Cooperstown All Star Village — Hotel in Town of Oneonta

What an utter disappointment! It should get zero stars but it is scenic so 1star. This is the birthplace of baseball but competing venues such as Ripken run their tournaments way better. Rules during the game are different than their website, the director Oscar cannot even give explanations for rule changes. Oscar is in way over his head, what an absolutely poorly run tournament. Our team schedule had the kids playing at 8AM and the 10PM games. They went to bed at 12:30 PM only to be woken up by the 5:30AM laundry service then at the fields to warm up by 7AM. The kids were exhausted, this experience for them, so much money wasted at Cooperstown. The only thing they had right was having the kids stay on premises, other than that it was a disaster! Schedule kids to game times when they can't eat due to the cafeteria schedule but they don't allow outside food in the room but they do allow food from vending machines? Seriously, kids had to eat candy bars and chips for a meal that is if they wanted to eat something.

Don't let your kids drink the brown water from the water fountains. The putrid smell of either urine or sulfer permeates from every bathroom. A staff worker walked in the washroom and said out loud, "I can't believe they actually mopped the floor it won't smell like piss for the next 15 minutes in here". The food is not edible, we ordered pizza with peperoni and sausage, the pizza came out and the pizza was warm but the sausage on top was cold like they forgot to put it on while cooking it. Everything is overpriced, pictures, memorabilia, bats.. they have nothing prepared to make the buying process easy, don't forget your team pin logo or you cant buy the logo bat. They don't update the tournament brackets online, still the same results from 3 weeks ago. Be prepared for a teenager driving a cart to beep the horn at you and expect you to get off the sidewalk and stand on the grass so they can pass rather than simply drive around you. The concession stand is so incredibly slow, appearanly it takes 4 people to get a water and Gatorade, 2 just stand around watching. The facility is dirty, fields are way too small for 12 and 13 year old kids. Routine fly balls turn into home runs, the green monster is a joke how do you turn 165 ft into a field? Say it's the green monster. Watching the games from the side provide poor viewing and that is if the person assigned to take pictures is not standing in the way blocking your view to see the kids hitting. You will also pay a premium for the pictures taken by a teenager at the price of a professional photographer. No locks on the Barrack doors, there is a/c and a tv but it is filthy. The opening ceremony was a guy talking about himself because it was the "Oscar the director show" who claims he is called Papi because people thought he was Puerto Rican, what a stupid waste of time story. I am not sure if he believes he is entertaining but I felt he wasted part of my life by me having to endure listening to him speak.

For $750k in weekly team fees collected the experience should have been better, cleaner, and more organized. The umpires drive around the carts to earn more money because as they put it "the owner of the facility is so cheap". He certainly does not invest in sanitation, that place is nasty. The initial wow factor is there but quickly goes away as the fields are small and then walking the hills will eliminate any fun you thought you were having. Anyone you talk to that works there has nothing good to say about the owner, every comment was negative. I found it weird the quantity of the staff that made negative comments, just ask a question, they were all quick to complain. Loved paying that much for the kids to play there and had to listen to the staff constantly complain about the owner.

It is a camp for kids, if you are anticipating a great experience, taper your expectations or you will be sadly disappointed. This place has the potential to be great but the owner obviously cuts costs anywhere and...

We stayed in the "Village". Big mistake! Room we rented was a queen with bunk beds. Room was maybe 300 sq feet. Queen bed mattress was saggy and the bunk beds were not long enough for anyone over 5'7". Pillows were flat and sheets scratchy. We saw families going to the store and buying all new towels and sheets. Everything is old. TVs are not flat screens so no hdmi hookups for video games or DVD player. Also don't expect your room to be cleaned daily or fresh towels or to have your trash emptied. We even asked to have our room cleaned after three days and were told that it would and it wasn't. The pool is small and looks like it hasn't been cleaned in weeks. We paid $1900 ($317/night) for a room that was worth $69 per night. Stay at the Marriott Courtyard down the street.

Important to note is there is NOTHING to do for younger siblings. No playground or activities. Our 7 yo was board out of his mind. Asking a 7 yo to watch 7 baseball games in 4 days is a lot. Make sure you bring an iPad or something for the kids to do during games.

As for the baseball. Some fields you can watch from a hill or the outfield. For most they want you in a dugout next to the players dugout. Pretty difficult to see if some parent stands in front of you. Signs all over saying no videography or photography. That's because they want you to buy the team video/pictures for $1000. Yes $1000! Get a long distance lens and take pics anyway. They don't stop you.

