What to do when a league goes stale? (1 Viewer)

[Shutout]

Sorry if there is a better place for this topic but I thought getting the SHark opinion on this goes directly to the source because it is asking the types of owners that DO stay active all year.

What do you do when you have a dynasty league that , while active during the season, just becomes a deserted island from December to August?

Is there a time you just kind of know when it is time to fold up the tent and take the circus to another town?

I'm talking about dynasty leagues where all the owners do a fine job managing their teams during the season and seem to be having fun but once Week 16 rolls around, you can't pry activity into them.

What are other leagues doing to keep things flowing during the offseason (or should a truly active league even have to supply gimmicks and promotions)?

 

[voiceofunreason]

Having your rookie draft a couple of weeks after the NFL draft should help a bit. Some people only pay attention during the season and you can't change them and you can't really kick them out if they are active during the year.

Salary cap leagues force people to be more active during the offseason with free agency, etc.

 

[Concept Coop]

Decide how important it is to you. I don't know that you're going to find a way to artificially increase activity. Some groups of owners just aren’t into it during the off season. If you want something different, I’d look for another league.

If you’re looking for an active league, I will say that my most active leagues had their startups in Feb-March. It seems to weed out the September-December crowd. That, or get a group of guys from the forum/Twitter/etc.

 

[Spin]

We do our RFA period in April, and Rookie draft in June, as well as having various roster cut down days and FA pickups throughout the offseason. Everyone stays pretty active year round. Rare we get someone that hasn't logged on in a week.

 

[JohnnyU]

Not shutting down waivers is s good start for the off season in dynasty leagues. I know that I'm in a couple leagues where there isn't waiver activity from the end of the season until the draft and one league where there isn't any during the off season period. This is the kiss of death to dynasty leagues.

 

[Shutout]

Not shutting down waivers is s good start for the off season in dynasty leagues. I know that I'm in a couple leagues where there isn't waiver activity from the end of the season until the draft and one league where there isn't any during the off season period. This is the kiss of death to dynasty leagues.

That's a really good observation I hadn't thought of. The league I am thinking of does exactly that; turns off waivers after the season until the rookie draft. Do those leagues normally include vet players in the rookie draft? I asking that because I think the league turns it off so that there will be more players available in the rookie draft...

 

[Shutout]

Do you guys have experience in leagues where you cut players or assign tags and such? Wondering if those leagues, by nature, remain active.

 

[ConnSKINS26]

Active owners are going to remain active regardless of the time of year or the specific league mechanics. Waivers, no waivers, roster cutdowns, etc. don't matter for most. It's about getting a good group of owners, and refreshing it with enthusiastic new blood when someone's life circumstances, or their interests, change to the point where they can't uphold acceptable activity. Obviously exceptions are made for certain things when they pop up, and long-time owners are given the benefit of the doubt. But a great, really active year-round league "polices" itself--because it's filled with 12 or 14 or whatever active owners who enjoy a really active league.

Certain things can be done to encourage that activity, but I think you either have those personalities in your leagues or you don't. None of my leagues have offseason waivers, and everyone is logging in, chatting, trading, etc. pretty much daily.

I mostly play in large roster leagues that utilize roster cutdowns after preseason

But more importantly I specifically joined startups years ago that had the goal of maintaining really active leagues. As in, that's the #1 priority, that was the foundation of the leagues, and the owners worked with the commish to decide on things like PPR vs. non-PPR, offense only vs. IDP, start-up auction vs. snake draft, waivers vs. blind bidding, roster sizes, etc. after the league was assembled with really active owners. That's what we've found works best.

 

[ShadyBrady]

How inactive are they during the off season? Do they refuse to respond to any trade talk, or do they just take longer to respond?

 

[lyon812]

Do you guys have experience in leagues where you cut players or assign tags and such? Wondering if those leagues, by nature, remain active.

It isn't simply a matter of getting active owners; it's getting owners that want to be active all year long. Some people are content with living August-January and are perfectly active within that period. Some people want more. I tend to think that owners will naturally gravitate towards the type of league they're comfortable with.

One thing I enjoy about Zealots Field leagues is their active offseason. Giving people a reason to care about their rosters during the offseason is an excellent way to spur activity. Roster cutdowns, restricted free agency, offseason auctions, rookie draft, etc.; all of these provide an impetus for participation. I'm in two non-Zealots leagues that are like yours--a wasteland until August--and it's been a serious source of frustration that the offseason is such a wasteland. During the season, everyone's fine; during the offseason, trade inquiries disappear into the ether and player movement is nil.

 

[Shutout]

How inactive are they during the off season? Do they refuse to respond to any trade talk, or do they just take longer to respond?

Its really a split. Half the league is on all the time but the other half kind of hibernate. So its not a case of just one bad apple or anything but then it leads to the guys that are around ending up sayying things like "Why do I bother to log on? I sent an offer out to Joe 2 weeks ago and haven't heard from him." So its like we are playing with half a league in the offseason and its hard to get a lot of things going in the league during that time.

 

[werdnoynek]

Not shutting down waivers is s good start for the off season in dynasty leagues. I know that I'm in a couple leagues where there isn't waiver activity from the end of the season until the draft and one league where there isn't any during the off season period. This is the kiss of death to dynasty leagues.

I'm getting mighty bored with UFDL atm... I'm curious if the commish will log on following the draft. I have a hard time bailling on a team but I'm pretty close to it in that league. I really cannot stand inactive leagues and will definitely be pushing for a change in the offseason before the season starts this year.

 

[Mister CIA]

Not shutting down waivers is s good start for the off season in dynasty leagues. I know that I'm in a couple leagues where there isn't waiver activity from the end of the season until the draft and one league where there isn't any during the off season period. This is the kiss of death to dynasty leagues.

