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FF and the Ticking Clock (1 Viewer)

Soulfly3

Soulfly3

Footballguy
Maybe things are different where you're from... but where I'm from, the kids basically laugh at Fantasy Football. It's an old man "sport". They don't even fake interest.

So a multi faceted question here: 1) How much time do you think is left for Fantasy Football in general? and 2) How does this impact your dynasty line of thinking?

For me, 2 leagues. One that's 20+yrs old, same guys, all buddies (redraft turned keeper). The other around 7-8yrs old (dynasty). Real interest in them seems to have faded as well. Guys participate out of "obligation" moreso than the longstanding tradition of doing anything to win. We all still enjoy it, but it's 25% of what it was, as best. Our group chats are 25% about football and 75% just trashtalking eachother on a personal level.

Marriage... Kids... Work... Life...

Im treating both leagues as "win within the next 5yrs max as much as possible" cuz after that, I don't think they last... If they evn get there.
 
I feel like fantasy has never been more popular.
More content than ever. More "good" content than ever, which is almost as important. More game specific content (daily vs bestball vs redraft vs dynasty etc).
There is a flavor for everyone, at least there are more options than ever before. Bestball becoming much more popular in the last few years, daily fantasy, sport and prop betting etc etc.
To me most of those things are essentially under the umbrella of fantasy football, and scratch the same itch.
One thing is almost certain, the sharps are getting sharper in the bigger field tournaments, but the cash games are still very beatable as long as the rake doesn't jump up too high. The eco system is in a good place, and I dont think you have anything to worry about with regard to the game itself.

Might be time for you to find some new leagues, sounds like your older running leagues might just be burning out is all.

edit*
1) A lot
2) None for me personally
 
Soulfly3 said:
Maybe things are different where you're from... but where I'm from, the kids basically laugh at Fantasy Football. It's an old man "sport". They don't even fake interest.

So a multi faceted question here: 1) How much time do you think is left for Fantasy Football in general? and 2) How does this impact your dynasty line of thinking?

For me, 2 leagues. One that's 20+yrs old, same guys, all buddies (redraft turned keeper). The other around 7-8yrs old (dynasty). Real interest in them seems to have faded as well. Guys participate out of "obligation" moreso than the longstanding tradition of doing anything to win. We all still enjoy it, but it's 25% of what it was, as best. Our group chats are 25% about football and 75% just trashtalking eachother on a personal level.

Marriage... Kids... Work... Life...

Im treating both leagues as "win within the next 5yrs max as much as possible" cuz after that, I don't think they last... If they evn get there.
Click to expand...
My 25 year son is in 3 leagues from 3 different social circles so I don’t see it fading.
 
We have the same issue in my nearly 30 year old league. Three of us are diehards and love to discuss things all year, but most of the rest just go through the motions and have little discussion.

I decided to start a new redraft league this year consisting of four of us along with our sons (teenagers/early 20s). Very much looking forward to that.
 
Pwingles said:
I feel like fantasy has never been more popular.
Click to expand...

Wow, did NOT expect this reply, I just don't see it with anyone I know personally... Whether in my league or not.

I do however agree that daily FF/gambling is as big as ever and will likely be around forever.... Was referring to more tradtional FF games (redraft/dynasty/keeper etc).
 
Soulfly3 said:
Pwingles said:
I feel like fantasy has never been more popular.
Click to expand...

Wow, did NOT expect this reply, I just don't see it with anyone I know personally... Whether in my league or not.

I do however agree that daily FF/gambling is as big as ever and will likely be around forever.... Was referring to more tradtional FF games (redraft/dynasty/keeper etc).
Click to expand...
I definitely see lots of people in FF leagues, but I'm not sure about dynasty and keeper leagues. I could see dynasty potentially being a dying trend, but a lot of people I know casually seem to have redrafts.
 
Long Ball Larry said:
Soulfly3 said:
Pwingles said:
I feel like fantasy has never been more popular.
Click to expand...

Wow, did NOT expect this reply, I just don't see it with anyone I know personally... Whether in my league or not.