There are teams of varying skill level. Our team was an AAU team and went 3-4 losing 2 games by 1 run and 1 game by 2 runs. There were some teams that were really overmatched. We saw one game and it was 32-0 after 2 innings. They do have a 10 run slaughter after 4 innings. But I can't imagine it would be too fun losing all 7 games by slaughter. So make sure your team is competitive. Also you need lots of pitching.

The parents are obnoxious, to put it mildly. They think that they are seeing MLB stars of tomorrow and that because little Johnny hit a home run on a 200' field off a kid who has never pitched before, he is AWESOME! It was hilarious people watching. Parents with Fatheads and bedazzled tshirts with their kids name on them.

The fields are in ok shape. They do drag and line the fields between games. Most fields are 200' fences but the Monster field is maybe 175'. The balls they use are definitely juiced. They "ran out of" balls stamped Cooperstown All Star Village so they were using Trump "The Rock" balls. Home runs fly out all over the place. Somewhat ridiculous.

The ring they give the players is gum ball variety. But the kids seem ok with it. The bunk houses were ok, according to our son. They are air conditioned. But to go to the bathroom they need to leave the bunk with a coach to go to the bathhouse. Pretty inconvenient in the middle of the night. Parents are not permitted in the player village after check in. They also don't allow the parents down to pack up so you have to hope your son gets everything.

Finally, you are not in Cooperstown. You are in Oneonta, which is about 30 minutes and 25 miles from Cooperstown. They have a PO box in Cooperstown so they can say Cooperstown. Cooperstown Dreams Park is in Cooperstown. I have heard the big difference is All Star Village has air conditioned bunk houses and Dreams Park does not. Dreams Park also has more teams per week (heard around 100) where All Star Village has around 50.

Overall, our son said he was glad he came and we are glad he had the experience. We made the choice not to come with our older son and always wondered if we made the right decision. Now we know we did, because we won't do it with our younger son. Go to...

My son played at CASV 6/19-6/25/2021. It seems like there are so many negative reviews out there for this place. I don't really understand the negativity toward CASV as my son and I had a wonderful week there! I DID NOT stay in the hotel on site, but rather stayed in an AirBnB nearby so I will not mention the hotel in any way. Team check in is on Saturday. The A,B,C,D parking lots are closed on this day so we had to park across Rte 205 in the E&F lots. We simply stood at our SUV with the trunk open and waited for a shuttle to come by. The shuttle took us to the entrance of Players Village where we were dropped off and then had to carry the belongings down a short but steep hill. If you have a sports wagon, I suggest bringing it for move in and move out day as it would have been helpful. We found check in to be easy. Our coach was already there (the team had arranged time to be there so coach could arrive first) so the boys all claimed their bunks for the week and pin trading began right away. The rest of the week I was able to find parking easily in Lot A. But even if you had to park across the street, there were always shuttles going to and from that lot to the various shuttle stops within the village. The spectators can choose to walk down THE HILL or wait at a shuttle stop to get a ride down to where the fields are located. I chose to walk up/down each time. Per my iWatch, I got credit for about 6-7 flights of stairs climbed each time I walked up. The walkway is paved and wide. I ate inside the All Star Tavern twice that week to take advantage of the air conditioning. (We were lucky in that it was warm on day 1, hot day 2&3 and then cool the rest of the week.) I really enjoyed eating at the Overlook Park Dining where you could sit and look out and watch games while enjoying your meal, drinks or just taking a break. I never had any issue with any of the staff. They were always polite. Keep in mind that the restaurant will NOT split checks for those of you dining together but want to pay separately. You will need to have cash or Venmo your friends to pay your portion. Also, the restaurant will NOT allow any food substitutions unless you have an allergy or dietary restriction such as gluten issues or are a vegetarian. The restaurant is pricey for the type of food. The menu is available online so you can prepare in advance. Plan on at least $25 per person per meal, not including drinks. My group was lucky to grab tables at the Overlook Park Dining for both Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the fireworks. Make sure you get your table early on both those nights as it's worth it! Yes, the ceremonies are long and drawn out. It is what it is. Our team made do with the shower situation. At one point our coach was in there while a cleaner was in cleaning the toilet stalls/sink area. He asked if he was going to clean the shower and was told that "it was already cleaned". I guess it got muddy in there from the dirt from all the boys so after day 1 the conditions in the shower deteriorated. TIPS: have each player bring a laundry bag with their name on it. They can toss their uniforms in there and put in the team laundry for washing. This will eliminate coaches/teams having to sort laundry when it comes back. I had my son bring OLD towels and cheap flip flops for the shower that he threw away at the end of the week - I didn't want those back! Bring extension cords/power strips so the boys can charge their phones, plug in...