Online League Expansion
 

Hello!

As the title suggests I’m looking for some online expansion help. Im the commish of a modern realistic online league and was hoping to gauge the community how to go about expanding. We are in 2031 with 30 teams and I wanted to expand to 32 in the next few seasons.

A couple of questions I have:

-what was the process you used for expansion draft? We run on S+ is it possible to rig their draft tool to use for the expansion draft? Or would we have to go another way? What rules did you use for protection? how many players could they take from each org?

-what was the process of adding teams in regards to market size, loyalty, fan interest, ball park size, etc?

-should I add GMs the season prior and give them ability to scout/monitor the league so it’s not completely blind entry? Or just for the World Series and send it.

-any other tips and tricks you learned in running expansion?

Thanks in advance folks

it's been a minute since I've ran a league so take this all with a grain of salt.

-what was the process you used for expansion draft? We run on S+ is it possible to rig their draft tool to use for the expansion draft? Or would we have to go another way? What rules did you use for protection? how many players could they take from each org?

The last time I ran expansion draft, I expected the new teams to be present and we knocked it out fantasy draft style with a super quick timer.

If I were to do it now, I think I'd stream the draft over twitch and would have league members post their draft picks in slack. Depending on the size of the league files, I'd update periodically. However you do it, you'd need to either pause your league for a few days or knock out the draft at once in a couple hours.

-what was the process of adding teams in regards to market size, loyalty, fan interest, ball park size, etc?

This could be done any number of ways but I'd just set them all to average for fairness. I always let users set their own factors as long as it's nothing crazy

-should I add GMs the season prior and give them ability to scout/monitor the league so it’s not completely blind entry? Or just for the World Series and send it.

Absolutely. If you already have the GMs lined up, add them as unemployed and they can still follow the league

-any other tips and tricks you learned in running expansion?

Don't stress over the draft too much. Keep it short to like 20 players. No one cares about drafting in the late rounds for filler minor leaguers and those that do can just as easily sign FA's

Thanks for taking the time with a reply! Good info. I like that drafting idea. Wouldn’t want the momentum of the off-season to stall out with a long draft IRL.