Arriving in Las Vegas
I arrived in Las Vegas around noon. Harry Reid International airport was easy to navigate and was not as crowded as I imagined it would be. I hadn’t been to Vegas in a few years, and it was a little bit shocking to see slot machines in the terminals as soon as you stepped off the plane and into the terminal. A reminder that I was in sin city. I attended ADCC with about 10 of my buddies from my dojo or affiliated dojo’s. For the most part we all had our own ARBNBs or hotels.
I made my way to the baggage claim easily and it was only a brief 10-minute wait for my checked bag to arrive without issue. After retrieving my bag my next stop was to make my way to my hotel accommodations. From the airport to my hotel the easiest mode of transportation appeared to be Uber/Lyft or a Cab. When I went to the Uber/Lyft pick-up section it was packed, and I really wasn’t in the mindset to mess with the app and try to find the right ride, so I made my way back to the cab ride area of the airport. Where I’m from I don’t ever utilize ride services. The cab area of the airport moved like a well-oiled machine.
There was a long pick-up curb and many cabs to service a pretty long line of arriving Vegas partiers. The line was shaded and moved very quickly. Ropes were separating the line a worker at the front directing people to the next open spot. There were a lot of people and I only waited about 5 minutes.
I booked a room at Hyatt Place which is only about a 5–10-minute ride from the airport. The location was amazing with the Thomas Mack Center being between the Hyatt Hotel and the airport. I was very happy with the location of the Hyatt with it being a 5-minute walk to the ADCC venue. I would not have to worry about transportation to the venue or parking. I was there at about 12:30 and unfortunately, my room was not ready for check-in, which was ok because check-in wasn’t technically until 3:00. The wait for my room was ok as it gave me some time to grab some lunch while I waited.
Again, the location of my hotel was awesome. There were many restaurants within walking distance of the hotel including Dunkin, Subway, a pizza place, and White Castle. The place that I decided to go to go was the Hofbräuhaus Las Vegas. The Hofbräuhaus is basically in the same parking lot as Hyatt Place. This restaurant is a 1:1 copy of the beer hall restaurant Hofbräuhaus in München Germany. This place holds a special place in my heart as my wife is from Germany, I was stationed in Germany while in the military, and my wife and I had dinner at this place many years prior. The restaurant is very cool with long bench wood tables and an open atmosphere with regular live German music. The beer and food are awesome at this place. I ordered a Jager Schnitzel and Fries. The Schnitzel was massive and amazing, and I was properly stuffed waddling my way back to the hotel to check-in.
When I got back to the hotel my room was ready for check-in. The room and the hotel were nothing to write home about, but it seemed clean, and the accommodation was great for what I was there to do, enjoy ADCC. Breakfast was included with the room and would help keep costs down. One disappointment with the hotel was that they didn’t offer any shuttle service. When I inquired at the front desk, they said that they stopped the service about a month prior. A walk to the strip is about 10-15 minutes and about 30 minutes to the airport. Taking a ride-share service was around $20 with a tip to the strip.
Exploring Vegas Day One
Vegas was a good place to hold an event like ADCC. The Thomas Mack Center was a good venue for viewing the event, having an expo, and accommodations like restrooms and food and drink. In addition to the venue, Vegas is like an adult Disneyland with unlimited attractions, shopping, entertainment, and food. I believe during this weekend there were 2 festivals, the Canelo fight, Aerosmith, and ADCC happening in town. I’m not much of a big spender or partier as a tight-wad family man so I was more interested in the event itself and trying some good food.
One of my hobbies in addition to Jui Jitsu is sports cards. It may be boring, but I took the opportunity to visit a couple of sports card stores. The first sports card store I went to was Ultimate Sports Cards and Memorabilia near the Freemont Experience area on Freemont Street. The card shop was cool and had tons of singles and an impressive collection of vintage cards.
However, they were priced quite high, way over comps online. It was cool looking at everything, but I didn’t end up buying anything. After the shop, I walked through the Fremont Experience which was something else. There is a giant screen roof with shops, bars, and casinos lining the walkway down the middle. There were tons of people and maybe one of the prime opportunities for people watching. There were all sorts of characters walking about Fremont including scantily clad ladies, drug addicts tripping out, street performers, and multiple stages with blaring dance music. There also are zip lines that run above and down the length of the middle of the walkway. It was a bit overwhelming seeing all the action of the people, the screen roof, the music, and people flying overhead on the zip line. It was cool seeing the Fremont Experience, but it isn’t my scene, and I walked the street and left.
