19 Ways to Make Your Fantasy Draft an Experience in 2019!
At this time each and every year, those that love playing fantasy football are bursting with excitement and a refreshed desire to compete in their fantasy leagues. For those fortunate enough to experience their drafts live and in-person, their spirits are simply at another level given the fun and excitement that will come with the live draft quickly approaching.
League engagement is the single most important factor in having a successful fantasy league as it directly influences the amount of fun, competition, and entertainment that a league provides. Nothing brings a league together more than the bonding experience of a live draft. From the simplest of gatherings to the most grandiose spectacle, the live draft if at all possible, is an absolute must if you want your league to thrive.
If you are going to set up a live draft for the first time or are looking at ways to raise the standards in your league, there are many ways to create a special event that will leave an impression on league members for seasons to come. Below are nineteen ways to make your 2019 fantasy draft an experience that will help your league reach its potential.
1. THE RIGHT PEOPLE
Find the right group of individuals so that turnover within the league is minimized and the same group can battle each and every season!
It’s about the people. Fantasy football is about having fun and enjoying the fantasy experience together. The live draft brings the league together and so it is very important that to be filled with individuals that enjoy each other, compete at a similar level, and are capable of establishing positive relationships. Be wise when it comes to putting your league roster together because the wrong mix of personalities can be detrimental to a league in the long run. It is ideal for league members to know each other well in order to maximize conversations about the league, trade negotiations, activity, overall chatter, and trash talk. Collectively these things are what fuel engagement within a league and help to prevent disinterest and boredom.
2. LEAGUE IDENTITY
A successful fantasy football league can be looked at as its own entity. Its name should be recognizable by a league member’s friends, family members, classmates, and/or colleagues if the league successfully stands out as being unique and special. Your league deserves to be its own brand so try having a logo made that represents its league members that are dedicated and committed to its success. The league logo is something that can be used in multiple ways to create the league’s identity and set itself apart from other leagues.
3. TEAM LOGOS
Individual team logos are a phenomenal way to spark pride into the league and its franchises. There is just something special about having your own logo and an identity within a fantasy football league. Creative team names have always been a fun aspect of the game and so turning that creativity into a visually stimulating image can be very exciting.
4. MERCHANDISING
When your league and your franchise have an identifiable image to represent them, slapping logos on products, apparel, posters, and other gear displayed at the draft and used throughout the season can have an enormous impact on the experience that league members share together. Being represented by their own brand provides managers with a heightened sense of ownership which gets the competitive juices flowing to establish or defend their own shield, banner, and legacy.
5. THE HYPE TRAIN
Create momentum and hype in advance of your draft and the season ahead to enhance league engagement. Leagues that communicate through a Facebook page, group chat, text feed, and/or other social media platforms have an environment built in that promotes a strong connection within the league. Send videos, memes, and other creative media to one another that you create and this will fuel the hype necessary to get the season started off right. Establish an official countdown to the draft and let the anticipation grow!
6. DRAFT LOTTERY
Rather than simply letting your league’s host platform select your draft order one hour in advance of the online draft like many often do, take advantage of the opportunity to make an event out of the draft order selection process. This will spark interest and create an element of anticipation within the league. Plus, knowing the draft order in advance of the event will provide more strategic planning and preparation for managers. Specifically entering mock drafts based upon a known draft position not only provides managers with the feeling that they will perform better on draft day, infusing hype prior to the draft is just one more way to improve the sense of dedication and commitment to a fantasy football league. Check out the lottery bingo ball machine made by co-commissioner of the Winkenbach Fantasy Football Union League, Victor Rodriguez (@OffField_Mascot). This is a great way to get the season started!
7. KEEPER REVEAL
If you are in a keeper league, you know that there is serious interest in who will be designated as a keeper in the upcoming season. With significant draft implications on the line, this is another chance to draw interest and engagement within the league. The commissioner can set a date for the names of the keepers to be submitted and make a formal announcement on video or through a platform in which the league communicates. Creating a spectacle out of a typically routine and common event is exactly what sets a league apart from the average league. All it takes is a little creativity and the ordinary motions of a league can become extraordinary!
8. DRAFT LOCATION
Props, banners, and attention to every little detail makes for the ultimate draft day experience.
Select a location for the draft that will meet your needs when it comes to the atmosphere that you would like to create with your draft. The right place for you may be a league member’s home with the best setup for hosting. It could also be an office space in which a league member can access, a banquet hall, a boardroom, a private room somewhere, or a local restaurant that is known for hosting fantasy drafts such Buffalo Wild Wings. Try to select a location that allows you to decorate and transform the location into something memorable.
9. THE DECOR
There are no limits to how far you can take decorating a draft room in order to create the ambiance necessary to make the draft a spectacular event. The foundation of fantasy football should be about having fun so nothing would be too far over-the-top when it comes to where you go with it! In my opinion, the draft should be a spectacle that is looked forward to all year long with unyielding anticipation. It is definitely something that can evolve over several years though so please do not get overwhelmed. Start with the draft board and build around it. If you have team logos, it is very easy to utilize them at the draft. Just by simply printing the logos off as stickers to place on water bottles or assigned seats for league members, you will capture their attention. From there, displaying league posters, banners, and other items such as sports memorabilia can create the atmosphere that other fantasy leagues envy. Most of what you accumulate can be reused each and every year so your draft event can grow every season into what you envision as the ultimate live draft experience.
