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Commissioners: Do You Charge Your League? Players: Do you play in a league with a "house rake"? (1 Viewer)

Hot Sauce Guy

Hot Sauce Guy

Footballguy
This just popped up in another topic and has me curious:  Do you charge a % or a flat rate or anything to commission your league? 

I've been commish of 1 league for 10+ years and have never charged a penny. I host the league draft at my house and make it a pot-luck so everyone gets "fed & watered".  And for 10 years I have never charged a single penny. They're my friends, and I invited each of them to the league. The only money I make off my friends is earned through FFB pay (and pretty infrequently, lol) 

In my other main local league, the commish job rotates - every year the asst commish becomes the commish, and a new asst commish is added to the mix. After 15 years, no one whines to the commish about anything because everyone has been in those shoes. We all consider it an honor and an obligation to be the commish when it's our turn, and none of us would dream of charging for it. 

Someone just mentioned a commish charging a 15% rake, which to me seems obscene.  

So I'm curious....

Do any of you commishes charge to be commish? If so, why? 

Do any of you players play in a league where the commish takes a rake? 

 
"House rake" might have made sense in the pre-internet days, but not anymore. If I was in a league where the commish charged 15%, I'd offer to take over as commish for free.

 
Joe Summer said:
"House rake" might have made sense in the pre-internet days, but not anymore. If I was in a league where the commish charged 15%, I'd offer to take over as commish for free.
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Agreed.  I used to have to go through the paper on Monday and Tuesday mornings and calculate scores, manually process waiver requests, send weekly updates, etc.   It was a lot of work so I could see getting some sort of compensation but I still never charged anything for it.  

Nowadays being the commish is a LOT easier so it seems kind of silly unless you have a league which requires a lot of effort to maintain.

 
I commish a keeper football league, and a keeper baseball league, and I wouldn't dream of charging.  I had an idea of what I wanted in a fantasy league, came up with rules, and invited people to join.  My payoff is having leagues structured in a fashion that I enjoy, and 11 savvy and competitive owners that make the leagues great.  

 
I've never heard of a commish taking any money. Obviously that includes myself taking money. If it's just the commish taking money that's BS. However, there might be other things that the commish is paying for. MFL/site fees, all the booze at the draft, all the food and draft stuff, whatever. In that case it might make sense.

If said commish is just flat out taking 15%, on 12 team $100 league that's $180. Which is his league buyin plus another $80. That's complete garbage. If the league and/or owners are that difficult to that the commish feels he/she should play for free and get paid, that's a league so terrible it should be shut down. 

 
I was the one who brought up the topic in the other thread (15% rake). It took me a while to wise up and leave this commish's football and baseball leagues.  I'm sure years ago he used to buy the Tuesday and Wednesday USA Today and hand tabulate everything. Then he migrated both leagues to RT Sports but still required us to send transactions and all lineup moves into him.  I joined the leagues because I wanted to do live drafts and spend some time with a particular circle of friends, but I wised up in the end.  The commish never even broke down the payout schedule on draft nights!  But he had everyone so bamboozled that no one questioned him either.

 
I've never even heard of it for a fantasy league, but it's my pet peeve when people who run pools take a cut for themselves.

In my mind, by offering to run the pool/league you are doing it because you enjoy it and don't mind putting in a little "work".

If you're not into doing the extra work that's fine, don't offer to do it.

Just rubs me the wrong way, at a certain point you're just doing it to make money. Not to mention the worst part, that there's less money in the pot when I win the championship.

 
Posted this in another thread, but it might fit better here:

Are there still leagues that have (a) live drafts and (b) a league commissioner that is not an owner? Seemed like in the years before the Internet Era, you'd see advice in fantasy magazines to "try to get a non-owner friend to run the league". I have a vague notion that this position of 3rd-party league commissioner was also commonly compensated -- in free draft-day beer/food, or in cash, or whatever.

Anybody here ever used to do that? Or still do it that way?

 
I run a dynasty contract league with a ruleset that requires a ton of manual work on my end.  However I don't charge anything to the league for it even though the other owners have offered several times.

The whole reason I started the league (12 years ago!) was that I was tired of putting a bunch of time into building my teams in leagues only to see the league fold.  As commish, I know that as long as I am interested in fantasy football this league will be around.  I consider that "payment" enough.

