Three strategic calls roll into one session: category umbrella name for the side-contests system, 3-tier pricing model, and Founding Cohort offer structure. All three are research-backed with team recommendations. This brief is the source of truth for the meeting.
Jeremy's read of "MFL is over $100" — verified on MFL's own purchase page. Late-window pricing has been $100+ since 2025. First Pick Labs (acquired MFL Jan 2024) has hiked ~10%/yr.
| Tier | Before Aug 1 | After Aug 1 | Multi-league discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom League | $99.95 | $109.95 | −$10/league for additional |
| Deluxe League | $199.90 | $219.90 | −$10/league for additional |
| Chop League (weekly elimination) | $44.95 | — | — |
| DFS-Style | $49.95 | — | — |
| Competitor migration rate | $44.95 | — | "Switching from another platform" |
| Year | Late price | Early bird | YoY change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | $89.95 | $69.95 | baseline |
| 2024 (post-acquisition) | $96 | $79.95 | stable |
| 2025 | ~$106 | $89 | +~10% |
| 2026 | $109.95 | $99.95 | +~3.7% |
Beginning 2026, MFL requires prepay of half the next-year entry fee to enable future-year pick trading. Conditionally refundable. Reads as a working-capital grab; the dynasty community noticed (per DLF forum threads).
MFL prices ~10%/yr increases imply inelastic demand among power dynasty commishes. They have no alternative for the depth. Alpha's positioning ("match the depth, leapfrog the UX") sits Alpha squarely above MFL's price. The Yahoo Commissioner Plus discontinuation for 2026 + MFL's pick-prepay friction = real switching pressure right now.
Both tiers include MFL's full customization depth. The difference is structural — Deluxe supports mega-league formats that 95% of leagues never use.
| Feature | Custom $109.95 | Deluxe $219.90 |
|---|---|---|
| 12-team standard league | ✓ | ✓ |
| H2H / points / dynasty / keeper / auction / redraft | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full scoring customization | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom rules (IDP / Superflex / Devy) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Real-time + voice scoring | ✓ | ✓ |
| 950+ helmet templates / custom skins | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multiple conferences / divisions | ✗ | ✓ |
| NFL players on multiple rosters in same league | ✗ | ✓ |
For Alpha pricing benchmark: the $109.95 Custom price is what we should anchor against — that's what a typical serious commish actually pays MFL today. The $219.90 Deluxe is mostly noise unless we explicitly target multi-conference mega-leagues (probably not in v1).
Found in a Footballguys forum thread titled "Sleeper Paying Commishs $100 to Switch League to Sleeper Today 7-29 Only" — single-day promotion July 29, 2025. Strong market signal even though Sleeper is free.
Sleeper is FREE to host a league. They have no recurring revenue per league. So when they spend $100/league to acquire a switching commish, that's pure customer acquisition cost — and they only do it if a switched commish drives more than $100 in long-term value (DFS revenue / network effects / data / share-of-attention).
Implications:
| Platform | Model | Commish/league fee 2026 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| MFL | Commish-pays-per-league | $99.95–$219.90 | Custom / Deluxe (early/late) |
| CBS Sports | Commish-pays-per-league | $179.99 ($149 prepay) | Up to 30 teams included |
| RTSports | Commish-pays-per-league | $89.95 / $149.95 | Gold / Platinum tiers |
| Fantrax | Free + Premium Commissioner | ~$99.95 | Multi-sport |
| Sleeper | Free + DFS revenue | $0 | DFS contests separate |
| ESPN | Free + ad revenue | $0 | ESPN+ Premium Leagues paused for 2026 |
| Yahoo | Free | $0 | Commissioner Plus discontinued for 2026 — all features now free |
| Yahoo Fantasy+ (individual) | Per-owner subscription | $35/yr | 19 individual-owner tools |
| Fleaflicker | Free + ad-free upgrade | $0 | "Shouldn't need to pay" positioning |
| NFL Fantasy | Free + NFL+ adjacency | $0 | NFL+ is content not fantasy-tier |
Yahoo killing Commissioner Plus for 2026 is a market unlock — pushes serious Yahoo commishes off Yahoo, into the paid-platform tier where Alpha competes.
