We are basing a lot of our guarantees on last year's final numbers. While we truly believe that 2012 could be a historic season for the NFBC with record numbers, we also realize that the economy is still stagnant and discretionary income might be tough for sports fans. So we are being smart with our guarantees and shooting for sellouts with every event rather than shoot for unrealistic expectations. I'd rather sell out every event early than fall short of our goals later.
We have not raised the entry fee for any of our events this year, other than eliminating the Live Double Play format and instead creating a stand-alone 12-Team Main Event. We haven't come up with the name of that event yet or the entire prize breakdown for it, but the cost will likely be in the $1,000 per team range. The rest of our entry fees remain the same as last year and the prize payouts remain the same as well.
Events Fees will be announced once we have a better idea of costs involved with our host sites. Most hotels don't officially book events until 90 days out, but we feel like we have a pretty good idea of expected costs. As most folks realize, the cost of providing space, facilitators, food & beverage, staff and more is not cheap for these live events. Costs for hosting all of these live events easily exceeds six-figures. As a result, in 2010 with Fanball, we charged $100 per person in Events Fees. Last year I chose to lower than to $50 per person while providing the same amenities. This year we will likely look at a happy medium for some events and again find a way to reward those owners who compete in multiple events and sign up early. There's a smart way to make this work for everyone even with the costs involved.
With all that being said, remember that once again we are providing two weekends for live drafts: March 23-25 and March 30-April 1. We hope to be at the Bellagio in Las Vegas both weekends (space is tentatively secured) and in New York and Chicago the second weekend. We are still looking into an East Coast location (possibly New Jersey) for the first weekend and will host a live event there if we believe it makes sense from a cost standpoint and participation level. I'm going to email the St. Louis participants from last year soon about an idea I have for the Midwest, so look for that.
Okay, plan accordingly and get your budgets set for 2012. Here are the entry fees and total number of teams for each event that prizes are guaranteed for:
NFBC National Championships With Overall Prizes:
NFBC Main Event: $1,400 entry fee, 390 teams
NFBC Online Championship: $350 entry fee, 600 teams
NFBC Auction Championship: $850 entry fee, 135 teams
NFBC Slow Draft DC Championship: $150 and $375, 300 teams
NFBC 12-Team Main Event: $1,000 range, 240-300 teams
NFBC Private Leagues:
Diamond League: $10,000
Ultimate League: $5,000
Super League: $2,500
$1,300 AL Auction League (Las Vegas only, March 30, 4 pm)
$1,300 NL Auction League (Las Vegas only, March 30, 9 am)
NFBC 15-Team Satellite Leagues:
$125 Pay Top 3
$125 Winner-Take-All
$250 Pay Top 3
$500 Pay Top 3
$1,000 Pay Top 3
NFBC 12-Team Satellite Leagues:
$150 Pay Top 3
$150 Winner-Take-All
$250 Pay Top 3
$500 Pay Top 3
$1,000 Pay Top 3
That looks like the plan for 2012. As you can see we've added a full slate of 12-team satellite leagues at all price levels and will unveil those during February and March. Look for more details on all of these events soon and be ready to join us and draft in five short months!!