 
Polka King said:
I was the one who brought up the topic in the other thread (15% rake). It took me a while to wise up and leave this commish's football and baseball leagues.  I'm sure years ago he used to buy the Tuesday and Wednesday USA Today and hand tabulate everything. Then he migrated both leagues to RT Sports but still required us to send transactions and all lineup moves into him.  I joined the leagues because I wanted to do live drafts and spend some time with a particular circle of friends, but I wised up in the end.  The commish never even broke down the payout schedule on draft nights!  But he had everyone so bamboozled that no one questioned him either.
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Yeah that's a tough one. Drafts and FF are a great way/reason to stay in touch with friends. In your case it sucks because if you leave you're losing out on more than just the league's. If you offer to do it for free, you're likely going to be met with a lot of resistance. 

 
Mene said:
I commish a keeper football league, and a keeper baseball league, and I wouldn't dream of charging.  I had an idea of what I wanted in a fantasy league, came up with rules, and invited people to join.  My payoff is having leagues structured in a fashion that I enjoy, and 11 savvy and competitive owners that make the leagues great.  
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Exactly the same here - FBB and FFB, and exactly the same reward. 

 
Polka King said:
I was the one who brought up the topic in the other thread (15% rake). It took me a while to wise up and leave this commish's football and baseball leagues.  I'm sure years ago he used to buy the Tuesday and Wednesday USA Today and hand tabulate everything. Then he migrated both leagues to RT Sports but still required us to send transactions and all lineup moves into him.  I joined the leagues because I wanted to do live drafts and spend some time with a particular circle of friends, but I wised up in the end.  The commish never even broke down the payout schedule on draft nights!  But he had everyone so bamboozled that no one questioned him either.
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I spent 2 hours after the draft last night changing the scoring system because after trying to vote in fun high scoring stuff for years (PPR, flex position, combined yardage bonuses) all of them suddenly passed at once. And since I knew the s/w from being a commish previously in that league, I volunteered to be co-commish, which meant doing an hour of work to remove the old scoring, implement the new scoring & testing it all out to make sure it worked. 

And it was my absolute pleasure to do it for nothing. Because fantast football = fun. Getting the scoring right = fun. 

I don't get the concept of FFB = work.  

Sure, 20 years ago with a pen & paper and copy of USA Today I get it, but in 2016?  

 
Doug B said:
Posted this in another thread, but it might fit better here:

Are there still leagues that have (a) live drafts and (b) a league commissioner that is not an owner? Seemed like in the years before the Internet Era, you'd see advice in fantasy magazines to "try to get a non-owner friend to run the league". I have a vague notion that this position of 3rd-party league commissioner was also commonly compensated -- in free draft-day beer/food, or in cash, or whatever.

Anybody here ever used to do that? Or still do it that way?
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Never heard of that, but in that case I could see paying for their services" - especially since they have no shot at winning anything. 

But no, never played in that style. Probably an outdated concept in 2016 with league software that does the heavy lifting for you. 

 
For several years, we had a grandfathered rule that the commish played for free.  It has since been removed, but back in the day of USA Today and Excel spreadsheets, there was a lot of time that went league management.

 
I'm a commish of 4 leagues at work. I don't take a cut, but I accept a tip at the end of the year from anyone who wants to do so.

No leagues that I am in have a rake or commish salary.

 
Doug B said:
Posted this in another thread, but it might fit better here:

Are there still leagues that have (a) live drafts and (b) a league commissioner that is not an owner? Seemed like in the years before the Internet Era, you'd see advice in fantasy magazines to "try to get a non-owner friend to run the league". I have a vague notion that this position of 3rd-party league commissioner was also commonly compensated -- in free draft-day beer/food, or in cash, or whatever.

Anybody here ever used to do that? Or still do it that way?
Click to expand...
In the 4 leagues I run at work, I am in 1 of them and run the other 3 without being an owner. They are all live drafts, 2 before Labor Day, 2 after Labor Day. All after work.

These leagues grew from one 12-teamer, to 2 to 3 to 4 because the leagues run so smoothly. I've stopped at 4 12-teamers, but could easily have expanded to 5 or 6. I am currently looking at a "waiting list of 15 names".

