Don’t Go Cheap With a Fantasy Football Draft Board (+ 9 More Tips for a Legendary Draft Party)

If you have ever been to a fantasy football draft party, you know how crazy they can get. Without proper planning, you may find yourself in a drunken mess at 3 AM only having completed the first 7 rounds of your draft. We’ve experienced hundreds of draft parties, hosted thousands of draft simulations and mock drafts, and surveyed the most passionate fantasy football fans to create this list.

These are the 10 tips that you, as commissioner of your fantasy league, must follow to host a legendary draft party.

1. Location Location Location. You already know the importance of location in business and real estate, but the same can be said about your fantasy draft venue. Don’t host your draft party at a league members house, and don’t host your party at a restaurant or other place of business. You’ll want to host your draft party at a venue where you can get a little rowdy without suffering the consequences.
2. Don’t go Cheap with a Fantasy Football Draft Board. The draft board will be the central focus of your draft party, don’t skimp on this. You can find a plethora of premium draft boards online, including the Hall of Fame and PED draft board. You can customize the number of rounds, teams, and label style by purchasing a board at fantasyfootballdraftboard.net, the official draft board of The League.
3. Plan On Ordering Food. Once you know your venue, scope out a reputable pizza shop or other food deliver service. You won’t want to deal with cooking or cleaning up, instead have a delicious pizza pie, steak and cheese sub, or burger delivered by a highly rated local restaurant.
4. Have Enough Booze. Then Buy More. You can’t have enough booze at your draft party. There’s nothing worse than running out at 1AM when you still have 4 rounds to do. You’ll also want a few rounds to celebrate your final roster.
5. Set a Break Period. It can be tough to draft for 5 + hours, so set a break period about halfway through he draft. If you have a 2o round draft, set a 30 minute break at round 10. This can be a time to shotgun a few cheap beers, eat some leftover pizza, or take a smoke break.
6. Hold Managers Accountable for Drafting Quickly. Although we don’t suggest setting a timer, if someone continues to take longer than needed to make a selection, call them out. We suggest taking their beer away if they take more than 5 minutes to select a player, or skipping them altogether.
7. Find a Place with WiFi. Injuries, trades, and depth chart changes can happen at anytime, including mid draft. You should also head over to twitter and follow Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport for up-to-the-minute NFL news and rumors.
8. Draft After the 3rd Pre Season Game. Generally speaking, the week 1 starters have already been established and will rest for the 4th pre-season game. Drafting after the 3rd pre-season game also leaves a bit of time to negotiate some trades before the start of the season. In no scenario should you draft your team before the 3rd pre-season game, but depending on how deep your league is, it may be acceptable to wait until pre-season wraps up.
9. Shame the Loser from Last Year. We fully expect that the loser from last years fantasy league arrived at your off-site venue sporting the fantasy football loser license plate. Even so, we fully support you shaming him the entire draft. Make him fetch every member of your league a new beer when someone asks for it. He could also pay for all of the food and/or serve people. The heckling and shaming should also continue throughout the year until a new loser is “crowned”.
10. Don’t Make Plans for the Next Day. This is, perhaps, the best tip that we can give you for your fantasy draft party. You should plan on a full day to recover. If you did it right, you should be in no shape to do anything that involves walking, talking, or interacting with society the next day. After all, you only get one fantasy football draft party / year, why not go big?