These are the comp set for Alpha's "Single-Owner Premium Add-On" tier. Range: $40-100/season.
| Product | Annual | Monthly | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| FantasyPros PRO | $48 | $11.99 | Draft kit, mocks, cheatsheets, 2 leagues |
| FantasyPros MVP | $72 | $16.99 | + live draft sync, dynasty, 10 leagues |
| FantasyPros HOF | $108 | $22.99 | + Coach AI, DFS optimizer, 50 leagues |
| Footballguys PRO | $48 | $9.99 | Projections, ranks, draft |
| Footballguys ELITE | $69 | $14.99 | + dynasty + IDP + cap |
| 4for4 Lite | $39 | — | Projections, ranks (no live sync) |
| 4for4 Pro | $59 | — | + Draft Hero live sync, LeagueSync |
| FantasyLife T1 | $40 | $3.33 | Rankings HQ, Draft Champion |
| FantasyLife T2 | $100 | $8.33 | + Fantasy HQ, Trade Analyzer, DFS |
| DLF Premium | $100 | — | Dynasty rankings, ADP, podcasts |
| ETR Bundle (DFS-grade) | $290 | — | Outlier — DFS-focused |
Anchor band: $40-100/season. The "advice + tools" cluster is ~$48 (FantasyPros PRO, Footballguys PRO). The "dynasty-specific" cluster is ~$80-100 (DLF, FantasyLife T2, FP MVP).
| Tier | Price | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Single-Owner Premium | $39/season | Personalized AI insights, advanced trade analyzer, draft sync, matchup intel, mock draft simulator, lineup optimizer, personal newsletter |
| Year-1 grandfather | $29/season | Seed the conversion habit in early cohort |
"MFL at $110 is the floor. Alpha at $99 says 'we're a discount MFL.' Alpha at $129 says 'we're the next-generation MFL.' The +$19 vs MFL is psychologically immaterial against a $1,200+ league pot."
Multi-league discount strategy: -$15/league for additional (vs MFL's -$10) = retention edge against power commishes who run 3+ leagues.
Pricing should be cost + margin target, not just competitor-anchored. Jason fills in actual numbers from Alpha's stack. Jeremy validates against feature scope. Output = real unit economics that informs the final price lock.
| Feature | Cost driver | Per-league est | Per-owner est | Notes / Jason |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live scoring (real-time NFL stats) | NFL data feed wholesale | $5-15 | — | SportsRadar / Genius / RotoWire — depends on contract scale |
| Alpha AI co-commish (league-wide) | LLM API tokens × usage | $5-30 | — | 10k tokens/use × ~30-100 uses/season; varies wildly by commish engagement |
| Comms (real-time chat) | Pusher/Ably or in-house WS | $2-5 | — | 12 owners avg; mostly fixed |
| Trade Hub / Trade Block | Compute + DB | $1-3 | — | Minimal incremental |
| The Action (side contests system) | Compute + DB | $1-3 | — | Ledger reads/writes only — Alpha doesn't move money |
| Custom keepers / contracts / dynasty / cap | DB compute | $0.50-1.50 | — | Stored config; minimal runtime |
| Newsletter automation (AI-drafted) | LLM API | $2-8 | — | ~30 weeks × 5k tokens × $0.01-0.03/1k |
| Discord integration | Webhook compute | $0.50-1.50 | — | Webhook fan-out — minimal |
| Hosting baseline | AWS / Cloudflare / Railway | $5-15 | — | Varies with scale; lower at higher leagues count |
| Support cost | 1 FTE per ~3000 leagues | $5-15 | — | Year 1 will be higher (high-touch white-glove) |
| Stripe / billing | Transaction fee | ~3% rev | ~3% rev | 2.9% + $0.30 per charge |
| SINGLE-OWNER ADD-ON FEATURES (per active premium owner) | ||||
| Personalized AI insights | LLM API per-user | — | $10-25 | HEAVIEST single-owner cost — daily/weekly insights × ~25 weeks |
| Advanced trade analyzer | Compute + LLM | — | $2-5 | Variable on usage |
| Draft sync | Compute | — | $0.50-1.50 | Real-time sync during ~3-hour drafts |
| Matchup intel | LLM + projections | — | $2-6 | Weekly during season |
| Mock draft simulator | Compute | — | $0.50-2 | Pre-season heavy use, then drops |
| Lineup optimizer | Compute + projections | — | $1-3 | Weekly during season |
| Personal newsletter / digest | LLM API per-user | — | $3-8 | ~25 weeks × 3k tokens |
Wide range driven by AI usage. A commish who barely uses Alpha AI co-commish + AI newsletter = bottom of range (~$25). A heavy commish using AI for every roster decision + dispute + recap = top of range (~$65). Most commishes will land $35-50.
