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Holding a Great Live Draft (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Hurricane
- Start date
The Mechanic
Footballguy
I'd be sure to bring a BIG BOTTLE of TYLENOL, 16 members, mostly 1st timers, in a BAR....GOOD LUCK!I'm sure it'll be a GREAT TIME for everyone...T the Orginazer...LOLOkay, I've got 16 guys (35-45yo youth coaches/family guys) meeting to play fantasy football (mostly first-timers) + a draft room inside a local sports bar (food and bevs on their own.)Question: What's some ideas to make sure it's a great time?
Hurricane
Footballguy
Even though it's at a bar the room's away from the crowd & there's lots of tables and chairs. Is a big DRAFT BOARD a must?I'd be sure to bring a BIG BOTTLE of TYLENOL, 16 members, mostly 1st timers, in a BAR....GOOD LUCK!I'm sure it'll be a GREAT TIME for everyone...T the Orginazer...LOLOkay, I've got 16 guys (35-45yo youth coaches/family guys) meeting to play fantasy football (mostly first-timers) + a draft room inside a local sports bar (food and bevs on their own.)
doughboydeluxe
Footballguy
A big draft board isn't a must, but it would be a nice touch. I would try to get someone not drafting in the league to put names up, though. If you have a drafter trying to put the names up, it can result in some delays in the draft.Even though it's at a bar the room's away from the crowd & there's lots of tables and chairs. Is a big DRAFT BOARD a must?I'd be sure to bring a BIG BOTTLE of TYLENOL, 16 members, mostly 1st timers, in a BAR....GOOD LUCK!I'm sure it'll be a GREAT TIME for everyone...T the Orginazer...LOLOkay, I've got 16 guys (35-45yo youth coaches/family guys) meeting to play fantasy football (mostly first-timers) + a draft room inside a local sports bar (food and bevs on their own.)
The Mechanic
Footballguy
We use a large white sheet of paper about 3 feet wide and6 or 7 feet long. It comes from a roll that they use to print blueprints. Tape 2 together for a wider sheet. Put the team owners at the top and draw your lines.Use someone who is not drafting to write the names. Make the squares big enough to SEE the names of the players. USE THE 2 MINUTE rule for drafting, The paper is nice not because of who is being drafted (helps) but because you can see when YOUR turn is coming up.Even though it's at a bar the room's away from the crowd & there's lots of tables and chairs. Is a big DRAFT BOARD a must?I'd be sure to bring a BIG BOTTLE of TYLENOL, 16 members, mostly 1st timers, in a BAR....GOOD LUCK!I'm sure it'll be a GREAT TIME for everyone...T the Orginazer...LOLOkay, I've got 16 guys (35-45yo youth coaches/family guys) meeting to play fantasy football (mostly first-timers) + a draft room inside a local sports bar (food and bevs on their own.)
Good Luck
doughboydeluxe
Footballguy
I would also be sure to set specifc time limits for each pick (1 minute is usually enough) and schedule a few breaks through the draft (maybe at the 1/3 and 2/3 points).
PahtyTom
Footballguy
I'd say it's a must, especially with an inexperienced league. You'll get way too much confusion about who's turn it is and who already got picked without one IMO. What these 16 35-45 year olds who never played fantasy football before have been doing for the last 15 years I'll never know, but my main league got a big board from JC Penny this year that was very useful. It was big, already gridded with squares for each team name, round, and pick, and came with color coordinated (by position) stickers with every available player's name on them that you just stick on the board in your spot when he's picked. It had blank stickers that you could write on too for unsigned or undrafted free agents that might be drafted that were not included.Even though it's at a bar the room's away from the crowd & there's lots of tables and chairs. Is a big DRAFT BOARD a must?I'd be sure to bring a BIG BOTTLE of TYLENOL, 16 members, mostly 1st timers, in a BAR....GOOD LUCK!I'm sure it'll be a GREAT TIME for everyone...T the Orginazer...LOLOkay, I've got 16 guys (35-45yo youth coaches/family guys) meeting to play fantasy football (mostly first-timers) + a draft room inside a local sports bar (food and bevs on their own.)
Solidsteel Rats
Footballguy
NO SMOKING
ALL CELL PHONES OFF
NO leaving room once draft starts (bring own bed pans)
ALL CELL PHONES OFF
NO leaving room once draft starts (bring own bed pans)
BuckeyeArt
Footballguy
Borrow a projector that hooks up to a laptop. Someone ought to be able to get one - maybe the library lets you check them out. It would be a lot better than a poster.
