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Not Your Father’s Fantasy League

I hope everyone is enjoying the fantasy football season, and that your squad is a solid 3-0, or 3-1 as mine is, due to a double-header week.

This is our league’s 9th year and it’s the only league I’m a part of. As soon as you cross the rubicon and join multiple leagues, your emotions are torn, you’re rooting for and against the same player and the time you spend researching whether or not to pick up Leonard “Hank Time” Hankerson can seriously affect your career, family life and personal well-being.

But when you’re a member of the Group 1 Fantasy League, 1 league is plenty. Our league isn’t your run-of-the-mill fantasy league. For example, I didn’t draft until the 8th round this year and I’m currently banned from trading until after week 6. How is this possible? Here are a few things that make our league brilliant:

1. Each team gets to franchise 3 players. Over the years you build an identity and have an extremely emotional attachment to “your boys.” Franchise tags are due before the draft each year. When you franchise a player for the first time, you get him for 1 year. If you franchise him a second time, he’s on your squad for 3 more years. If you franchise him a third time, he’s on your squad for 5 more years! For the record, no player has ever been franchised a 3rd time (9 years total), although Drew Brees may be the first, though his owner has been shopping him :)

2. Franchise players cannot be dropped to waivers, but they can be traded. And if you trade a player who’s just been franchised for 3 more years, for example, you lose that franchise tag for that time. So the team you traded him to now has 4 franchise tags.

3. The key to our league’s success (or inevitable demise, depending on your tastes) is the ability to trade future draft picks. This rule has been changed back and forth due to certain teams taking it to the extreme, but current rules allow you to trade picks up to 2 years in advance and there’s no limit on the number of picks you can trade. So in theory, if i’m gearing up for a playoff run around the trade deadline (week 8), I could offer an opponent my entire 2013 draft for Megatron. Is a better chance at fantasy glory this year worth being a bottom-feeder next year? It’s a question every member of our league has to face. For me, it’s always been a simple choice. Carpe Diem! This is also the answer to why I didn’t draft until round 8 this year (For the record, I took LaMichael James and he was on waivers by week 1).

4. We have 3 double-header weeks: week 3, 12 and 13 (we don’t want them to fall on bye weeks, as it would suck a fatty to have Aaron Rodgers on a bye during a double-header week and having to roll with Jake Locker). This allows for big-time shakeups in the standings. I could be 4 games out of the playoffs going into week 12 and be in first place by the end of week 13.

5. Our commish is an irrational dictator, but he works his ass off and we love him. Fireworks, trade conspiracies, collusions, back-alley deals, and death threats are all part of our wild west atmosphere. Never a dull moment in our league. There have been times when friendships have been strained and trust kicked to the curb (our treasurer once gambled away the entire league pot and he’s now running a campaign to be reinstated). But we always circle the wagons and remember that fantasy football is at it’s heart and soul a game played amongst mates.

I guess we never got to discussing why I’m banned from trading until after week 6. That’ll have to wait until next time :)

Work the waiver wire, never forget to submit a lineup, trust in the fantasy gods and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Cheers,
Evan

Ps – We use a group chat app called GroupMe and it’s absolutely blistering with trash talk, highlights, and side bets on a Sunday…and pretty much any day now that I think about it. It’s basically replaced our fantasy site message board and I highly recommend it.

Upgrade Your Game

 POGOSEAT HANGING OUT AT THE STANFORD FOOTBALL GAME

 

Commanding Social Media

Social Media has evolved into household name over the past decade. Myspace made the personal profile a major part of youth culture several years ago, then Facebook took over, and now finally Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr and a swarm of others have joined into the chorus. When Twitter began, the founders had no idea that in just a few years, entire rooms would be dedicated to handling the traffic for just one event! Social media, and its members, are truly changing the sports landscape. And changing how every organization interacts with its fans.