I'm getting mighty bored with UFDL atm... I'm curious if the commish will log on following the draft. I have a hard time bailling on a team but I'm pretty close to it in that league. I really cannot stand inactive leagues and will definitely be pushing for a change in the offseason before the season starts this year.

Please no! ...says the guy who has drafted Sammy Watkins and Marqise Lee (and not surprisingly owns the 1.01).

My take, I play in multiple leagues and just accept the way things are and enjoy the multiple flavors. UFDL does come to a crawl in the off-season, but it's pretty fun when the ice thaws.

 

[kineticnfl]

I have a league with this exact problem. Good guys but there are only 2-3 of us that are active outside of the season. I have tried to encourage the others just to check in once a week or so to deal with trades etc but got no real response. A big problem is that the league champion has not logged in since the Super Bowl and has shown little desire to put much effort in even during the season.Damned if I know how he won.

I have been toying with the idea of instituting a 3 strike policy. Log in every week during the season, every 2 weeks outside the season or get a strike. After 3 strikes you are booted from the league. I'm just not sure if its too much or not. Maybe run it up the flag pole in your league and see what the others think. I think I am going to try it in my league, see what happens.

 

[ShadyBrady]

How inactive are they during the off season? Do they refuse to respond to any trade talk, or do they just take longer to respond?

Its really a split. Half the league is on all the time but the other half kind of hibernate. So its not a case of just one bad apple or anything but then it leads to the guys that are around ending up sayying things like "Why do I bother to log on? I sent an offer out to Joe 2 weeks ago and haven't heard from him." So its like we are playing with half a league in the offseason and its hard to get a lot of things going in the league during that time.

It seems like if this is a league of friends that you enjoy trash talking with you should stay, and if its just a group of randoms then you should leave.

You could also stay, and just join another league thats more active to scratch your fantasy itch during the off season

 

[werdnoynek]

Not shutting down waivers is s good start for the off season in dynasty leagues. I know that I'm in a couple leagues where there isn't waiver activity from the end of the season until the draft and one league where there isn't any during the off season period. This is the kiss of death to dynasty leagues.

I'm getting mighty bored with UFDL atm... I'm curious if the commish will log on following the draft. I have a hard time bailling on a team but I'm pretty close to it in that league. I really cannot stand inactive leagues and will definitely be pushing for a change in the offseason before the season starts this year.

Please no! ...says the guy who has drafted Sammy Watkins and Marqise Lee (and not surprisingly owns the 1.01).

My take, I play in multiple leagues and just accept the way things are and enjoy the multiple flavors. UFDL does come to a crawl in the off-season, but it's pretty fun when the ice thaws.

Yeah, I just get so antsy. I think it's something to bring up before kickoff this year though.

I'm not going anywhere... plus I just traded for DGB so I've got someone watch grow and hopefully prosper.

 

[CokeZero]

Like someone posted, having good owners is the key. My dynasty league has been running since 2000 with good ownership 99% of the time. The guys are experienced and know when the NFL calendar starts on FA, so does ours, where we have bidding until the start of the NFL draft. Our draft is one week after the NFL draft. After that is first come first serve FA until the start of the season.

The owners are savvy and experienced and know their down time is roughly Jan-Feb, then it's back to work if they want to improve their team!

My suggestion: look for good owners that are as fanatical as you are.

 

[Shutout]

Like someone posted, having good owners is the key. My dynasty league has been running since 2000 with good ownership 99% of the time. The guys are experienced and know when the NFL calendar starts on FA, so does ours, where we have bidding until the start of the NFL draft. Our draft is one week after the NFL draft. After that is first come first serve FA until the start of the season.

The owners are savvy and experienced and know their down time is roughly Jan-Feb, then it's back to work if they want to improve their team!

My suggestion: look for good owners that are as fanatical as you are.

A lot of what you say here is kind of the whole rub in this situation. This is a league that has been around for about ten years so we have all gottent o know one another and it IS enjoyable during the season and everyone is active. Butright now, its half and half like I mentioned in an earlier post so it just kind of tugs at me. Good league with good history. Nice owners and all that comes with it but it really just seems like life; we were a bunch of college guys hanging out and being active and now we are all old (figuratively speaking), sitting on our couches in our own homes. Maybe there just comes a point when a league, even a dynasty, lives out its life cycle.

 

[CokeZero]

What exactly would you LIKE to see occur in the offseason? These owners seem to be satisfied; is there anyone else expressing dissatisfaction? If not, I submit to you that it might be time for you to walk away and recharge the batteries. My co-founder of our dynasty league did just that. Stepped away for three years due to career challenges and came back just last year, refreshed and ready to rock. Sometimes you just have to ask 'is it me, or the league?'

 

[cstu]

Not shutting down waivers is s good start for the off season in dynasty leagues. I know that I'm in a couple leagues where there isn't waiver activity from the end of the season until the draft and one league where there isn't any during the off season period. This is the kiss of death to dynasty leagues.

That's a really good observation I hadn't thought of. The league I am thinking of does exactly that; turns off waivers after the season until the rookie draft. Do those leagues normally include vet players in the rookie draft? I asking that because I think the league turns it off so that there will be more players available in the rookie draft...

The question I have to ask is why would someone stay active without waivers year round? Sure there's trades but without the ability to pick guys up that limits the trades that people are willing to do. If the owners don't want year round waivers then they probably aren't that interested in being active year round. Find guys that are.

 

[Franknbeans]

strippers

 

[moderated]

it all comes down to getting the diehard dynasty owners. I'm in a league where there has been more activity/trading during the offseason then during the season.

Try to find a great league and make a buyout offer for one of the teams in it. You might have to pay more then the entry fees to pry it away but it's worth it.