What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new league?

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heyfeefellskee
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What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new league?

Postby heyfeefellskee » Wed Feb 10, 2016 11:43 am

I am in the final steps of creating a league that I plan on opening up to the public. I'm trying something new with this league: an application process. I'm doing this so I can have a better idea of who is joining my league, rather than "I'm interested, here's my email".

I've got a google form with a few questions. I'm wondering if there are any questions that you wish you would have asked (or would have been asked) when you started a league.

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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby cp3 » Wed Feb 10, 2016 12:40 pm

This is great. I started a league with friends and 1 offs, and basically laid out to the people the type of owner I wanted.

I wanted people who are very active, and don't just sit there like a piece of furniture.

Here are some questions I asked:

1) On average, how many trade offers do you propose per week? The goal here is find out how often they actively look at the league

2) How many leagues are you currently in? I want to know just how much time they are spending on my league. This answer will go hand in hand with the answer to question 1. If they say they're only offering a trade a week, and are telling me they are in 12 other leagues, I know they won't be paying enough attention to my league. If they're offering 4 trades a week and are in a ton of leagues I know they're really active.

3) What is your dynasty theory? I want to know how they play. There's no wrong answer here, I just want to know what kind of owner I'm getting. This might seem like insider information, so I can see not asking this one. I just wanted to know who took a longer term approach to things. I ended up taking owners who play the short and long term game, but I knew would be committed based on their other answers. This ended up being a great thing for our league as we had differing viewpoints which created a ton of trade activity.

4) How long have you played fantasy football? Seems obvious, but you might as well ask it.

5) Have you played dynasty before? Again, pretty obvious question, but there's no wrong answer here either. If the answer was no, my follow up question would be, why do you want to get into dynasty?

There's a lot more questions you could ask when vetting a new owner, but these are the basics I used.

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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby Phaded » Wed Feb 10, 2016 1:04 pm

I basically asked three key things:

1) How many leagues are they in?
2) How long have you played dynasty/fantasy football for?
3) Can I see some links of leagues you are currently active in and your team?

Team 1 in my sig is entering the 5th year - I had to replace someone last year because they were retiring from fantasy football, before that it was only one other team in year 1.

My second league - only entering it's second year but no issues yet.

Solid searching and not accepting "just anyone" goes a long way.

I should note my leagues are free - so you might expect more flaky owner behavior and a higher turnaround, but it is not the case. You really just need the right people.

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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby DDT » Wed Feb 10, 2016 1:16 pm

Interesting question as I'm actually going through this myself as well. I like to leave the question open ended at the beginning and let the potential owner tell me about themselves and their experience. I think that you learn a lot based on what they focus on in their response. I've also found that some questions tend to lead to a response and that the response isn't always accurate. For example, if you ask if an owner likes to trade, is active in the offseason, etc., they will tend to give you the answer that they think you want and then you find out that they aren't quite as active as expected.

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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby akbfrosty » Wed Feb 10, 2016 1:31 pm

Rather than just how long has the person has been playing fantasy, I'd rather know the longest league that they have been a part of dynasty or re-draft, and what the turnover was like in that league.

If a guys been playing since 2005, but leagues are consistently changing members or folding with him in it...could be a red flag.

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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby teprovich88 » Wed Feb 10, 2016 7:52 pm

zfifelski wrote:I am in the final steps of creating a league that I plan on opening up to the public. I'm trying something new with this league: an application process. I'm doing this so I can have a better idea of who is joining my league, rather than "I'm interested, here's my email".

I've got a google form with a few questions. I'm wondering if there are any questions that you wish you would have asked (or would have been asked) when you started a league.
I have a similar process for some of my leagues (salary cap based). I use these questions to gauge their depth in answering and how well thought out the answers are:

1) Dynasty, salary cap, IDP experience:

2) We are looking for a long term replacement for a team, what type of commitment can you make? How many fantasy football teams do you currently run/own (please provide links)?

3) What would you bring to the ADFL in joining this league?


Evaluation of Team (provide link to the team)
1) If you are allowed 1 amnesty upon taking over this roster. Given its current standing and current salary cap situation who would you apply that amnesty too?

2) What is your immediate plan for improving this roster?

3) What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of this current roster?

4) Describe your long term plan for turning this franchise into a perennial contender.