I do however agree that daily FF/gambling is as big as ever and will likely be around forever.... Was referring to more tradtional FF games (redraft/dynasty/keeper etc).
Click to expand...
I definitely see lots of people in FF leagues, but I'm not sure about dynasty and keeper leagues. I could see dynasty potentially being a dying trend, but a lot of people I know casually seem to have redrafts.
Click to expand...
Well this site just put a ton of resources into dynasty content. I doubt that they're out of touch with industry trends.
 
massraider said:
Daily fantasy is a better drug for younger peeps.

If I was 20, would I want a full dynasty 53 man, IDP league like I am currently in? No, probably not.
Click to expand...
My 23 year old son plays in a few dynasty leagues and loves it, but he's probably not the norm.

Seems like most of his age group are pretty instant gratification and like the daily stuff, as you say.
 
Mitchie said:
Long Ball Larry said:
Soulfly3 said:
Pwingles said:
I feel like fantasy has never been more popular.
Click to expand...

Wow, did NOT expect this reply, I just don't see it with anyone I know personally... Whether in my league or not.

I do however agree that daily FF/gambling is as big as ever and will likely be around forever.... Was referring to more tradtional FF games (redraft/dynasty/keeper etc).
Click to expand...
I definitely see lots of people in FF leagues, but I'm not sure about dynasty and keeper leagues. I could see dynasty potentially being a dying trend, but a lot of people I know casually seem to have redrafts.
Click to expand...
Well this site just put a ton of resources into dynasty content. I doubt that they're out of touch with industry trends.
Click to expand...

tbf, this was probably a decision made 2-3-4yrs in advance, and took years to develop and now released. things change quickly.
id be interested to hear what they think, or if they would have done things differently if things have changed.

i find it super hard to believe that dynasty is growing right now.
 
I'm in the UK and it's been an excellent way to engage with a sport which has a relatively steep learning curve and is often a frustrating watch, given how many breaks and how much advertising there is during coverage.

I am simply not conditioned to endure a single NFL game in the way it is broadcast to American audiences. Without the fantasy aspect it would be very difficult to stay engaged with it as a stand alone product. And that is mainly how I view the NFL, as a product.

As we are also reasonably detached from the emotional experience of following a specific team, fantasy helps create a deeper tie to the action. That's not to say people don't have teams they follow, but it isn't the same sort of fandom as supporting a local team.

Fantasy is huge over here. I don't know anybody who follows the NFL and doesn't play fantasy in some respect. I actually think fantasy is a bigger reason for people being into the NFL than vice versa in fact, at least that's been my experience.
 
habsfan said:
I can definitely see formats like dynasty declining. It requires an attention span and that (in general) seems to be on the decline.
Click to expand...
I think deep keeper leagues are a good middle ground. We keep 8 with max 6 year contracts, so there is some combination of retaining a core group of players but also plenty of talent to be had in drafts.
 
I'm still a dynasty degen, but even I've pared down from a peak of 12 leagues to 5. And I know that a lot of the guys who kinda came into the scene around the same time I did are cutting back too.
 
Soulfly3 said:
Maybe things are different where you're from... but where I'm from, the kids basically laugh at Fantasy Football. It's an old man "sport". They don't even fake interest.

So a multi faceted question here: 1) How much time do you think is left for Fantasy Football in general? and 2) How does this impact your dynasty line of thinking?

For me, 2 leagues. One that's 20+yrs old, same guys, all buddies (redraft turned keeper). The other around 7-8yrs old (dynasty). Real interest in them seems to have faded as well. Guys participate out of "obligation" moreso than the longstanding tradition of doing anything to win. We all still enjoy it, but it's 25% of what it was, as best. Our group chats are 25% about football and 75% just trashtalking eachother on a personal level.

Marriage... Kids... Work... Life...

Im treating both leagues as "win within the next 5yrs max as much as possible" cuz after that, I don't think they last... If they evn get there.
Click to expand...
The big reason in my mind is that a lot of young people today have an instant gratification mindset. FF, especially dynasty, requires too much work for them :)
 
Last edited:
I am in a league with my junior high nephews only because they want to do a fantasy football league.

