What's it like being a league operator?

Positively Ralf

Positively Ralf

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've not played in so long but some of the locals are looking for someone to run a weekly league for them, so I figured let me give it a try. I've never done a weekly ran format.

How much differences are there being a league operator for team based leagues vs 1 on 1 leagues? I wish to do the 1 on 1 as that is what I'm used to seeing as I've ran a few one day tournaments before and I've never been in a league that is mainly team orientated. Any LO's here with some experience in both formats?

Any advice is welcomed.
 
Proper prior planning.
Use a clear and concise rule set.
Overly open communication.
Easily understood point/ranking system.
Fully open money in and money out (prize fund/table fee) documentation.

In my experience, it can be fun, but a ton of work. If things don't go smoothly, get ready for a rough ride.
 
Around here, there used to be many handicapped, weekly 9-ball tournaments. You could play in one every night. There were two leagues and some in-house tournaments.

I would use FargoRate for the skill tracking if you are going to do handicapping.

I would use single elimination with 4-player qualifiers in the first phase. Start the qualifiers as soon as you have six players in the room. Anyone knocked out of a qualifier can get in another until it is time to do the second phase. Single elimination second/final phase. Several locations here used that format.

The nightly payout was about 100%. Most rooms donated the time. Sometimes a little would be held out for a quarterly weekend tournament, and sometimes there was a 10% admin fee. I think if you use FargoRate, there will be a lot less admin.

JABSolstice said:
... Fully open money in and money out (prize fund/table fee) documentation. ...
Click to expand...
When I ran weeklies, I had a table of all the payouts depending on how many had entered.
 
I have a little experience with leagues and with tournaments. The main differences between the two for the person in charge are twofold. Leagues are longer-term than tournaments. There is more work to be done between the scheduled dates, and depending on how you set it up that can be significant. If at any point you decide you no longer want to do the work, a tournament you can practically drop immediately but a league is a longer commitment and (depending on the kind of person you are) is harder to get out from under. The other main difference is a league typically has a schedule that spans the entire duration, not just one day, so you have to be able to deal with players or teams that drop out mid-season and you have to be able to deal with conflicts that arise between players or teams (even sometimes conflicts within a team) at any time, not just on a one-day basis. The format and rules you choose have to be chosen either way, but it's easier to change whatever you want for tournaments. In order of the quantity of work involved, I'd say it goes singles tournaments, team tournaments, singles leagues, team leagues. No details there, just some general info to help you decide what and how much of your time you're willing to commit and some of the things with which you will have to deal. Anyone with half a brain can type things into a computer program, the hard part is dealing with all the different personalities involved. If you're not the kind of person who can do that, I'd say get out now.
 
League operator/dbl edged sword.
Depends on the culture, the bar owners, equipment and the social rules of local life.
Don't go lookin' for 2nd wife within this job. :)
If your good with others it can be allot of fun.
 
JolietJames said:
The APA LOs we had in IL made mad money.
Probably 15-20 years ago now but I'm sure they are still trying to spend the cash they made.
They had a huge area of northern Illinois where bar box pool was very popular.
Click to expand...
You always hear the same thing. That LO's are making crazy money and laughing all the way to the bank.

Of course the definition of "mad money" differs from person to person and I honestly don't know the actual numbers, but I bet it's less than a lot of people think given the time/travel commitment and the crap they deal with.
 
David in FL said:
You always hear the same thing. That LO's are making crazy money and laughing all the way to the bank.

Of course the definition of "mad money" differs from person to person and I honestly don't know the actual numbers, but I bet it's less than a lot of people think given the time/travel commitment and the crap they deal with.
Click to expand...
Quite possibly,but I remember them selling off small parts of their dominion for bug bucks and they had a while lot of them.
 
Do a weekly tournament instead, IMO. From the player standpoint, not much difference showing up every week to play 1vs1 league format, vs show up every week to play a tournament.

From your standpoint, if you get sick of herding the cats, just quit, or have someone else be the TD.

DigitalPool brackets and FargoRate FairMatch for handicaps make it easy to run everything, once you get used to the software.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Around here, there used to be many handicapped, weekly 9-ball tournaments. You could play in one every night. There were two leagues and some in-house tournaments.

I would use FargoRate for the skill tracking if you are going to do handicapping.

I would use single elimination with 4-player qualifiers in the first phase. Start the qualifiers as soon as you have six players in the room. Anyone knocked out of a qualifier can get in another until it is time to do the second phase. Single elimination second/final phase. Several locations here used that format.

The nightly payout was about 100%. Most rooms donated the time. Sometimes a little would be held out for a quarterly weekend tournament, and sometimes there was a 10% admin fee. I think if you use FargoRate, there will be a lot less admin.


When I ran weeklies, I had a table of all the payouts depending on how many had entered.
Click to expand...
iusedtoberich said:
Do a weekly tournament instead, IMO. From the player standpoint, not much difference showing up every week to play 1vs1 league format, vs show up every week to play a tournament.

From your standpoint, if you get sick of herding the cats, just quit, or have someone else be the TD.

DigitalPool brackets and FargoRate FairMatch for handicaps make it easy to run everything, once you get used to the software.
Click to expand...

I am definitely going the single elimination weekly tournaments. I just remembered that the people who mainly play at my hall do not play in leagues and the majority are money players and weekend tournament warriors. So getting something like that going should be no problem. I will definitely look into the Fargo app to see how it works and to get the hang of how to look up handicaps. I may even consider doing a no-handicap night if it takes off.

Thank you for the feedback!
 
JolietJames said:
The APA LOs we had in IL made mad money.
Probably 15-20 years ago now but I'm sure they are still trying to spend the cash they made.
They had a huge area of northern Illinois where bar box pool was very popular.
Click to expand...
I spent the summer in bloomington/normal, nobody played there - strange. Jason Klatt and the girl(cant remember her name) both played good years ago
 
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