My First year being the Commish of an Auction Draft (1 Viewer)

[beast8812]

I have an established league that has been doing snake drafts for the last 7 years. This year we voted to do an auction draft. All of our league rules and everything have been ironed out thru time but there were definitely some growing pains in the first few years. I want to try to have a smooth of transition to auction drafting as possible and I'm looking for any tips that may help out.

Were just using the auction for the draft. After that all trades and pickups are going to be normal like a league that has a snake draft. We have a $200 budget. Were going to have a draft board with each team listed so they can write there picks in and were going to have a whiteboard to keep track of all the budgets. So far the method we've talked about for running the draft is taking turns picking players and whoever puts a player up for nomination is also the auctioneer for that player. Is that a good idea or should we really look for a 3rd party to run the auctions? It will be a live draft. Is there a computer program that I could use just to keep a timer going to keep the bidding moving along? The league is against everyone having there own laptop for bidding so it would just be one computer hooked up to a projector the auctioneer could run. Does anything like that exist? I want to keep the action moving, I don't want this to be a 8 hour draft.

One question that has came up is if we have a 15 player roster including bench, does a owner have to draft all 15 players? Or could they pay $200 for Arian Foster and then pick 14 guys off waivers once the draft is over? My answer was no everyone has to pick all 15 players, so the most you could use on one player is $186 then you could get 14 players for $1. I know this is an extreme case but I think you get the idea of the question.

Also what do you do when you get near the end and some teams are filled up with players? Do they keep nominating players or are they finished? What happens if players keep getting nominated that no one wants?

Any and all help or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[daveR]

Get a third party to be the auctioneer. Pay him in beer

Keep it quick with "going, going gone" as soon as there's a lull. The auctioneer has final say as to whether or not a bid has been made in time.

Each owner must put an initial price on the player he nominates. Owners with full rosters kick back the rest of the night. ie. they're done.

Keep running account of $$$ with the mandate that each owner must keep $1 minimum for each open roster spot.

 

[Captain Hook]

1) Teams ABSOLUTELY MUST fill all fifteen roster spots

2) GET a 3rd party auctioneer ...... will REALLY help keep it moving and Eliminate any conflicts

3) Plenty of programs to keep track of auction dollars (you can do a very simple one in excel if you don't want to buy one)

 

[butcher boy]

You probably want to consider having an auctioneer. In my auction league, one of the commissioners is the auctioneer. He also has a team, but his partner does the drafting. If you go this route make sure you give clear direction on how you will handle things like 2 people bidding at the same time. That's really the only area where we have disputes but it's never really a big deal. There's nothing you can do in that case except go by the "I saw his hand first" rule. Your league will learn to live with it.

The way we nomiate players is, the champ from the previous year nominates first, then whoever wins that player nominates next.

We do have the rule that you have to complete your roster. One of the commissioners checks everyone's cap space every so often to prevent people from spending more than they can.

When our draft gets toward the end we just go through each team and ask them to nominate someone and bid a buck on whoever they need. Then other people have a chance to outbid.

Keep in mind that it will be a long draft. Auctions take forever but are so much more fun.

 

[fightingillini]

Agree with having a 3rd party auctioneer. If you can't get one.....then rotate the auctioneer with the nominator. It's imperative that there is only ONE person that is keeping track of the bids and doing the final countdown.

Have a clock. 30-45 seconds per player for the earlier rounds.....15-20 seconds for later rounds, until you get to the dollar players. Once the time is up or if the auctioneer notices a lull in the bidding (I have used 5-10 seconds of silence), have the auctioneer start the "going once, going twice".......the space in between going once, going twice should be 5 seconds. If during the going once, going twice process a new bid is declared, add on another 10 seconds before the doing the "going once, going twice" again. Most players will be drafted within 1 minute. Keeping the clock keeps the auction moving and allows more frequent breaks during the draft......my league has a 10 minute break after every 30 players nominated. An owner should only get 30 seconds - 1 minute to nominate a player.

The best format is to have a projector that shows the website.....showing players drafted, money left, as well as the maximum bid that an owner can make. At least I would suggest having a laptop handy with the amounts remaining, have the auctioneer register the picks.

Even with a clock and strict guidelines regarding bidding and nomination times, an auction draft is going to take longer than a redraft.

And yes, you MUST fill all positions and field a legal team, which means you must draft a kicker, defense and the mimimum to start at other positions.

