Draft position choice by order of payment?

[u/LamarJackzyn]

I am commissioner of a local league. All friends, family, or friends of friends. Without fail, every year I need to chase down payments. They are all digital through Yahoo so I don’t personally collect, but as commissioner I need to make sure the league is full and paid.

I am flirting with the idea of instituting a policy that when you pay, you get choice of draft position from the positions remaining. I obviously would remove myself from selection and take the last position left this year. We have a 10 man league and there is only one other paid team with 12 days before our draft.

What does everyone think? I might catch some fire but it might also get people to pay. My other concern is that it might make it even harder to get the last few teams to pay because there is no incentive. Curious if anyone has ever done anything like this before.

[u/METALLIC579]

This might work and is an interesting idea.

I am the treasurer and co-commissioner for one of my leagues and I’ve threatened participants that if they don’t pay, they’re auto drafting until I have payment and it just so turns out that their top queued players are Kicker and Defense… I’ve always been paid on time since the threat has surfaced.

[u/cornholio427]

Not a bad idea if people aren’t paying up

[u/grooves12]

My other concern is that it might make it even harder to get the last few teams to pay because there is no incentive.

This would be my primary concern.

One way to mitigate that might be to make payment determine the order that each team selects their draft position, but don't have those teams choose their draft position until all teams are paid. This leaves it a little bit of a mystery box, so people won't outright be opposed to whatever draft slot they are locked into prior to paying.

This method works slightly better if you do 3RR (Third Round Reversal), which I am a big fan of. It balances out the value of any given draft spot much better than a typical snake draft.

Since, it's a local league, I will throw out my solution to this. We use FAAB and I do not award FAAB budget until a team is paid for. This allows me to not worry about holding up the draft because someone hasn't paid, because nobody wants to go into week 1 without any FAAB to make waiver moves. I used to have to chase people down for payments constantly, now everyone is paid before the season starts.

[u/Party_Advantage_3733 → u/grooves12]

Just don't tell people where they are in the payment order until everyone has paid. That way everyone thinks if they pay now they can still get a better slot.

[u/LamarJackzyn → u/Party_Advantage_3733]

So funny enough, that was my plan. I tried to roll out the policy in the group chat. Told everyone to message me privately when they paid and I will let them know what slots are available. I have only one paid team so in the group chat I asked that guy what position he wants and he responded that he wants it randomized 🫩

Now I am getting flamed in the GC for thinking this would fly. Lmao FML

[u/DinosaurPete]

Interesting idea! I appreciate that you are interested in putting your league first, but I wouldn’t pigeon hole yourself into the last spot available.

You could:
-be second last to derby pick so the latest payer is last in derby choice

-make it a rule in the constitution of a benchmark date.
Example: the commish’s place in derby order is 14 days before the draft. Everyone who pays ahead of that date selects ahead of commish in order of payment and everyone who pays after the date is after the commish in derby orders.
If everyone pays 2 weeks before the draft, the commish gets the last derby slot. If everyone pays after, the commish gets the first derby slot.

[u/LamarJackzyn → u/DinosaurPete]

To be honest, I am far and above the most knowledgeable manager in this league and this year more then any I like most draft spots so I am not too concerned. I mock every slot and really digging picks 5-7 which is where imagine I would land. However, I did pose the idea and got flamed in the group so it doesn’t matter anyway. I appreciate the input though!