Auction Dynasty Startup - Help requested in successfully setting up a league (1 Viewer)

I am looking at starting an auction dynasty league in 2021 and would benefit from the collective wisdom of the Shark Pool in terms of successes, failures, ideas, etc.  (Mods, feel free to move this if it is not appropriate for the Shark Pool, though commissioner advice feels better placed here than in the AC forum)

The first auction should be simple enough.  It's going from there that I need help with.

FREE AGENCY

1) If teams have any cap room post-auction, should that be used as capital available for outbidding rivals for free agency?

2) If a player that was auctioned at $20M gets dropped for a player that was acquired for $1M, should the team get $19M in cap room for use in trades and/or other free agents?

3) If that player that was auctioned at $20M gets dropped, should it cost a new team (or their old team) $20M to acquire him as a free agent for the rest of the season?

4) I have seen some setups where there is one cap for auction and another for free agents.  This runs counter to my way of thinking but it that worth considering and, if so, how would it be best implemented?

ROOKIE AUCTIONS AKA SUBSEQUENT AUCTIONS

1) I'm thinking of either having an active season roster of 26 or 20 and then cutting down to 20 or 14 about a month prior to the rookie auction, with a 6 round rookie auction.  Is this the best way to do this?  In my prior dynasty league, we did the draft first and cutdowns after, but that was not an auction so we didn't have to worry about the cap.

2) Is it best to allow free agents to be eligible for auction or strictly rookies only? 

WEB SITE - What web site can handle an auction as well as maintaining player's salaries after the auction is over?  Fleaflicker doesn't do auction at all.  I have done Yahoo for auction redraft and it works well but I have no idea if Yahoo maintains ongoing salaries.  A free site is strongly preferred, even if it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, so long as it gets the job done.

ANYTHING ELSE I AM OVERLOOKING?

I outlined the issues that came to mind but may very well be overlooking others.  Any other information is appreciated.

TIA

I run an auction dynasty league hosted on MFL. Even the annual rookie draft is an auction...basically draft picks have an assigned dollar value per a chart in the rules. It does have an impact on values though.....owning two late firsts is better then holding the #1 overall for example.

Most of the rest is fairly generic/common dynasty rules though

FREE AGENCY

1) If teams have any cap room post-auction, should that be used as capital available for outbidding rivals for free agency?

That would be my preference or how I'd set it up.  If not, then every in season free agent has to be available in the auction the following season.

2) If a player that was auctioned at $20M gets dropped for a player that was acquired for $1M, should the team get $19M in cap room for use in trades and/or other free agents?

Yep.  Now, there are a variety of ways to inflict a cap hit when dropping a player.  Maybe, when a player gets dropped, you have to take a 10%, 15% or ??% cap hit.

3) If that player that was auctioned at $20M gets dropped, should it cost a new team (or their old team) $20M to acquire him as a free agent for the rest of the season?

Hmm, not exactly.  You implied in #2 above a player could be acquired for $1M, I assume this meant an in season bidding system to acquire free agents.  If there is a waiver claim process, then, yes the acquiring team should take the whole salary, but if he clears waivers and enters free agency, then he's in the bidding system.

4) I have seen some setups where there is one cap for auction and another for free agents.  This runs counter to my way of thinking but it that worth considering and, if so, how would it be best implemented?

I think the answer here depends on how you are able to keep players from year to year.  You have not outlined your thoughts.  Does an owner get to keep a player forever at that salary?  Does the salary go up each year by a percentage?  Or are there contract years, meaning when you win a bid the owner has to decide the number of years to keep a player, with the league stating a maximum number of allowable years.  

ROOKIE AUCTIONS AKA SUBSEQUENT AUCTIONS

1) I'm thinking of either having an active season roster of 26 or 20 and then cutting down to 20 or 14 about a month prior to the rookie auction, with a 6 round rookie auction.  Is this the best way to do this?  In my prior dynasty league, we did the draft first and cutdowns after, but that was not an auction so we didn't have to worry about the cap.

This might play into #4 above.  Lots of these things can be intertwined depending upon the complexity you desire, or lack thereof.  

2) Is it best to allow free agents to be eligible for auction or strictly rookies only? 

I prefer having a rookie draft.  We conduct ours online a few weeks before our auction.  Lots of folks like to have their rookie draft right after the NFL draft.

WEB SITE - What web site can handle an auction as well as maintaining player's salaries after the auction is over?  Fleaflicker doesn't do auction at all.  I have done Yahoo for auction redraft and it works well but I have no idea if Yahoo maintains ongoing salaries.  A free site is strongly preferred, even if it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, so long as it gets the job done.