Kind of a no-brainer, but make sure you can all sit together. Probably should make a reservation if you can. Nothing is worse than trying to comminicate to someone that it is time to pick and they are several tables away.
We do ours in a bar as well, but we usually take up all of the tables outside so it is only us out there. It's a 12 teamer, but about 20 people show up. Smokers can also stay where they are and not bother some of the others since it is outside. We have even put all of the smokers together before. It is nice to have someone who is not in the league keep track of the timer and to write down the picks on a grid so everyone can see. If you have a lot of first-timers you will get some trying to pick players that have already been picked unles they can see them on the board.
Also need to have a plan for who to pick for someone if they don't show up. It sucks to have to call someone and tell them who is available at their pick. We have 2 people who will be out of town on our draft day so we are using the wireless network to enter the picks in the system as we go which is something that you couldn't do last year in Yahoo!. That way anyone who can't make it, but has access to a computer can see who is available at their pick. We also plan to just use the rankings in Yahoo! and take the next highest ranked player available if someone happens to not show up or we can't communicate with - That has never happened yet, but it is nice to have a plan anyway.
Sounds like a lot of rules, but the less confusion the better it is.
We do ours in a bar as well, but we usually take up all of the tables outside so it is only us out there. It's a 12 teamer, but about 20 people show up. Smokers can also stay where they are and not bother some of the others since it is outside. We have even put all of the smokers together before. It is nice to have someone who is not in the league keep track of the timer and to write down the picks on a grid so everyone can see. If you have a lot of first-timers you will get some trying to pick players that have already been picked unles they can see them on the board.
Also need to have a plan for who to pick for someone if they don't show up. It sucks to have to call someone and tell them who is available at their pick. We have 2 people who will be out of town on our draft day so we are using the wireless network to enter the picks in the system as we go which is something that you couldn't do last year in Yahoo!. That way anyone who can't make it, but has access to a computer can see who is available at their pick. We also plan to just use the rankings in Yahoo! and take the next highest ranked player available if someone happens to not show up or we can't communicate with - That has never happened yet, but it is nice to have a plan anyway.
Sounds like a lot of rules, but the less confusion the better it is.
Brewdude
Footballguy
This is what we do. Project the Draft Dominator. Of course, you need to rearrange the names so they show up alphabetically instead of by FBG projections. This is a great tool. You can see who's up, who's coming up, what the teams look like, bye weeks at a glance, timer with buzzer, etc. Everyone loves it.
Tau837
Footballguy
Here is my local Virginia Beach league's plan for our draft extravaganza on Saturday, 8/26.
1. Most guys will go to the early afternoon showing of Invincible, the movie about the guy who walked on to the Eagles.
2. Everyone will convene mid afternoon at one owner's townhouse near the oceanfront. We will have plenty of beer on ice and snacks, and order pizza after the draft is over or maybe late in the draft if it drags.
3. We will have a Texas Hold 'Em tournament after the draft. We have 14 owners, but 3 won't make the draft in person, so it's a small tournament but still fun. Not sure, but we may have some others not in the league come over for the tournament to add players. I should be able to cover my league entry fee here.
4. We will walk to the oceanfront and hit the bars.
Last year we did 2 & 3, and it was a blast. But it was on a Sunday, so we didn't hit the bars. This year should be even more fun.
As for the draft:
1. We put up a draft board using paper, similar to how someone described it earlier. Each owner walks to the board to write in his pick. We tried using different colors for positions, but that got screwed up before the first couple rounds were over.
2. We use a two minute limit per pick, but we don't really enforce it strictly. We just start harassing the owner mercilessly as the two minutes wind down until he is forced to pick to get us off his back.
3. We will put the remote owners on speaker throughout the draft. I think we're going to try it over the internet this year. It is essential to have them on the phone throughout so they can hear and participate in the trash talking.
4. If an owner is remote and cannot join, we ask the owner to either choose a proxy who is willing to sit in and draft in his place (could be another owner or someone from outside the league) or to provide a draft list with any rules needed (e.g., wait until 6th round for QB, etc.) to draft his roster. We don't want subjectivity in the process, we want it to be a black and white answer for each pick. Last year, we didn't enforce this and drafted for two owners who didn't provide rankings... and both teams made the playoffs!
