How long does your auction draft take?

[5by5 0]

Just want some ideas on how my league can speed up its auction draft. It's a 12 team league with a standard size roster and it takes around 5 hours. That seems reeeeeally long to me but maybe it's not.

 

How long does your auction draft take?

 

What rules or system is in place to move it along quickly?

 

Thanks!

[killersquids 3]

A little background: Our auction draft consists of 12 teams and 20 roster spots per team. Teams are not required to fill out their roster through the draft.

 

The draft is usually about 4 - 4.5 hours, although for some teams it lasts 30 minutes! The key is being prepared and keeping things moving. We have an auctioneer and a record keeper, usually an owner's girlfriend or wife. The auctioneer will say "Going once, twice.....SOLD!" The record keeper will then update a spreadsheet with the player auctioned and the price paid.

[Evil Genius 0]

 

What rules or system is in place to move it along quickly?

 

 

1) We make everyone eligible as the auctioneer. Once any Owner says "going once..(or twice)" they are no longer eligible to bid. You can't say 'going once' on yourself (if you have the high bid).

 

This technique allows any person to bow out of the bidding and assist to end the auction on a given player.

 

2) your neutral auctioneer (like a girlfriend) should be encouraged to be aggressive and ruthless. When she cuts someone off the first time - laugh and give her encouragement - don't back up to help the slow poke/opportunist/drama-queen.

 

3) Allow persons to spend their money on a short roster. If you want to end up short and fill your roster with scrubs using Free Agency - fill your boots ! A lot of time is wasted on $1 and even $0 bids (if you allow such nonsense), when guys should actually be DONE from over-bidding earlier in the evening.

 

4) Spend less time yaking about bullcrap and actually FOCUS on the auction. The Commish should help the auctioneer keep it moving in this regard. Yes, you need laughs and frivolity - but have most of it afterwards, not during the actual draft.

 

5) Serve no food. All drinks must be gotten by the drinker. In an 16-18 round auction, take one break to piss, every hour. Two breaks should do it. Other than that, if you step away, it's on you. If you have your auction at a bar, rather than a home, you are asking for infinite distractions and you deserve what you get in terms of EPIC-ness.

 

Rough estimates:

12 man Auction, 18 rounds: 3 and 1/2 hours

12 man Serpentine, 18 rounds: 2 and 3/4 hours

[zac3434 5]

We take our nominations for auction as 1 dollar bids, but it still takes us a good 4-5 depending on how drunk a couple people get by end.

[5by5 0]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think moving to $1 bids would definitely help. I'll see if we can track down a person to act as an auctioneer. We've always just had the commish do it and does slow things down.