I can't help you here.  We use MFL.

ANYTHING ELSE I AM OVERLOOKING?

I outlined the issues that came to mind but may very well be overlooking others.  Any other information is appreciated.

I think the big thing I don't see is how to keep players from year to year and use auction (salary cap).  Really, it sounds like you want to use an auction to initialize your rosters.  Then have a rookie draft.  But what is the 2022 plan for guys not on rosters?  Is that another auction?  If so, do the winning bids (players salaries) from 2021 carry over?  

Some background on my perspective, for the last 20 years I've been running, what I'll call, a Contract Auction Dynasty league.  

We have a rookie draft, where player salaries are slotted.  And a yearly auction to fill out rosters for available players.  When an owner wins a bid in the auction, he has to immediately determine how long he want to sign the player for, from 1 to 4 years.  Each year comes with a signing bonus, and that signing bonus is larger for the longer you wish to keep the player.

The salary cap is in place year round.  We have tags so you can keep players when their contracts expire and even cap hits for when you release a player.

Seems like y'all are mixing "auction" with "salary cap". While these aren't mutually exclusive things, and most salary cap leagues utilize an auction for the initial draft....auction leagues DO NOT have to be salary cap leagues.

My league mentioned above utilizes auctions for everything. Initial draft was an auction. Waiver wire dollars for FAs in season. Rookie auction yearly. But it isn't a salary cap league

renesauz said:

Seems like y'all are mixing "auction" with "salary cap". While these aren't mutually exclusive things, and most salary cap leagues utilize an auction for the initial draft....auction leagues DO NOT have to be salary cap leagues.

My league mentioned above utilizes auctions for everything. Initial draft was an auction. Waiver wire dollars for FAs in season. Rookie auction yearly. But it isn't a salary cap league

Click to expand...

True.  But given @Keith R's questions it seems like he's leaning that way. Here's how we handle the league I'm in:

• Unused auction funds determine available cap space for FA bidding.   
  
• Dropping a player removes his salary, so dropping 20 and adding 1 is a net gain of 19 in cap space. 
  
• Dropped players can be acquired for minimum in blind bidding
  
• One salary cap covers both draft/auction and FA bidding
  
• Player salaries increase year-over-year based on performance (top-10/20/30/other) but no other limit on how long to keep someone
  

We don't have a required roster cutdown, but you have to be under the cap after yearly increases., and have at least 1 unit of cap space per open slot. 

Our annual auction includes both rookies and free agents. This tends to result in big-name rookies being somewhat expensive, but returning to the auction pool sooner. You can also strike gold if you get a rookie cheap and he blows up.

Oh, and we also use MFL, so no advice on free websites.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.  It is helping me visualize many possibilities and seeing what may or may not be feasible.

We had an initial startup auction for up to 15 players or $250.  We then had a draft to fill out the rest of the roster (25 rounds - this is a full IDP league).  You can award multi year contracts to any player you get in the auction or draft (Not free agents throughout the year).  Each draft slot has a salary associated with it.  The salary cap of $250 is only for the initial auction and yearly freezes (up to 15 players or $250).  If you don't award a contract you are essentially giving a 1 yr contract for the current year and have no salary obligation beyond that year (meaning if you drop that player or don't freeze him the following year it costs you nothing against the cap).  If you awarded a multi year contract to a player and then subsequently drop him before the final year then you get hit with a cap hit equal to the total salary owed to the player the following year when identifying your 15 freezes up to $250.

Subsequent years have a restricted free agent (RFA) auction prior to the draft.  In order to be eligible for the auction the player must have been on a league team the previous season.  If you had the player on your roster and did not keep him as part of your 15 freezes then you have the rights to that player.  The auction happens and if you have enough cap space you can match the highest bid.  

Teams freeze 15 players up to $250 in salary.  If those 15 players salary totals $200 then you have $50 to use in the RFA auction.  If you freeze $250 in salary then you cannot participate in the auction.  

Players not under extended contracts are subject to salary escalation based on performance for the current year.  If a player finishes in the top 15 of their position their salary will increase from $5 up to the average of the top 5 salaries of that position. This way it makes it difficult to hold onto premier players for their entire career unless you pay up for them.

We found that maintaining a salary cap in season really restricted trading (which is one of the best things of FF) so didn't want that to happen.  This is why we only have a salary cap for your keepers from year to year.  

This allows you to have an auction every year as well as a draft.  It has worked really well.