Looking For Feedback On Main Event Doubleheader

[Greg Ambrosius]

Originally posted by Eug:
Greg, here's my input:

1. 2 hours is good enough.

2. $1300 for both events is fine. Making the Primtime price go down would make it LESS attractive to me.

3. I had the opposite feeling as some of the earlier guys to post. I was thinking a lower price on the 14-teamer would get more people to try something they were less familiar with since it cost less? I definitely see it their way too though.

4. Question on this one: Geographically speaking, where do your customers come from? In other words, drafters may go to a city outside of the region where they live, but are all the major regions of the US represented well? What percent comes from the West Coast, New England region, Midwest, South, Southeast, etc? Based on that info, maybe picking a 4th city would be easier?

5. What about having Auctions, Draftmasters, Supers, Ultimates spread out over Thurs/Fri?

6. I like the idea of keeping phone drafters in play to increase the size of the field. This is a solid post Eugene. Agreed, that some folks only joined the NBC Primetime event because that was THEIR high-stakes event. Reducing one or the other is always dangerous. And there is some sentiment to the fact that the 12-team main event may have more potential to grow than the 14-teamer. I love the 14-team format, but its growth potential may be more limited.

Geographically, New York and California dominate, but we have folks from New Jersey flying to Las Vegas and folks from Florida flying to Las Vegas. Our fourth destination should be in an area where folks can drive to that spot to compete, but it also needs to be a fun destination so that folks can enjoy their trip to that city. I haven't figured out yet if the fun outweighs the central location of this final destination.

As for the online option, if you look at the list for the two NBC leagues, they were all NFFC vets who just couldn't make the trip this year. Those were loaded leagues and I'm convinced that continuing down that path has more potential than harm.

[BillyWaz]

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
quote:Originally posted by Eddiejag:
Dont know what you guys are smoking but the WCOFF expierence for myself was awesome.Their is nothing like walking into that room in Vegas and seeing 75 leagues , you can get lost in there.I have no cheap shots at either event as they are too me the bestin the business.But to think that WCOFF will lose teams is silly.They just hit 912 in this economy, i think when the economy gets better both events will grow even more. Love them both. I would agree with Eddie that the WCOFF Las Vegas experience is FANtastic. It's one helluva sight to see 75 leagues in a 70,000 square foot room and from what I remember last year they don't spare any expense on their participants. Now they have some events fees to use for that, but it's all good. I heard this year in Las Vegas was top notch too.

Heck, I'd love to have that first weekend of the NFL season in Las Vegas as I know how exciting that is out there, but there's no reason for two events on the same day. WCOFF does it up right out in Las Vegas. I know it's tougher to create the same experience in the other non-NFL gambling cities, but we kind of have the same problem. Fortunately, Tom knows what he has to do in NY to keep those folks happy, Scott knows what he has to do in CHI to make the Windy City as good as it can be and Scott and Steve do their best in Florida. Having every staffer here in Iola and meeting once a week makes us all leave here with the same goals.

It's all good. Both events just need to find ways to bring in new customers and keep our current customers as happy as can be. [/QUOTE]I have NO DOUBT that the WCOFF event in Vegas IS better than Atlantic City. More leagues, better atmosphere, etc. but the Atlantic City version was NOT GOOD IMO.

1) The guy heading it up on Friday didn't know the auction was supposed to start each round with team #1.

2) It had to be the auctioneer's first time doing it, and he was inconsistent at the beginning costing Edelman a shot at Brady (which he is probably happy about now! ). In his defense, he did get better.

3) On Saturday, the guy running my league had NO CLUE as to how many rounds the event was.

Like Greg said, when they leave Iola, everyone has a plan of attack. I think WCOFF just "wings it" (in AC anyhow).

Finally, like Russ said, the events should be quality in ALL cities when you do this. Sure, Vegas might be great for WCOFF, but AC was a BIG disappointment, and I would bet Orlando and Dallas were also.

Just my opinion.

[BillyWaz]

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
Thoughts? Oh, and I REALLY love New Orleans as a fourth city, but with the Gulf of Mexico at 87 degrees each August that's just inviting trouble. Agree 100%. If it was baseball in March, this would be a "no-brainer" IMO, but with the threat of hurricanes, it is WAY too much of a risk.

