THE NFBC MAIN EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT AT 390 TEAMS!!

Likewhat17 · Post by **Likewhat17** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:49 am

This anticipation is killing me, lets fill up that last spot!

Cotton1 · Post by **Cotton1** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:49 am

actually, i played baseball professionally in 1988 in italy in the highest league they have. i played in reggio emilia, a town close to bologna and parma. there were(are?) teams scattered all over italy. i dont know the rules now, but back then each team was allowed to have 2 foreigners, usually 2 americans, but i remember the parma team had 2 players from the mexican league. some players of note were joe ferguson, lenny randle, rick waits and a bunch of aaa players that were in contract disputes with the american teams. i would have equated the best teams on a par with aa-aaa ball, the worst teams were single-a, maybe rookie ball equivalent. soccer still ruled the day, i remember them postponing a game or 2 because italy was in the european cup. there's your italian baseball lesson for the day!

KJ Duke · Post by **KJ Duke** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:59 am

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

Then we need to figure out the city configurations because this hasn't worked out perfectly. So we have some work to do, but it's all good.

Could look something like this ...

10 lges: Vegas - a new high?

7 lges: NY - not bad, considering

4 lges: Chicago - Greg, drag someone out of the snow to fill spot #390!

2 lges: online

1 lge: Orlando - was it worth it? 2010 chopping block

2 mixed lges:

9 LV + 6 ORL

8NY + 3 ORL + 4 online

moose1squirrel2 · Post by **moose1squirrel2** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:15 am

Tampa just seemed to be a better draw than Orlando

freddiezee · Post by **freddiezee** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:18 am

We are all checking the boards waiting for the magic words.....sold out, draft spots on Friday!!!!!

Come on Greg or Tom, give them to us!

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:18 am

Originally posted by freddiezee:

We are all checking the boards waiting for the magic words.....sold out, draft spots on Friday!!!!!

Come on Greg or Tom, give them to us! We're close.

Hoople Head · Post by **Hoople Head** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:17 am

If you were to sell out today, would Friday still be the earliest that we would know our draft spots ?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 9:48 am

Originally posted by Hoople Head:

If you were to sell out today, would Friday still be the earliest that we would know our draft spots ? yes, Friday is the day of draft spots no matter what. I thought I said that all day yesterday.

Hang in there all and you'll see draft spots on Friday. Everything is going good, so hang tight.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:06 am

Okay, just a heads up for today: I haven't purposely left everyone hanging with this final signup for the main event. It's been an interesting day of phone calls and e-mails from people who want this last spot. For one reason or another, we haven't gotten that final commitment but there's no question we'll be at 390 by Friday morning. The city breakdowns are tough at 390 as no city right now fills perfectly. This would be the first time that has ever happened, but with any luck we'll hit 60 in Chicago and fill up that fourth league.

We will announce the main event draft slots on Friday morning. I'm thinking of doing this at noon EST, but that's subject to change. By doing it then, folks will have 8 full days to prepare for their draft slots and a full weekend to really hit the books and the mock draft sites. This will mark the fifth straight year that we've sold out and announced the draft slots earlier than expected in baseball, which is great for our participants.

We are in great shape with the credit cards as we're really only chasing one that is making things tough, but we have enough potential customers to move forward and fill 390 either way. Just give Tom, me and our staff another full day to get payments squared away with everyone before we randomly pick the leagues Friday morning. We can do that when we first get into the office and have enough time to run the KDS preferences for everyone and announce the picks by noon EST. I think that will work.

We'll be at 390, but we're not officially there yet. Close, very close, but not quite there. I'll make the announcement when we get there, but for now just get ready for Friday and the official start of the NFBC main event in 2009.

[ March 11, 2009, 04:07 PM: Message edited by: Greg Ambrosius ]

Dak · Post by **Dak** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:07 am

How will the phone league play out with 34 sign-ups? 2 phone leagues and the other 4 drafting in Florida?

