Ideas to increase trading

[4T2]

Any idea on how to increase trade activity in a One-Year League setup?

I've always preferred keeper leagues as they tend to be more active but I find people more reluctant to make trades in single season setups even when the managers are all active.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

[Eskimo Brother]

Trading in 1 year leagues is an art. Really tough to manage and you have to have something that the other owner wants (or at least that you can convince him he wants). Unless you have a chat board/forum or something where people can constantly be updating trade blocks and discussing needs, then it's tough to get enough interest/activity to consummate deals.

- - - Updated - - -

Trading in 1 year leagues is an art. Really tough to manage and you have to have something that the other owner wants (or at least that you can convince him he wants). Unless you have a chat board/forum or something where people can constantly be updating trade blocks and discussing needs, then it's tough to get enough interest/activity to consummate deals.

[ericdaoust]

Trading is more about people than rules IMO. In one-year leagues half the league will feel they're out of the running by the end of November so not much incentive to do anything.

[Tobias Funke]

At a certain point in the season or a teams plummeting in the standings, it's very difficult to find a move that will will help this team. Moreover in one year leagues, when a bottom team does make s big deal in which the perception is that one of the title challengers make a big upgrade, many other GMs already call collusion.

Usually the top 3-4 teams keep trying to make moves, but again it's very difficult for a team at the bottom to find a legit reason why the would trade a Crosby for example. Very hard to find a benefit in terms of their team to make a move.

[lucafen4]

Limited UFA opportunity - 1 per week? 20 per year? Short benches - 3 reserves... other than that don't do 1 year leagues.

I avoid. I like some sort of rollover

[Dikoi]

Limited UFA opportunity - 1 per week? 20 per year?

Agree with this, limit the number of free agent moves players can make and increase the roster size for each team.

[lucafen4]

Agree with this, limit the number of free agent moves players can make and increase the roster size for each team.

Careful with how you expand roster size... This occurred in one of my limited keeper leagues, it hasn't affected trading at all. We have 8 bench spots so teams can load up UFA's and just store them on the bench.

If you go with large rosters. Have the vast majority active players (12F, 6D, 2G starting) and 4 bench max. Any more than 4 bench and you begin reducing the need to trade. Also, limited IR slots. Again, if you have 3 or more, you reduce trading as it gives a team more opportunity to stash players and refill reserves. if you have 2 slots with large rosters and a team gets hit with say 5IR players. A smart move would be to trade one for an active player to remain competitive over that stretch.

[GSD]

Like the idea of limiting WW moves would help, but think about making it a limited keeper league. This way the teams that are not competitive can trade for a keeper they may want for next year.

[The Bottlenecker]

In my small one year league with my brothers, we talked about having mandatory swaps every second week. We considered "protecting" 7 of the 25 players on our roster, and then allowing the other GMs to choose one unprotected player each. The order would be determined by how well or poorly each GM did in the two weeks prior to the swap. Ultimately, the idea got shelved for now as the work setting up something this elaborate didn't seem worth it. But maybe it is something you could modify to fit your league. It was an interesting idea!!

[lucafen4]

Another idea... it only works if it's a pay league and there's enough $$ in the pot to take $100 from the prize pool

Use the $100 as a GM of the year Award. Goes to the GM that worked the hardest to improve his team. If it's fully waiver wire activity, you'll have a hard time convincing the other owners you were the craftiest. A fun way to get people pushing to be active/creative. If you sit on your ass - you won't win the GM Award.

[Sulla]

Salary cap, keeper, leagues tend to be more active but then the key is setting the cap just about right that 'contracted' players retain value at 6 million etc

[4T2]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

I'm in two leagues where trading is minimal and that's why I posed this question. One is extremely active and quite tightly packed with only a couple of teams really out of the running. But everyone has remained active. We really wouldn't want to change anything significantly, just thought I'd see if anyone had any ideas that would organically increase trading. Unfortunately, in a one-year league, most of the options would probably change our setup more than we would like.

In the other league though, some of these more drastic suggestions may help. It's a league that I really only stay in out of habit as I got into 8-years ago when i first discovered fantasy hockey. Not really that competitive (only finished off the podium twice due to some bad luck) and I've won the league outright 3 times. We're talking about converting to a partial keeper which could increase interest.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

I'm in two leagues where trading is minimal and that's why I posed this question. One is extremely active and quite tightly packed with only a couple of teams really out of the running. But everyone has remained active. We really wouldn't want to change anything significantly, just thought I'd see if anyone had any ideas that would organically increase trading. Unfortunately, in a one-year league, most of the options would probably change our setup more than we would like.

In the other league though, some of these more drastic suggestions may help. It's a league that I really only stay in out of habit as I got into 8-years ago when i first discovered fantasy hockey. Not really that competitive (only finished off the podium twice due to some bad luck) and I've won the league outright 3 times. We're talking about converting to a partial keeper which could increase interest.