The best unique locations for a live fantasy football draft

Draft day is the cornerstone of a fantasy football season.

It sets the tone for the season, offers a chance for some trash talking and catching up with friends. In the majority of leagues, the draft will be the only time all year that everyone is together in person, becoming your opportunity to hand out the trophy to the previous year’s winner (and maybe a gag prize for the loser) and welcome new players to the league.

While you can always pick an old standard like someone’s home or a bar, finding a unique location for your fantasy football draft can create a memorable experience for all the players and get the year started off right. That can also go a long way in keeping your league strong and sustainable — if players have a fun draft to look forward to every year, you’re much less likely to risk them bailing and having to recuit new players to keep it going.

Below are some unique options for live fantasy football drafts as suggested by veteran commissioners.

Minor league baseball suite

Summertime is the perfect time to take in a baseball game, and stadiums (minor league ones in particular) offer a surprisingly fun place to hold a live fantasy football draft.

Even at the lowest levels of minor league ball, nearly all stadiums will offer luxury suites and you can book them at a fraction of the price that it would cost for an NFL or MLB game. For between $500-$1,000, you can reserve a climate-controlled suite to hold your draft, and most will come with catering and access to a private bar.

Minor league parks will often offer fun game-day experiences you can add. If you decide to see a River City Trash Pandas game, you can pay a little extra and stand beside the players on the field during the national anthem. The Harrisburg Senators offer dugout suites that are an extension of the visitor’s side dugout, right on the field — and you get to see the park where they filmed the spring training sequence of Major League 2.

The only difficult part could be the travel. Minor league baseball underwent a significant reorganization in 2021, with 40 teams folding. If you want some help finding one near you, MLB.com’s Benjamin Hill published a complete guide to all 120 minor league ballparks in North America.

A state or national park

The majority of fantasy football drafts will be held sometime around Labor Day weekend, which could be the perfect chance to take your draft outside and beyond your backyard. The National Park Service has a helpful search function that allows you to find parks near you and filter it down by activities you might want to include. Looking for a park where you can do some boating or canyoneering? They’ll help you find the right one. 

There are also a lot of great state parks you could pick, or just head down to a neighborhood park with some hot dogs and hamburgers to grill and set up at a picnic table.

Office conference room

If you want to give your fantasy football draft a real authentic feel, you can find a corporate meeting space and pretend you’re in a real NFL war room.

You can see if one of your players has an office space they can reserve for a late afternoon, but if you want to avoid the hassle (and not have to worry about being too loud), you can check out a site like Commercial Search and look for office space nearby that you can rent for a few hours at a time.

Rent out a dive bar

While you can always take your draft to a chain restaurant like Dave & Busters or Hooters, you’ll likely find a more unique and memorable experience at your local dive bar. The price will be a lot lower, and you’ll find that bar owners are willing to work with you if it guarantees them some business.

The key to drafting at a bar is reserving some private space, or convince the owner or manager to let you in early. One longtime fantasy football commissioner said their local bar was willing to open up a couple of hours early as long as they guaranteed a certain amount of spending on food and drinks. Drafting in a bar filled with people can grow stressful and distracting, so the best plan is to hold your draft in privacy and then stay in the bar afterward to catch up with friends and talk trash about their draft picks. 

Rent a house on Airbnb

Destination fantasy football drafts are an increasingly popular idea, but flying to Las Vegas or Nashville can be exceedingly expensive. Property rental sites like Airbnb can offer some unique options if you don’t want to hold your draft in a public location. 

To customize your live draft, you can rent an “experience” property — look for a house on the waterfront, near a golf course, or just about anything else that will make it memorable for your players. One commissioner on the Fantasy Football subreddit said they found a house with a decked-out backyard that included a pool and putting green.

The only drawback could be availability, as the time around Labor Day weekend is popular with vacationers, so you want to make sure to book well in advance of your draft.