NFFC Message Boards

I know there's still a lot of uncertainty with the NFL labor agreement, but all of us hope that smarter minds prevail and a labor agreement is done before the NFL Draft in April. I think owners and players know that any major delay will cause loss of sponsorship revenue and more, so hopefully this thing gets settled sometime in March or April.

All of us who love this great hobby of fantasy football have to hope that this will be the case and thus we have to move forward with a plan for 2011. We are certainly doing that and we'll finalize everything once we know if this is going to be a 16 game or an 18 game season, when it will start and when a labor deal is done. But for now, I want to at least get everyone thinking ahead to the 2011 NFFC and how it will shape up:

1. We are DEFINITELY a go for 2011. Legally we'll be able to announce our plans in the next week or so and then you'll understand what things will look like for next year and the future. We have a solid plan in place and even though Fanball is shutting down the NFFC lives on with new ownership involving me and Tom. We've already announced that STATS Inc will be our back-end software provider and we'll dust off and enhance the back-end that ran this great contest for the first six years. I see a seamless transition for football and one that will be complete even in time for the upcoming baseball season.

2. We are going back to our roots of live drafts in 3-4 cities and continuing our growth pattern with online drafts. I'm sure we'll return to Las Vegas, New York and Chicago and we'll consider Florida briefly. We definitely won't do more than four live drafts and we'll allow online Main Events as well. We will also have multiple draft times online for the Classic and Primetime Main Events, but just one live draft date and time. Look for more details soon, but the online options will likely be a day or two before the live drafts and maybe 2 options for each event to go along with the 1 scheduled live drafts.

3. I thought the Bellagio worked beautifully in Las Vegas for the NFFC last year as we had the convention area to ourselves and I know I can get space there again. I'll take feedback from fellow owners, but I'm shooting for the Bellagio again. That being said, if someone can convince me that returning to the Flamingo or some other site makes more sense, I'll listen. In New York, we have to return to Manhattan if we can, but the Hilton and Sheraton are already booked with conventions. We'll keep looking and we have a new contact who may help us. Stay tuned. We will look for a new spot in Chicago if folks want that.

4. The draft weekend is still tentative, but Labor Day weekend seems to be the logical choice for now. We have a radical idea to consider for the NFFC, but for now we'll stay on our weekend depending on the NFL schedule and depending on feedback from our radical idea later.

5. We will continue with the NFFC Auction Championship and the NFFC Draft Champions Championship, but I'll gladly lower the overall prizes if folks want bigger league prizes. Honestly, I thought both formats worked nicely this year and I'm glad we were able to provide nice prizes to the top winners, but if the prize structure lowered participation in any way then we need to look at it. Please provide feedback and we'll work on this together.

6. We will definitely have two different NFFC Online Championships in 2011: A 14-team NFFC Online Championship and a 12-team NFFC Online Championship. We may start with goals of 300 teams each and expanded the grand prizes on each if we go above those goals, but we'll see. There is no question that the $350 price point is well accepted and even duplicated and thus the format makes sense. We will definitely put a limit of 720 teams on each format so that folks have a legal idea of their odds of winning before they sign up.

7. We will again offer NFFC Diamond, Ultimate and Super Leagues with the same prize payouts as last year. I know we pushed the limit there, but I think it makes sense and we'll go forward like before. I think this year we will shoot for a 14-team Diamond League as demand seemed to be there for this contest.

8. We will offer a National Slow Draft Championship this year and begin those after the NFL Drafts. We will increase prices by $25 for each Slow Draft format so that all teams competing no matter the entry fee will have a chance to compete in this overall championship. We might start off the off-season with private Slow Drafts, but once we get to June or July, all Slow Drafts can be set up with the national contest in mind. Stay tuned for more details, but we debuted this in baseball and the demand has been phenomenal.

9. We'll also set up lower-priced satellite leagues and a "bowling night" that fits people's schedules so that we can congregate in the draft room each night of the week this off-season and have fun drafting. We started these as $50 drafts a few years ago and got away from these last year, but I see a demand for these along with the Slow Drafts and we will definitely fill that void if people still want it. Stay tuned.

10. Tom will be active on the football boards while I spend more of my time managing baseball, but we expect to be very active on the boards and keeping this community around through the off-season. Tom has the chance to write a national fantasy football column that you may see very soon, so expect him to be active this off-season. And with any luck, we'll be publishing Fantasy Sports Magazine again after missing our first issue in 22 years this spring.

11. I think entry fees will be the same as last year, with the Classic at $1,400 and the Primetime at $850. I'm interested in feedback on price points, but I don't have any major changes in mind at this point.

I think that's a good starting point. I need feedback and suggestions from this die-hard audience that sticks around during the off-season and we'll consider everything. We're BAAAAAAAAAACKKKK and we're back in charge. Get ready for more details about our ownership group and more soon. Thanks all for a great 2010 season and please help us make 2011 even more historic.

