Yesterday, "A federal appeals court denied a petition Monday to rehear an attempt by the Major League Baseball Players Association and Major League Baseball Advanced Media to reverse a ruling that allowed a fantasy baseball company to use players' names and statistics without a licensing fee." See the SN.com article here.
Well, isn't that nice of them. Hey, look, I understand that companies like Yahoo!, ESPN and CBS can afford to shell out a few mil here or there for the rights to use the players' name and info, much like trading card companies do. But let's think about this for a minute. Inevitably, rising costs for these companies will ultimately fall upon us, the poor suckers already shelling out dough for upgraded features like StatTracker, much like rising corporate taxes and production costs in the industrial sector cause companies to out-source jobs overseas and/or eventually fall back on rising consumption costs on the consumer.
Secondly, Yahoo!, ESPN and CBS, while corporations, are three of the top sports news and information avenues for the average fan. Online fantasy sports, namely baseball, has done as much to generate interest in the sport than any steroid enhanced homerun chase ever did. I now have interest in following a team not named the Phillies in a different time zone, and it also elevates fan interest in players on mediocre and/or "small market" squads. It is a win-win situation for all involved. But again, when the big money makers, namely MLB, the Players Association and the media conglomerates, start talking dollars and cents, you can't help but suspect that the fan will be the one that will ultimately suffer in their little lovers' spat.
Next thing you know, box scores in newsprint become non-existent, you end up with a fantasy football season working off the stats of a season of "Playmakers," basketball cards with no logos on the unis, and baseball video games featuring Yankees Captain "Mule Otto" and Phillies southpaw "Hole Camels." Sure, you know who the players "really" are, but you feel like you know it just stinks on ice and you're the one that ends up taking it up the proverbial pooper.
Kind of reminds me in college when my degenerate gambling friends ran out of games to bet on and would set Madden on CPU vs. CPU, set a line, and let it fly. Actually, that was kind of cool.
2 comments:
That's truly great news. I run a fantasy sports site and we've been following this case in earnest.
One of the best side effects is that it allows startups like mine to compete on a level playing field with the big guys. The internet is full of industries in which tiny little companies that laid waste to far bigger ones by providing a superior product. The biggest barrier to this in fantasy sports was the licensing policy of the major leagues, especially baseball.
Let's hope the Supreme Court similarly denies them, as I'm sure they'll try their luck there.
Thanks for the comments. Interesting concept with the fantasy site, must be difficult to break in against the big boys to beging with without having to worry about the licensing issues.
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