I did not ask them, they asked me.

It is fun because they do completely off the wall picks, and so do I. I throw adp completely out the window. I just select NFL players I like.
 
MTskibum said:
I am in a league with my junior high nephews only because they want to do a fantasy football league.

I did not ask them, they asked me.

It is fun because they do completely off the wall picks, and so do I. I throw adp completely out the window. I just select NFL players I like.
Click to expand...
Redraft or Dynasty? My guess is redraft. That's more to their liking IMO because of no long term commitment.
 
I like 3 out of the 4 formats. Dynasty (two recent orphans) Late march thru now super focused. Summer= best ball slow drafts. Super fun and young redraft league/ 5 years old. Between managing the redraft and dynasty roster during the season, I have no idea how people have the bandwidth for daily. I also am not a bettor type of mindset so that probably factors in to my lack of interest.

To your point- dynasty is the one that is likely not super appealing to younger generations and I personally have no ability or interest in expanding my knowledge base in ff beyond a ppr or at least half ppr mindset for the top 400 or so offensive players.

All so I can beat my brother, nephews, son and his friends in redraft :devilish:
 
massraider said:
Daily fantasy is a better drug for younger peeps.

If I was 20, would I want a full dynasty 53 man, IDP league like I am currently in? No, probably not.
Click to expand...

zamboni said:
massraider said:
Daily fantasy is a better drug for younger peeps.

If I was 20, would I want a full dynasty 53 man, IDP league like I am currently in? No, probably not.
Click to expand...
My 23 year old son plays in a few dynasty leagues and loves it, but he's probably not the norm.

Seems like most of his age group are pretty instant gratification and like the daily stuff, as you say.
Click to expand...

The evolution/growth of a FF mindset is important here. Did anyone ever actually START their FF journey with a dynasty league? I know I didn't. 20some years ago my first money league was a local, live-draft, friends league that allowed 2 keepers per team. It took years before I dipped into dynasty. Then came IDP. Then superflex. At this point, my "oldest" league is in year 12 this season and I knew only the commissioner (from an online draft forum) when he invited me to join a spinoff with some friends for his other league (where I took an orphan 2 years ago). My other leagues are young pups with randoms online found on the FBG Looking for Leagues forum. I have no idea what the demographics are so can't really speak to that, honestly.

Younger players that are "instant gratification" may well follow a similar journey. So for me:

1) I truly have no idea. Most leagues seem to have an owner leave each year and they are easily replaced (even with some bad rosters) so I don't see a doom & gloom scenario.
2) Dynasty is always a balance of win-now while building a solid core, so no change at this time for me.
 
Soulfly3 said:
barackdhouse said:
Dr. Octopus said:
Soulfly3 said:
the kids basically laugh at Fantasy Football.
Click to expand...
This is not my experience at all.
Click to expand...
Same.
Click to expand...

interesting... have some cousins/nephews in the high school/uni age bracket (in canada) and very few of them and/or their friends are doing fantasy (not including the daily). obviously just my experience of it.
Click to expand...
Well hey I don't have any better drop on this than you or anyone else, I just get the sense that FF in general is as popular as ever. The twitter circles I've found myself in the last couple years as a writer/editor have found me surrounded by early 20s folks that were clearly way into this when they were younger teenagers. Is that changing? IDK but I do think daily is winning the younger crowd. Anyone on this board that knows me knows I'm heavily invested in dynasty but I am converting my % towards daily away from such a high dynasty %. I think daily and BB offers something that appeals to more than just the young crowd. But I wouldn't be surprised if you're onto something and that maybe there is a pendulum effect in play.
 
6 leagues, 4 of those dynasty. All 6 are at least 8 years old (1 re-draft 38). All puttering along. Almost no drop outs and always new people to fill any empties. With this, I don't see much increase or decrease in interest. I'm retired now, but my time investment seems to be about the same as when I wasn't. Good topic Soulfly, but I hope you are wrong.
 
