Does size matter????

[Grinch]

Of your league guys!!!!

Question-----Does the size of the league have an effect on the amount of trading?
Do smaller leagues trade more or less than big leagues? I'm thinking the bigger the league the more active you need to be as the Free Agent pool gets smaller. RJEL went from 16 to 18 this year and I was just wondering if that will have a effect.

[Sour Masher]

I think more teams does lead to more activity, in most cases. The more owners you have, the more likely you are to find a potential trade partner, both because there will be a greater variety of team needs, and more personalities with whom you might click as a trade partner.

The caveat here is that the initial composition of your league, and the personalities of the new owners, is a big factor in deciding whether expansion will lead to more activity. When my mixed league went from 10 to 12, we added two very active owners that shook things up with lots of trades. They were both very active on the waiver wire, which made everyone else step up their inseason game. When we then expanded to 14 teams, the results were less impactful. Those two owners were more auction-centric, and prefferred to make less inseason trades. They were also more prone to trust their auction choices and ride out slow starts and slumps. But even though these new owners did not directly increase league activity, they indirectly did by making the talent pool go deeper, and making it harder to get into the money.

The same can be said for going to 16 teams and expanding rosters, which we have also done. I'm hopeful that one day we end up at 20 teams. The more the better, I say. This is one reason why I prefer a big mixed league to an only league. You can go almost as deep into the talent pool with a big roster 16 team league, or a regular roster 18 or 20 team league, and you have more people involved. It also increases the prize pool and prestige of winning.

[Jefe]

Went from 12 teams to 16 a couple of years ago and the trading went up... maybe 33%?

[kldub4life]

I think adding to a league will usually add to the activity but I don't think just because one league is larger than another there is necessarily going to be more activity.

[Lucky]

I think the amount of trade activity is more directly related to the personalities of the individual owners than their number.