I agree with ColtsFan earlier post. Larger league payouts are more attractive that the "Super Prize".
Have you given any consideration to a lower price for the Classic as a way to increase registrations?
How many more teams would sign-up if both the Classic and Primetime were $850 each? Is it possible to have two drafts for each event (Classic and Prime) allowing for one owner two buy and draft two teams in each event?

Good news, whatever you decide.

[ February 09, 2011, 05:16 PM: Message edited by: RoadKing ]

Thanks Greg for the update. Very happy that you and Tom are going to head up things for 2011.

Greg, glad to see we will be going back to 3-4 cities. I always thought it was best to grow into more locations before adding them. I would love to see the Chicago draft in a downtown location this year. And im not alone in that. It would be great to park and walk around downtown for a few days. There is a lot to see and do in downtown Chi and plenty of places to eat. It would be great to lock into a hotel and location that everyone enjoys and keep the draft there for a while. As I have drafted in Chicago the last 3 years in 3 different locations. Downtown is the way to go!!!!!

Sabre nailed it!!! ..... and, the Cubs are in town!

Please consider this option seriously Greg.

For Vegas, I agree that the Bellagio can't be beat. I really enjoyed the 2010 experience there.

HMan

Originally posted by Sabretooth:
Greg, glad to see we will be going back to 3-4 cities. I always thought it was best to grow into more locations before adding them. I would love to see the Chicago draft in a downtown location this year. And im not alone in that. It would be great to park and walk around downtown for a few days. There is a lot to see and do in downtown Chi and plenty of places to eat. It would be great to lock into a hotel and location that everyone enjoys and keep the draft there for a while. As I have drafted in Chicago the last 3 years in 3 different locations. Downtown is the way to go!!!!! If people want that Chris, we'll do it. There's no doubt the cost of hosting and participating in a live draft in downtown Chicago is much greater than on the outskirts and it will be tougher for Friday events. But I'll listen to the feedback and plan accordingly. Just parking downtown is $60+ a night.

Maybe I'll create separate city drafts and feel this out. Chicago participants, what do you say?

I work in the city and live in the suburbs. That being said for my own selfish reasons I would prefer any of the suburban locations we have previously been at.

The cons to hosting this downtown not in any particular order...

1. Cost- There would be a large difference in cost for the NFFC I would think and definitely for any participants staying overnight or driving down for the day. Every single consumable or service is waaaaay more expensive downtown!

2. Location- I know it sounds great, downtown Chicago, but depending on where you are at (south loop, west loop, mag mile) these are very different locations. Wrigley field is still an expensive cab ride or train ride away. If you were in Rosemont you could take the train to the ballgame too. You can rent a car from Rosemont for $30 a day and go site seeing all you want!

3. Restaurants- You can get many of the same fine restaurants offered in downtown Chicago in Rosemont, Schaumburg or Oak Brook. I believe these were the last 3 or 4 cities that the NFFC has held their drafts.

4. Convenience- For those of us that live in the burbs (if my memmory serves me correct there are quite a few) it is much easier to drive to and park at a hotel in the suburbs than going downtown. For those of you bringing the wives in town with you we also have world class malls in 2 of the 3 suburbs mentioned above.

As for the advantages to having this event downtown? I guess you could stumble back to your room easier from a choice of bars but if you do stumble back to your room at 4:00a.m. I hope I'm in your league!!

As for Vegas...Bellagio was very nice last year but would have liked to get a room discount. But the draft room was nice and the food was great!!!

Just my $.02

As someone who has drafted in Chicago 4 of the 7 years, I can say that I too wouldn't mind it being downtown.

That being said, more than likely there would be an additional expense for the NFFC to run this at a downtown hotel that would be passed onto the players.

I am all for making this more of an event, and the food last year at Arlington Park was borderline atrocious (PLEASE don't go back there!)

Don't go back to Arlington Park, and if it is possible to have an event downtown that doesn't cost too much more, I am all for it.

I thought I would be all in for food, etc. for $50, but the fact is that when you have to go through the hotel, track, etc. $50 doesn't get you a whole lot.

The food was so disappointing last year at Arlington Park that a bunch of us skipped dinner to eat at the RAM.

Borderline atrocious??? I wish my food had been that good! Arlington was absolutely the worst. I remember going up to get something to drink 5 minutes before the draft started and the bartender said that he didn't open for another 5 minutes. I stood there are just stared at him in disbelief. He did absolutely nothing for the next 5 minutes. UGGHHHH.

I would like to get to a place that is somewhat permanent in nature so that we aren't moving around all of the time. I really like the idea of being able to stay in a hotel where the draft actually happens if that is possible. I like the thought of downtown if it is financially viable.


Wayne

I've drafted in Chicago all 7 years and my favorite place so far was the Oakbrook Marriot. This would be my 1st choice but I agree with Wayne and billy that downtown would be a fun venue if you let Jack or Rob or Daryl set up the location.
If nothing else works there's always Daryls house!