Housekeeping: Almost Game Time! [Also, Louisville]

There is much happening here at the Cafe as we head into another glorious season of cycling, one devoid of daytime talk shows. Since the offseason can get a little dark around here, I thought I'd update you on where things are heading.

• First, Louisville. We have a Podium Cafe House and there will be at least an informal gathering on Saturday. Details are a little up in the air as to whether it'll be before or after the racing. Smart money is on both. If you want to meet up with us, shoot me an email at podcaf{at]gmail and put "Louisville" in the subject line, and I'll add you to the announcement. I've been around just long enough (or short enough?) to know better than to post a party address on the internet. For those of you not attending, or attending but too horrified at the idea of meeting us in person, look for a 4x6 foot \o/ flag somewhere on the race course. Or a shirtless guy with a goatee and an Emilia Fahlin tattoo passed out in the mud.
• We are getting pretty close to the FSA DS 2013! The exact launch date is up in the air, but FSA is returning as our sponsor for this year, which is fantastic. More on that when we go live. Which is probably about when we normally go live, e.g. Feb 1. Note, the racing starts a tad early this year -- the Omloop is February 23, less than six weeks away! And with that, a fainting couch is en route to the Limburg region of Belgium.
• I haven't had much time to chime in on the VDS drafting game that's going on right now, but let me take a moment to do so.

1. First of all, yay! This is exactly what I hoped would happen after we did the Editors' League as a demo that drafting leagues are another way to lose your shirt have fun with fantasy cycling. I am 100% behind the movement and the use of the Podium Cafe fanposts or whatever to facilitate.
2. Beyond that, I don't know if the Cafe can do anything else. We are pretty maxed out with the stuff we are committed to already, the main site and the big game, plus the Eds' League. The people running draft leagues are gonna have to maintain control; I don't see us migrating them over to the FSA DS site. However, we will promote fanposts when the draft league people want to post updates about how things are going. Which I really hope you guys write.
3. As long as you own your draft league, you can call it anything you want, do it any way you want, etc. You don't have to name it after FSA or the Podium Cafe, or use any of our artwork (though if you want to, contact me first). You can create your own homepages, etc. Really, my only message is to inspire you to take your project anywhere you want and not feel like you should check in with me. But we Eds are happy to offer suggestions.
4. There's a movement to absorb the Eds' League into a competition between leagues. I say, not for 2013. Let's take a look at how the draft leagues lining up with each other do without the editors around, and then we'll think about it for next year. This isn't a snub; it's a lack of time/bandwidth, and thus no opinion at the moment.
5. Finally, if you wanted in on a draft league and it hasn't happened, I don't see why it's too late. I realize the TdU is approaching and the current draft leagues will be scoring there (right?), so it might be too late to form a league that is also competing or comparing with other leagues. But a stand-alone league? I'd say you have a good six weeks. The Eds' League draft isn't til after Louisville.

• Other internal stuff -- what can I say, it's been a winter of transition. Losing Jen, promoting Jens... really, it's all about the letter s. Other than that, everything is the same. Seriously, we are having some meetings to get everything geared up for the start of the road season, and it may go a bit slowly at first, particularly as the last Hurricane Lance blows out to sea (I hope). But this season will be another Podium Cafe season, and all that implies. Oh, and if you had anything you thought was missing from the site, now's a good time for suggestions. With the new format we don't have as much widget control as we once did, so bear with us. But we will make things happen as needed.