Also, as others said, you must open the bid if you nominate a player and it can be any amount and not just $1. And while bidding, owners can bid any amount in excess of the current bid and not just in increments of $1. So if the current bid for Rodgers is $15, a owner can immediately go to $30 if he so chooses.

 

[daveR]

Our auctions have always taken less time than our drafts. And, are infinitely more fun!

 

[the next level]

We used to have a requirement to fill rosters on draft day, but then realized that rule only existed to protect players from themselves. So now it has more of a wild west feel, makes things more exciting, and as it turns out it's not that big of a deal to have a team use waivers to complete their roster.

We have a timeout rule for the auction. Sometimes the pace gets hectic and so we allow a 60-second timeout to be called. But each team only has 3 alloted timeouts. If they try to call a 4th then we hit them with a monetary fine. Furthermore, we charge teams with a timeout if they cause a delay to the auction (for instance, if commotion is caused while they try to work a trade and/or side deal).

Consider a punitive rule for the possibility that someone tries to bid with money they no longer have. Especially for the disaster scenario where a player wins a bidding round by spending more money than they have remaning and noone notices until after the fact. Unfortunately it can and does happen (especially when the booze is flowing), my league isn't the only one I've heard of experiencing this.

Finally, consider what to do to settle the "who said it first" debate when tying bids are made simultaneously. We have a rule that allows bidding to continue in this scenario (although thankfully it never has come to that for my league) with REAL money and the additional funds raised are added to the champions purse.

And just for fun, we make the team who is first to nominate a kicker chug a beer.

 

[gebz306]

I disagree with some of the points listed above.

Rotate around the room nominating. Its soo much fun. Each player must be nominated for $1. If nobody bids, the nominator wins that player.* Whoever nominates a player has the option to "match" any other bid. It really brings an element of surprise and laughter throughout.

Must Must must* Each auctioneer must have the same set of closing words. We use "going once, going twice, going three times, sold." Some guys get flustered and go too fast or only say going once, twice, sold. It messes with people who are interested in said player. If this happens, make sure to speak up and start the count down again. Make sure to use hand gestures to bid with a loud voice.

Sometimes a guy who nominates a player tries to stall bc they are undecided whether they want them. Just stay on their ###. Do not use a silly clock. Whether online or in person, a draft generally takes 3-4 hours. You dont need to be ticking, no pun intended, people off due to a timer. Use common sense.

Draft dominator is good to use to track $ for each team.

Yes, everybody must draft a starting roster.

Be bold and take a very important minute every 2-3 rounds to double check spent $ per team.

Toward the end, guys try to go fast and skate out. Make sure they understand to sit and #### for another 20 minutes to make sure the draft ends smoothly.

A lot of yelling goes on. Try to keep quiet as much as possible and communicate.

And of course make fun of others picks. We like to play funny sound bites. Our favorite is Jaws "dun dun" theme when a bidding war goes on. The prices right losing sound for a bad player. Improvise.

Good Luck!

 

[butcher boy]

Another way to make it fun is to incorporate drinking penalties for mistakes made. Auctions are complex and many people make mistakes.

- bid on a player after you're full at that position? Take a shot.

- bid over your available cap space? Take a shot.

- nominating a player you cant legally bid on? take a shot.

Last year our commissioner kept goofing up and had to take shots too. By the end of the draft he was trashed and although a bit of a cluster####, it was undoubtedly the most fun draft ever.

 

[scools12]

I have ran an auction draft for a while now with a $200 budget and 15 roster spots. I have a partner for my team but I wish we did have a 3rd party running it. The auction is ran like a snake draft with the last team in each round getting to nominate 2 players in a row. The auctioneer has to be in control, have final say and needs to keep things moving.

We have a team nominate a player and the nominating team stays out of the bidding. After the final bid on the nominated player the team that initially nominated the player has the choice to take the player at the final price or passing on the player in which the team that bid the highest is forced to take the player. This leads to teams thinking that the nominating team really wants the player and they bid up the price. If the nominating team passes the highest bidding team might end up with a player they really didn't want.

Teams can spend all their money before filling out their roster but every team after the draft must have 15 players on their roster. A team that does spend their budget before filling their roster has to wait until all the other teams have spent their budget before getting to pick anymore players. What has happended over the last few years is most teams are using their whole budget on 15 roter spots instead of spending the $200 on 10 or so players.

After all the teams have spent their budget we start with the team or teams that still have roster spots to fill and begin with the team with the least amount of players on their roster and go through a straight draft(non-snake) until all rosters are filled.

