Sounds like we'll just go with a test forum and perhaps Soccer over Baseball. I'm not sure it will be used enough, but we'll see. I like the NFL Draft idea, BigMaloe. The test software will be just a clean style... not a finished look for the site. The testing of it is as much for me (leaning about it, how it would be day-to-day) as it is for the community. We all went through years of high-traffic slowdowns and crashes to get to a stable point the last few years -- I don't want to go through that again -- but the current setup is limited now as far as new features.
Soccer is a good idea, the number of guys posting in the Soccer threads is growing and we are pretty active.
have you looked at discourse? great forum software. http://www.discourse.org/ see it in action at the roon labs forum, community.roonlabs.com
If it's not too late, a playoffs viewing party forum would be perfect for testing purpose. There are a ton of viewing party threads in the GARM. You get enough traffic for test. And no one care if it goes to oblivion after it's finished.