Cost of Duke's trip to China and Dubai

[duke79]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/How-much-did-Duke-pay-for-charter-flights-to-Chi?urn=ncaab-wp4396

Interesting story today on Yahoo.com about the cost of Duke's trip to China and Dubai. If I had had the extra $13,500, I would have gone on the trip. It has to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience!!

[NovaScotian]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/How-much-did-Duke-pay-for-charter-flights-to-Chi?urn=ncaab-wp4396

Interesting story today on Yahoo.com about the cost of Duke's trip to China and Dubai. If I had had the extra $13,500, I would have gone on the trip. It has to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience!!

i was actually talking with my friends during the game about this - assuming they are around the same price, and you had that kind of disposable income, would you rather spend the 10k+ on this sort of trip or the k academy fantasy camp? personally, i think this would be a no-brainer - going to see the world and watch mediocre basketball games is far preferable to being screamed at by the camp's coaches and the probably equally intense teammates, but i could see people going either way.

[Duvall]

i was actually talking with my friends during the game about this - assuming they are around the same price, and you had that kind of disposable income, would you rather spend the 10k+ on this sort of trip or the k academy fantasy camp? personally, i think this would be a no-brainer - going to see the world and watch mediocre basketball games is far preferable to being screamed at by the camp's coaches and the probably equally intense teammates, but i could see people going either way.

I agree, but I suspect that for most of the people involved the answer is "both."

[UpNorthDevil]

I wonder how much of the cost was offset by the ESPNU coveraage?

[GLTBD]

i was actually talking with my friends during the game about this - assuming they are around the same price, and you had that kind of disposable income, would you rather spend the 10k+ on this sort of trip or the k academy fantasy camp? personally, i think this would be a no-brainer - going to see the world and watch mediocre basketball games is far preferable to being screamed at by the camp's coaches and the probably equally intense teammates, but i could see people going either way.

This scenario did occur for my husband. He chose the K academy over the China trip, unfortunately the first day of camp he tore his ACL.

[NYBri]

This scenario did occur for my husband. He chose the K academy over the China trip, unfortunately the first day of camp he tore his ACL.

Hope the knee is okay.

[kmspeaks]

Maybe I just need to do some trimming to my friends list but now I've seen this article being linked on facebook with people insinuating that Duke must be doing breaking some NCAA rules somewhere if they can charter a flight and get boosters to pay close to $14,000.

I guess haters never take a day off :rolleyes:

[GLTBD]

Hope the knee is okay.

Happy to report he had surgery in July, rehabbing going well and he went back to work after 6 weeks on 18Aug. However he told me he wants to sign up for camp next year. :eek:

[akhan786]

I hope people know that the team stayed at the the Burj Al-Arab while in Dubai.

That is possibly the best commercial hotel in the world and at least costs 30 grand a room...

You can see clips of it in the Wild Wadi Video DBP released.

[El_Diablo]

I hope people know that the team stayed at the the Burj Al-Arab while in Dubai.

That is possibly the best commercial hotel in the world and at least costs 30 grand a room...

You can see clips of it in the Wild Wadi Video DBP released.

The Burj is more like $1,000/night, and possibly less (with a group rate). But they were not staying there...the Burj is on its own tiny island and doesn't have the sheltered "lake" or the same architecture that was shown from Seth's balcony. You could definitely see it in the video though because it's near the water park. I think they were actually staying at Mina A' Salam (at Madinat Jumeirah), which is set back from the water, has its own harbor inlet, and runs about $400/night.

[Indoor66]

The Burj is more like $1,000/night, and possibly less (with a group rate). But they were not staying there...the Burj is on its own tiny island and doesn't have the sheltered "lake" or the same architecture that was shown from Seth's balcony. You could definitely see it in the video though because it's near the water park. I think they were actually staying at Mina A' Salam (at Madinat Jumeirah), which is set back from the water, has its own harbor inlet, and runs about $400/night.

Is it possible that the hotels were comped to the team as part of the game arrangements?

[Klemnop]

The Burj is more like $1,000/night, and possibly less (with a group rate). But they were not staying there...the Burj is on its own tiny island and doesn't have the sheltered "lake" or the same architecture that was shown from Seth's balcony. You could definitely see it in the video though because it's near the water park. I think they were actually staying at Mina A' Salam (at Madinat Jumeirah), which is set back from the water, has its own harbor inlet, and runs about $400/night.

Pics were definitely from Madinat - Burj Al-Arab is in the background (and highly visible from that property.)

Rooms run around $400/night in peak season. It's mid-summer and Ramadan...rates are dirt cheap right now. (Quick internet search shows rooms as low as $238 USD...and that's without any group discount or other special modifiers.)