1. All schools should stay at one of the NFL recommended hotels. The NFL has negotiated the lowest rates available at these properties for our members and has chosen them for their convenience in tournament participation.
2. When calling hotels, all coaches must mention the NFL National Tournament Block to receive the posted rate. All room reservations are subject to an automatic two-night non-refundable deposit per room to avoid double-booking.
3. All Hotel Properties and Competition Venues are accessible from one main interstate-I-95 North and South. I-95 goes from downtown Philadelphia, by the stadium (registration location), by the airport hotels, and then down to Wilmington.
4. Key Travel Times to Note:
Airport to Downtown--(10 to 15 min)
Downtown to Wilmington Area--(40 min)
Airport to Wilmington--(30 min)
5. At first glance, driving times to Wilmington from Downtown may be concerning to teams (40 to 45 minutes), however, accessibility from I-95 will make travel easier than some previous National Tournament locations.
6 The Congress Headquarters Hotel is the Downtown Philadelphia Marriott.
7. Restaurants and food markets are in abundance near the downtown hotels. The Airport properties are limited.
8. All schools with a public forum team and/or congress competitors should stay at one of the downtown hotels (Marriott, Courtyard, Hilton Garden) as all competition for these events will take place downtown and morning traffic into Philadelphia will be difficult. Schools with Public Forum or Congress students who also have speech competitors will find it nearly impossible to drive into Philadelphia from the Airport, drop off public forum and/or congress competitors and then drive to Wilmington for the speech prelims in time for the morning rounds.
9. All schools with competitors in both debate events and speech events should consider staying at downtown properties as ALL debate competition will move to downtown Philadelphia beginning on Wednesday AM.
10. NO SCHOOLS SHOULD STAY IN WILMINGTON. Beginning with the Schwan Student Party on Wednesday, ALL competition will move to downtown Philadelphia for the remainder of the week.
11. The Airport properties are excellent for all schools with speech competitors only as they are 15 minutes closer to Wilmington and only 15 minutes from downtown.
12. Before reserving rooms, all coaches should look at a road atlas and an enlargement of the Philadelphia/Wilmington area to get a better perspective on the logistics of travel. The key to a less stressful week is to seriously consider following the above lodging suggestions provided by the National Office.
Additional Tournament Information (Logistics, Maps, Individual Event Schedules, etc) are available on the NFL website.