 

[Instinctive]

I hate the "fill out your roster" rule. If I'd rather spend on 3 QBs than 2 QBs and a Def, I should be able to.

When we draft you don't have to draft a full team - you can always pick up a D/K the day before the season starts.

I totally get the "must draft x number of players", but you shouldn't be forcing people to positional maximums and minimums in the initial draft/auction.

 

[the next level]

I hate the "fill out your roster" rule. If I'd rather spend on 3 QBs than 2 QBs and a Def, I should be able to. When we draft you don't have to draft a full team - you can always pick up a D/K the day before the season starts.I totally get the "must draft x number of players", but you shouldn't be forcing people to positional maximums and minimums in the initial draft/auction.

Likewise, I'd like a further rationale from the "must fill your roster on draft day" proponents. Why? Is it a reason other than protecting players from themselves? Am I missing something else?

 

[Ray_T]

I have an established league that has been doing snake drafts for the last 7 years. This year we voted to do an auction draft. All of our league rules and everything have been ironed out thru time but there were definitely some growing pains in the first few years. I want to try to have a smooth of transition to auction drafting as possible and I'm looking for any tips that may help out. Were just using the auction for the draft. After that all trades and pickups are going to be normal like a league that has a snake draft. We have a $200 budget. Were going to have a draft board with each team listed so they can write there picks in and were going to have a whiteboard to keep track of all the budgets. So far the method we've talked about for running the draft is taking turns picking players and whoever puts a player up for nomination is also the auctioneer for that player. Is that a good idea or should we really look for a 3rd party to run the auctions? It will be a live draft. Is there a computer program that I could use just to keep a timer going to keep the bidding moving along? The league is against everyone having there own laptop for bidding so it would just be one computer hooked up to a projector the auctioneer could run. Does anything like that exist? I want to keep the action moving, I don't want this to be a 8 hour draft. One question that has came up is if we have a 15 player roster including bench, does a owner have to draft all 15 players? Or could they pay $200 for Arian Foster and then pick 14 guys off waivers once the draft is over? My answer was no everyone has to pick all 15 players, so the most you could use on one player is $186 then you could get 14 players for $1. I know this is an extreme case but I think you get the idea of the question. Also what do you do when you get near the end and some teams are filled up with players? Do they keep nominating players or are they finished? What happens if players keep getting nominated that no one wants? Any and all help or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

in our draft you need to hold back at least 1$ for every position on your roster.so if we have a roster of 15 players, and I have picked 8, and have 15 dollars left my max bid is 9$ if we assume I spend 1 dollar on the remaining 6 players.these are things you would want to keep track of if you go with this type of rule.I would recommend two breaks. one nearby the halfway point and one at the 3/4 mark of the auction. At these points you update the numbers for all the GM's.this is easy to organize if you have a BBQ and plan on having burgers or something anyhow as that accounts for one of the breaks.

 

[beast8812]

Thanks for all the tips and info everyone on the auction. I know my whole league is really excited for the draft this year.

 

[WampusCat43]

Something to consider, at least during the first year: only have the auction for the first five rounds, then revert to the serpentine draft. Keeps the timespan reasonable and everyone finishes around the same time. No minimum roster amounts to worry about either. We've been doing it this way for about five years, and it adds a little bit of strategy. Woe be unto the guy who nominates a kicker (and some dummy seems to do it every year). You're going to get stuck with him, and you've just thrown away one of your five best draft picks.

 

[inca911]

You absolutely need to make the minimum bid $0 so you don't have to keep track of who still has enough money to fill out the rest of their roster (e.g., an owner with $7 can only bid max of $3 if he still has four total positions to fill after getting the player on the block). With a 15 player roster in your current system, you are really having an auction with an owner cap of $185 and a $0 minimum, so this isn't really a change.

Do not mix auction and draft! We have auction strategy going on all the way to the final rounds, and those are some of the most fun decisions to make on speculative players (e.g., rookies, and the Randy Moss types). Changing to draft benefits owners that aren't good at auctions. No reason to do that if this is an auction league. I've picked up $45 valued player for $10 simply because I kept track and bid wisely. Getting a handful of speculative $10 valued players for $2 each is a very valid auction strategy.

We nominate in a set owner order (randomly determined on draft night), as there is strategy in who an owner chooses to nominate. It also makes it easy to keep track of things. In one time-conscious league, we also bid in that order and once you are out you are out for good. That league has the fastest auctions of all the ones I've done, if you are concerned about time. Verbally check all purchased players and current team budgets every round.