10. FOOD
Make sure to make it an event where food is present. Enjoying a meal together is a great way to bond as a league. Similar to a great Super Bowl party, you can potluck your way to an excellent spread of food. Check out this link for some great ideas when it comes to what to eat at your draft.
11. MEDIA
It is vital that video and photography plays a role in your draft day experience. Capturing the moments that are shared allows for an unlimited amount of ways to impact your league. I absolutely love to display posters at our live draft from previous champions receiving their trophies. This visual experience invokes prior champions to feel honored as they bask in the memories of their glory days when they reached the peak of the league and were crowned champions. Your collection of media from your drafts will also allow you to create memes, videos, and other creative imagery for years to come that will further stoke the flames of competition, trash talk, and entertainment that only a fantasy league can provide.
12. INTRODUCTIONS
It is always fun to isolate a holding area for league members prior to the introduction of the draft room or space. You may or may not be able to pull this off depending upon whether your draft is at a home, bar, office, workplace, school, restaurant, or another type of establishment. Feel free to make modifications if necessary. Proceed to introduce the league at the start of the draft one by one with themed music or short bios about their fantasy successes or failures. Or, simply enter the draft location together as one unit and the pre-draft feelings of excitement will multiply and overwhelm you as a group, taking the thrill of the draft to the next level.
13. CREATIVE AWARDS
A toilet bowl cleaner can make for a perfect Toilet Bowl Trophy!
There are plenty of awards beyond the League Championship to hand out. The toilet bowl winner, points champion, and any other league member deserving of the spotlight should get their day in the sun as well. Whatever creative award, honor, or punishment that you can think of is an opportunity for the league to develop a legacy of fun, camaraderie, and fellowship. There are no limits to the creativity that can be had with this. I have enjoyed making trophies for many different awards over the years and it always creates excitement and entertainment at the draft. From toilet bowl cleaners to a collection of old trophies in the garage coupled with some spray paint, anything is possible!
14. LAST PLACE PUNISHMENT
The last place punishment has evolved so much over the years. Punishments can range form extremely mild to quite startling this is for certain. The key is to collectively decide on a punishment as a group and then stick to it. Regardless of what you decide to do for the last place team, do something! It creates an element of fun that is unmatched at the draft plus the punishment can be utilized as a strategic and preventative deterrent to tanking, collusion, and disinterest when it comes to league management and setup.
15. CHAMPIONSHIP ATTIRE
Championship jackets on display in the Rose Bowl League. Courtesy of Ryan Pooky Christensen
An outstanding way to celebrate the current champion as well as former champions at the draft is to do what a fantasy football league called the Rose Bowl League does. They have taken things to another level with their incredible championship blazers. These jackets alone create a desire within league members to reach the pinnacle of their league so that they too can earn the right to wear their jacket at the draft. I just feel sorry for the last guy in the league left without a blazer in a few years from now. Talk about pressure to perform!
16. CHAMPIONSHIP BANNERS
Creating championship banners for prior champs to be displayed at your draft is an outstanding idea. When you create a reason for champions of the past to reminisce about the glory days it makes them feel pride and that burning desire to experience winning another title again. Banners hanging in the rafters is such an important part of sporting events all over the nation when it comes to honoring the history and achievements of a franchise. There is no reason that your fantasy league should not do the exact same thing!
17. TROPHY PRESENTATION
A fantasy league is complete when there is a trophy involved. The bigger the better, at least when it comes to the presentation of it. The trophy is the ultimate symbol of success in your fantasy league and there is nothing sweeter than the moment that the champion is presented with the crown jewel of the league, the Fantasy Football Championship Trophy! Make sure to check out the folks over at Trophy Smack as they are putting together an incredible selection of trophies for the fantasy sports industry.
18. THE PODIUM
Speeches at a fantasy football draft can create memories that last a lifetime. For the champion, this is their moment in the spotlight as there is no guarantee that they will have the same opportunity again! There is also no better opportunity for the commish to vent about last season if it ended in failure, proclaim their own greatness, or to simply provide a state of the league address with everyone together in-person.
19. THE LEAGUE GOAT
The league’s G.O.A.T. award.
The fantasy football live draft might be the only time all year that the entire league gets together. Is there a better opportunity to honor the past? Presenting all-time statistics is a great way to create conversation and motivation among league members at the same time. Honor your league’s all-time great franchise with a Greatest of All Time, or G.O.A.T., award. It is both exciting and inspiring to review all-time wins, losses, points, playoff appearances, high point weeks, championships, and so much more and should be a staple in fantasy leagues that have played together over several seasons.
Each one of these items is deserving of more in-depth discussion and explanation. Stay tuned for more content like this as well as much, much more! If it is too late to implement these items this season, make sure to start planning the festivities and creative ways to provide the ultimate experience for your league next season, I know I have already begun to look ahead to 2020!
