August 15, 2010
With October being the start date of the season, let's get this rolling for the 20th time!
First of all, those Playoff games should of been killed off a long time ago. NOW I understand why we had more and more drop off over the years. It was quite a treat to just kick back and watch it all unfold without caring about who scores and who wins. And for those of you who missed it, it seems the Chicago Blackhawks are the 2010 Stanley Cup Champions.
Now, for the business at hand:
Bucking Up:
As mentioned at the Draft last year, we are down to 10 franchises due to one reason: we've priced ourselves out of many of our long-time GM's affordability. With that in mind, I'm throwing out 4 options for a Big Vote to see how we move forward:
1) No Change: Keep it as is ($195) and ride it out with our exclusive cozy little club (assuming everyone stays in!)
2) Small Drop: Trim to $150 and see if anyone jumps back in
3) Significant Cut: All the way down to $125 and get back to keeping teams on a waiting list
4) Half Off: $100 total which puts a franchise into the hands of almost anyone
All of these options include the $30 Operating Fee, so subtract that from the costs above to figure out how much the Prize Fee will be. I haven't run the numbers, but you can see that it very well may be much less for any winning amounts.
I am going with #3. #4 is too much, and I don't think #2 will entice anyone to get back in or split off. And I'm throwing #1 out there to see who is suicidal. Regardless, we'll need 7 votes to go forward - if one option does not get 70%, we'll run off the top 2 next week until we get 1.
We will offer the 5 open spots to existing partners before opening it up to past GM's - some reward for sticking it out is due.
Draft Change?: No, not the location - we're back at the same place. But there has been a motion to change the way we select the Pros in the first 10 rounds. In brief:
We go Salary Cap!
Each team starts with the same "cap" amount - say like a Hold 'Em
tournament and you get $150 in chips. We roll through the Draft order the
same way, but instead of announcing a pick, you "nominate" a player
for bid and place an opening bid. After the player has been nominated,
other GM's have 30 seconds to state if they would like to bid also, or maybe the
floor has 30 seconds to outbid the high bid. Appropriate incriments with
NO time limit on the bid increases.
Example: NY Islanders (selecting first) - nominate Ovechkin for $20.
Any Team has 30 seconds to outbid. High bidder coughs up his chips and
gets his guy - regardless of if it's his turn. Islanders do not get to
nominate another player for auction until every other GM has nominated one.
You're limited to the usual 6-3-1 breakdown with your $150 cap.
Another example: Florida in round 10 has $4 left, and need one player to complete their 10 player pro roster, so they nominate a player whose bidding goes to $8. Florida cannot afford the $8 so they must drop out once the bidding goes past $4. Florida has to wait for their turn again to nominate another player to fit into their remaining cap. They must do this until they have 10 pro roster players. Once a team has 10 pro roster players, that team may no longer bid on players, and will be "static" until the serpentine round begins.
And no carry over value from your cap allotment past Round
10 - you turn in any unused chips. Not sure how cover situations where
some GM's shoot their wad on the first 5 rounds and have no chips left to fill
out their roster.
What do you think? Sure will shake up the proceedings a bit. Here's my take:
Plusses:
- Sure is a change from the last 19 Drafts!
- Allows you to actually value your picks live - if you placed your initial bid too high for some stench-a-holic coming off double hip surgery, you'll know right away you screwed up.
- Forces you to come prepared and not wing it
Minuses:
- You have to pay attention all the time - no more drafting then kicking back for a nacho plate while you wait for your pick to come around. You have to be focused and ready to pounce EVERY pick.
- Somebody at the front table has to play both GM and Cashier.
- The time to nominate a player will have to be cut down by a minute to equal the time you had to choose a player (2 and 1 minutes), but bid time may stretch things out timewise
Any other minutia questions need to go to the nominator: our esteemed Senior Assistant Commissioner!
Those are what's come up so far in brainstorming. So let's have a simple "Yes" or "No" to change - "No" keeps it as it (for now), and we will take a 70% "Yes" to change this, too.
Other than THAT big proposal, there really isn't anything pressing. We have some time before the 2010 Rules are released around Labor Day if anything reasonable comes up. Let's hear it on the Form.
Draft Day: No change there! 10 AM or maybe 9 AM? Hell, let's vote on that! Simple majority there will rule. And if you have any menu changes or suggestions for additions, let us know on the Form.
The web site will be updated in the next week with the below link up front in case you actually have to think about your answer!
The pre-Draft schedule looks like:
August 23rd - Reservation & Voting Form due
September 10th - Entry Form, Rule Book and Stats posted
September 20th - Deposits Due
Saturday, October 2nd - 20th YYZ Draft Day, 9 or 10 am
Get those forms in now. I don't want to start off the season by tracking down your votes!