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Tips to Make a League More Fun and Active (1 Viewer)

Skoo

Skoo

Footballguy
Apologize if this has been covered, did some searching and didn't find much. I commish a league that does an online draft because some owners are spread across the country. Most owners know each other, some don't. Anyway I'm hoping to make my league more fun and more active. There aren't a ton of trades that go down, and trash talk is basically nonexistent. Can't have that! 

Thought I saw that ESPN will have a league chat this year and want to have something like that, I've also seen some Commissioners do a weekly recap video or podcast. 

Hoping you lovely people can give me some ideas for things I can do to make it a better league! Thanks very much.

 
I'm in a similar situation in a redraft league and would love any ideas, too. 

:blackdot:

 
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A buddy and I have discussed the idea of having an experimental league.  Basically a league where rules can change each week and owners (am I still allowed to use that term) will have the opportunity to propose things to try and then implement them.  Some won't work and some may be great.  If/when we try this I will add some ideas of what worked.

Some things in general:

  • Don't have trade fees - you want to try and promote trades so anything that restricts them is bad.  This includes trade committees.  Anything that makes trades harder is bad.
  • Limit transactions on a weekly basis or charge for transactions.  This can help increase trade activity.  We charge $5 for waiver pickups and $10 for instant claims (claims between the waiver award and start of games).  It has somewhat worked to increase trading.
  • Have good owners.  This cannot be overstated.  Without good owners leagues go stagnant
  • Have the top (or bottom)  scorer for the week provide the weekly recap.  Generally this will make all teams stay active and if you have good owners that can really bump up the smack talk this way.
  • Push for an in person draft and make it an event.  This helps all owners get to know each other and kicks the season off right.  It will also help with the smack talk as the season goes along if you have some connections there. 
If I come up with some other things I will jump back in.

 
Top 3 playoff owners draft their division's for next season. 4th place finisher names
the team of the owner drafting first-just for the season. 

 
Johnny B. Goode said:
Last place is executed 
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This is a joke, but honestly I think guillotine leagues are a lot of fun. There is a great deal of trash talking on game days as that last place team that week switches often. Let's be honest, in your average vanilla league about a third of the players are sub-.500 and more or less checked out anyway. In a guillotine you are either one of the teams still alive and have a very good shot at winning it all, or you are out. No going-through-the-motions owners waiting for a bad season to end.

I just wish there were more places that ran guillotine leagues. I have an MFL account and they definitely have the best service for deep, dynasty leagues but getting casual players to use the MFL interface is a chore. It doesn't help that they don't have an app(although I don't mind using the mobile website at all). For a lot of folks they just want the looks/simplicity of using an app for everything anymore.

 
I make line spreads for each match up. Then let other members wager on the games. Doesn't have to be for money ,can make it whatever you want. Money could get out of control very fast if you don't have limits- hehehe. Maybe person who picks the most games over the year wins something. Anyways, always is fun when there is actual line spreads on a fantasy game. That gets the trash talking for sure. Good Luck  

 
good answers above, I think there was a thread like this a few months ago so my answers are a repeat from memory of what I thought of then. mostly same as Gally's answers.

  • Even if it's half the league that get together, a live draft is always best. Make some event out of it that people can look forward to. We started our league fresh out of college when getting together was easy. Now everyone has kids and people live all over the map, but everyone looks forward to this one date every year. One year we set up webcams everywhere and had a live auction remotely for people who couldn't make it over.
  • CBS does this for us now, but I use to write all kinds of summaries and story lines for matchups every week. Mostly to entice smack talk. It's basic PR.
  • That guillotine idea for last place teams is a good one. Putting one or two teams on a penalty of some kind spawned smack talk even during offseason.
  • And as mentioned have good owners who actually get into things like this. This is probably the hardest one. Otherwise mind as well join an online league every year and avoid the heartburn associated with dealing with bad leagues.
 
matttyl said:
We promote moderate gambling.  Just little things - over/under on team wins for the year.  This player vs that one.  Most points.  $10 or $20 generally the max per wager. 
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I like gambling.

How do you facilitate this? Wagers posted to the league home page? Bets paid out on Venmo or something?

 
BoltBacker said:
This is a joke, but honestly I think guillotine leagues are a lot of fun. There is a great deal of trash talking on game days as that last place team that week switches often. Let's be honest, in your average vanilla league about a third of the players are sub-.500 and more or less checked out anyway. In a guillotine you are either one of the teams still alive and have a very good shot at winning it all, or you are out. No going-through-the-motions owners waiting for a bad season to end.

