Everyone is kind of discrediting the fact that it's the largest party in the city and the place will be full of celebrities. It's not just an average night at this hotel. It's a special occasion. It's unfortunate that it played out that way for bama. It's definitely a different scenario than when WVU stayed there.