Catbird said:
my time investment seems to be about the same
Click to expand...

Wish I could say the same. I put half as much effort as I used to and probably the same for attention. Seems to be about the same for most of the ppl I know.

We all still enjoy it and maybe it's a factor of being around 40, where we're all now married and having kids at an age where they're dependant on their parents (sports, leisure etc) and so we're in a lull... Maybe in 5-10yrs time, if we last, interest will be back.

Who's to say?
 
For the yutes I am guessing that DFS is taking over their fantasy football needs. So although traditional FF isn't as popular to them there is still a FF outlet in DFS. However, my son had me start a league for him and his friends about 7 years ago (he was 10) and that league is still going even though the league members have rotated every year that only a couple of the original friends are still in it. He does talk about other friends having leagues and the crazy teams they have as they all draft completely off the wall.

I don't think FF is going anywhere soon but the game itself and the format will evolve and DFS will probably be the overwhelming format sooner rather than later.
 
Soulfly3 said:
Maybe things are different where you're from... but where I'm from, the kids basically laugh at Fantasy Football. It's an old man "sport". They don't even fake interest.

So a multi faceted question here: 1) How much time do you think is left for Fantasy Football in general? and 2) How does this impact your dynasty line of thinking?

For me, 2 leagues. One that's 20+yrs old, same guys, all buddies (redraft turned keeper). The other around 7-8yrs old (dynasty). Real interest in them seems to have faded as well. Guys participate out of "obligation" moreso than the longstanding tradition of doing anything to win. We all still enjoy it, but it's 25% of what it was, as best. Our group chats are 25% about football and 75% just trashtalking eachother on a personal level.

Marriage... Kids... Work... Life...

Im treating both leagues as "win within the next 5yrs max as much as possible" cuz after that, I don't think they last... If they evn get there.
Click to expand...
I hear you, my guy.... I used to be in three REALLY tough leagues, one redraft, one auction, one keeper. Then dropped the redraft league as I wanted to cut down a bit. That left me with the two other leagues, at the time 24 and 22 years old and I was a founding memeber in both. Then made the decision to drop to just one league. That was a tough one to make, but was told I was spending too much time on it and it was affecting my mood, etc. I decided to stay with my longest league as that league we still have like 5 or 6 original teams and we are best friends and like family. We have seen marriages, divorces, kids and grandkids.

Now, as a get set to retire from my actual job next year, I contemplate dropping that league (this is now our 30th year). Those people are family now, but I have other interests. Hard decision to make as I traded older assets last year to get younger. But interest is waning as I get older. I think it is more the competitive spirit of wanting to win and be the best that keeps me going, not the thrill of the NFL game, where it all started.

Enough of this old guy rambling, LOL Just wanted to give my view. I think as we age, we have different innterests and priorites, but for younger folks it is still growing.
 
Winning IS Everything said:
Soulfly3 said:
Maybe things are different where you're from... but where I'm from, the kids basically laugh at Fantasy Football. It's an old man "sport". They don't even fake interest.

So a multi faceted question here: 1) How much time do you think is left for Fantasy Football in general? and 2) How does this impact your dynasty line of thinking?

For me, 2 leagues. One that's 20+yrs old, same guys, all buddies (redraft turned keeper). The other around 7-8yrs old (dynasty). Real interest in them seems to have faded as well. Guys participate out of "obligation" moreso than the longstanding tradition of doing anything to win. We all still enjoy it, but it's 25% of what it was, as best. Our group chats are 25% about football and 75% just trashtalking eachother on a personal level.

Marriage... Kids... Work... Life...

Im treating both leagues as "win within the next 5yrs max as much as possible" cuz after that, I don't think they last... If they evn get there.
Click to expand...
I hear you, my guy.... I used to be in three REALLY tough leagues, one redraft, one auction, one keeper. Then dropped the redraft league as I wanted to cut down a bit. That left me with the two other leagues, at the time 24 and 22 years old and I was a founding memeber in both. Then made the decision to drop to just one league. That was a tough one to make, but was told I was spending too much time on it and it was affecting my mood, etc. I decided to stay with my longest league as that league we still have like 5 or 6 original teams and we are best friends and like family. We have seen marriages, divorces, kids and grandkids.

