2009 NFFC Plans...For Now!

Mike Costaglio · Post by **Mike Costaglio** » Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:17 pm

Greg, you run a great competition. I think that those on the MB appreciate an opportunity to provide input however you must decide what is best for the "continued" success of the competition. I thought that 2008 would be tough based on the economy and I believe that most high stakes events will be lucky to return 60% of the 2008 teams for 2009. Pricing will be critical as well as the opportunity to begin a payment plan now for 2009 registrations.
Our 14 team flagship with 3rr is special and should sell. I would suggest that the overall prize reflects 60% of last years registrations and go up from there as the numbers improve. Better to add than subtract. I would also make sure to announce that you can play without travel (online draft). I do not think this will come down to new rules or twists, keep it simple and keep the core philosphy in place.

Good luck, thanks again

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:51 am

Originally posted by Mike Costaglio:
Greg, you run a great competition. I think that those on the MB appreciate an opportunity to provide input however you must decide what is best for the "continued" success of the competition. I thought that 2008 would be tough based on the economy and I believe that most high stakes events will be lucky to return 60% of the 2008 teams for 2009. Pricing will be critical as well as the opportunity to begin a payment plan now for 2009 registrations.
Our 14 team flagship with 3rr is special and should sell. I would suggest that the overall prize reflects 60% of last years registrations and go up from there as the numbers improve. Better to add than subtract. I would also make sure to announce that you can play without travel (online draft). I do not think this will come down to new rules or twists, keep it simple and keep the core philosphy in place.

Good luck, thanks again Agreed Mike. Yes, I'll add the fact that we are including online drafts to the main event this year. We are doing that for baseball as well. The way we are doing it is the same way we did it last year for the NFFC Primetime. We will work with MockDraftCentral.com to have a teleconference number for all online drafters to call into and to announce their picks, with a league site set up on MDC.com for everyone to watch the actual picks and see the available players. Everyone will be given 60 seconds just like the live drafters and all they have to do is announce their picks and MDC officials will make the actual picks. These online drafts will be held at the exact same time as the main events and should allow more folks to join our contests.

Through the years we've had a 75-80 percent return rate to our contests and hopefully we can retain 70-75 percent in some fashion in 2009. It could be a tough year, which we all agree, so hopefully our new price and prize payouts will be accepted and allow us to grow nonetheless.

Raiders · Post by **Raiders** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 2:26 am

Greg,

I do think adding the 3rd team gets in by points would be a good move. But make the rule simple. Same with the WW. There's already many different rules and being a 14 team format, something that most aren't use too. Plus of course 3RR and KDS, both are the reason I enjoy playing here. Nothing to do with Tom or yourself.

You guys do a great job and as a player I'm happy you guys listen to what the players want.

2009 will be a tough year for everyone, so keeping the core and building for 2010 and beyond will be the key.

John

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:09 am

Originally posted by Coltsfan:
Greg,

I like your ideas a lot! If I'm understanding this right, you're not saying that there won't be a $100,000 prize - your just saying you are only going to guarantee $75,000. But if enough people sign up then the grand prize increases - correct? If that's the case then that's more than fair. Ultimately we will decide how much the grand prize is by how many of us sign up.

I was not going to play the NBC this year but I will for sure with the entry being $750. I"m fine with 2 teams making the championship round but 3 will work also.

I would like to see an online championship this year. Keep the overall grand prize small but this should help fill up many more satellites.

I would also like an overall auction championship. Once again, keep the grand prize small but it will add a lot of fun to the auctions leagues.

Do away with the $1,000,000. Ultimately we are all paying for it and I would rather keep the payouts in the leagues high.

I think you have made a lot of great suggestions! I'm looking forward to 09!

Wayne Yeah Wayne, we are projecting one more NFFC Classic league in 2009 than 2008 even with a down economy. That's 322 teams overall as I remain optimistic about our 14-team format. Last year's guaranteed prize payout was based on 392 teams. Since $4,550 is set aside from each league for the overall prize pool, if we do get to 392 teams we can have that $100,000 grand prize. As I originally stated, I don't want to reduce the league prizes that we currently have, so with each additional league we add after 322 I'll add $5,000 to the grand prize.

We have added an NFBC Online Championship at $350 for baseball and could add an NFFC 14-team Online Championship for football as well. I am leaning that way because our new setup with STATS gives us better flexibility financially to do more satellite leagues and an online championship. We would shoot for 300 teams like we're doing with baseball and provide a $20,000 grand prize. These drafts would likely be held the week before the main event.

All competitors in the auction leagues can have an overall prize if they agree to it. I've said for years that I'm not against this, but adding a $50 mandatory charge on top of our entry fee isn't the way to go because it's hard enough to fill those up each season. For the Draft Champions and the Auction Leagues, I'll give back 100% of whatever additional money is added to a pool for an overall champion if that helps. I just don't want to force owners to enter that.

Well, actually, I paid for the $1 million bonus, but that's okay. I think I can come up with another bonus prize for the two events at a more affordable price. Maybe we can even find a sponsor who will help us out here. Stay tuned. If golf tournaments can do it, we can too.

