New FOF $$$ League **ONLY TWO SPOTS LEFT**

[MalcPow]

I know a lot of you guys don't venture into the FOF portion of this forum much anymore, but a group of us have been kicking around a new league idea that's got some momentum behind it. You may have guessed from the title that this new league involves American currency, and that's basically the hook. We have an impartial simmer/commish in Ben, and the league's owners pay into a seasonal pool that offers real monetary stakes for performance. I think Ben has come up with a great structure for things, and I'll let that speak for itself.

Per Ben:

I am willing to be a non-owner commish for a league like this:

• $25 per person initial buy-in.
• Payouts may only be taken above the initial buy-in cost. You pocket your earnings above $75 and play the next season for free. You're essentially paying a $25 franchise fee to get in. If your earnings are less than $25 for a season, they're all applied to next season's fee. However, in the league's final season, all earnings will be paid out.
• I am paid $170 per season. That will cover web hosting plus league administration.
• The remaining $630 is earned by the league owners based on performance
• Specific earnings/payout structure may be found in the "$25 Per Season: New (Discounted) Setup" tab of the Google Spreadsheet I created, but in brief:

  • The champ will take a payout in the $200-$250 range, depending on how he did in the regular season.
  • The runner-up will take a payout roughly in the $100-$150 range.
  • Conf. Championship game losers pocket roughly $25-$50.
  • All other playoff teams get next season discounted.

• Cities and finances will be leveled out in-game. Coaches cannot be equalized.
• Default NFL Cities/Nicknames
• 30% Cap Reduction, no franchise tag.
• Schedule is 3 sims per week, as is basically reflected here.
• Low injuries to reduce the luck factor.
• Definitely want a league Board of Directors working with me to make decisions, mainly on trades.
• Best startup option would seem to be BFL-style: snake draft, 20-ish live rounds, AI the rest of the way.
• Restricted trading, either by a simple "no trading of future picks" rule, or a trade review board.

We're approaching a critical mass, and I figured it was time to open things up to the broader community. I know there are a lot of folks out there looking for a little extra spice to the game at this point, and I'm pretty stoked to give this a shot.

Register at the forums and join us: http://www.fof-cmfl.com/forum/forum.php

There's a thread with some of the basics and league start discussion over there. Along with information about how to place your $25 deposit (we're using Amazon's equivalent to paypal for transactions) and secure a team. You'll see some familiar faces, and there's a good chance this league has all the usual trappings of competitiveness, fun, some trash talk, and uncomfortable stories of Subby's sexual exploits.

[Subby]

I think this only works if Ben is the commish - in my opinion he's heavy on the integrity side and I completely trust him to run this. Plus no one knows the game like he does and my chances at winning go way down if he owned a team instead (so...win-win!).

Playing MP is nice and fun but gambling is nicer and funner. Put the two together and you've got a nice changeup to the normal course of FOF MP.

I hope all of the folks that I enjoy competing against in my various leagues will consider signing up. I think it will be a blast.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Subby

Plus no one knows the game like he does and my chances at winning go way down if he owned a team instead (so...win-win!).

Heh.

[Sun Tzu]

I take it this league will not be offering free sex?

[MalcPow]

Originally Posted by Sun Tzu

I take it this league will not be offering free sex?

Not officially, but the free sex black market will be strong to quite strong

[Ben E Lou]

Since someone asked, here's a little more math on the financials: we're doing 5 to 6 seasons per calendar year. If you average 6-10, that's $225 to $270 per year, so basically after the initial $75 buy-in, it shouldn't be any more than ~$20 per month, even if you suck.

[QuikSand]

If you haven't gotten through the whole setup yet but are stuck on the $75 entry fee, here's one thought. This isn't set up like your usual fantasy league where a few people get all the money -- the majority of the $75 goes right back out to door based on the winner of every single regular season game, so practically everyone will end up "paying" less than $75. That means fewer bucks left over for a super jackpot for the champs, but it also means that it's not really going to cost anyone $75 to play each season (to my dismay).

[Chubby]

Ben - What do owners get for their collective $1000/year profit paid to you to run the league?

[MalcPow]

I see it as covering reliable web hosting and the inconvenience of all the time spent on running something he's not participating in. I don't see it as out of line, and I'd definitely prefer to have a commish/simmer who has an obvious reason to do the job well.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Chubby

Ben - What do owners get for their collective $1000/year profit paid to you to run the league?