Now, as a get set to retire from my actual job next year, I contemplate dropping that league (this is now our 30th year). Those people are family now, but I have other interests. Hard decision to make as I traded older assets last year to get younger. But interest is waning as I get older. I think it is more the competitive spirit of wanting to win and be the best that keeps me going, not the thrill of the NFL game, where it all started.

Enough of this old guy rambling, LOL Just wanted to give my view. I think as we age, we have different innterests and priorites, but for younger folks it is still growing.
Click to expand...
Single guys with no kids and really no responsibilities can also make an entire day out of NFL Sundays. Football is less interesting to me if I cannot watch all day Sunday with a crew of my fellow owners, like I used to.

My leagues don't even draft live anymore, it sucks.
 
I’m 40 years old and have gradually increased the number of leagues by 1 every couple years. Up to 12 now and all but 1 are very stable all dynasty/contract leagues except for 1 redraft. One will probably fold even thought it’s full of dedicated owners…it just has a commissioner that is struggling. Most of my leagues have 0-1 people leave each year and a couple of them have 2-3 replacements needed each year. They are all 14-16 team leagues so not a major turnover.

My 8 year old is intrigued by my teams and has picked a couple to have rooting interest in the past couple of years. This year he asked to have his own league so I’ll find a fun redraft league to break the ice. Last year my 5 year old showed some interest as well so I let him pick a couple of fan duel lineups for me and he choose all his favorite names or guys that shared a name with him! I don’t like daily fantasy myself but for the young kids it’s nice for their attention span to only have to follow one week.

I don’t see the hobby slowing down as a lot of my 8 year old friends are having similar stories with their dads.

I think it’s natural that most people lose interest or rather change priorities as they get older and life gets more complicated or their interests change. I used to be big into fantasy baseball grew out of that 10-15 years as I started to get married and have a family and get involved in other activities that were enjoyable or time consuming.
 
I think Covid has something to do with it. I know a lot of friends joined a lot of leagues during that time and many of them, including me, are dropping back down to pre-covid league levels.
 
JohnnyU said:
MTskibum said:
I am in a league with my junior high nephews only because they want to do a fantasy football league.

I did not ask them, they asked me.

It is fun because they do completely off the wall picks, and so do I. I throw adp completely out the window. I just select NFL players I like.
Click to expand...
Redraft or Dynasty? My guess is redraft. That's more to their liking IMO because of no long term commitment.
Click to expand...

It is redraft, but they are young. They may want to do dynasty when they are older.
 
My 20 yr old son is in 2 leagues with groups of friends. I know of several students in the high school where I teach that play in leagues. From my vantage point it does not appear to just be an old man's game.
 
Galileo said:
My 20 yr old son is in 2 leagues with groups of friends. I know of several students in the high school where I teach that play in leagues. From my vantage point it does not appear to just be an old man's game.
Click to expand...
Redraft or Dynasty? It matters in the context I posted earlier with regards to young folks and fantasy football.
 
JohnnyU said:
Galileo said:
My 20 yr old son is in 2 leagues with groups of friends. I know of several students in the high school where I teach that play in leagues. From my vantage point it does not appear to just be an old man's game.
Click to expand...
Redraft or Dynasty? It matters in the context I posted earlier with regards to young folks and fantasy football.
Click to expand...
My son plays redraft leagues. To the best of my knowledge the high school kids I am aware of are also in redraft leagues. But then again, so am I and I have been playing FF for nearly 30 years. So I am not sure it is just a "young" thing. I have thought about doing a dynasty league, but it hasn't happened.
 
Soulfly3 said:
Maybe things are different where you're from... but where I'm from, the kids basically laugh at Fantasy Football. It's an old man "sport". They don't even fake interest.

