Several events coming up that might be fun to auction. Been meaning to have this discussion but haven't gotten around to it.
Most of you probably remember the website from last year that handled the auction stuff. The fatal flaw to me is that the auction "model" we were using didn't really make sense. We would have a drop-dead date, and whoever owned the team at the close time won the team. Problem to me was that basically
a) it rendered the first 99% of the auction pointless
b) it limited the pot because why stop bidders who still want to bid
c) it basically just became a game of who could time it best
Because of these things I personally found it kinda dumb, so lost interest in the project. I rethought the format, and here is what I propose, and what we were working on last year when the project got back-burnered.
1. There is a pre-announced auction start time. Once the auction starts, bids are taken on all teams just like before.
2. Once every team in the auction has been bid, a timer starts (120 seconds?)
3. From that point, every bid restarts the timer. Essentially the auction only closes when it goes 120 seconds with no bids. Every bid volleys the balloon back up in the air so to speak.
4. There has to be a "hard stop" date, i.e. the auction can't be allowed to continue past the event start time. It may close before the hard stop if the timer expires, but it might not.
5. If/when the hard stop date is reached, everyone gets one last chance to submit a "silent" bid on any team they want. This "final offer" period lasts 60 seconds or whatever.
6. Once the final offer period closes, the highest silent bid on each team gets that team for that price. If there is a tie, the first person to "lock in" their silent bid wins it.
7. If there are no silent bids on a team, whoever owned the team prior to the final offer period retains the team.
8. If there are 2+ teams that go unbid for a certain period into the auction (1 hour?), they are combined into a "field" option.
What are people's thoughts on this new format?
I just resurrected the site and it's really pretty much done with that format. Would there be interest in running through some auctions using this format? We could do a test one this week at some point, or even a real one based on some regular season NBA or NHL or something (highest scoring team over the weekend or whatever).
