How do you accomodate owners that can't make it to the draft (1 Viewer)

[Sabertooth]

Is there a good way to do this. We have a couple owners that live about 500 miles away and can't make it to the draft this season. How do other leagues accomodate this on the cheap? We are using RTsports for out commish software.

I was thinking of doing some type of web meeting with the DD displayed. But I don't know how well that will work as there are quite a few different windows.

Another idea was to just use a normal pin-up board with sticker (draftkit.com) and then just focusing a webcam on that. Anybody done that?

Any other feasible options?

 

[Organized Chaos]

Use myfantasyleague.com and do a live draft there, its free to set up a league and draft etc....

Their live draft has a chat screen, shows current draft picks, and a bunch of other stuff..

 

[The Shizzle]

In my draft, we have used instant messenger and set up a chatrrom with just the owners and after you select your player, you would type it in the room. That way the out of staters would see each pick as they were drafted. Seemed to work out well.

 

[Sabertooth]

Use myfantasyleague.com and do a live draft there, its free to set up a league and draft etc....Their live draft has a chat screen, shows current draft picks, and a bunch of other stuff..

Does myfantasyleague.com support auction?

 

[mbuehner]

I think i've tried it every which way at some point, and chat room seems to work best. In combination with having him on the phone from time to time with somebody at the draft just to keep them feeling involved, that works pretty well. Only downside is whoever is stuck doing the legwork gets shafted from concentrating on their own drafting. Ideally the missing person should be able to assign a confederate to attend the draft and keep them updated on picks.

 

[Organized Chaos]

Use myfantasyleague.com and do a live draft there, its free to set up a league and draft etc....

Their live draft has a chat screen, shows current draft picks, and a bunch of other stuff..

Does myfantasyleague.com support auction?

No, I dont think it does....Ok, a couple of other options...

I have done a couple of online auctions where the commish used chatzy.com chat rooms to manage the auction, but that will be tough with some people live and other remote.

You could use some VNC software like Tight VNC, this is a software that allows someone to control your PC. But, you can set it up to give view only rights. That would allow a couple of owners to watch your PC and see the DD....

 

[ninerindallas]

Hey-

We just dealt with this on saturday. My friend wrote an app accessible at http://www.footballswami.com where you are able to conduct a live draft. People who are not there just have to refresh their browser every once in a while (to see who's on the board so they can be ready when it's their turn) and can type in their pick - or they can call in and have the commish type it in if they want to. It worked flawlessly.

Hope that helps.

 

[Bri]

webcam is not a half bad idea

In person drafts require you to check players off your list when they're drafted. I'd imagine using MFL or some other site would take this old fashioned process away.

FWIW I love live in person drafts way more than internet ones so I'd want to keep that as authentic as possible. However if you guys are switching, albeit slowly, maybe MFL types like mentioned above is the way to go.

 

[Sabertooth]

Well, the problem for me is the legwork. Maybe we should have him assign somebody to be a proxy at the draft. It's bs that a commissioner, besides not getting anything other than headaches for the work he does, also has to accomodate owners who can't make it.

Having somebody at the draft to act as a proxy might help eleviate that too. I am thinking of just using webex or remote desktop and just giving him read access to my screen. Of course then he sees all my approximate values too, so that's a good, but not great option.

This year we are going to be using a projector for the first time as well. I might just set up a system to use as the "projector" system, and then have my own laptop on the side with my super top secret sleepers and what not on it. When we nominate somebody, we have the auctioneer be responsible for type the player in and color coding him. That might be the best option.

 

[Organized Chaos]

This year we are going to be using a projector for the first time as well. I might just set up a system to use as the "projector" system, and then have my own laptop on the side with my super top secret sleepers and what not on it. When we nominate somebody, we have the auctioneer be responsible for type the player in and color coding him. That might be the best option.

We have used a projector every year and that sounds like the way to go... Give hime view rights to that system and also someone at the draft for him...

 

[GroveDiesel]

Just use AIM and open up an audio chat. I live a few hundred miles away from my one league. They setup a webcam in the room and I videoconferenced for the draft. I tossed on a headset and could hear everything on their end and they could hear me (although on about a 3 second delay).

The one thing I would recommend if you go that route though, is use an external microphone if you are using a laptop. When the fan in the laptop turned on, I had a really hard time hearing things on their end because it sounded like helicoptor taking off.

 

[Sabertooth]

Getting somebody at the draft for him might be somewhat difficult. I don't really know the guy very well. Thanks for the insights guys. I am going to try a dry-run on some of these idea just to try and come up with the best one.

 

[teamramrod]

www.ventrilo.com

www.skype.com

free ways to be online in and hear each other talk...

 

[laxiepoo]

If you have WebEx or GoToMeeting, that's another good option. You could even set that up on a second computer to keep track and share that one, keeping all your values safe on another computer.

