UFLB Announces More Details for Next Month’s Franchise Auction
UFLB Announces More Details for Next Month’s Franchise Auction
On the day Major League Baseball threw out the first pitch of the playoffs, Ultimate Fantasy League Baseball was counting down 30 days to its Franchise Auctions — culminating one month from today — and announcing plans for that auction process. There will be 30 franchises available to the highest bidders, with the auction results also determining the draft order for every round of the ONE and ONLY 26-round player draft. The higher you bid, the higher you pick in the draft! The Auction will start on Friday, November 5 and end on Sunday, November 7 (times TBD). All 30 franchises will start and end at the same time and any extensions will extend all franchises. Any bid in the final 2 minutes will trigger ‘Extra Innings’ and reset the clock to 2 minutes. The auction ends when there are no bids for a full 2 minutes.
“We looked at a number of different scenarios for the franchise auctions,” explained Dean Millard, Head of Baseball Operations for UFF Sports. “One option was attaching franchise players but a lot of things can happen in the offseason and we want UFLB franchises choosing their players as close to the season as possible, which we will achieve by holding the player draft in March of 2022.” Even though there won’t be a player attached to a franchise during the auction, there will be plenty of debate leading up to the November 5-7 weekend, as starting this Monday afternoon, baseball fans and potential owners can peruse ‘The List’ — a weekly article that will present top 30 lists from people across the baseball world. “I think this is going to be a lot of fun, and I’ll be the sacrificial lamb, as my list will be the first one to come out,” chuckled Millard, who is also Commissioner of UFLB. “We’re going to get different people involved in this — from those in the fantasy baseball world to the real baseball world — it’ll be a fun exercise and we’ll be using some of the lists on our live shows revolving around the franchise auctions.”
Expect top 30 lists from your UFLB team of Matt Soren, Bryan Hernandez and Gerald Smiley, as well as others chiming in on the top 30 baseball players heading into the first UFLB season in 2022. Some lists may focus on present and projected values for the coming seasons, while some may put a premium on future value for Legends League Baseball and factor in the potential of players with name value becoming Digital Athlete NFTs on the UFFS platform — joining Ian Kinsler and Kameron Loe on the UFLB team. But Millard isn’t anticipating any surprises at the top of these lists — spoiler alert! “I’ll be quite shocked if Shohei Ohtani isn’t Number 1 on every list, when you consider he gets pitching stats every 5 games. It’s like a quarterback playing defense, or Connor McDavid getting goalie points, that’s how valuable Ohtani will be,” Millard said of Ohtani’s unique dual position eligibility in UFLB. “However after that, there will be a lot of debate around who fills out the top 5, 10, 20 and eventually, who gets those coveted final spots on these top 30 lists as potential franchise players for UFLB. Trust me, deciding who gets Number 30 is sometimes just as tough as who gets in the top 5.” The minimum bid for a franchise will be $2,500 USD worth of Score Coin. Bidding will be in USD, payment will be in Score coin. The UFLB Rulebook and an Owners Package will be released shortly. For more information, head to www.UFFSports.com or email dean_uflb@uffsports.com.