Attie · Post by **Attie** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:47 am

Nice to see that fellow Canadian Erik Bedard got scratched from his start today due to a sore ass....coincidentally the same ailment which afflicts all of us Fantasy owners who drafted the pig last year.....

swampass · Post by **swampass** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:49 am

oh i cant wait for friday! not going to get crap done at work as ill be lining up for drafts at MDC. this is sweet...an all weekend long cram session.

the countdown is on fellas. who's feeling the pressure? its on.

Purple Helmets · Post by **Purple Helmets** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:07 pm

Originally posted by swampass:

oh i cant wait for friday! not going to get crap done at work as ill be lining up for drafts at MDC. this is sweet...an all weekend long cram session.

the countdown is on fellas. who's feeling the pressure? its on. Swampy, I'm your neighbor in Marina del Rey. Try to make sure you represent SoCal well.

Scott Boras · Post by **Scott Boras** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:07 pm

Originally posted by Attie:

Nice to see that fellow Canadian Erik Bedard got scratched from his start today due to a sore ass....coincidentally the same ailment which afflicts all of us Fantasy owners who drafted the pig last year..... lol

Top Dawg · Post by **Top Dawg** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:23 pm

Greg - Would it make sense to use the "telephone" guys to fill in the city leagues perfectly since they could care less where they call? Or, is that not easy to do because of the way the phones are hooked up? It would seem that after team #15, the remaining telephone guys cold fill the 9 here, 6 there type of leagues. Maybe even one in each main city draft (scattered, not lumped in one league).

Just a thought.

Pete

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:47 pm

Originally posted by Top Dawg:

Greg - Would it make sense to use the "telephone" guys to fill in the city leagues perfectly since they could care less where they call? Or, is that not easy to do because of the way the phones are hooked up? It would seem that after team #15, the remaining telephone guys cold fill the 9 here, 6 there type of leagues. Maybe even one in each main city draft (scattered, not lumped in one league).

Just a thought.

Pete Way ahead of you on this one Pete. It's the only way to do this if we stay at 390. Stay tuned.

billywaz · Post by **billywaz** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:47 pm

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

We are in great shape with the credit cards as we're really only chasing one that is making things tough Greg,

I'm sure Gekko has told you numerous times that it wasn't him that called those 900 numbers and maxed out his card.

Just run it, he told me he will pay Tom the money in cash next Friday!

freddiezee · Post by **freddiezee** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:51 pm

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:

quote:Originally posted by Top Dawg:

Greg - Would it make sense to use the "telephone" guys to fill in the city leagues perfectly since they could care less where they call? Or, is that not easy to do because of the way the phones are hooked up? It would seem that after team #15, the remaining telephone guys cold fill the 9 here, 6 there type of leagues. Maybe even one in each main city draft (scattered, not lumped in one league).

Just a thought.

Pete Way ahead of you on this one Pete. It's the only way to do this if we stay at 390. Stay tuned. [/QUOTE]IF you stay at 390??? Are you two scheming for a 405???

Dak · Post by **Dak** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:20 pm

Originally posted by Top Dawg:

Greg - Would it make sense to use the "telephone" guys to fill in the city leagues perfectly since they could care less where they call? Or, is that not easy to do because of the way the phones are hooked up? It would seem that after team #15, the remaining telephone guys cold fill the 9 here, 6 there type of leagues. Maybe even one in each main city draft (scattered, not lumped in one league).

Just a thought.

Pete Pete.......Believed everyone signed-up in phone league to be in a phone league. I, for one, did! First 30 should be in 2 PHONE leagues. IMHO

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:48 pm

Originally posted by Dak:

quote:Originally posted by Top Dawg:

Greg - Would it make sense to use the "telephone" guys to fill in the city leagues perfectly since they could care less where they call? Or, is that not easy to do because of the way the phones are hooked up? It would seem that after team #15, the remaining telephone guys cold fill the 9 here, 6 there type of leagues. Maybe even one in each main city draft (scattered, not lumped in one league).

Just a thought.

Pete Pete.......Believed everyone signed-up in phone league to be in a phone league. I, for one, did! First 30 should be in 2 PHONE leagues. IMHO [/QUOTE]Will you be wearing your bathrobe?