Over the years the only people who have ever left the leagues are people who left the company. With the exception of one guy who I was happy to see go because he was such a GD nooj.

 
Walking Boot said:
My commish does it for free. I offered to tip him 10% when I first won a decade ago, he politely declined. I won four more in the last 9 years, including beating him in 3 of those. So he basically turned down 50% of the champions prize, and lost 3 of those prizes on top of that.
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Math down

 
I am commish/secretary of my 16 year keeper league and an active member of the league. I accept no compensation and pay the same yearly dues as everyone else.

 
It would have to be an awfully in depth ordeal for me to feel I needed a commission, i can't see a scenario where Id ask for that

however, lazy SoBs that dont have paypal or do league safe, that i have to call, text, drive to meet for dues is pretty annoying

 
Joe Summer said:
"House rake" might have made sense in the pre-internet days, but not anymore. If I was in a league where the commish charged 15%, I'd offer to take over as commish for free.
Click to expand...


15% seems steep, but some fee is completely appropriate. 

i've been commish of a league for 10 years and the league was formed about 25 years ago.

the commish fee has always been $125 and it's never changed. that's about 8% of the pot. these days, i split it with a league accountant since i hate handling the money / payments since we charge for transactions throughout the season so every few weeks owners are chipping in more dollars.

sure, in many ways commissioning is easier than it used to be now that we have automated scoring. but we have a three year auction contract league and a strange bidding process pre-draft. so i spend 10-15 hours a week in the two or three weeks leading up to the draft preparing for our in-person auction day. there's also handling rule change discussions, new owners, disputes, etc. so in the end, i get about $60 for 30-40 hours of my time, and that's before the season even starts.

nobody has ever offered to take over, but i'd gladly let anyone try it for free if i didn't care if the league went to the crapper. having been in other leagues over the years where the commish didn't take a fee, there's often a stark difference between how the leagues are handled.

 
We have a 150 buy-in, 14 teamer. The commish gets 250.  No problems with it. 

Which is his team paid for and 100 bucks.

Considering he supplies all the eats and alcohol for the drafts and one more Sunday afternoon, its dandy. 

 
I've been commish of our league since its inception in 1990. I have never taken a percentage, but I'll gladly accept a tip from the champ, if offered.

Like others have said, it's not that big of deal now, but it certainly was back in the day.

USA Today was our "official" stat paper. Monday morning consisted of me tallying up the points off the sports page whilst on the ####ter. 

Mailed out all the results with updated standings. Then we got fancy and I was able to fax those to a few teams.

 
Commish in 15th year of keeper league-never would take loot for running it.  $200 buy in goes to 1/12 of the league hosting fee on RT.  The rest goes to payouts.  I like doing it and even with busier life, work, two kids, etc. no payment needed.

 
BigSteelThrill said:
We have a 150 buy-in, 14 teamer. The commish gets 250.  No problems with it. 

Which is his team paid for and 100 bucks.

Considering he supplies all the eats and alcohol for the drafts and one more Sunday afternoon, its dandy. 
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Well yeah, you're basically paying for food and drinks.  If he's not cheap on drinks he's probably losing money still. 

As co-commish of my 15 year Internet based dynasty league, we took over after the last one got too busy, we wouldn't consider charging. 

 
To be clear, not talking about chipping in for food & drinks. I spend a c-note on grub hosting my draft because I like having good food & drinks at my draft. That's me being a host of a party that I invite my friends to. I usually have a few cases of beer left over that people bring, along with any leftover food, so I don't consider the $ to be a loss anyway. 

I'm talking about a commish charging a % of the kitty - a "rake".  If your commish spends (as mentioned) $250 on a draft party, that's like asking everyone in the league to kick in a $20 for the party - perfectly reasonable. 

That's not the same as getting paid to commission a league. 

In my opinion the entry fee amount is completely irrelevant. So long as we're talking about a private league and not the WCOFF or somewhere you need to rent a hotel ballroom for, I still see no reason for the commish to get a penny of the pot. 

The only way I get a single penny out of the kitty is to win it by drafting and managing a good team. 

 
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