All suggestions were painful. But here's to the start of 2009.

KOTRAX · Post by **KOTRAX** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:16 am

ANOTHER QUESTION. IS THE ONLINE CHAMPIONSHIP ONLY GOING TO BE FOR THE NFFC FORMAT?

OR WILL THERE BE A NBC FORMAT AS WELL?

renman · Post by **renman** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:17 am

Greg,

I would say I am similar to Route C in that I am very passionate about the NFFC and doing what it takes to help the event grow through these "lean years" is important to me. I have recruited people into this event every year. I have full confidence that in a very short amount of time this event is going to be standing tall when the chaos and dust settles in the fantasy football industry and we wont need to worry about prize funds or guarantees as much as we will worry about not getting shut out of the event.

some thoughts about the initial post starting this thread...

-I have to admit I would be disappointed if the first prize for the NFFC classic dropped to $75,000. I totally understand the reasons why it might have to happen but to me it is a huge downer. I think building a history and some symetry is part of the greatness of this event. Being able to crown a "100k" winner every year continues that tradition. Seeing that dip and head in the wrong direction is a turnoff.

-I also wonder what NBC brings to this event. I know RobB mentioned this in a previous post and I saw no response. If they are not going to contribute to the prize fund for the privilage of having their name on the event... and they are not going to give out much or really cover the event from a media perspective.. or wont highlight the champions in a short segment in week 17 during football night in America.. what are they doing? Why do they get to have their name connected to our prestigous event?

-I know we are talking about expenses being part of why prize funds may have to come down. Has anyone ever discussed moving the draft sites to more economical settings given the people are traveling to do a hard core fantasy event and not to sightsee or be a tourist. I also know the landscape of tourism in Vegas is different now and hotels are operating at about a 60-65% occupancy down from 95% just a year and a half ago. Gaming properties should be more open to paying the NFFC to host their event if it is going to bring in a large number of people who will stay, dine and gamble at their property. There definately should be room to negotiate better deals.

I am only speaking for New York but I bet you could cut your expense for the draft in half just by moving it 7 miles west somewhere near Giants stadium. I can't speak for Chicago or other sites but has this been discussed for NYC?

-I personally prefer the post season chase for the championship to be a more exclusive group. I am not really in favor of a 3rd place team making it (this comes from me, someone who has finished 3rd more than once). However this isn't a deal breaker for me just a preference. As a matter of fact, there are no deal breakers I can think of...lol

-If what I read here a month or so ago was accurate about the "million dollar jackpot" and there is a $25,000 insurance premium I would suggest we bail on the million dollar gimmick and feed that into prize funds.

-I think if we are to have two main event drafts the NFFC classic should be second.

-I support the idea of the primetime event being lowered primarily based on the economy with the hopes it would/could slowly grow over the next few years as things improve.

-I would like seeing a clause put in that allowes the people running the event executive power to not only run another faab (due to game cancel) but make other executive decisions that might fall outside of what is outlined in black/white via the rules. The rules are not going to cover every single contingency every all the time. We need to trust the guys running the event , who are hard core fantays players themselves, will make good judgements. We have to take the handcuffs off and get past the "well, we can't do nuthin cause it aint spelled out in black n white in the rules!" logic.

-I see Greg in the previous post talking about "sponsorships" contributing. I think that is a huge part of this and needs to be explored.

lumpy463 · Post by **lumpy463** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:35 am

Greg,

I wish the 3rd place team was in effect this year. We wold be 100k wealthier.

I am not strongly in favor of two or three teams.

What I do feel strongly about is what qualifies as the third team.
I do not think it should be based on record or points.

First Place

lumpy463 · Post by **lumpy463** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:39 am

Greg,

I wish the 3rd place team was in effect this year. We would be 100k wealthier.

I am not strongly in favor of two or three teams.
We are in as long as we keep playing on house money

What I do feel strongly about is what qualifies as the third team.
I do not think it should be based on record or points.

First Place Record
Second Place Points
Third Place Breakdown

How many leagues this year would have a different 3rd place team

Derek "Lumpy" Anderson

Diesel · Post by **Diesel** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:41 am

For all of you Auction players out there, that maybe missed Greg's agreement on this.

An optional $50 per auction team can get you an entry into the "online championship bonus potential".

It's NOT mandatory, and even if only 4 of us do it, count me in for next year. I say, the winner is the team with the most starting points through 16 weeks.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:24 am

Okay, here's a suggestion from one of our valued NFFC players: If we increased the NFFC Classic $100 per team to $1,400, we could keep the grand prize at $100,000. I could probably still do $2,000 for both events if owners signed up before a certain date to help the cause.

So we'd have $1,400 per team in the NFFC Classic, $750 per team in the NFFC Primetime and $2,000 for both main events. Just a thought for now. I'd have to run the numbers to see how this looks, but it's a possible solution to what I've offered initially.

And it does make sense to put the NFFC Primetime first and NFFC Classic second. We'll consider that for 2009. Maybe we can still keep this doubleheader at desired levels after all.