Heavily AI-driven. Personalized AI insights + matchup intel + personal newsletter alone could be $15-39 in LLM API costs at heavy use. This is the area where the $39/season recommendation has thin margin. Need Jason's actual LLM cost-per-active-user numbers.
| Tier | Price | Est variable cost | Contribution margin | Margin % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premium League-Wide · Founding ($129) | $129 | $25-65 mid $45 | $64-104 | 50-80% |
| Premium League-Wide · Standard ($149) | $149 | $25-65 mid $45 | $84-124 | 56-83% |
| Single-Owner Premium ($39) | $39 | $20-50 mid $35 | ($-11 to +19) | -28% to 49% |
| Single-Owner ($29 grandfather) | $29 | $20-50 mid $35 | ($-21 to +9) | NEGATIVE on heavy users |
If Single-Owner Premium delivers full AI advisor (personalized insights + matchup intel + personal newsletter), $39/season may not cover variable cost on heavy users. Three options:
Once Jason fills these in, swap the public benchmarks for actual numbers and re-derive the recommended price points. The League-Wide pricing recommendation ($129/$149) likely holds. The Single-Owner $39 may need to move up to $59-79.
| Platform | Per-league fee | + per-owner attach | Total per-league ARPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| MFL Custom (late 2026) | $109.95 | $0 (no add-on) | $109.95 |
| MFL Deluxe (late 2026) | $219.90 | $0 | $219.90 |
| CBS Sports | $179.99 | $0 | $179.99 |
| Sleeper | $0 | $0 (DFS rev separate) | $0 |
| Alpha · Founding Cohort | $129 | 12 × 30% × $39 = $140 | $269 |
| Alpha · Standard | $149 | 12 × 30% × $39 = $140 | $289 |
At $149 standard with 30% per-owner attach: $289 per-league ARPU = 2.6× MFL Custom, 1.6× CBS, 1.3× MFL Deluxe — while staying only 35% above MFL list price.
Unit economics (researcher's modeled): $20-35 variable cost per league at sub-1,000 league scale = 75-80% gross margin. Funds the engineering velocity Alpha needs to leapfrog MFL's UX.
Jeremy's insight: "There has never been a name given to these in the fantasy space." Real leagues run survivor pools, peer props, side bets, weekly pots — but no platform has a canonical umbrella. Alpha gets to name the category. If Alpha succeeds, the name becomes the industry term.
If you want a two-tier vocabulary: The Action = category, Sheets = individual contest instances ("did you join this week's sheet?"). Wild Card / Survivor / High Score / Peer Props sit cleanly underneath as types. Bounty stays banned.
commishforge.com/login. Is that the real path or do we need a different auth route for Alpha?END OF BRIEF · ALPHA LEAGUES · 2026-04-29