League Payout Structure

While I don't dislike the idea of rewarding the best team each week, I agree that $5 makes the award basically worthless. Personally, I'd much rather take the $5/week ($115/year) we'd allocate to rewarding the weekly winner and transfer it to paying the top 4 teams. I don't think winning $5 for being the best team in a week will be a big deal at all. I'm also not a big fan of rewarding the winner of the 'Best of the Rest', but I don't mind that as much as the $5 to the weekly winner.

Anyways, those are just my personal thoughts on the issue. I like the idea of a bigger payout for winning the league (and for finishing in the NLCS or ALCS) so I'm a proponent of something similar to the payout structure Rockies posted

Alright, I'd like to chime in here.

Although I understand that we have a number of tremendous GMs in this league who see themselves having a great chance to make it into the top 4 regularly, there are some who for one reason or another, will never get there through 3,4, maybe even 5 years. I've seen GMs put up outstanding teams and simply wind up in the wrong division at the wrong time and get NO reward for all of the time they put in. You may not think $5 is much, but if a team that's lost out on prizes for 3 or 4 years can get in the following season for $40 or $45 instead of $50 because they won 1 or 2 weekly prizes, it's something they can hang their hat on and point to as a minor success. They know it's not much, but it's something.

Also, there's nothing that drives me nuts more than the end of the season, when teams in the chase get the luck of the draw - are they up against a team who's GM doesn't care because he's not marking the playoffs, or is that team up against someone who has a shot? So much is decided based on the last few weeks, and - again - it may not sound like much, but if you've won 3 weekly prizes already, are down and out and can knock off another $5 to the next season's entry fee, it'll likely keep you more interested. That's a $20 discount for a non-playoff team who obviously had a better season than the non-playoff marks would say.

If the league wants to vote out the "best of the rest" prize, I'm open to having a vote on it. The $30 could go to the 3rd place team. If that interests enough people, we'll have the vote. However, I'd like to keep the weekly winnings because I truly believe it shows a friendly spirit within the league that should promote a competitive edge that lasts throughout the season.

I think we should lower the weekly winners to 3 dollars and then get rid of the "best of the rest" money, putting both into the 1-4 prize pool.

This would give us (I think) around $100 or so to bring up the winning pool money. 

This is updated. I'd like everyone to take a peak and give us your thoughts.

They would face each other the last week.

Still to be voted on, but in scenario above, yes. We'd provide 3 options including yours.