Before there was Twitter or Facebook, professional and college sports teams were forced to interact with fans through either advertisements or physical interaction. Mostly the communication was one way. Now, teams like Oregon and companies like Gatorade, are realizing the benefits that can come from interacting with fans and other teams. These rooms, or Social Command Centers, are designed to monitor everything that is said related to that team or corporation. This offers full two way communication when a team or company immediately sees fan responses to their words and actions.

For example, the University of Oregon’s Command Center is manned during the workday by a combination of students and staff. During the day everything from Twitter to Facebook to Instagram is patrolled to make sure mentions and follows are replied to. And if you are an adventurous fan, they will carry on a conversation with you in order to answer any questions or just interact with their followers.

After hearing about these Command Centers, I looked into what was the most effective way to interact with fans through social media. I found that several teams, and even a select few events, have gone with these command centers. This allows them to catch any and every social media interaction that comes their way. However, by having multiple workers monitor that social media hub, it eliminates the personal relationship that a single person can develop with the team’s followers.

The other way that teams use is the traditional method of having one person keep tabs on each social media account. Now there are two ways that a team can choose to use this one person. It all depends on what type of social media connection they are managing. The first type is general information. This mainly focuses on giving information to their followers and occasionally having a conversation with a select few. The second type of social connection is like that of the @LAKings. These connections share important information with fans, all while communicating with their followers and even reaching out to important figures.

These different types of social media interactions and ways of using social media, allow teams and companies to interact in multiple ways with their fans. By using these new Command Centers, fans will see teams reach out to them even more and hopefully see an upgrade in their in-game experience. Have you ever directly interacted with a sports team or celebrity through social media? Tell us your story! Tweet, Facebook or email us with your stories and we’ll share them!

Training Camp: A New Experience

(Denver Broncos, 2012 Training Camp, Englewood, CO)

Well football fans, the long wait is over. NFL training camps across the league have opened up and we are getting closer to the 2012 Season! I don’t know about you, but this is what I have been waiting all year for. Sure, baseball is a great summer sport and is America’s pastime. The Olympics are a once every four years experience for athletes and fans alike. But by the numbers, Football has become America’s game and if the recent numbers are any indication it will be for a long while.

Let me tell you about my personal experience.  Getting to camp is the first obstacle that most people face, and if your team has an active fan base it makes it that much harder. Camp started around 8:50 and so I planned to arrive roughly an hour before in order to secure a great seat. Or so I thought.  NFL teams are recording record turnouts of fans at their training camps in cities across the nation. These are just practices ladies and gentlemen! Not scrimmages, or preseason games, but rather fans are turning out in droves to watch their favorite team do what they have done for years. Practice the fundamentals of the game we love.

Now back to my experience. Upon arrival and after finding a parking spot, fans are met with an opportunity to walk and sit feet from players. I was lucky enough to find an end spot and was placed in the front row. Practice goes through several stages including 1 on 1’s, to full team, to red zone drills. But the best thing about camp is the experience that you as a fan get! Up close and personal interaction that will hopefully enhance your in-event adventure.

In speaking with several other fans who have attended training camps across the league, it has become rather clear how football has overtaken this country. Notably, the fan experience at training camps is being brought into the stadium as teams strive to find more ways to engage with their fans.

Many teams are also hosting live scrimmages that fans are flocking to see. Kiddy zones and up close interactions with players are becoming more commonplace. In addition to attending training camp at the team headquarters, I also had the opportunity to attend the scrimmage at Sports Authority Field at Mile High and see these upgrades firsthand. NFL teams are doing their best to enhance the experience for fans and here at Pogoseat we are striving to do the same by letting you interact at the game with both the team and your fellow fans.

So now that I have given you a brief glimpse into what training camp is like from my point of view, why don’t you tell us about your experience? What cool things is your team doing at their training camp?  What do YOU want to see? Now that fans have gotten a taste of being up close and personal, do you expect an upgraded regular season experience as well?