So a multi faceted question here: 1) How much time do you think is left for Fantasy Football in general? and 2) How does this impact your dynasty line of thinking?

For me, 2 leagues. One that's 20+yrs old, same guys, all buddies (redraft turned keeper). The other around 7-8yrs old (dynasty). Real interest in them seems to have faded as well. Guys participate out of "obligation" moreso than the longstanding tradition of doing anything to win. We all still enjoy it, but it's 25% of what it was, as best. Our group chats are 25% about football and 75% just trashtalking eachother on a personal level.

Marriage... Kids... Work... Life...

Im treating both leagues as "win within the next 5yrs max as much as possible" cuz after that, I don't think they last... If they evn get there.
Click to expand...
I think it's a great topic SF. I can only share what my 23 year old has done with me.
We compete in a couple leagues together and when we don't the other is riding shotgun and co-piloting the Draft
We make it a point to watch games together at least a few weeks out of the year, either my house, his house, wherever.
We're splitting the NFL Ticket on Youtube this year, it was on the memo I got this morning.
I didn't order it, he did.
 
FFPC is running like a billion dynasty leagues right now
Underdog has a $3 million first place contest that has over 31,000 entries since it opened on Saturday less than 1 week ago. That is over 2600 completed drafts in less than 1 week and they are going to sell out a 677,000 entry contest.
The first dynasty league I created was in 1997 we still have 70% of the original owners 27 years later.

I would say fantasy is going as strong as ever and isn't going away.
 
I think dynasty is a small minority of fantasy players in general, so I don't think it's generational or anything. This forum has a decent contingency, but from personal experience it's much more rare and always has been. My longest standing league of nearly 20 years is basically redraft (with some light keeper rules).

I think fantasy is the biggest it's ever been, personally.
 
I’m 52.

Most of my friends have kids in the 18-25 range.

90% of them play FF. Some of my friends are in leagues with their kids. Some for $, some just for fun. Both help them stay in touch with kids away in college or who split time between parents.

I meet younger people at my farmers booth all the time. Often convos are struck up & often football comes up (I’ll crack a joke to a Rams jersey wearer about having to charge them double, etc) - they almost always mention a FF team.

FF ain’t goin anywhere any time soon.
 
Soulfly3 said:
Maybe things are different where you're from... but where I'm from, the kids basically laugh at Fantasy Football. It's an old man "sport". They don't even fake interest.

So a multi faceted question here: 1) How much time do you think is left for Fantasy Football in general? and 2) How does this impact your dynasty line of thinking?

For me, 2 leagues. One that's 20+yrs old, same guys, all buddies (redraft turned keeper). The other around 7-8yrs old (dynasty). Real interest in them seems to have faded as well. Guys participate out of "obligation" moreso than the longstanding tradition of doing anything to win. We all still enjoy it, but it's 25% of what it was, as best. Our group chats are 25% about football and 75% just trashtalking eachother on a personal level.

Marriage... Kids... Work... Life...

Im treating both leagues as "win within the next 5yrs max as much as possible" cuz after that, I don't think they last... If they evn get there.
Click to expand...
Weird. I am a HS teacher and I've never heard more FF talk than I have the last couple years. It's hotten than ever with the youths IMO.
 
Ilov80s said:
Weird. I am a HS teacher and I've never heard more FF talk than I have the last couple years. It's hotten than ever with the youths IMO.
Click to expand...

wild. my HS teacher friends say it's a super small minority of kids doing fantasy, and most of them make fun of ppl who do (all while living online anyways). i always saw canada and the USA as basically mirrors of one another (they're sooooo much more alike than both countries pretend they're different), but I wonder if inr egards to things like fantasy sports, it's fading in one country and excelling/coasting in the other.

would be interesting to see if that's been measured (fwiw, 3 friends are teachers in metro canadian areas. all say about the same thing)
 
As long as football is alive ....FF will be alive

No interest in dynasty. I think the overall interest in it is a very very tiny part within fantasy football. The drafting is a highlight to many each year.
 
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