David4516 - If they're still available, the Marriott is doling out con-rate rooms at $89 a night if you give them the group code, which is on the Hotel Info page of this site.
Oubeji - Yup. If I'm correct, you have to pay for anything on the contract you don't fill out yourself (plus possibly more due to legality clauses and the like). So let's assume that we take out 1000 rooms (I know for a fact that's way more than we have, but let's go with it for our example). If congoers were only to fill up 800 of those rooms, the con organizers get to eat the cost of the other 200 rooms themselves.... It may seem unfair, but it's the only way that (1) you get the hotels to give said discounts, and (2) you get the hotel to host it in the first place.
I'm not going to condemn anyone who commutes to the con - hell, I did it last year. After all, that money thing IS important. But if you do, you will probably miss stuff. I didn't leave until around midnite of our first nite last year, and I still came back the next day to hear several stories about things I missed that I wished I hadn't. I'm personally really glad I'll be in the hotel this year, and probably would fork out the money to stay at the hotel even if it WAS in Eugene/Springfield again.
PezCat