Live Chat With Greg A. Tuesday At 3 ET

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue May 18, 2010 8:36 am

Here's another email response/question I received this week:

"I understand you guys have been working hard on baseball, but that is no excuse to leave football hanging. It seems like Fanball management doesn't have the same passion for football. And how about hitting more deadlines and stop making more excuses and putting things off."

Good points. There's no doubt we were away from the NFFC boards outside of our NFFC Post-Season contest from January through April. We stand guilty there as all of our time and resources were totally focused on the NFBC and our baseball magazines. Not only was it a full time job to organize everything, but it became a full time job in April when our new site worked less than perfectly. There wasn't a minute of any day that I didn't think about NFBC and honestly I never had any time to even PLAN 2010 NFFC.

But in the end, the NFBC grew over 30 percent in participation and revenue, an impressive figure during a down economy. We did some innovative things like host two weekends of drafts and we added a Diamond League and an interesting online/live version of our Online Championship. The new site was a major project and we didn't debut until late December, a good two months later than we normally were live.

For the NFFC, we started taking signups on March 5, 2009 and this year we also are a good two months later than we wanted to be. But creating a new web site and transferring six years of historical data for every owner who ever played in our event takes time. In fact, your past teams are still being linked to your NFFC user name and ID. That isn't an easy project because most of you have multiple NFFC/Fanball/CDM/TQ Stats logins and this is a worthy process. Give us a little more time to get your past NFFC teams locked and loaded in your MY TEAMS area.

The good news through all of this is that much of what was built for the NFBC is now ready for the NFFC season. And it's battle tested, as NFBC veterans will tell you. The FAAB process failed in the first week of NFBC, but it's now working smoothly and will be a positive feature in the NFFC. Our Free Agent Quick page is also a big hit in the NFBC and will be added to the NFFC and the Conditional Bid process is very easy to use. Roster Grid and other features are all in place thanks to our NFBC development.

So while the new web site is a few months late, we have 3 1/2 months until Draft Day and plenty of time to get this all moving forward. We're not trying to alibi our way through delays, but sometimes it's better to be a little late with a launch than to launch on time and have technical problems all over the place. That doesn't instill confidence in anyone.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue May 18, 2010 8:40 am

Originally posted by Tamuscarecrow:
I was going to ask who was going to be running the show in each city but you've already let the cat out of the bag about you and Tom in Vegas. That could truly be dangerous but you obviously excited Jules as she is already wanting Bellagio reservations.

It's a tentative list for now, but here it goes:
Las Vegas: Greg
New York: Tom
Chicago: Mike Sheets
Buffalo: Charlie Wiegert
Boston: Ryan
Minneapolis: Ted Carlson
Dallas: Seth Trachtman
Denver: Ray Flowers

Tom and I will host the second weekend of events in Las Vegas as only the finest of owners for the Diamond, Ultimate and Super deserve the finest of the NFFC hosts!!

Ryan and I have a league title to defend in another event and we may have to do that as well, but we'll see how all of that plays out. We'd love to compete and host at the same time if possible!!

But that should be a fun weekend in Las Vegas.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue May 18, 2010 8:45 am

It's kind of cool that we have 22 signups for the NFFC Classic during the first day of Registration. Since our goal is 322 teams for our signature event, that means we have only 300 SPOTS LEFT!!

Let the countdown begin!!

Better yet, we have four official signups for the NFFC Diamond League and I think Rob Silver is in, too. That would mean five of 12 spots are already filled for our debut $10,000 entry fee league. Now that's pretty cool.

C'mon, give me some feedback now. Any thoughts on the web site, Registration page, 9-photo NFFC Champions gallery on the right hand rail, etc.? Let us know what you like and would like improved and we'll get it done. Thanks all.

TamuScarecrow · Post by **TamuScarecrow** » Tue May 18, 2010 8:52 am

I didn't see all of the lifetime standings information on the site yet but I did like the lifetime money list and the NFFC records section. I didn't know I had the second highest weekly point total of all-time.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue May 18, 2010 8:59 am

Originally posted by Tamuscarecrow:
I didn't see all of the lifetime standings information on the site yet but I did like the lifetime money list and the NFFC records section. I didn't know I had the second highest weekly point total of all-time. Yeah, we don't have the Lifetime Standings done for baseball yet either. That, unfortunately, is going to be a work in progress. We do have all of the historical data from STATS since 2004 for both contests and you'll soon have access to every NFFC team you've ever owned. I think there will be year links available for those.

Second highest ever?? Nice.

TamuScarecrow · Post by **TamuScarecrow** » Tue May 18, 2010 9:11 am

I'm looking at Week 9 vs. the Lundquists score for Week 14. 2006 season was my second draft in Chicago where Gerard was on the phone the entire draft because of Katrina. That was the year we had the Palmer/Johnson connection and almost was hight point in Week 10 too. I have a feeling the lifetime stats could be a manual operation as there were players showing up in 2 spots in the old NFFC lifetime standings that need combining.

NYkickN · Post by **NYkickN** » Tue May 18, 2010 9:20 am

Will there be any Satellite drafts ? If so, will they be 10-team / 12-team / 14-team or all three ? What will they cost and when will they be available ?

Thanks

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue May 18, 2010 9:32 am

Originally posted by NYkickN:
Will there be any Satellite drafts ? If so, will they be 10-team / 12-team / 14-team or all three ? What will they cost and when will they be available ?

Thanks That is still being discussed as we are trying to build the national contests more rather than the private individual leagues. Our satellite league signups have dropped each of the last two years as the other national contests took players away from us. That's why we believe the $125 national contest level has more potential than simple $125 leagues.

We are looking at all of this now along with the Slow Drafts process. I'm sure we'll finalize this all soon and announce plans shortly. But if we do satellite leagues, they will only be 14-teamers. We have a 12-team NFFC Online Championship and the 10-team concept will only be available if we do the NFFC Cutline Championship. Hope this helps.

NYkickN · Post by **NYkickN** » Tue May 18, 2010 9:54 am

Last year there were prizes given out to whoever finished in the top 10% (i think) in the overall Classic and Primetime combined as well as the Classic and Online Championship combined. Is this the case this year ? If so, is it posted anywhere ? Couldn't find it.

Thanks again