I just wish there were more places that ran guillotine leagues. I have an MFL account and they definitely have the best service for deep, dynasty leagues but getting casual players to use the MFL interface is a chore. It doesn't help that they don't have an app(although I don't mind using the mobile website at all). For a lot of folks they just want the looks/simplicity of using an app for everything anymore.
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They have an App (well it may be independent but works fine with my leagues - MFL Platinum.

 
Skoo said:
I like gambling.

How do you facilitate this? Wagers posted to the league home page? Bets paid out on Venmo or something?
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ON an MFL league, one thread is just for posting agreed upon wagers to keep them organized.  Typically paid in cash in person, or via mail.  Often wagers will cancel each other out, or one cancels out much of another and you can go double or nothing on something the following year.  Sometimes a team will buy another guys debt and use it to force a wager out of that owner.  Really it just gets a bit more excitement into the game.

 
I'm in the same boat, so thank you OP.

On one of the On the Couch podcasts, the guy from Minnesota had some fun games. 

I like the Game of Thrones twist, where everyone puts in $100. $50 for season winner and if a player wins 3 times (in a row or over a course of time) they win the pot (10 years + 10 teams = $5000).

Sounds like people will trade just to stop a team from winning the grand pot.

 
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If you have some fellow owners willing to step outside the box a bit, take a look at this archived thread with some Cutthroat Kitchen-type sabotage ideas.

One-off weekly gambling ideas are always a nice add-on as well - in my league I usually run a handful of weekly DFS-type contests where each owner throws in $10, submits a lineup, and winner takes all.  Some ideas I've either used or plan to use this year:

  • Waterboys - your DFS lineup must contain only players that haven't been a fantasy starter this season (usually trot this out in Week 4 or so)
  • Unicorns - anyone not appearing in any other player's DFS lineup scores double
  • Chinese Buffet - a 9-man DFS lineup that must contain 1 player from 9 different fantasy teams
  • Chinese Buffet II - your DFS lineup cannot contain more than 1 player from any NFL game (especially fun during heavy bye weeks)
  • Alphabet Soup - the first or last name of every player in your lineup must start with the same letter
  • Megatron Memorial - DFS lineups that score the same as your fantasy league except all TDs are negative scores rather than positive
If you're a degenerate and put half a mind to it, the possibilities are endless!  :moneybag: :moneybag: :moneybag:

 
Dr. Octopus said:
They have an App (well it may be independent but works fine with my leagues - MFL Platinum.
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I guess I've never considered it bases on the grade it gets in the app store.

Have you been happy with it overall? Do you think the score it has is unfair? Even if you do like it is there a weakness that you would really like to see fixed?

 
I guess this falls under the realm of keeping players active, but more to deter poor season apathy and tanking for our franchise league.

Lottery Draft

The seven non-playoff teams will be involved in the lottery draft. There will be 36 chances in the lottery for the 1st four picks. Picks 5-7 will remain in order worst to best ,for who ever is left over. Chances of winning the Lottery: 8th - 1 (3%) 9th- 2 (6%) 10th- 3 (8%) 11th- 4 (11%) 12th- 6 (17%) 13th- 8 (22%) 14th- 12 (33%). The Lottery will usually be conducted at my house on Thursday NFL Draft Day. Anyone can show up for the NFL draft party. If it doesn't happen that day, we will have at least 3 teams meet to conduct the lottery. *Edit to note that this is only for our rookie draft. We use auction style for our regular draft*

We also have an interleague playoffs between two leagues. All teams are in it for two different leagues (14 and 12 members), so essentially it is a single elimination round robin at the end of the season. I believe it is 5 weeks total with a couple byes to the first place teams? It is a mandatory $5 buy in for all teams and the winner gets $120 and runner up gets $10. It basically pays for the buy in next season for the winner even if he is doing poorly in the regular season standings. Scoring is based on 1qb,1rb,1wr & next highest wr/rb/te and top dl,lb,db, flex - defensive players. We alternate scoring between leagues every other year. Most of the owners play in both leagues, so it is works out pretty well. This probably isn't an option for too many people though.

 
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BoltBacker said:
I guess I've never considered it bases on the grade it gets in the app store.

Have you been happy with it overall? Do you think the score it has is unfair? Even if you do like it is there a weakness that you would really like to see fixed?
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I don’t see any issues with it. I’ve used it to draft, send offers, review offers, set my lineup and post on the chat. It doesn’t have a ton of bells and whistles but it’s functional.

 
-In person auction draft is the funnest thing you can do in FF imo.  

-FAAB waiver wire.  

-make the league a keeper or dynasty league.  This facilities trades.   