Not sure where you get that number. The house keeps $225 per season. There are 65 days in the proposed schedule, so 5.6 seasons per year. That's $1260 per year, minus $720 for Hosting. (I'm using a VPS with cPanel from LiquidWeb so that this league has its own host, apart from all others. The cost is $60 per month.) The profit would be $540 per year. If "wanting extra money" were the motivation, I could just play 3-4 restaurant gigs per year. I take home $150 a night for those plus whatever CDs and tips I make, but haven't bothered doing one in roughly three years, since I don't find it to be worth my time. *shurg*

[Subby]

Let's just put it this way, we pay our babysitter more than we would pay Ben on an hourly basis. It's a massive bargain when you consider the amount of time he will invest. Plus I would have a hard time trusting most anyone else.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Subby

Let's just put it this way, we pay our babysitter more than we would pay Ben on an hourly basis.

Lol. This discussion just caused me to do the math...

44 sims per season * 5.6 seasons per calendar year = 246 sims per calendar year.

Normal sims take around 15 minutes each to process and get the web stuff done. TC and end-season are both around an hour, 5.6 times per year. So 246 sims * .25 hours per sim = 61.6 hours per year. And then 11.2 times per year the sims take .75 hours longer, so add on another 8.4 hours to get approx. 70 hours of simming per calendar year. $540/70 = A WHOPPING $7.71 PER HOUR.

Now how did I let you people talk me into doing this again?

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Not sure where you get that number. The house keeps $225 per season. There are 65 days in the proposed schedule, so 5.6 seasons per year. That's $1260 per year, minus $720 for Hosting. (I'm using a VPS with cPanel from LiquidWeb so that this league has its own host, apart from all others. The cost is $60 per month.) The profit would be $540 per year. If "wanting extra money" were the motivation, I could just play 3-4 restaurant gigs per year. I take home $150 a night for those plus whatever CDs and tips I make, but haven't bothered doing one in roughly three years, since I don't find it to be worth my time. *shurg*

$225 * 6 = 1350. IHOF spends approx $400 on hosting. (as for where the number were coming from)

This also didn't answer my legitimate question. If I or anyone is going to invest in something like this I'd like to know where my money is going and why it's not going back into the payout pool.

[MalcPow]

I want to be helpful, but I'm confused. Ben is laying out his hosting costs. The rest of the admin money is compensating him for his time and effort. Which is, frankly, substantial. He is multiplying the fee by 5.6 because that is the number of seasons that will happen in a calendar year with the current schedule.

I don't see how this works without having a commish who is not playing. And I don't see it working without compensating that person in an appropriate way. I don't see the issue really.

[MalcPow]

Dola, since I've had a question or two asked, you need to register at the forums over there to see the thread with available teams and information about transferring funds.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by MalcPow

I want to be helpful, but I'm confused. Ben is laying out his hosting costs. The rest of the admin money is compensating him for his time and effort. Which is, frankly, substantial. He is multiplying the fee by 5.6 because that is the number of seasons that will happen in a calendar year with the current schedule.

I don't see how this works without having a commish who is not playing. And I don't see it working without compensating that person in an appropriate way. I don't see the issue really.

I guess my issue is 2 fold. I think all the money outside of hosting should be funneled back to the players. Ben is saying the money is insignificant, so then why bother paying him? VPI wasn't paid, there's no other commish who is paid (or wants to be) and I fail to see this huge timesink b(which is my other issue).

Everything is automated, Ben runs like what, 10 leagues or something (no, i don't know the real number) even the 15 minutes a sim is basically clicking a button and waiting while doing other things no?

So, yes, if I were to pony up money for something like this I'd like as much money as possible available back to the players outside of hosting costs. I also don't see the need to over double the hosting costs of say, IHOF, when we have historically been down like .00001% of the time.

[Dutch]

IHOF is one of three leagues that pays $400. FOFL and FOBL are on the hook for $400 each too, I think.

[MalcPow]

Again, I think it's totally appropriate for the commish of a league like this to be compensated. He's handling money transfers from 32 people. He's getting no personal enjoyment from the experience. He's expected to be impartial and motivated in carrying out his duties. He's going to need to do all those things in an environment where people are a little more invested/interested in what's happening.

Commishing and simming is a lot of work (and generally a pain in the ass). Ben is one of the most trusted and reliable commishes in the community and he's made a pretty reasonable offer of what it would take for him to do this. Obviously, the more reward the better for owners, but I'm willing to trade a little to have the best possible foundation for this thing.