[kapefear]

Greg and Tom, When talking AC or NYC,I agree with you that if you add AC that you'd get the split,but what if you add AC and FOXWOODS?No NYC,casino's for everybody.Everyone would love to go to VEGAS.But I and alot of other people cant afford it.I travel 4.5 hours every year"4th" to NYC and use it as a MINI vacation.The 3 hours in between I loved.Went out cleared head,ate,and came back and HARRASSED TOM.I guess it come down to BUSINESS or PLEASURE.One last note someone mentioned that FOXWOODS is as expensive as AC,well you also have MOHEGAN SUN,right down the road..

[Tom Kessenich]

Originally posted by BillyWaz:
quote:Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
Thoughts? Oh, and I REALLY love New Orleans as a fourth city, but with the Gulf of Mexico at 87 degrees each August that's just inviting trouble. Agree 100%. If it was baseball in March, this would be a "no-brainer" IMO, but with the threat of hurricanes, it is WAY too much of a risk. [/QUOTE]We are contemplating going with New Orleans as our fourth city for baseball if we move out of Florida, but that's a discussion for the NFBC boards.

[BillyWaz]

Originally posted by Tom Kessenich:
quote:Originally posted by BillyWaz:
quote:Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
Thoughts? Oh, and I REALLY love New Orleans as a fourth city, but with the Gulf of Mexico at 87 degrees each August that's just inviting trouble. Agree 100%. If it was baseball in March, this would be a "no-brainer" IMO, but with the threat of hurricanes, it is WAY too much of a risk. [/QUOTE]We are contemplating going with New Orleans as our fourth city for baseball if we move out of Florida, but that's a discussion for the NFBC boards. [/QUOTE]Actually thinking about my comment, it was geared more towards there is no way you could have it at that time of year in New Orleans.

For baseball with spring training everywhere in Florida, it may make more sense there. From someone who doesn't watch the sport, New Orleans would be better for me!

The big question to you Tom, is would you abandon NYC to get the New Orleans account??

By the way, has a date been set for baseball???

[ September 11, 2008, 09:36 AM: Message edited by: BillyWaz ]

[Gordon Gekko]

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
quote:Originally posted by Gordon Gekko:
Greg: how many brand new signups did u get for the nffc event? How many for the nbc event? We were happy with a return of 75% of our customers from 2007 to one of the two main events. That means we had about 130 new customers for either main event, which is on par with past years. Unfortunately, with two contests and twice the amount of prize money, we fell short of our goals. We had expected even more newbies with our partnership with NBC Sports, but I think in time those goals will be met. We admittedly had some first year hiccups together and we continued to adjust the web site on the fly, which made things tough for newbies trying to join. If we can get some of those things solved hopefully we can convert more folks into our events next year. [/QUOTE]the reason i ask is, which event had more interest in it by newbies, the 12 teamer or the 14 teamer?

[Tom Kessenich]

Originally posted by BillyWaz:
quote:Originally posted by Tom Kessenich:
quote:Originally posted by BillyWaz:
quote:Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
Thoughts? Oh, and I REALLY love New Orleans as a fourth city, but with the Gulf of Mexico at 87 degrees each August that's just inviting trouble. Agree 100%. If it was baseball in March, this would be a "no-brainer" IMO, but with the threat of hurricanes, it is WAY too much of a risk. [/QUOTE]We are contemplating going with New Orleans as our fourth city for baseball if we move out of Florida, but that's a discussion for the NFBC boards. [/QUOTE]Actually thinking about my comment, it was geared more towards there is no way you could have it at that time of year in New Orleans.

For baseball with spring training everywhere in Florida, it may make more sense there. From someone who doesn't watch the sport, New Orleans would be better for me!

The big question to you Tom, is would you abandon NYC to get the New Orleans account?? [/QUOTE]I wouldn't look at it as abandoning New York but making sure New Orleans ran smoothly.

Seriously, though, I don't know how we can have New Orleans as a fourth city for football. It's a great city and would definitely be a popular location but with two hurricanes in the past four years the weather concerns are simply too great in my opinion. I don't think we can afford to take that kind of risk with our events.

[Quahogs]

NYC is in the middle of the most densely populated area in the states. Bang into the city, bang out some drafts, then bang back home. You want casinos and 4 day vacations? Vegas is the destination. Just can't get away? NYC is the place.

[Tom Kessenich]

It's going to be very difficult for us to leave New York. It has been our No. 1 city in terms of teams twice in our first five years. I don't think we'll be leaving NY anytime soon. And again with Atlantic City, would that be a way to increase our participation numbers or would it simply give our New York participants somewhere else to go? That's a very important question when looking at Atlantic City.