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.
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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
 
I run a weekly BCAPL 8-ball league (5-person teams) at our local pool hall. We don't travel or play in other venues. BCA has a lot of flexibility in the league configuration so you can set it up pretty much however you want. It is also nice because it integrates directly with Fargo, so I don't have to keep up with handicaps because the software does it all. And when people complain about the handicaps I do my best to explain how Fargo works. If they are still upset I just commiserate, blame Fargo, and move on because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

No matter what you end up doing, the biggest thing I would say is be prepared to deal with people/personalities and the inevitable confrontations. I recommend writing up some league guidelines so people know their expected behavior. Feel free to DM me and I can share ours with you. And be sure you know the rules inside and out because you WILL get questioned constantly.
 
RakRunr said:
And when people complain about the handicaps I do my best to explain how Fargo works. If they are still upset I just commiserate, blame Fargo, and move on because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. ...
Click to expand...
I'm curious... Do you get more complaints from the spotters or the spottees?
 
Positively Ralf said:
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.
Click to expand...


Hope the local realize your hopefully not doing it for LOVE.🤮

As you are going to have to deal with, petiole, problems, and 🐂💩.
 
The last league I ran was a 14.1 drop-in league. Show up on Monday and get matched up with someone. Finish early and play another match if you want to. $10 per match with no green fees. Payout was to the top match winners during the season and top finishers in the season end tournament. After a few weeks the players could figure out the handicaps and start their own matches.
 
I run a weekly BCAPL 8-ball league (5-person teams) at our local pool hall. We don't travel or play in other venues. BCA has a lot of flexibility in the league configuration so you can set it up pretty much however you want. It is also nice because it integrates directly with Fargo, so I don't have to keep up with handicaps because the software does it all. And when people complain about the handicaps I do my best to explain how Fargo works. If they are still upset I just commiserate, blame Fargo, and move on because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

No matter what you end up doing, the biggest thing I would say is be prepared to deal with people/personalities and the inevitable confrontations. I recommend writing up some league guidelines so people know their expected behavior. Feel free to DM me and I can share ours with you. And be sure you know the rules inside and out because you WILL get questioned constantly.
Click to expand...
Bob Jewett said:
I'm curious... Do you get more complaints from the spotters or the spottees?
Click to expand...
It's an interesting mix actually. Most individual complaints I get are from guys who are trying to improve and don't understand why their Fargos aren't going up. Of course, it's because they don't win enough over the long run. And more importantly they don't win against players with higher Fargos, so you aren't moving the needle. Surprisingly few individuals *in league* complain about theirs being too high although they might complain about it when they have to play a tournament with that Fargo.

Interestingly I don't think I've ever gotten a complaint from a team that thought they should get more points. By far the most common complaint I hear is when (significantly better) teams have to give up a bunch of points (like 10 or more). It really stems from people not understanding 1) that the match points and handicaps are based on the teams' total Fargos and 2) how handicapping works in general. #2 is a real problem that is hard to overcome. I try to explain that a fair handicap means the matches should be close, and if the handicaps are close you should win roughly 50% of the points. There are two shoulds in that statement, the rest is up to the players. It can be exacerbated by the scenario where you have to give up a bunch of points to a team that is higher than yours in the current standings. Some people just can't conceive of giving weight to a team that is (on paper) doing better than they are currently doing.
 
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