I'm glad you're interested enough to want to talk about the details, Chubby. There are certainly a number of things to fine tune that we're looking to talk about over in the league forums.

[Dutch]

Agreed, MalcPow,

Anyway....

CMFL.

PRO's
1. Ben E Lou IS the most reliable simmer you'll find and like Malcpow, I have a lot of faith and trust in his integrity.

2. Dedicate servers are also paramount to this endeavour. A must have and they cost money.

3. Ben E Lou is one of only three people I know (and have experienced their awesome web sites) that have mixed their PHP and SQL skills together to build professional, superb and dynamic web sites dedicated to FOF MP.

4. Ben E Lou isn't actually participating with a team, so that HAS to mean something. I mean, Patrick Ewing won a championship the moment Michael Jordan wasn't around...so should provide us all hope!

Concerns? The admin costs are a minor issue to me. The one concern I really have is the trading of picks and players. That leaves me skeptical for the long-term enjoyment for everyone involved.

But overall, if this were ever to happen successfully, I think Ben E Lou is the right guy, at the right time, at the right place. The truth is if it doesn't happen now, I suspect it will never happen. So if you were on the fence, I'd hope you would consider joining just to give it a go.

[dave731]

This has my interest...

[Julio Riddols]

Whenever I have some disposable income, I would totally be into this. Could be years til that happens though, unless I manage to crank out this book (and have it be good) within the next year or two.

[stevew]

Ewing won 0 titles. Unless that was supposed to be a joke.

[Dutch]

haha, I guessed. I dont remember, honestly.

[Dutch]

So it looks like the original asking price is going to come down. There was simply not enough interest at $75 per season. Although I suspect that will change once this project gets off the ground and builds up its street cred some.

So....the price will most likely drop to $25 per season. Head on over to the Cash Money Football League (CMFL) web-site for more info and SIGN UP!!!

The Cash Money Football League Forum

[Ben E Lou]

This is now official. $25 per season.

[TRO]

My money is down and my track record has been horrible in FOF leagues. Who doesn't want to take my free money?

[Subby]

$25 seems pretty reasonable.

[MalcPow]

We've actually had a generous owner offer to stake new entrants the $25 fee as well. If you're at all on the fence, that should be a helpful nudge.

Register at the forums to claim a team.

[Ben E Lou]

Bump. Last call for this:

Originally Posted by claystone

We have 14 GM's now we are looking for the remaining 18. I'm offering to pay the entry fee for the first 18 GM's that would like to play. You get to keep the winnings if you win. The catch will be, you must play at least 3 seasons.

Let me know by signing up here.

Thanks

[Julio Riddols]

Hmm.. So this means if I don't win money in season 1, I have to pay for season 2 and 3?

[Julio Riddols]

I'm in.

[Doug5984]

Hmm haven't played FOF in a long time, but this is intriguing. I'm assuming spots still open?

[MalcPow]

Yep, still some openings.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by MalcPow

Yep, still some openings.

Starting to fill. Bumping this for one more push.

[Ben E Lou]

23 owners signed up now.

[Ben E Lou]

Bump. Only five teams left.

[Julio Riddols]

Get up on this Wisconsin Death Trip!

[Ben E Lou]

Bumping for the beginning of the week. There are only four spots left now.

[Ben E Lou]

League Update: Time to get moving?

[Ben E Lou]

One of the open teams is Cleveland. They're going to be ready to draft (#12 overall) in the next few hours. Official start is Monday, but jump in now, and you can make your franchise-defining pick.

http://www.fof-cmfl.com/greysheet.php?positiongroup=ALL

1. - O'Neill, Rickey, WR, Hawaii
2. - Kempe, Hardy, QB, Baylor
3. - McCarthy, Richie, WR, Nebraska
4. - Goodwin, Winston, WR, Tulane
5. - Forbes, Darryl, WR, Grambling
6. - Freeman, Orlando, QB, Kentucky
7. - Canadeo, Riddick, WR, Auburn
8. - Cranwell, Shaun, WR, Southern California
9. - Tallman, Les, WR, Oklahoma

[Dutch]

Remember, you are drafting the team. There is NOBODY on rosters right now. The team will be your creation.

[Ben E Lou]

The draft is underway. The two unclaimed are being tended to, and have both gotten off to very strong starts in the draft. Come claim one of them now.

BFL: Minnesota Vikings Roster
BFL: New Jersey Jets Roster