Posted by ab90 on 9/16/2021 4:21:00 PM (view original):
but also, 250 times 32 teams is 8000. you are paying out effectively nothing

This is my problem with this. Love the idea, love the format (although restrictions to enter should be higher), but to pay $250 is insane. Only top-3 teams get their money back while 27 teams lose a lot of cash. Just feels like a money grab that doesn't really do a lot for the people playing the game.

Posted by jsn1642 on 9/16/2021 4:49:00 PM (view original):

Posted by ab90 on 9/16/2021 4:21:00 PM (view original):
but also, 250 times 32 teams is 8000. you are paying out effectively nothing

This is my problem with this. Love the idea, love the format (although restrictions to enter should be higher), but to pay $250 is insane. Only top-3 teams get their money back while 27 teams lose a lot of cash. Just feels like a money grab that doesn't really do a lot for the people playing the game.

I agree. With only 3 out of 32 owners getting more back than they put in, this is mostly a money maker for WIS.

I’m in!!

LOL. Hard at work thinking of something new?

This is the Champions Tournament almost verbatim.

Posted by broadwayevns on 9/16/2021 4:49:00 PM (view original):
I love the idea of a premiere league, relegation, and higher stakes/prize scenarios. That said having a 5 season cycle that resets every 5 seasons would seem to break a lot of the dynasty aspects of the game (why would anyone spend on HS prospects for example, or any prospects/draftees in seasons 3-5 of the cycle). I think a better idea would be an annual relegation and perhaps a second world to move the top/bottom X number of teams up and down or off of the bottom league

With no reason to spend anything on prospects or player development the last 2-3 seasons of the 5 season cycle, it would radically change the game those last 2-3 seasons. I like the idea of actually being able to make money playing this game but as it stands this idea has some serious flaws.

A lot of owners are interested and I'm guessing at least 50% of current players could meet the qualifiers. Are you talking about creating 1 Premiere League or several? If only 1, how would you go about choosing from the 32 applicants?

I would certainly be interested in this.

Would a 10yr league make more sense at $25 a team/yr, so it would be $250 total to be in the league. Or if there’s a premium, say $350.

Intrigued, but there are some notable wrinkles to work out (reset after 5 seasons causing a change to how teams are managed).

Back of the napkin math... given the normal cost to play is ~$25/season for a single season, it's more like a ~$4K prize pool on top of the regular entry. There is some rake, for sure, but not as bad as initially noted.

This sounds interesting and the 5 year limit would definitely change the strategy

This is great, id be very interested.

Posted by jholthus on 9/16/2021 4:13:00 PM (view original):

Hello Everyone,

With the MLB playoffs quickly approaching the WIS staff has been busy trying to think of a fun, new idea for HBD. We thought, wouldn't it be great to provide users with great rewards? Wouldn’t it be great to see who can truly be a dynasty building GM? Wouldn’t it be great if someone could call themselves the best of the best?

We’ve come up with an idea to see who can be successful at Hardball’s version of the Premier League. This would be an “exclusive” league dedicated to experienced, successful owners to go head to head for a chance to not only crown themselves league champion, and be engraved in the HBD/WIS history books but also earn some pretty awesome rewards by doing so.

Eligible owners would need to meet the following criteria to be eligible to enter the league.

1. 20+ HBD seasons completed

2. 1+ World Series ring

3. 1+ Active HBD franchise

The league rules would be pretty simple. Evenly matched teams would be created. This would be like a normal HBD season where trades, draft, budgeting and of course winning all still play a role, the catch… you only have 5 seasons to achieve as much success as you possibly can. At the end of the 5 seasons, the bottom 6 owners (by win %/overall success) are relegated out of the league. The rest of the owners have the option to pay the league fee again to be a part of the next set of 5 seasons. After each set of 5 seasons the league is “reset” where the teams are evenly balanced again and everyone gets a clean slate to try to win.

What is the league fee you ask? Well the investment you would make to be a part of this league would be an upfront total of $250 for the 5 season cycle. This ensures that for a minimum of 5 seasons there won’t be waiting for the world to refill, there won’t be new owners coming in and messing up franchises in the middle of the season and everyone is in it to win it.

I haven’t even gotten to the best part of this exclusive relegation league yet. Not only would you get normal HBD rewards/payouts for success, but we have decided to sweeten the pot even more. Additional payouts at the end of the 5 season cycle would be given out as follows:

1st place - $1000

2nd place - $600

3rd place - $300

4th and 5th place - $100 in WIS site credit

We would like to get the ball rolling on this ASAP and wanted to get user feedback to see if this is an idea that the community would be on board with.

Sounds like a great idea, I would be interested. Love a good challenge.

count me in

Let me get this straight. I have to play five 5 season sets at $250 per set = I pay $1250 to play. If I win first , I get $1000, plus if I win the WS all five times, I win another $250, so at best, I break out even. Love the idea, but it needs some work.

Sounds fun. I'd do it. I like the 5 year reset in theory, but it would discourage draft and IFA scouting because vast majority of prospects need at least 3 years of minor league development. Seems like everyone would spend on FAs. You may need to go longer than 5 years to mitigate this.

And only 1 person can break out even (as if that would ever happen, nahhhhhhh).