Fantasy Sports

All I know is that the creator of fantasy football (and other fantasy sports) is a marketing genius and should be hailed as such. But frankly this isn't a good thing. He/she has single-handedly restored fandom in sports, but not the old-fashioned fandom that we once had.

The idea of fantasy sports has confirmed the twenty-first century notion in sports that the individual is greater than the team. Such athletes as Kobe Bryant, Ricky Davis, Terrell Owens, and Curt Schilling have verified this transformation from the "team" to "I." They clearly are poor spellers, since they actually believe there is an "I" in "team." But the athletes aren't the only ones to blame. Their egos aren't the sole reason for their actions; there are external reasons why Kobe tries to pad his stats or T.O. tries to show his pearly whites on the camera every time he catches the ball. Now the fans want them to do such things. But why?

Among other things, fantasy sports has changed the fabric of sports fandom. It used to be that all of us were fans of teams and how they played as a unit. Now we care about individuals. Now we have money riding on caring about individuals. If Brett Favre doesn't show up to Sunday's game, I'm screwed in my league, and so I'm ten bucks in the hole. What do I care if the Green Bay Packers win? It's all about Favre. This is the dilemma that has plagued sports in the age of steroids and corrupt refs. It's individual greed, not only from players and coaches and referees, but now also from fans.

As a Chicago Bears fan, there is no way in hell I should ever support Brett Favre. I hate the Packers and I hate him (I respect him, but I still hate him.) Yet when Sunday rolls around, and I see my Bears nosediving into the abyss (injuries and Cedric Benson; I'm not even going to blame Rex Grossman anymore), and I see Green Bay beating a team handily, my fandom starts to become diluted because of fantasy. Now the thought process is, "Oh well, the Bears lost today, and the Packers are winning by a lot, so what the hell? Go Favre. I'm only down by a few points in fantasy." I'm sure these thoughts go through everyone's minds. Fantasy sports has put the individual on a higher pedestal than the team, and has weakened the spirited and passionate foundation upon which sports were built. It's a damn shame too, because cheering on a team is so much more fun than cheering on an individual. Instead of having one guy to scream for, you have twelve, or sixty-five, or however many players there are on a baseball team. Fantasy sports is certainly a reason why athletes like Kobe Bryant and T.O. find it reasonable to think about themselves instead of the team. The fans do too.

Congratulations to the creator of fantasy sports. You have made watching football and basketball more accessible to those who know nothing about sports, and have adulterated the concept of being a fan. You have isolated those who truly are fans of the game, and of the team, and not of solely the individual. I am being hypocritical in participating in fantasy sports, but this shows you how pervasive it has become. I hate it, but I can't get away from it. You've won.

Entrepreneurship

So here's the issue. I thought of an idea for a Web 2.0 application. I don't know what exactly to do. I had thought of the idea just before waking up a few days ago, and immediately it struck me that it may possibly be extremely useful. I will not divulge the details of the idea, for obvious reasons. So now my question is this: Where do I go from here?

Issue 1: Exposure. My intuition tells me that first I need to talk to someone, most likely one of my best friends, about the idea. There are certain issues I have with this. First, I don't know the actual protocol about how to introduce the idea to my friends. Am I expected, after I tell them, to give them equal claim and responsibility? Am I suddenly partners with them even though it is my idea? Obviously this is all under the assumption that it is a good idea, but these are the questions I have, as a selfish, ignorant, and I guess you can say, cynical college student. Currently I don't know what exactly I want or need from my friends, so is it even necessary to ask them in the first place? This is the first issue with coming up with an idea individually; I don't know who to tell and whether I should tell anyone. I'm pretty sure the answer is 'yes, you should tell someone," but who?

Issue 2: Execution. Since it is a computer science related idea, do I begin to start coding? Obviously I don't nearly have the experience in programming to code the idea that I have in mind. So do I consult my friends who would possibly have this experience, or do I start looking for people to fund the idea, and then begin looking for coders? Or do I start reading ridiculous amounts of code and practicing to become the coder needed to actually execute this task?

Issue 3: Progress. This is another issue. In order to sell your idea/product to a venture capitalist, at what stage does the idea need to be developed? In this instance, do I need to have it fully coded, or can I give them the conceptual foundation and then tell them I need more people to help me execute the idea? Bottom line: Will they fund an idea based on just the idea, or do they need the idea fully - or at least mostly - developed already?

My next intuition - by the way, all of my instincts may be completely wrong, and frankly I wouldn't be surprised if they were; I literally know nothing - would be to begin talking to EE, CS, and business professors about possible collaboration and whether they know any venture capitalists in the area? There are plenty of VCs in Silicon Valley, namely Sand Hill Road, but now I need to find people who have networking with these VCs. Or can I just call a VC up one day and tell them I'm a measly kid from Berkeley who has this really cool idea that I want to pursue further (yeah, that's probably not going to work.)

Alas, these are the questions I have about entrepreneurship. I certainly have the motivation and communication skills necessary to sell an idea, but I just don't have the technical knowledge or wherewithal to sit down, code, and voila, have the finished product write there in my terminal.

Hopefully this IEOR190A class on engineering entrepreneurship that I am taking next semester will be helpful in my deciding how to advance the idea. But right now, I need to move quickly if I want to see my name under the trademark instead of someone else's.

Please comment on this and provide your opinions on how to take an idea and make it a reality. It would be much appreciated.

P.S. I'm sure people are thinking, "Oh, this guy has an incredible idea," but I'm sure it's not great. I just don't know how to get the brutal criticism I need without revealing the idea to a lot of people.