Is It Too Early To Talk About The Classic's Future?

[Coltsfan]

I agree with a lot of what is being said here.

Greg - You have the contests with the large overall prize so those people chasing the lottery have contests for that. For the classic to survive you have to have people at least feeling like they are in it to the end even if they don't take home any money. I agree with Mike on maybe paying something small to 4th place. I would love to do away with loser bracket contests. Please just let the league end after 13 weeks and award someone who was close. The Classic is all die hard players and we don't need more lineups to set each week. But I would not worry too much about the overall prize money. Your customers are not playing the Classic because of the overall. They play because they like the format and it means something to win a classic league. The overall makes it fun but you need people taking enough money out at the league level to keep them playing.

Thanks for opening up this discussion to us Greg!


Wayne

[BillyWaz]

This is all great discussion!

I like KJ's idea of flattening the overall prize. I think $15,000-$20,000 is more than sufficient for 2nd place overall....and you could put some of that money into a 4th place league prize.

I also like Mike's idea of adding a 4th place team getting say $1000 and a crack at the championship round. Wayne is right.....no one plays the classic for the overall prize....it is a tough tough league, where if you win your league.....mucho respect!

And like Wayne also said.....for the love of Pete, lets get rid of the consolation round in this contest. Unless the Classic is HIGHLY promoted, you have to concede that very few "newbies" will sign up for this. These are your diehards, Greg, and I don't think may like the consolation rounds.

[Greg Ambrosius]

One more feedback that came to me via email:

"I think keeping it as close to how it has been is the way to go, with some small changes. After all it is the Classic. I would not be in the camp of drastically ramping up the league prizes at the cost of the overall pool. I do think that the overall top prize can certainly come down to a nice round 50k. The difference should go to mostly to overall prize pool other spots, but a little bit could be allocated to 4th place perhaps. I would be ok with a 4th place team getting into the dance in this contest. No strong preference either way. I would have winner take all consolation race of 2k or something. Money is tight in this format. Very little of it should go to the consolation purse. The main thing here is that there is no overwhelming carrot that sells the contest anyway. By taking it to a still very cool 50k prize that is very attainable if you get in, it doesn't look that much less flashy than what it is now."

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, thanks for the early feedback. I think we've learned a lot so far and have some options we hadn't thought of before. First the poll results:

Option 1 - 27%
Option 2 - 53%
Option 3 - 17%
Other - 3%

It's not overwhelming, but it's obvious to us that past NFFC Classic owners still want a meaningful overall prize pool even if the grand prize is scaled down to $70,000 or less. Feedback includes lowering the grand prize to even $50,000 and still having solid 2nd through 10th place overall prizes. While it doesn't take the guaranteed risk away from us in this contest, it does make some sense.

With a $50,000 grand prize we could shoot for fewer than 252 teams and add secondary prizes if demand exceeds expectations, but for now I think we'll shoot for 18 full leagues knowing that we've hit 20 leagues each of the two previous years. Maybe these changes will actually ENHANCE the lure of playing in this 14-team format.

I think adding a 4th league team to the Championship Round makes a lot of sense. I mean, we started the NFFC Primetime with only two teams from each league making the Championship Round and we quickly learned that wasn't fair. We allow three teams per league in our 12-team formats to reach the Championship Round, so adding a fourth team makes perfect sense. And since anything can happen in the Championship Round, I think this adds value to our 14-team format. Good suggestion.

We can certainly reduce the prize money from the Consolation Round and put that toward more league prize money or the overall prize pool in the Championship Round. A nominal prize for fourth place in the league is possible, although I'm not sure it's necessary now that there is even more money to be won in the Championship Round. Having a shot at $50,000 seems more valuable than a $500 league prize, but we'll discuss internally. Even $500 per team at 18 leagues is $9,000, which would have to come from somewhere.

We give over $8,000 in Combined Prizes between the Classic and Online Championship and could easily use that money to buy a $75,000 insurance policy instead. Maybe that would spice up having teams in both formats.

Thanks for the feedback and we'll keep all options on the table to keep the Classic alive and well in 2020. This is why we wanted to discuss this early to get some new ideas. Thanks all.

[Greg Ambrosius]

So if there is some agreement in a flatter overall prize pool, as KJ suggests, feel free to tweak from this starting point:

Option 2:
League Prizes:
1st - $8,000
2nd - $3,400
3rd - $1,700

Overall:
1st - $50,000 flatten the top 5 prize pool, $50k is a solid overall but spread more over top 5
2nd - $25,000
3rd - $10,000
4th - $7,000
5th - $5,000
6th - $2,000
7th - $1,600
8th - $1,500
9th - $1,300
10th - $1,200
Consolation - $6,000 to top 3

The league prize would now be almost 5x the entry fee, which is nice. There is no 4th place league prize and getting to $1,000 with 18 leagues would mean taking a big chunk from the overall. Yes, you could do that by reducing second place to $15,000 and eliminating the Consolation Round prizes, so have at it with those two options. Is it better to pay $1,000 to each 4th place league finisher than an additional $10,000 to 2nd overall, while eliminating some other prizes elsewhere?

Consolation Round: I have no issue with people not caring about this, but in all of our contests we try to keep owners alive for 16 weeks. It would be easy to reduce this to a winner-take-all format with the top team earning a FREE 2020 NFFC Classic entry. That reduces the prizes and is easy for us to budget accordingly. Set your lineup in the Consolation Round or not, we don't care, but we'll keep it open for those who still want to watch Live Scoring and Live Standings for the last three weeks.

Combined Standings: Yes, we'll look at this as well to see if there are some savings there that can be used in the overall prizes.

Anything else?

[kjduke]

This is all great discussion!

I like KJ's idea of flattening the overall prize. I think $15,000-$20,000 is more than sufficient for 2nd place overall....and you could put some of that money into a 4th place league prize.

I also like Mike's idea of adding a 4th place team getting say $1000 and a crack at the championship round. Wayne is right.....no one plays the classic for the overall prize....it is a tough tough league, where if you win your league.....mucho respect!

And like Wayne also said.....for the love of Pete, lets get rid of the consolation round in this contest. Unless the Classic is HIGHLY promoted, you have to concede that very few "newbies" will sign up for this. These are your diehards, Greg, and I don't think may like the consolation rounds.

Also in favor of dumping consolidation round. Move that money into league prizes or 6th-10th money.

[Greg Ambrosius]

It's Consolation Round, not Consolidation Round. But I guess what you are suggesting is consolidating, so NEVER MIND!!

[BONGIZMO]

I like Option 2 with KJs flattening out the overall prize pool. I would suggest we lose the Consolation Round, add it to the league third place prize bringing it to 2k. It's a 14 teamer so having the Top 3 come out ahead seems reasonable. Although I likely, over the years, lead the NFFC in 4th place finishes, I don't think we pay some pittance to 4th or allow them in the Championship round. The Finals often require catching 'lightning in a bottle' thus only those that actually earned a spot in should be there imho.

Scott

[kjduke]

It's Consolation Round, not Consolidation Round. But I guess what you are suggesting is consolidating, so NEVER MIND!!

Yes, consolidate the consolation!!

[nolencole]

Consolation done! Move the funds. Prefer the 3 league finishers moving on over 4 team.

A.A. - 2019 CLASSIC CHAMPION