 
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I am only a redraft guy, so I really have no idea if this would work, but what about draft order determined by amount of players traded?  Ties decided by overall record.  As I said, this could be the dumbest idea ever, I dunno. 

 
One of my the commissioner puts out "power rankings" or gives a team "rundown" and compares the team to some sort of theme.  One year it was pokemon, the other board games, another alcoholic beverages, and dives deep into our personalities (not really since some of us don't know him personally but he finds ways to create) to find things to make them relate to each other.  It's a fun breakdown and gives everyone a chance to start talking to each other more.  He does this 3 times a year or so.  

 
If a head to head league, I like one or two of the wild cards being decided by next highest points (after division winners, next best record, etc).  Tends to keep a few more teams in the playoff chase.

Toilet Bowls are always a good way to keep more teams involved as well.

 
We have had pretty much the same owners for 20+ years. We have a party just to do draft slot selection. Usually at boys Del Mar trip in August. Then always live draft. Many years in Vegas but last 5-10 local with golf first then BBQ/Draft. 

Last place has to wear a skirt/skort to next year’s golf outing and draft. Had some hilarious situations - some things you just can’t unsee. The league has gravitated to WhatsApp and everyone is active. Fun

 
When playoffs hit, non playoff teams play for their draft slot. Worst 4 teams play for picks 1-4
mid tier play for 5-8.

 
We figure out draft order based on other sports. For example, we let players pick World Cup soccer teams to figure out where they place.  Lowest rank gets first pick.  I had Belgium and got 3rd pick.

Unfortunately, yahoo changed draft order last minute on me and I couldn't change it back. We're going to use those rankings this year though.

 
nightmare said:
When playoffs hit, non playoff teams play for their draft slot. Worst 4 teams play for picks 1-4
mid tier play for 5-8.
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Yeah, we do a toilet playoff for the teams that miss the real playoffs. The team that wins the toilet playoff gets to choose their draft slot for the next season. It fixed the problem we sometimes had with crappy teams giving up on their season and not putting in any effort late in the season. 

 
I'm pretty happy with my main league, but there are things I would change. I think that a great league boils down to two main things.

First is filling the league with people that are passionate about fantasy football. My league is 40% die hards, 40% people who really like football, and 20% people who pay attention during the season but never trade. It could definitely be better, but at least the die hards keep the league alive during the offseason and have a blast with the trash talk (dynasty league). During the season most of us are really engaged and try to hang out and watch games in person when we can. 

Second is incentive. Both incentive to win, and incentive not to lose. The winner each year gets a lot of money, with ever 3rd year being a bigger payout. The loser has to wear an OJ Simpson jersey every Sunday starting at the 1pm game until the end of the Sunday night game, they have to pay for the drinks at next year's draft, and they have to put up a framed picture of Tom Brady holding a baby goat in their house in a prominent location (usually right next to the TV).  It's not that bad, but it's enough that the fight to become champion is equally hard fought as the fight not to be sacko. 

 
Provide phone numbers of all members that are available so you can text a trade in the offseason. That is one of my pet peaves. My commish knows everybody's number, but we are stuck proposing trades that may sit for a month or more.

 
drunkb said:
Provide phone numbers of all members that are available so you can text a trade in the offseason. That is one of my pet peaves. My commish knows everybody's number, but we are stuck proposing trades that may sit for a month or more.
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Doesn't everyone in the league get email on their phones? 

 
With the advent of internet leagues, there is barely any discussion even during the online draft, much less during the season. For me, a lot of the fun is discussing what happens during the games or upcoming games. I've accepted that this is the way it is. I guess one thing I have done is to partner up with friends in a couple of high stakes leagues. That gives us a lot to talk about during the season or even on Sundays. I'm a control freak, so it's not easy to have a partner, but the discussion is worth the compromise.

I have a local league that I run that is entering its 22nd season. I've gone through phases of "this isn't as much fun anymore" and "there isn't a lot of interaction after the draft". These are some of things I have done over the years to try to make it more fun.

