On the Clock: Live Auction Drafts

[shortsavage]

Dear anyone who has been through a live auction draft,

My keeper league's first year draft is in exactly two weeks and I am begining to panic ! We have planned to all get together and have each of our fourteen (maybe sixteen) teams fill their 25-man rosters through a live auction draft.

I am very content with our draft environment. We have found a really nice conference room that has pleanty of seating and a plasma screen tv, that we can hook a lap top up to (FOR FREE!) . My dilemma is the potential length of our draft .

Afraid to go through the math again, my buddy and I were thinking that drafting 350-400 players auction style could take a very long time . Luckily, every member of our league has set aside the entire day for the draft, but I do not want to bore these guys to death.

How much time should I realistically expect our draft to take?

With the money pool already set and many draftsheets already made, I would like to avoid shortening the draft and wrapping things up with a snake draft at all costs .

As we can all only meet on this one day, do we have any good options besides filling our entire rosters in one sitting?

I do not want this post to get too long, so I will save my other questions for now.

Thanks a ton for any help !

[Arlo]

Yeah, it'll take a while, but it's a blast!

The best way to keep the time fairly reasonable is to be as organized as possible, making sure all owners know how much money they have left, which players are off the board, etc. Sounds obvious, I guess, but it makes a huge difference...

Enjoy!

[Madison]

Sounds like a lot of fun . You should enjoy it .

As to quick, I agree with Arlo, the best thing you can do is make sure that all the owners are aware of everything and ready to go.

[stevelabny]

my 10-12 team auction drafts usually take about 8-9 hours.

Plus, rather than have it set as a "true auction" where you can call out a bid at any time, we go straight around the table forcing everyone to bid or pass and if you pass, you are out of the bidding.

we usually get at 10am, start aound 10:30 and draft until 7 or 8 pm and then watch Wrestlemania while we rip each others teams.

fun!

[HOOTIE]

To draft 400 guys in say 12 hours, you would need to have each player's bid average 2 minutes, which seems rather fast.

[shortsavage]

To draft 400 guys in say 12 hours, you would need to have each player's bid average 2 minutes, which seems rather fast.

I think some of the players could take up to 2 minutes, but some may only take 15 seconds. Hopefully we will end up balancing around 1 minute per player.

We are thinking of starting at 8:00AM and going until 12:00PM then taking a lunch break and starting again at 1:00PM then hopefully finishing around 4:00PM, but maybe 7 hours is not very realistic?

I plan on using the plasma screen tv in the conference room to display every player already auctioned off alphabetically. And, we will also have someone keeping track of money for each team on a white board. I will also encourage owners to fill up a roster sheet as they go. Hehe, obviously I will not be taking much of a lunch break.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other ways to speed up our draft (preparation is key and it has been noted)?

[stevelabny]

2 minutes per bid seems about right.
my drafts are usually 300 players in 10 hours.
which includes lunch and reserve rounds.
so its actually UNDER two minutes.

all it takes is everyone realizing that they shouldnt bother starting arod and vlad at $1 bids...
the closer you get to someones actual value with your bid, the shorter the process. easily under 10 bids if the owners are smart and under 5 if theyre experienced.
and everytime someone starts with an over-bid, everyone else declines and that auction is over in seconds.

[shortsavage]

2 minutes per bid seems about right.
my drafts are usually 300 players in 10 hours.
which includes lunch and reserve rounds.
so its actually UNDER two minutes.

all it takes is everyone realizing that they shouldnt bother starting arod and vlad at $1 bids...
the closer you get to someones actual value with your bid, the shorter the process. easily under 10 bids if the owners are smart and under 5 if theyre experienced.
and everytime someone starts with an over-bid, everyone else declines and that auction is over in seconds.

Yeah, this is great input. Wishing that you can get Prior at $1 is only wishful thinking. Perhaps, if I brief my fellow owners about how coarse underbidding will elongate the draft, things will go faster.

[stevelabny]

yes. although i cringe when ANYONE is started over $30 also.

other things to speed up the draft?

everyone eats breakfast before they show up or while youre all getting ready.

TRY to get everyone to keep track of all-players drafted and all-teams. Some wont bother and dont force it because it will only slow them down or make them smarter drafters(or both) But the more people who are keeping track of everything, the better.
--of course, youre going to have a big screen with the draft board, so that covers for everyone.

Make sure at least TWO people are keeping track of team budgets and compare their numbers on occasion. The last thing you need is someone spending more money than they have.

Everyone eats lunch together. This is also the best time for bathroom breaks. Those with weak bladders shouldnt drink all day.

DON'T DRINK ALCOHOL. some will say this takes away the fun, but once people start getting silly, it slows everything down.

[shortsavage]

Lol, this is great info Steve. It sounds like you have been through the process that I am about to endeavor in a number of times .

Did guys ever get really bored during your ten hour drafts?

I have an owner who keeps saying that he is going to fall asleep if our draft takes any longer than 3 hours. I think that he is just trying to pave the way for numerous excuses in regards to why his team will be awful, but that is just my opinion.