Prize Money Reduction?

khandy29 · Post by **khandy29** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 11:58 am

If by chance the 602 teams arent reached will there be any change in the prize winnings?

JerseyPaul · Post by **JerseyPaul** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:20 pm

BR,

If they get within shouting distance, they will eat the loss. That statement is based on what happened in baseball.

Worst case, the event WILL go off with reduced prizes. There will be mountains of discussion whether to leave the grand prize alone and reduce the other grand prizes and/or league prizes versus reducing the big nut and leaving the little nuts alone. The organizers will be forced to have new signed agreements with the players who agree to the changes, so it's a royal pain in the butt.

My view... WCOFF filled early and decided not to expand. Million Dollar already folded. I suspect other WCOFF spin-offs will also fold. There will be a huge last minute sign-up as players realize it's no fun watching football without the side action. NFBC did a great job with baseball and has KP to add a lot of credibility. The last week in August there will be 10 pages of posts on how to change the prize structure and the final decison will be not to change it at all.

Greg's answer will be that the prize money is guaranteed and it's his job to make sure the league is filled. Of course that won't answer your question

[ July 16, 2004, 06:23 PM: Message edited by: JerseyPaul ]

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 2:45 pm

Black Reign, we are committed to filling this event just like we were with the National Fantasy Baseball Championship. Our prize structure was based on 300 teams for baseball and we got 195 for the main event and 37 for the Auction Leagues, for a total of 232 teams. We did discuss the possibility of restructing the overall prize payout with our members on the Message Boards and we got very honest responses for all to see. We were very honest with our position. But we filled two leagues that last week and reached a point where we could afford to pay back almost 100 percent of the total take in prize money.

Why did we do it? Because it made good business sense. We have built the premiere high-stakes fantasy baseball contest in one year and there is no question in my mind that we will easily sell all 300 spots next year. Our players trusted in us and my bosses made the right decision, even though it cost us money.

We do not have to fill all 602 spots to keep the prize structure in place. We know what we have budgeted for this year and we can certainly reach that. There are also other revenue streams like sponsorships and the Draft Masters and Auction Leagues. So we know what needs to be done to keep the prize structure in place and we'll get there, I'm convinced.

I understand that everyone wants to see us with 400 paid teams right now, but trust me we are FAR ahead of our pace for baseball and the August signups will be plentiful. There is great interest in the multi-city format and enough fantasy football players to draw from with all of the ads we have out there. You can see the signups coming in each day and every signup I announce is fully paid, not some silly deposit.

We've had 10 signups since Tuesday morning. I like that pace and I think it will only pick up as training camps near. Keep the faith in us, just like our NFBC guys did this March.

TradeStar28 · Post by **TradeStar28** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 3:53 pm

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
Black Reign, we are committed to filling this event just like we were with the National Fantasy Baseball Championship. Our prize structure was based on 300 teams for baseball and we got 195 for the main event and 37 for the Auction Leagues, for a total of 232 teams. We did discuss the possibility of restructing the overall prize payout with our members on the Message Boards and we got very honest responses for all to see. We were very honest with our position. But we filled two leagues that last week and reached a point where we could afford to pay back almost 100 percent of the total take in prize money.

Why did we do it? Because it made good business sense. We have built the premiere high-stakes fantasy baseball contest in one year and there is no question in my mind that we will easily sell all 300 spots next year. Our players trusted in us and my bosses made the right decision, even though it cost us money.

We do not have to fill all 602 spots to keep the prize structure in place. We know what we have budgeted for this year and we can certainly reach that. There are also other revenue streams like sponsorships and the Draft Masters and Auction Leagues. So we know what needs to be done to keep the prize structure in place and we'll get there, I'm convinced.

I understand that everyone wants to see us with 400 paid teams right now, but trust me we are FAR ahead of our pace for baseball and the August signups will be plentiful. There is great interest in the multi-city format and enough fantasy football players to draw from with all of the ads we have out there. You can see the signups coming in each day and every signup I announce is fully paid, not some silly deposit.

We've had 10 signups since Tuesday morning. I like that pace and I think it will only pick up as training camps near. Keep the faith in us, just like our NFBC guys did this March. For the first year....I wouldnt mind you guys just "breaking even" and letting us play for a 100% payout

Ofcourse by year #2 , you will get the 602 and we can let Krause make a few duckets.

It would be pretty nice to have a 1-350 chance @ 200 large!! Much much much better odds than WCOFF, which is 1 in 672 chance and less than 65 overall payout !

Yeah Greg!! Take one for the team!

khandy29 · Post by **khandy29** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:51 pm

That's all I needed to hear and if you had answered your phone today instead of stressing yourself out trying to get that double bogey you would have had another signup !!

JP, who is KP when you talk about credibility?

JerseyPaul · Post by **JerseyPaul** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 6:04 pm

Krause Publications

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 3:36 am

Well, the guys who signed up for the National Fantasy Baseball Championship with the idea of having a 1:300 chance of winning $100,000 got a break when the odds were lowered to 1:195 and the grand prize stayed the same. I hope the odds remain 1:602 here, but we'll see.

Sorry I wasn't around to answer my phone yesterday. Believe me, there was NO stress on the golf course. I played with a forgiving foursome where mulligans were freely allowed. There were few "written" double bogeys, although I'm sure I had a few!!!

Krause Publications has been around since 1952 and we publish 55 different magazines and do more than a dozen shows a year. We were acquired by F&W Publications in 2002 and our parent company now has annual sales that exceed $250 million a year. So we are not two guys just trying to put this event on. We are a big company that sees the big picture and understands that Year One is the foundation and we'll continue to build this event into the industry's premiere event. We are big enough to have a staff to mann three drafts at once and I certainly foresee expanding to more cities in the future. This is the right format for this kind of contest and we are the right company to do it.

Could there be a million dollar grand prize some day? Only if the event continues to expand to allow more people to play. You need a big company to do that and KP is certainly big enough to handle more cities.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 3:39 am

Black Reign, are you Jim Piper? I tried calling you back yesterday, but you said the phone number so fast I couldn't hear the numbers. I tried all different combinations after 310 and none of them knew of a Jim Piper. I had fun trying to get you, but I never hit the right combination.

Sorry, I hate to miss a potential signup, but hopefully you're still on board with us.

khandy29 · Post by **khandy29** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 3:45 pm

Sorry, Greg but Black Reign isn't a Piper(although i am a Celtic fan)...i didnt leave my number since i figured i would just catch you on Monday since most people cut out of work early on fridays in the summer time...