AFFL - Deja Vu, Uh Oh

[Glenneration X]

I hate to be the bearer of potential bad news, but I've been monitoring a situation over at the AFFL for about a month now.

For those unfamiliar, the AFFL is a longtime Fantasy Football contest that ran into trouble in 2007 when Neil Wickham didn't pay out any of the prizes.
In 2008, the AFFL was bought out by new owners, Bob Smolarczyk & Wade Golab, who awarded all 2007 winners credits that could be used for AFFL contests and resumed the football contests for 2008. At season's end, all 2008 prize winners were sent checks and in timely fashion.

Fast forward to 2009. I've been keeping up with their message board for the past month or so where I've been reading complaints about non-payments.
It appears that the new owners made some partial payments to this year's prize winners and promised the rest once assets were liquidated. The owners continually stated that all delays were temporary and the holdups were merely that all prize winnings were tied up into non-liquid investments that were taking longer to sell than expected.

Though suspicious, and I'm sure troubling for those who are owed money, I was hopeful that the new owners would make good on the prizes. I played the AFFL this year and Bob & Wade seemed like good guys to me with good intentions. They saved the AFFL, gave all screwed over 2007 winners credits, paid all of last year's winners in full, and though late made partial payments to this year's winners (why do that if your plan is to screw over the winners?)

However in recent days, the message board communication seemed to dwindle, the posts made by winners waiting on money seemed to indicate E-mail communication was dwindling as well, and then a couple days ago the Message Board itself went down. In addition, my personally placed call into one of the owners made a week ago remains unanswered.

I've silently monitored the situation for the past few weeks in the hopes it was just a temporary blip. However, I just read a post on the FFPC message boards by someone thinking about joining the AFFL next year. Time's up.

I am hopeful that I'm reading all of this wrong and the message board being down is just a technical issue, that the prize winnings were actually in a non-liquid account that has now been sold, and that Bob & Wade have gotten their **** together and are in the process of making good on what they owe....for the sake of the prize winners, for the sake of themselves & their contests, but mostly for the sake of the High Stakes Fantasy Sports world we're all part of.....the last thing it needs is another black eye.

We should all be greatful to the contests that we can have confidence in. There will only be a certain few contests that will get my money from this day forward.

Glenn

[BillyWaz]

For the record, I was one of the owners screwed over in 2007 ($1,050)

I received credits, and put those into 2 leagues this past season. I didn't win any $$ inone of them, but won $600 in the other.

I received my winnings about a month ago.

Maybe it's because I didn't win very much!

I really hope they can pay everyone (and soon!), or their proverbial goose will be VERY overcooked!

I'm with you Glenn on where my $$$ will be spent. The NFFC (ALWAYS!) and one other will be the only two who get my cheddar each year!

[ March 14, 2010, 12:45 PM: Message edited by: BillyWaz ]

[hammer]

Like Billy, I applied my 2007 winnings from AFFL as credits toward 2008 entry fees... did well in '08 and received a check for $10,000 last year.

This year I've only received 1/4 of my winnings from 2009. I've known Wade & Bob since I lost to their team in the PAYDAY championship a few years ago. Knowing them gave me the confidence to re-up in 2008.

I wish they hadn't put themselves in this situation. They did a great job of turning that contest around and AFFL looked to be building confidence among the fantasy community. I'm sure they mean to pay, but the longer this situation lingers the harder it will be to generate business going forward.

Aside from wanting my own winnings, I hope this thing turns out well, because the industry doesn't need another black eye. I'm rooting for them.


EDIT, update... looks like they're working to get the message board back up. Hopefully that's a good sign.

[ March 16, 2010, 11:21 AM: Message edited by: hammer ]

[Diesel]

Guys, my opinion is if a contest had problems paying out prizes, they're not getting my money. Period. Unless Donald Trump takes that event over, there's nothing that would make me invest in something with a troubled past. Its like someone opening Enron again. Would you invest? Take my advice. Even if the AFFL makes good, go with the very few contests that have a flawless payout history.