Reminder that all players should be locked as soon as the auction is over, so rosters must be filled on draft night. This is done to not reward someone who is first to see an injury during a preseason game. Waivers run first time each week on 8am Wednesday until season start. Makes the preseason matter at least some. Roster add/drops until season start are the same as during league time (i.e., players lock each week at their preseason game kickoff, waivers run then players not added/dropped are free agents, owner gets a player off waivers means he goes to the bottom of the waiver list, waiver order does not reset each week). Injuries during practices are the same as during the regular season (i.e., paying close attention can still give an advantage in picking up a free agent player that is not on waivers first-come, first-served).

Best of luck!

 

[Instinctive]

You absolutely need to make the minimum bid $0 so you don't have to keep track of who still has enough money to fill out the rest of their roster (e.g., an owner with $7 can only bid max of $3 if he still has four total positions to fill after getting the player on the block). With a 15 player roster in your current system, you are really having an auction with an owner cap of $185 and a $0 minimum, so this isn't really a change.

Ignore this part of this guy's post. Just keep track, it's not hard, and if you for some reason don't actually possess the ability to do so, there is plenty of software to do it for you.

DO listen to the below part. Don't mix them - it's logistically a pain in the ###.

Do not mix auction and draft! We have auction strategy going on all the way to the final rounds, and those are some of the most fun decisions to make on speculative players (e.g., rookies, and the Randy Moss types). Changing to draft benefits owners that aren't good at auctions. No reason to do that if this is an auction league. I've picked up $45 valued player for $10 simply because I kept track and bid wisely. Getting a handful of speculative $10 valued players for $2 each is a very valid auction strategy.

We nominate in a set owner order (randomly determined on draft night), as there is strategy in who an owner chooses to nominate. It also makes it easy to keep track of things. In one time-conscious league, we also bid in that order and once you are out you are out for good. That league has the fastest auctions of all the ones I've done, if you are concerned about time. Verbally check all purchased players and current team budgets every round.

Some of this last paragraph I agree with. Just not the bolded part. I hate that. Let me build and draft my team the way I want - if I don;t want to pick up a kicker until right before week 1, let me do it.

Reminder that all players should be locked as soon as the auction is over, so rosters must be filled on draft night. This is done to not reward someone who is first to see an injury during a preseason game. Waivers run first time each week on 8am Wednesday until season start. Makes the preseason matter at least some. Roster add/drops until season start are the same as during league time (i.e., players lock each week at their preseason game kickoff, waivers run then players not added/dropped are free agents, owner gets a player off waivers means he goes to the bottom of the waiver list, waiver order does not reset each week). Injuries during practices are the same as during the regular season (i.e., paying close attention can still give an advantage in picking up a free agent player that is not on waivers first-come, first-served).

Best of luck!

 

[inca911]

Ignore his statement to ignore the $0 min bid. He's wrong, and will figure it out eventually. There is zero downside to a $0 min bid system, where everyone has $200 to spend freely. It's certainly better than a system where you need to have software just to know how much money someone can spend! What's the upside to a $1 min bid that makes it worth any amount of hassle?

To clarify: "filling roster" doesn't mean all required positions filled, just that the total maximum number of players have been taken. If you want 0 K and DST on your team, that's perfectly fine. I agree completely that each owner gets to manage his/her team however he/she wants.

 

[Instinctive]

Ignore his statement to ignore the $0 min bid. He's wrong, and will figure it out eventually. There is zero downside to a $0 min bid system, where everyone has $200 to spend freely. It's certainly better than a system where you need to have software just to know how much money someone can spend! What's the upside to a $1 min bid that makes it worth any amount of hassle?

To clarify: "filling roster" doesn't mean all required positions filled, just that the total maximum number of players have been taken. If you want 0 K and DST on your team, that's perfectly fine. I agree completely that each owner gets to manage his/her team however he/she wants.

I like the bolded I get the $0 minimum thing, I just don't trust most people to get it. I'd rather have software track it than continually have people asking stupid questions like "But 0$ isn't a bid? How did he win the guy?"

Then again, I have a pretty low opinion of people in general.

 

[uwgb96]

We switched to auction in my two main leagues years ago and have never looked back. We set up in a circle and nominations go around the table, as does the bidding. This makes it much easier to keep track of. Each owner has a flag that they keep up when they are still in the bidding, and lay down when they are out.

I've been exceptionally happy with http://www.fandraft.com/

It keeps track of salaries, max bid, etc.