5. If an owner doesn't provide a list and doesn't attend the draft for some reason, we will simply use an ordered list to draft his team, taking highest ranked players until starting lineup is filled out, then highest ranked players until the draft is over, regardless of the ramifications (e.g., that could mean drafting all WRs for the bench). I think we're using the Yahoo rankings as the ordered list. :X
6. About half our owners bring laptops, the other half work off paper cheatsheets. I always choose a corner, so no one can get a good look at the DD.
1. Most guys will go to the early afternoon showing of Invincible, the movie about the guy who walked on to the Eagles.
2. Everyone will convene mid afternoon at one owner's townhouse near the oceanfront. We will have plenty of beer on ice and snacks, and order pizza after the draft is over or maybe late in the draft if it drags.
3. We will have a Texas Hold 'Em tournament after the draft. We have 14 owners, but 3 won't make the draft in person, so it's a small tournament but still fun. Not sure, but we may have some others not in the league come over for the tournament to add players. I should be able to cover my league entry fee here.
4. We will walk to the oceanfront and hit the bars.
Last year we did 2 & 3, and it was a blast. But it was on a Sunday, so we didn't hit the bars. This year should be even more fun.
As for the draft:
1. We put up a draft board using paper, similar to how someone described it earlier. Each owner walks to the board to write in his pick. We tried using different colors for positions, but that got screwed up before the first couple rounds were over.
2. We use a two minute limit per pick, but we don't really enforce it strictly. We just start harassing the owner mercilessly as the two minutes wind down until he is forced to pick to get us off his back.
3. We will put the remote owners on speaker throughout the draft. I think we're going to try it over the internet this year. It is essential to have them on the phone throughout so they can hear and participate in the trash talking.
4. If an owner is remote and cannot join, we ask the owner to either choose a proxy who is willing to sit in and draft in his place (could be another owner or someone from outside the league) or to provide a draft list with any rules needed (e.g., wait until 6th round for QB, etc.) to draft his roster. We don't want subjectivity in the process, we want it to be a black and white answer for each pick. Last year, we didn't enforce this and drafted for two owners who didn't provide rankings... and both teams made the playoffs!
5. If an owner doesn't provide a list and doesn't attend the draft for some reason, we will simply use an ordered list to draft his team, taking highest ranked players until starting lineup is filled out, then highest ranked players until the draft is over, regardless of the ramifications (e.g., that could mean drafting all WRs for the bench). I think we're using the Yahoo rankings as the ordered list. :X
6. About half our owners bring laptops, the other half work off paper cheatsheets. I always choose a corner, so no one can get a good look at the DD.
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Gopher State
Footballguy
Hiring strippers always has the guys showing up on time 
Hurricane
Footballguy
Local303
Footballguy
Keep it snappy, don't allow slack time.
Time the turns, round 6 goes pretty slow with newbies searching their Mags.
If your drafting, have someone (not drafting, wife?) to time the turns.
Having my wife time the rounds, really helped her play along with the draft. Keeps both of us happy
Time the turns, round 6 goes pretty slow with newbies searching their Mags.
If your drafting, have someone (not drafting, wife?) to time the turns.
Having my wife time the rounds, really helped her play along with the draft. Keeps both of us happy
FFFIEND
Footballguy
This is the way to go. Make sure you have visible or audible timer. Someone will always be pushing it.
Irish1995
Footballguy
It's not an option at a bar, but last year I added a touch that I really liked.
I painted a wall in my house with magnetic paint (google it) and got inkjet printable magnetic paper to create our draft board. I created magnets for the players in InDesign and printed them. Cutting the damn things was a pain, but the outcome is great.
The magnets are reusable of course, so while the initial expense was high, the upkeep is pretty low.
Other things we do:
Every year I have barbecue shipped in from Jim Neely's Interstate Barbecue in Memphis (best in the world, IMHO).
I painted a wall in my house with magnetic paint (google it) and got inkjet printable magnetic paper to create our draft board. I created magnets for the players in InDesign and printed them. Cutting the damn things was a pain, but the outcome is great.
The magnets are reusable of course, so while the initial expense was high, the upkeep is pretty low.
Other things we do:
Every year I have barbecue shipped in from Jim Neely's Interstate Barbecue in Memphis (best in the world, IMHO).
Neil Beaufort Zod
Footballguy
The more first-timers you have, the less cutthroat the draft should be. Let people inform each other if someone is out for the year or whatever. They shouldn't be giving "who to draft" advice, but it's perfectly okay to let them know if something major has happened to a player.
The emphasis should be on fun, even for the sharks.
The emphasis should be on fun, even for the sharks.
