High Stakes vs Medium Stakes

[rkulaski]

Greg,

After all the craze of the live events and drafts ends at the end of the month, I hope you will consider the following proposal for next year, 2013:

How about offering a "Mini-Main Event" (15-team league) for next year? Something in the price range of $400-$600". I love traveling up to Chicago each year to draft live for the main event but at a price of $1475 and then add to it the cost of some slow drafts and satellites, I'm easily at $2000 spent on nfbc leagues. I could be wrong but I think there are other middle-class guys like myself who would love to do multiple live drafts over the weekend but are limited to 1 due to cost. I know there is the NFBC XII this year but it's still $1000 and it only offers 12-team leagues (which I know there are many of us that visit the MBs that are not nearly as interested in the 12-team leagues for reasons discussed previously on these boards).

Well I hope you will consider the mini-main event idea... My perfect weekend at the end of March would consist of participating in 2-3 live NFBC drafts and, at the same time, spending no more than $2500 in entry fees.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Greg,

After all the craze of the live events and drafts ends at the end of the month, I hope you will consider the following proposal for next year, 2013:

How about offering a "Mini-Main Event" (15-team league) for next year? Something in the price range of $400-$600". I love traveling up to Chicago each year to draft live for the main event but at a price of $1475 and then add to it the cost of some slow drafts and satellites, I'm easily at $2000 spent on nfbc leagues. I could be wrong but I think there are other middle-class guys like myself who would love to do multiple live drafts over the weekend but are limited to 1 due to cost. I know there is the NFBC XII this year but it's still $1000 and it only offers 12-team leagues (which I know there are many of us that visit the MBs that are not nearly as interested in the 12-team leagues for reasons discussed previously on these boards).

Well I hope you will consider the mini-main event idea... My perfect weekend at the end of March would consist of participating in 2-3 live NFBC drafts and, at the same time, spending no more than $2500 in entry fees.

Rich, I understand your feelings here and we all love to draft live as many times as possible, but unfortunately these mid-tier priced contests at live events is a money drain for us and not a big hit with players. We did the Live Double Play in 2010 at $500 per team and the Live Double Play in 2011 at $525 per team and quite frankly they never sold out and only came close to break even when we offered online options. With food, beverage and space costs, there's no chance to make a profit on a live draft at $500 or less. There just isn't.

And honestly, our $350 Online Championship is filling that mid-tier level void while offering a $50,000 grand prize that has the potential to rise even further than that. I do like your idea, but even when we did $650 auction leagues it was a cost drain to do those live. I wish I had better news for you, but our NFBC XII at $1,000 is probably here to stay. That's a level that makes ends meet for a live event.

[rkulaski]

Thanks Greg for taking the time to respond during this busy time of year. Completely understandable.