Top Dawg · Post by **Top Dawg** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:16 pm

Originally posted by Dak:

quote:Originally posted by Top Dawg:

Greg - Would it make sense to use the "telephone" guys to fill in the city leagues perfectly since they could care less where they call? Or, is that not easy to do because of the way the phones are hooked up? It would seem that after team #15, the remaining telephone guys cold fill the 9 here, 6 there type of leagues. Maybe even one in each main city draft (scattered, not lumped in one league).

Just a thought.

Pete Pete.......Believed everyone signed-up in phone league to be in a phone league. I, for one, did! First 30 should be in 2 PHONE leagues. IMHO [/QUOTE]Dak - I assumed the phone leagues were for those that could not make it to the main event live. It seems that if you signed up to draft by phone you would not care who was in your league or where they were sitting (home, like you or at a hotel table). Greg will do it right, as he always does. Sounds like he is thinking about 405...

Best fo luck - Pete

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:20 pm

Originally posted by Dak:

quote:Originally posted by Top Dawg:

Greg - Would it make sense to use the "telephone" guys to fill in the city leagues perfectly since they could care less where they call? Or, is that not easy to do because of the way the phones are hooked up? It would seem that after team #15, the remaining telephone guys cold fill the 9 here, 6 there type of leagues. Maybe even one in each main city draft (scattered, not lumped in one league).

Just a thought.

Pete Pete.......Believed everyone signed-up in phone league to be in a phone league. I, for one, did! First 30 should be in 2 PHONE leagues. IMHO [/QUOTE]I appreciate and respect everyone's feelings on this one, but if the phone people are worried about how this is going to affect them moreso than the people currently in partial leagues in four different cities, then we have a lot of work to do.

Trust me, I've done the math many times and 15 doesn't go into any of these numbers without a remainder.

And I'm pretty damn good at math.

Now, they fit pretty nice at 405 if those last 16 folks came in perfectly in four different cities. So I've been trying to gauge the interest out there before Friday and trying to come to a conclusion that makes sense for everyone. And honestly, I don't think it makes sense to run this through Sunday's deadline just to try and hope that each city fits perfectly. It's time to get this contest going and 390 is a pretty damn good number in this economy. Hopefully the owners in the partial leagues will agree with me.

So I'll work with some things and if we do have to split up the second phone league, we'll make sure we have the same plan in place with MDC.com providing access for anyone who is on the phone. In fact, I'm looking into that now for the Super and Ultimate leagues too. I think we can make that work and if we have the visual and the audio for all of our phone members, it shouldn't matter where they get hooked up. That's the goal right now.

Or....wait 'til Sunday. Now what's the call?

I'll be online for the next 40 minutes, so if you have comments or a question, I'll be here. Thanks all.

ALL-IN JD · Post by **ALL-IN JD** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:25 pm

Greg, I for one have been with you from the inception of the NFBC so if you say 390 with a bunch of phone hookups, thats good enough for me.

Bull Pen Pugs · Post by **Bull Pen Pugs** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:30 pm

Originally posted by fireballs:

Greg, I for one have been with you from the inception of the NFBC so if you say 390 with a bunch of phone hookups, thats good enough for me. Ditto.....

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:31 pm

Originally posted by fireballs:

Greg, I for one have been with you from the inception of the NFBC so if you say 390 with a bunch of phone hookups, thats good enough for me. Thanks Jeff. Yeah, I think there are a lot of worse things that could happen here and I think everyone wants their draft spots before the weekend. Trust me, we want to provide them to you AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Most credit cards have been cleared and we're almost over that last hurdle, so why wait any longer when there's no guarantee that we'll fill every city perfectly anyway.

I mean, right now you have:

LV - 9 extra, 6 would be on the phone

NY - 8 extra, 7 would be on the phone

CHI - hopefully four full

ORL - 9 + 6 on the phone

It's not ideal and no fun for us running the cities, but with MDC.com providing visuals for every single draft, it actually will be no different than before. So let's see what the next day brings and then be ready for me to make a call on this. There is one other way to slice this up too, and I'll discuss with Tom tomorrow.