  • We implemented a GroupMe phone message thread for communication. That has really amplified discussion.
  • We hold a rules meeting at a bar about 3-4 weeks before the start of the season. We discuss rules changes, have the top 3 teams from the previous season pick the divisions, and we hold a draft lottery process. This always kicks off the season with a lot interest and discussion.
  • We hold an online draft one week before we do our auction draft. It's lower end players from each position plus kickers, defenses, and IDPs. Again, this usually adds to they season hype and discussion.
  • We hold a live auction draft. Everyone that is in the league must attend in person barring an emergency (2 years ago we had hurricane that prevented people from coming to the city). Anyone from out of town/state must fly/drive in for the draft if they want to be part of the league.
  • We change the rules a lot. Some times minor tweaks, some times big changes. E.g. 20 years ago it was a standard league that did snake drafts, but about 15 years ago we switched to an auction and then doubleheaders. We went to .5 ppr, then ppr, then 1.5 pts for TEs. Last year we went to Best Ball scoring. We added Victory Points about 5 years ago. Sometimes it's startling line-up composition or roster size.  Changes keep it fresh. It doesn't have to be major changes.
  • A long time ago we switched to FAAB waiver wire. Then we added dollars per week based on NFL picks either straight up or against the spread.
  • We change our schedule to have all division games during the last 3 weeks of the regular season.
  • We try to meet to watch the games in person either during the last week of the regular season or the first week of the playoffs.
  • We have changed our playoff format. We went from 4 teams with the 4th team being a wild card based on record to one based on points scored. We moved a 5th playoff team. We used to do normal head to head seeding to the 2 highest scoring teams advance to the Fantasy Bowl.  Last year we tried the 3 highest teams advance to the Fantasy Bowl, but first through third determined by combined scores of weeks 15-16. We have done consolation bowls. There has always been some kind of incentive to keep teams playing at the end.
  • The top 8 teams qualify for the NFL Playoff tournament.  We keep 3 players from our regulation season roster and then do a draft before the NFL playoffs. We set aside $400-$500 for the winner (take all). The 8th team to qualify is usually based on the highest scoring team over the last 3 weeks from the bottom 5 teams.
  • I also try to only keep the competitive owners and those that are really into it. There's usually quite a few people trying to get in. I try to add someone new every 2-3 years to keep things fresh.
Anyway, I'm sure I'm missing a few things and it's not conventional (and not for everyone), but change has worked for us. The guys love the league and seem to have a lot of fun.

 
BoltBacker said:
I guess I've never considered it bases on the grade it gets in the app store.

Have you been happy with it overall? Do you think the score it has is unfair? Even if you do like it is there a weakness that you would really like to see fixed?
Click to expand...
It's free--download it and try it out.  No risk.

I've had no issues with it.  Pretty functional.

 
Skoo said:
Anyone use a specific chat app or something for league trash talk/trade talk?
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If you use MFL there is a chat box right there on the home page of the league, and the best part is there isn't ANOTHER app running in the background making the battery life of your phone worse.

Most of the leagues I'm in people can be vulgar and condescending enough right in the trade proposals/rejections without the need for chat. 

 
lots of good ideas here in the thread... ill offer mine coming from a 12 year work league i still run (even though i left company 3 years ago)

  • rules meeting in July is usually a fun get together... just be careful to not get too carried away making significant changes without giving it proper thought
  • we usually have a mid-season get together at someones house... basically everyone brings food and we watch red zone together. always a lot of fun.
  • Our league has a consolation ladder... and the winner of the consolation ladder gets prize money paid by the owner who finishes in last place prior. this "punishes" last place, doesnt take money out of the main pot, and also gives some incentive to try if you miss playoffs
  • one year i tried to make it mandatory that each week an owner was assigned to write the weekly league article... but probably only 25% of the folks did a good job writing the articles so i canned it after one year.
  • we have 6 teams make the playoff, 2 byes. The #1 seed gets to pick their opponent in week 2 of the playoffs. He can only select from the two winners of week 1 of the playoff (cant choose #2 seed to play). it makes sure the #2 seed doesnt luck in to an easier matchup... the actual decision itself is fun because it puts a lot of pressure on the #1 seed to make the right choice.
 
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iamkoza said:
Our league has a consolation ladder... and the winner of the consolation ladder gets prize money paid by the owner who finishes in last place prior. this "punishes" last place, doesnt take money out of the main pot, and also gives some incentive to try if you miss playoffs
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That's an interesting twist.

Do you have any trouble retaining teams that finish at the bottom of the league? It's always tough to keep those folks that had a bad year even before the added kick in the nuts.

 
swampdog said:
8.  NO Trades
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I agree with this. While it stifles discussion in the league to a certain extent it also brings out the worst in people. Sooner or later someone(who is probably half checked out) accepts a terrible trade, then if you want to compete you pretty much have to send out terrible trade offers if people are accepting them. Otherwise your competition in the playoffs will have an advantage if they are scoring good players on bad trades.

Trades in the NFL are such a small part of the game. Maybe a happy medium is trades before week#1, when everyone is still trying to build a winning team THIS YEAR and are still paying attention because everyone is still in the running.

 
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