I disagree. I did this for two years then switched to a paper board and color coded sticky labels. It was much easier for me to run the draft, 100% of my league liked it better. It's easy to see how many of each position has been taken, when your turn is coming up. The slackers that don't track who has been drafted can just go look at the labels left on the sheets to see who is left at each position. It also freed me up to use DD on my computer.FFFIEND said:
you can by a kit at numerous websites or even on ebay. I make a custom draft board in powerpoint with team names across the top and save it as a PDF. You can print it at Kinkos for about nine bucks. The labels should have name in large font, team, position, and bye week in a smaller font. You can by a preloaded program to do this for about $7 at a place called instantkit.com.One other nice touch is schedule your draft during a preseason game and put the game on. It provides a nice distraction to the guppies. Plus it's fun to watch when the QB someone drafted two minutes ago breaks his leg.
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I'm going to be the lone voice of dissent on one point here...
With this being a league/draft of first timers I would really, REALLY suggest you not hold it in a bar. It's hard enough for first timers to keep everything straight, in a bar setting with all the distractions it's just a recipe for
owner A: "I pick Hasselbeck"
owner B: "he was drafted last round"
A: "ok, give me Vick"
B: "drafted last pick"
Commish: "times up"
I would stongly recommend something that my local team does; have the owners meet at the local sports bar BEFORE the draft for food & drink and shop talk and then go to somebody's home for the draft. You get the atmosphere and the chow without the distractions. We meet at 5:30 and are back at my home in time for an 8:00pm draft and things go smooth.
It's a more relaxed draft, a bit cheaper, and often leads to a post-draft game of poker.
With this being a league/draft of first timers I would really, REALLY suggest you not hold it in a bar. It's hard enough for first timers to keep everything straight, in a bar setting with all the distractions it's just a recipe for
owner A: "I pick Hasselbeck"
owner B: "he was drafted last round"
A: "ok, give me Vick"
B: "drafted last pick"
Commish: "times up"
I would stongly recommend something that my local team does; have the owners meet at the local sports bar BEFORE the draft for food & drink and shop talk and then go to somebody's home for the draft. You get the atmosphere and the chow without the distractions. We meet at 5:30 and are back at my home in time for an 8:00pm draft and things go smooth.
It's a more relaxed draft, a bit cheaper, and often leads to a post-draft game of poker.
The Kansas Comet
Footballguy
Be organized. Have an outline of topics you need to discuss before the draft starts (if you can get them out of the way before the draft, so much the better), have your method of receiving and documenting payment set up before you arrive, and make sure any proposed rule changes have been suggested to the league members before the draft. That way they have time to consider the change and vote on it quickly, instead of taking time at the draft to consider it.
Also, in one of the leagues I'm in, the commish has a bunch of football cards and gives out the top 3 picks to each team at the end of the draft. It's kind of funny, and nobody can say they went home empty-handed.
Also, in one of the leagues I'm in, the commish has a bunch of football cards and gives out the top 3 picks to each team at the end of the draft. It's kind of funny, and nobody can say they went home empty-handed.
Nemesis
Footballguy
Bring a digital camera 
I do this and take a picture of each owner.
Then, each week throughout the year, post 1 picture on the league website and let your fellow owners "Caption this photo". This is sure to stir the pot and develop rivalries and good natured banter.
Also, as commissioner, I'd bullet point the topics you want to remember ahead of time.......when your adrenaline is flowing, it's very easy to forget some important things that you definitely want to discuss with all owners present unless you've written it down..
.....Go over rules (esp the FA rules since you've got newbies in the league)
Make sure everyone has the commissioner's cell phone number SAVED......in case of emergency or if the website crashes on some Sunday at 12:55pm.
I do this and take a picture of each owner.
Then, each week throughout the year, post 1 picture on the league website and let your fellow owners "Caption this photo". This is sure to stir the pot and develop rivalries and good natured banter.
Also, as commissioner, I'd bullet point the topics you want to remember ahead of time.......when your adrenaline is flowing, it's very easy to forget some important things that you definitely want to discuss with all owners present unless you've written it down..
.....Go over rules (esp the FA rules since you've got newbies in the league)
Make sure everyone has the commissioner's cell phone number SAVED......in case of emergency or if the website crashes on some Sunday at 12:55pm.
OldMilwaukee
IBL Representative
Department 400
Footballguy
Oooh, there are some good ideas there. Keeping the season fresh with a little creativity is a solid option.