My next stop was the Fashion Show mall. Fashion Show mall is quite large and has just about any department/clothing store a person would want in a mall. Again, I’m not much of a spender and wasn’t there to shop. One surprising store that they did have was a Lego store. My kids and wife are Lego maniacs and I wanted to drop by to get a gift for them. This Lego store was very small, and I was surprised that they didn’t have a Las Vegas-specific set in the store. I did buy some mini-figure bags and the store clerk told me about Lego passports. Stores give out passports and each Lego store has its very own stamp to put in your book. Both my wife and I have never heard of this before, and we’ve been to a couple of Lego stores with our kids in the past in other cities. I secured the Mini Figs and passports and thought they would make great gifts when I got back to my family.
My next stop was Tristar Memorabilia in the Miracle Mile shopping center in Planet Hollywood on the strip. It was a couple of miles walk to the mall and I did some gambling along the way losing $10. The Miracle Mile shopping center was a nice mall with shops and restaurants spanning the length of a mile plus. Tristar Memorabilia was amazing specializing in autographs. I saw some amazing pieces in there including goats like Pele, Ronaldo, Brady, Kobe, Mike Tyson, and a framed picture with nearly every member of the 85 Bears. Everything in the store was “50% off,” but I still found items over what I was looking to spend. I did nearly pull the trigger on a Usain Bolt Autographed photo for $80 but didn’t as similar signed photos were going for less on eBay. I could only imagine the value that this store had in memorabilia as it was jam-packed wall to wall with framed photos, shoes, boxing gloves, helmets, and jerseys.
By this time, it was beginning to get dark, and I had planned on going to the venue to scope it out and watch the bracket reveal, press conference, and attend the fighter meet and greet. My hotel was about 2 miles away and after paying about $50 in cabs to Fremont and then to the Fashion Show Mall, I decided to be cheap and walk to my hotel and then to the Thomas Mack Center.
Hall of Fame Seminar
While I was stomping around Vegas, one part of the event that missed that I wish I had attended was the hall of fame seminar. This was probably a once-in-a-lifetime type of opportunity where you could learn techniques from many legends of Jiu Jitsu. The lineup was astounding and included the following:
- RICARDO ARONA
- COBRINHA
- RAFAEL MENDES
- KYRA GRACIE
- ROGER GRACIE
- MARCELO GARCIA
- ROYLER GRACIE
- MARK KERR
- RENZO GRACIE
- SALO RIBERIO
- BRAULIO ESTIMA
- BARET YOSHIDA
- DEAN LISTER
- MARIO SPERRY
The ticket to attend the seminar was $400 in advance and considering the cost incurred to attend the event I opted not to attend. One of my friends at the event did attend the seminar and said that it was an amazing experience. She said that it was a little chaotic at first, but once the group was split up it went smoothly. Groups spent some time with each legend, took pictures at the end of each session, and then rotated to the next legend. If I get the chance for something like this in the future, I may try to attend next time.
Bracket Reveal
I arrived at the Thomas Mack Center just a little late and didn’t miss much of the bracket reveal. The Thomas Mack Center looked like an awesome venue. The seats were open to sitting wherever for the bracket reveal and most people were just standing in front of the stage as the mats were not set out yet. The stage was nice with great sound, lighting effects, and large screens. Each fighter was called out onto the stage for a face-off as the division brackets were announced. One thing I did notice was the announcer did a poor job of pronunciations of the fighters’ names, there were many mistakes.
After the announcements, there was supposed to be a press conference, but for some reason, it didn’t happen. It was late by that time, so I believe they just canceled it due to timing. After the bracket release, they did a fighter meet and greet inviting the fighters to enter the crowd. In front of the stage, the ADCC belts, trophies, and hall of fame plaques were all on display. I did see Craig Jones in the crowd but didn’t stick around much as I walked about 12 miles throughout the day and was super tired.
Outside the venue, I did see Gabi Garcia, Nicky Rodriguez, and Jacob Rodriguez just hanging out with fans. Gabi was meeting with fans, and I was shocked by her sheer size. I’m not a small dude and when I shook her hand, her hand engulfed mine. I made my way back to the hotel and was pumped for the start of ADCC.