Or actually, you could even just share one Application. You could copy your Draft Dominator files to a second directory, open that App, and share just that one. Close all the windows except the Draft Status, and then that's all they see while you work in the other DD app.

 

[GregR_2]

Use myfantasyleague.com and do a live draft there, its free to set up a league and draft etc....Their live draft has a chat screen, shows current draft picks, and a bunch of other stuff..

Does myfantasyleague.com support auction?

MFL supports auctions. Though I would suggest you instead use their partner, fantasyauctioneer.com. Their software is MUCH better. And they can transfer your rosters to MFL behind the scenes when your auction is done. Email their support about their special offers for MFL leagues to get the price discount.Otherwise though, for a draft, just have the draft run online without a timer. Have someone enter the picks at the live draft, and the guy who is online can enter his picks when he is up. A friend's league did that this weekend. They had 4 owners who couldn't make it, but 2 of them could be online. The commish entered the picks as they were made on the website, and the 2 that could be online just entered their picks on MFL when it was their turn.

 

[Sabertooth]

Use myfantasyleague.com and do a live draft there, its free to set up a league and draft etc....Their live draft has a chat screen, shows current draft picks, and a bunch of other stuff..

Does myfantasyleague.com support auction?

MFL supports auctions. Though I would suggest you instead use their partner, fantasyauctioneer.com. Their software is MUCH better. And they can transfer your rosters to MFL behind the scenes when your auction is done. Email their support about their special offers for MFL leagues to get the price discount.Otherwise though, for a draft, just have the draft run online without a timer. Have someone enter the picks at the live draft, and the guy who is online can enter his picks when he is up. A friend's league did that this weekend. They had 4 owners who couldn't make it, but 2 of them could be online. The commish entered the picks as they were made on the website, and the 2 that could be online just entered their picks on MFL when it was their turn.

Excellent. Definitely checking this out. I've already paid RTSports and we've like their hosting for the past 3 seasons. I might use mfl for the draft. Who knows, if I like it, maybe we'll switch next season.

 

[GregR_2]

Use myfantasyleague.com and do a live draft there, its free to set up a league and draft etc....Their live draft has a chat screen, shows current draft picks, and a bunch of other stuff..

Does myfantasyleague.com support auction?

MFL supports auctions. Though I would suggest you instead use their partner, fantasyauctioneer.com. Their software is MUCH better. And they can transfer your rosters to MFL behind the scenes when your auction is done. Email their support about their special offers for MFL leagues to get the price discount.Otherwise though, for a draft, just have the draft run online without a timer. Have someone enter the picks at the live draft, and the guy who is online can enter his picks when he is up. A friend's league did that this weekend. They had 4 owners who couldn't make it, but 2 of them could be online. The commish entered the picks as they were made on the website, and the 2 that could be online just entered their picks on MFL when it was their turn.

Excellent. Definitely checking this out. I've already paid RTSports and we've like their hosting for the past 3 seasons. I might use mfl for the draft. Who knows, if I like it, maybe we'll switch next season.

One note on the FantasyAuctioneer software. If you use it, then you will want to just have the entire auction online, and not a get-together-live sort of thing. But the software really does rock... my dynasty league are now all hooked on auctioning from it, to the point there's some talk about converting a different draft-keeper league back to redraft and making it auction.You can also quickly register on FA and give the software a try. It will mock auction against you.

 

[Maurile Tremblay]

We use gotomeeting.com and it works fine.

 

[Knightro]

I used my work account and set up a Live Meeting session for our owner in Michigan for our Florida league.

I would also suggest a free method of Windows Remote Desktop where the local owner could have DD and share his desktop with the remote person.

 

[Bucks]

I commish a local league with rtsports.com. Just use their online draft feature. It isn't the best but it would be sufficient for the 2 online guys to keep up and enter their own picks. I use it during our live draft. Sometimes one person enters the picks for everyone other years each person would walk up to the PC and enter their own selection. The benefit is that at the end of the night rosters are loaded and trading can start immediately.

 

[mbuehner]

As a sidenote- as a commisioner i always make it clear that it is not my problem if somebody cant be at the draft (once the date is set). I'll bend over backwards to accomodate any kind of system to help people remote draft as far as setup goes, but i wont jepordize my own draft or insist anyone else does so. If they cant find someone to proxy for them, they can send in a cheatsheet.

There's nothing worse than trying to keep the draft flowing and ending up spending you attention keeping somebody updated, its surprisingly difficult to do. Now that I think of it, if anybody is remote drafting its probably a good idea to demand a cheat sheet from them in case of a technical breakdown and keep it in a sealed envelope. If their cellphone explode, computer eats itself, or the smokesignals get snuffed out it cant be allowed to crash the draft. It would then be understood that if they lose communications for longer than 5 minutes (or whatever), the league will unseal the envelope and draft for him.