With the start of the new league year closing in fast, now might be the time to decide if we want to continue as we’re going or perhaps make some changes. I mentioned some options in my email, so this will be more brief. Also, thos wordpress format is annoying AF, so I’d like to keep this short rather than editing in this “program”. The gist is that I think that, given the time investment required for this league, it makes make it more financial worth our time. If we agree to that premise, then I feel that it would only be fair to press the reset button on our rosters so that everyone is starting from the same place.
Financial Incentive
Currently, the league is free to play in. For many reasons, this is amazing and I love it. However, given the other demands on my time, including the other leagues that I play in, free just isn’t satisfying. I realize that there is a trophy to be won. I also realize that you realize that I haven’t won said trophy and therefore can’t possibly understand the tremendous incentive that it is. Stipulated.
Proposal 1: The entry fee for this league should be somewhere between $5-$100. I like to play in low-stakes leagues for $40-$50. Those only have offense and this is offense and IDP, thus the $100 number. I’m not here to break anyone’s bank. Just asking for some skin. Whatever you all think is an appropriate dollar amount will be good with me. Note: this number is straight pot and does not count toward the website fees.
Proposal 2: Create some incentives for not sucking. I offered some financial penalty ideas. Giorgianni wants more of the humiliation-style awards to avoid financial penalty. I get it. The goal is to encourage everyone to do their due diligence and keep managers in it until the end of the season (and through the offseason, ideally), making roster moves that will help build their team’s future. I think a lot about the Hawks blowing things up and getting their roster right for that historic 2016 championship run. This is a complex league and there’s always more to do.
Proposal 2a: It makes sense that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place should get part of the pay out and that the last place team during regular season, 2nd to last place team, and tournament world’s worst should all share in the suck. Even if it’s little stuff like engraving the trophy, paying for shipping, paying the website fee for the winner, or wearing a cute little dress to a league-wide Zoom.
Proposal 2b: Leagues break up because of over-the-top punishments. Let’s keep it cool. I like the “I suck at Fantasy Football” license plate cover idea. This could be tough since we ARE so far apart and don’t really know each other that it could be difficult to hold each other’s feet to the fire.
Roster Reset
Proposal 3: Restart league rosters with a start-up draft. Auction-style where winning bids become Year 1 of a 3-year contract. Bid on draft picks, not rookies (though I’m open to just bidding on rookies if you’d rather). In many ways, this proposal stands on its own. As in, we could do this even if we decide NOT to change the buy-in. We’ve all been together for at least a handful of years and have a sense of what works and what doesn’t in this league. Why not see what everyone can do with a clean slate? Hammond mentioned getting together – that’s not in the cards for me in person, but I could do a Zoom. We could also auction in the same way we do FA every off-season. Whatever floats your boat.
Thanks for reading. Hope you’re having a good start to the summer!
© 2022, Adam Franssen. All rights reserved.
I would still like to separate an auction from a rookie draft. I think the auction would have to be adjusted with that many players available…something like each owner can only have one auction going at a time (so there would be a max of 12 players on the slate at any given time.) IF there were 50 guys being bid on, it would disadvantage people who are working and don’t have time to scroll through every guy.
Also not sure why we need to sign them all to 3-year deals instead of just letting us pick, per usual.
I think I’d only want to do this if we could do a live auction. Even if just online, and not in person.
Also, I’d only want to restart if we were doing the bigger financial commitment. Not giving up rent-controlled Justin Jefferson just for funsies.
I like the idea of only 12 players going at at time.
3-year deal is nice in that everyone is working with the same mindset – I can’t just bid $100 and put him on a 1-year deal – this is a 3-year commitment. But that’s a small thing and I’m not fighting for it. The other perspective was the commish’s time. If you want to wrangle 12 owners and get years for every player, that’s cool with me.
Good passion on the live auction idea. We can’t get 12 guys to respond to a league-required vote. Getting this group to show up for 5 hours of drafting over the summer seems like pie in the sky.
I would love to waste a Saturday day-drinking and auctioning players, but I take your point.
Sorry–I’m like completely swamped with life until around June 3. Work, sports, being out of town, etc.
My initial thought is that I am on board with some degree of stakes in this game. I like the idea of the punishment being to pay for both the engraving and shipping of the trophy. Having the champion have to front this is a real kick in the junk (like, Ive had thoughts of if I actually wanted to submit my strongest lineup or not in the championship game, haha–I even mentioned this to Marcot). Having paid for these several times, let me be the first to say it would really take the damper out of winning the thing.
Regarding the league reset … ugh. It would be fun in a way and I understand the draw, but it sounds like a monumental undertaking. I remember our startup draft in this league took like 3-4 straight evenings or something. I do understand this is just what we are going to do anyway in the FA auction, only longer, but still. And this is coming from a guy that has practically no superstars on his current roster … I guess lets see what everyone else says.
I am willing to put some $ into a pot – nothing over $100. I am definitely willing to go with the penalties of paying winner’s dues/engraving and shipping costs.
A reset should only happen if we get a unanimous vote. I am for it. Also, I am in favor with keeping the first contracts simple at 3-yrs. Lumping rookies in with the auction would speed up the process.
I wouldn’t want to lump in the rookies given that teams have made draft trades into the future.
All of those trades would be null in a reset scenario.
I am interpreting a reset as a full reset, including draft capital. Although I have been in this league for quite some time and have made plenty of my own poor decisions, I’d like a clean slate and begin at ground level.
If we don’t go through with that, I still enjoy this league immensely.
The full reset might prove to be logistically insurmountable, especially given the lack of engagement going on so far.
The irony of not being able to make substantive changes to improve engagement and participation due to lack of engagement is not lost on me. Well done!
Sorry, been down in LA since last week. Just getting caught up.
I like the reset idea but will go with whatever the majority wants.