I'm highly in favor of both of these ideas.

The early bird incentive would be enough for me to get my lineups in early (I'm hit or miss with getting them in before the weekend is over, or the following Friday. I see this as a good thing. A modest 2CP per session sounds reasonabnle to me. You don't want anything major.

For the Fan Intimidation night, I like the idea as written. My only concern is that I already feel that Home Court Advantage is TOO powerful. Of the 32 teams, there are only 3 teams that presently have a winning away record. There are 4 or 5 teams that have not won a single away match this season. If we implement this, I would recommend scaling back the standard home court bonus. 

(as an aside, I think this would be a good opportunity for BRBs in TMVL - Booster Club that allows a team to boost ONE attribute for their players - ATK, BLK, DEF twice per session, or 2 attributes once per session... just a thought)

I'm opposed to both of these rules. 
 

An early bird deadline would create mid-week stress for and that's a burden I don't want or need. I love the Sunday deadline because the weekend is usually flexible enough that I have no trouble hitting that. But an early bird deadline just becomes an earlier deadline that I wouldn't want to miss but would be less convenient it make. I suppose I could throw whatever lineups out there early to gain points and amend them later, but that doesn't seem like the purpose behind the rule. I also don't enjoy, and this is just me, sitting around all week waiting for results for lineups previously sent.

I don't support the second rule because it is what I refer to as a squirrel rule. It's unpredictable, and for as much apparent planning that goes into the game and weekly lineups, it seems counterintuitive to that purpose.

everyone can hate on me now.

Sorry for the grammatical errors. Waiting on a new kangaroo.

*keyboard*

I had the same thought as Rob about fan intimidation - love the idea but far from convinced that home teams need any more advantages.  Given that the real life example happened at an away game, how about keeping the idea but making it something that the travelling support can do? You could keep the naming convention but it would just be the Beat My Brother Road Trip rather than BMB Night.

I like the idea of making the second proposed rule change possible to use on the road aswell as at home. It might help give teams more chance to get an away win which are more difficult to achieve. Maybe limit te intimidation to be used only in conference games. Might make it more acceptable to Phil?

I normally put my orders in after watching the weeks matches, just so I have something in place just in case I forget later in the week, so the early bird rule suits me down to the ground! However I can understand that for some they prefer to put their orders in closer to the game.

The early bird works (maybe Friday) - as long as it's just a minor RP bonus (5-10). It lowers Al's tension and doesn't change any mechanics.

The home bonus XXL improves the already very strong bonus even more; not too attractive IMHO.

The away bonus would work (as HB counter), but the "great big fan bus tour" somewhat stretches credibility too much.

So basically, I'd prefer no changes.

See I don't think home bonus is all that much even though the stats say otherwise. It feels more psychological to me 

In Game summary there's a table that shows each side's average player skill rating. Home bonus accounts for 3.6 of this. Yes this is an advantage but not overwhelming  

Another way to look at it is to consider each skill  

Increasing ATK by 1 gives only about 0.5% increase in the attacker's chance of getting an excellent attack. It also only gives a 1% increase in the attack being in. An excellent attack with a high ATK player is 100% anyway. I don't know the odds on defensive digs 

Increasing BLK will only affect single blocks if the home bonus increases BLK to 20. For 2 man blocks it will increase the block chance by 1 or 2% and for 3 man by 2 or 3%. In my game with the Scarecrows there were about 100 points apiece. Let's say average BLK was 15: this gives a 24% chance of a 2 man block and with home bonus this goes up to 25% There's not likely to be 100 block chances due to serve errors, serve aces and attackers hitting out but if th

ere was then block advantage would only give the  Scarecrows 1 or 2 extra blocks.

So yes, an advantage but not overwhelming. But you see those ticks and decide you can't win.

Here's how I would rework both things:

I would re-work home court completely whereas for every home game, you get to pick up to three players to boost their ATK, BLK and DEF as opposed to the default six. Allow two marketing nights a year for league opponents only - announced at the start of the year - where all six players get the bonus. HOWEVER, every time a team gets picked for a marketing game, they get say +10 RP immediately, since recruits will want to come to play for those teams.

I don't like the idea of an early bird bonus but I also NMR'd a lot one MSWL season after I got busy at work and the automated reminder emails either stopped or went to spam.

Steve also understands how this game works better than I do, but it's also a game where a small skill advantage can make a big overall difference over time.

At the moment most weeks I don't get orders in until Friday afternoon as that's my no one else around for a couple of hours time. So probably wouldn't use the early bird.

Not sure how I feel about the home or away advantage idea.  For teams like myself who aren't great to start with,  giving stronger teams more of an advantage doesn't seem right. Unless I've misunderstood the whole thing. 

I didn't comment on the early bird option as I tend to put my orders in straight after reading my results (that way I don't have to worry about strategy or thinking) so I don't think I'm the target audience for the question.  I would say, though, that 24 CPs a season feels a bit too significant (at least for a team like Pekin that probably only earns 30-40 from sets won per season). So, if we go down that route, I'd suggest maybe use RPs instead - possibly 5 rather than 2?

I like the idea of fan intimidation nights but don't really have a helpful comment on how it should work. But do like John's idea about RP's going to the team that gets picked.

I think RPs (agree with Roger and others who think CP may be a bit much) for early bird is a good idea. Anything to make Al's job easier is good in my book. I do wonder, did adding RP rewards to Coaches Poll increase participation? I think I'm remembering correctly that we originally didn't have that.

I am happy to go with the early bird orders idea, if it makes Al's like easier.  But I don't the like fan intimidation night idea....it seems to be deliberately bringing nastiness into the game and I don't see that as a positive thing.