Ultimately, I am looking for how well put together their thoughts are. Everyone has their own strategy, but knowing how I have my leagues set up if the new owner says having a large portion of the salary cap tied up into a tight end is a strength of the team, I need to question their strategy to succeed.
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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby sloth8u » Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:58 pm

id really like to know, and think it can be answered honestly.......

what type of league are they looking for? do they wish to play in a league that is active all year or just something that drafts before the season and shuts down during the offseasaon.

i play in a few leagues, and the fact that none of them have a unanimous year round or just the season....attendance is a bit quirky. that simple distinction would make things alot better in the league.

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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby Goirish374 » Thu Feb 11, 2016 5:30 am

i think questions along the lines of sloth's are more important than some of the quantified things that have been mentioned above (how many trade offers per week, for example). there are a lot of ways to be active in a league that don't include spamming trade offers.

a) what kind of league are you looking for?
b) how many leagues are you in and how many leagues do you feel you have time for?
c) what do you spend your fantasy football time doing between februar and august? (if you really, really want to dig for quantifiables, you could rephrase in some way that gets at "how often do you visit the league homepage?" which i think is a better indicator of league activity than trade offers or waiver moves, both of which are reliant on play style more than owner mindset/intent)
d) why are you looking for a league now/have you ever left a league? why? (i find this extremely important for adding the right kind of owner. well. at least for helping to avoid the wrong kind of owner).
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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby jordanzs » Thu Feb 11, 2016 7:03 pm

What is your availability during draft time? Do you have a smartphone that you can pick in a timely manner on?

What is your desired level of offseason activity?

***Note on this.....some of my favorite leagues shut down completely of activity from January until draft time, then from draft time until the end of preseason. Good solid owners will go 60 days without logging in. But when it matters, they show up & bring their A-game. I'm in other leagues where owners are always logging in, chatting, and sending offers. THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER TO THIS as long as the culture of the league is on the same page.

Also, given that statement above, figure out if you're going to do offseason blind bidding or FCFS. Honestly my favorite leagues above shut down pickups from week 17 until the draft in May, and once that concludes, the waiver wire shuts down until the end of preseason. I'm in other leagues that have FCFS or Blind Bidding throughout the summer. Be rigid on your decision regarding this stuff, and then recruit owners who buy into your vision.

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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby heyfeefellskee » Fri Feb 12, 2016 7:56 am

Thanks for all the input, guys! I incorporated some of the ideas into the form, and I just posted the league on the "help wanted" section, with the form included. I appreciate everyone's help!

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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby Coogan Football » Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:01 pm

Goirish374 wrote: a) what kind of league are you looking for?
b) how many leagues are you in and how many leagues do you feel you have time for?
c) what do you spend your fantasy football time doing between februar and august? (if you really, really want to dig for quantifiables, you could rephrase in some way that gets at "how often do you visit the league homepage?" which i think is a better indicator of league activity than trade offers or waiver moves, both of which are reliant on play style more than owner mindset/intent)
d) why are you looking for a league now/have you ever left a league? why? (i find this extremely important for adding the right kind of owner. well. at least for helping to avoid the wrong kind of owner).
I like all of these. This is a great thread with a ton of good ideas
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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby basilthesnake » Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:21 pm

I saw your post in the help wanted. I think it helps to include some league details(simplified), cost, and a link if possible with the survey. Why fill out the survey if ultimately one of the factors aren't for me(or the person reading the post).

I got into a 32 team league last year and the activity in the league has been great. I'm not the commish but noticed some questionable activity with some owners who drafted with no regard for the future. I simply googled their email addresses and found one guy in particular who started a few leagues in 2013, won, then let the league fold. I guess my point is, it can't hurt to Google the owners email and see what comes up.

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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby basilthesnake » Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:28 pm

Just revisited your help wanted post and you did indeed post details, sorry about that. Not sure why, but as an owner scouting leagues, I like to see the website before I commit.

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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby jacotaco » Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:57 pm

I keep it pretty simple. I just ask how many leagues they are in and they're involvement. It doesn't really matter what questions you ask, because they know what the right answer is and will say that most of the time even if it doesn't describe them. I ask for the email of a few owners (preferably a commissioner) and have them attest to their capabilities as a member of your league. I have found this to be the best way to screen people before bringing them into my league.
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Re: What questions do you ask as commissioner of a new leagu

Postby Dingram » Sat Feb 13, 2016 7:39 pm

basilthesnake wrote: I simply googled their email addresses and found one guy in particular who started a few leagues in 2013, won, then let the league fold. I guess my point is, it can't hurt to Google the owners email
I'm curious as to what you googled, and what you came across from that Google? I just googled my personal email after reading this and didn't come up with much


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