I've worked within the GBL since 2007, and I've seen a lot of different types of team hotels. St. George has worked with Ramadas or Holiday Inns, and Chico even used to have the Feather Falls Casino to host visiting teams. Victoria last season had a very nice Best Western in the heart of the capital city of British Columbia with great places to walk to nearby. Tucson's hotel was located along a lonely highway with nothing more than a Carls Jr, which was still a 10 minute walk down the road.
Long Beach used to have the Quality Inn, which was about on par with the Flyers' Motel 6 accomodations from last year. Nothing in the league was on par with The Sutton Place in downtown Edmonton, a luxurious highrise in the midst of downtown.
But with the announcement of the team hotel for Na Koa Ikaika Maui, the standard of visiting team hotels is about to get a drastic makeover that will spoil every independent league ballplayer (and broadcaster) that makes this road trip.
Visiting teams will be staying at the four-diamond rated Grand Wailea Hotel Resort and Spa. Rooms there start at $369 a night and go up (quickly) from there. The place has a maze of waterslides, swimming pools, beachfront property, a pair of golf courses, and even a water-elevator to get you to the top of some of the slides. No offense to Calgary's Causway Bay hotel, but you just got served!
I used to think that Chico had such a decided home field advantage because opposing players would be up countless hours in the casino. Not very difficult to figure out where any potential hours of sleep went. But with a trip to the Hawaiian Islands and a four-diamond resort? This won't be a situation where players will be trying to recover from a late night to play baseball; baseball won't even be on anyone's mind.
Na Koa Ikaika have yet to take the field, but it's safe to say they'll be damn-near unbeatable at home. Of course, the first challenge will be getting enough visiting players off the golf courses or the beach to field a team.
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