Goodbye fantasy baseball?

[outofplace]

My baseball league is a Yahoo league here; my footbal league is run by me with software. The football league is run as well, with features just as good as the baseball league.

In other words, I don't need one of the big fantasy conglomerates to stage the game with me. Neither do you. We can play fantasy the rest of our lives if we want, and there isn't one damned thing they're gonna do about it.

Well, football is a hell of a lot easier to do without one of those sites.

And obviously, those of us who really want to play will manage. And some fringe players will drop out altogether.This will do a lot more to hurt the game than anything.

 

[cranberry]

The day I stopped playing fantasy baseball -- which was the day the strike/lockout hit in 1994, in our league's 11th year -- is the day I stopped paying attention to the sport. I'm guessing that would be true of others, in any sport: Take away fantasy leagues, you take away the main reason people have interest. Go ahead, baseball, you're on the ledge. Jump.

Fantasy baseball isn't endangered. Essentially, the players believe (rightfully in my opinion) they are entitled to a piece of the action (licensing fee) since these are for-profit games based on their performances.

 

[outofplace]

Cran, part of the reason the players make so much money is based on the interest level in the sport, which stays high in large part do to fantasy baseball. This is a clear case of biting the hand that feeds you.

If, say, CBSSportsline or Yahoo need to pay a chunk to MLB, their fees will go up. Who do you think will pay for that? Right, the fantasy players. Some of whom will quit playing, then quit watching the sport. The domino effect on baseball will be negative.

Agreed. Though it's funny. I turned to fantasy baseball because I got sick of the system in baseball.
I never wanted to play the game until after the 1992 season. That was when the Pirates let both Barry Bonds and Doug Drabek go for nothing. That meant they were either unable or unwilling to do what it takes to compete, so I needed another rooting interest.

I still follow the Pirates, but only after my fantasy teams....which is sad. Then again, so is the state of the Pirates.

 

[cranberry]

Cran, part of the reason the players make so much money is based on the interest level in the sport, which stays high in large part do to fantasy baseball. This is a clear case of biting the hand that feeds you.

If, say, CBSSportsline or Yahoo need to pay a chunk to MLB, their fees will go up. Who do you think will pay for that? Right, the fantasy players. Some of whom will quit playing, then quit watching the sport. The domino effect on baseball will be negative.

The players have ALWAYS received a licensing fee for fantasy sports. This isn't something new. More people would attend games if they were free, too. That would help the interest level, right?

And it's a false argument anyway. The price of the product will be based on what the retailer can charge for it, regardless of licensing fees.

 

[cranberry]

Cran, part of the reason the players make so much money is based on the interest level in the sport, which stays high in large part do to fantasy baseball. This is a clear case of biting the hand that feeds you.

If, say, CBSSportsline or Yahoo need to pay a chunk to MLB, their fees will go up. Who do you think will pay for that? Right, the fantasy players. Some of whom will quit playing, then quit watching the sport. The domino effect on baseball will be negative.

The players have ALWAYS received a licensing fee for fantasy sports. This isn't something new. More people would attend games if they were free, too. That would help the interest level, right?

And it's a false argument anyway. The price of the product will be based on what the retailer can charge for it, regardless of licensing fees.

What fantasy sports have the players received a licensing fee, outside of Madden et al? ... And your "if the tickets were free" argument is clear hyperbole, so I'll ignore that, but the price is based on what the retailer can charge, which is based on demand. Take away fantasy baseball and you take away a lot of the interest that creates that demand.

Fantasy game operators -- ESPN, Yahoo, etc. -- have been paying millions of dollars licensing fees to MLBPA, NFLPA and NBA (which licenses player rights) for more than a decade. The landscape of fantasy sports from a user standpoint would change very little, if at all, due to a ruling in favor of either party.

 

[Diabeetus]

Regardless of who pays what now, it's still a ****ty move.

 

[write then drink]

hey, maybe it's a good idea

if MLB is successful, some of these fantasy geeks can go out and get a life now

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

I read some of that stuff, but I still don't see it, cranberry.

In the end you still end up with names and facts that are in the public domain already. Unless a court wants to swing all the way to the other side and say that MLB has exclusive rights to this data, I don't think much of this case.

But, then again, I'm not a lawyer or a judge.

There you go making sense again.

 

[cranberry]

I read some of that stuff, but I still don't see it, cranberry.

In the end you still end up with names and facts that are in the public domain already. Unless a court wants to swing all the way to the other side and say that MLB has exclusive rights to this data, I don't think much of this case.

But, then again, I'm not a lawyer or a judge.

There you go making sense again.

It's not about who owns the data, which is in the public domain. It's about the ability to use players names in association with that data for a predominantly commercial purpose (as opposed to first amendment-protected products like newspapers, etc.). Essentially, the argument is that the players add value to the product; that the numbers are brought to life through their individual performances. The players don't see it as any different than a board game like Strat-o-matic. The legal term is "right of publicity."

 

[alleyallen]

Let's not lose sight of the fact that the panel of judges didn't seem inclined to side with MLB on this one.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

The day I stopped playing fantasy baseball -- which was the day the strike/lockout hit in 1994, in our league's 11th year -- is the day I stopped paying attention to the sport. I'm guessing that would be true of others, in any sport: Take away fantasy leagues, you take away the main reason people have interest. Go ahead, baseball, you're on the ledge. Jump.

Exactly.

Be VERY ****ing careful, baseball.

It's more than 50 percent of the reason I watch the sport.

 

[cranberry]

Let's not lose sight of the fact that the panel of judges didn't seem inclined to side with MLB on this one.

We have no idea what was on the minds of the judges, nor did the AP reporter who wrote a story that doesn't begin to describe the case in legal terms.

And again, fantasy baseball doesn't go away or even change very much, regardless of which side wins this case.

 

[alleyallen]

Let's not lose sight of the fact that the panel of judges didn't seem inclined to side with MLB on this one.

We have no idea what was on the minds of the judges, nor did the AP reporter who wrote a story that doesn't begin to describe the case in legal terms.

And again, fantasy baseball doesn't go away or even change very much, regardless of which side wins this case.

Really? I pulled this from the initial post. It sounds like the judges have indeed expressed something of an opinion:

A federal appeals panel of three judges seemed skeptical that MLB could take financial control of a game that uses publicly available statistics and widely known names of players.

"MLB is like a public religion. Everyone knows (the players') names and what they look like," said U.S. Judge Morris Arnold. "This is just part of being an American, isn't it?"

 

[Runaway Jim]

Every time I think baseball can't **** on its fans any more than it already does, I read something like this. Whether it's Bud Lite or the union pushing for this, I can't think of a more short-sighted attitude. Fantasy baseball brings more attention to the game, which can lead to more revenue. Why would you turn off a large segment of your fan base (and risk the loss of cash down the road) to get an up-front licensing fee?
It doesn't make sense.

 

[chazp]

It's amazing to me that they'd even try to pull this crap. But, I guess the greed of multimillionaires never ends.