Image credit to Richard Rush
Image via doorcountydailynews.com

Upgrading Your Olympic Experience

It’s that time again! Every four years, we are treated to feats of athleticism that this world rarely gets to see. The Summer Olympics are upon us once again, except this time, they bring with them a whole new world.  Last time they came around fans, in 2008, fans were no where near as connected as they are today. The iPhone had only been out for a year and Facebook had a tenth of the users it has today.

Twitter also has experienced a rapid growth increase in the time since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Back then users were sending 100 million tweets per quarter, or roughly 13 tweets per second. Now, compare that to the 2012, where 340 million tweets are being sent daily and roughly 3,900 tweets per second on average and it is pretty clear that social media in 2008 cannot hold a candle to its influence today.

However, social media isn’t the only thing changing in the Olympics. Fans want a more interactive in-game experience, especially at the Olympics where most fans are going to be seeing more than one sport during their visit. Technology is evolving to a point where you no longer have to be restricted to just watching the event you are attending. Let me paint you the picture.

It is 2016 and you are going to the men’s and women’s swimming finals from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Before you enter the stadium you make sure that you put on your Google Glasses and check in at the aquatic center. It just so happens that several of your friends are also attending the finals, they see your check in and decide it would be a great idea to sit together. While video chatting in a Google Hangout, you pull up the Pogoseat app on your smartphone, find multiple seats together, and upgrade your seats before the action starts.

 

In between races one of your friends decides they want to see how the U.S. is doing in the gymnastics final. In 2012 you would be able to do this to an extent, but only by following twitter and maybe an Olympic app for updates. Not so in 2016! Your AR glasses allow you to pop up as many personal viewing screens as you wish to follow the other events. Something like picture in picture for your entire life.

This may seem far fetched to some, but the technologies that will enable these features are already being released. In the not so distant future fans will be able to put on their Google Glasses and analyze every bit of information about Usain Bolt. Or snap a picture and instantly get the latest on how Michael Phelps just did in his relay! All of these things are designed to help you have a greater in-game and in-event experience. This is the future technologies like Pogoseat are bringing about, and its just around the corner.

As you continue to watch the Olympics over the next few weeks, do so with some questions in mind. What would I want to see in my personal heads up display? How else do you think technology will upgrade your in-game experience over the next few years? Tweet or facebook us your thoughts and we will retweet the best ones!

Thumbnail image via Wikipedia.org
Thumbnail image via Google

Changing the Game One Fan at a Time

The NFL is well on its way to enhancing the game day experience for you like never before. In today’s world of expanding smart phone use and Wi-Fi access, fans want the ability to tap into the Internet at their live entertainment events. This enhances their in-game experience by providing a layer of virtual engagement. Since this layer is available from the comfort of your own home, stadiums across the league realize the need for a virtual engagement when it comes to physically being at the games.

The NFL realized it must adapt to offer what the fans want and is making a concentrated effort to upgrade your experience at stadiums across the league and keep you coming back time and time again. For example, the Dallas Cowboys new stadium cost $1.2 billion! That is a lot of zeros (8 to be exact). However, this allows them to provide you with the best in-game experience of any NFL stadium. Working alongside CDW, the Cowboys were able to piece together a state of the art fancentric stadium that truly puts you first!

With Pogoseat, fans are able to gain a much more comfortable, as well as social, in-game experience. This allows any live event, whether it be a concert or a football game, to compete with that big screen at home. Now, teams can focus on evolving the virtual engagement and instead of just trying to get you to the game, teams will be putting you in the game.

Not only will the networks provide a way for you to interact with each other–i.e. engage in contests with other fans, or move closer to fans like you cheering for the same team. These new networks also allow you to keep up to date with all your fantasy teams and even make changes from your upgraded seats! Besides providing fans with faster and more readily available access to Pogoseat, it gives each and every fan the chance to have a more connected in-game experience.

Thumbnail image via espn.go.com
Scott Cunningham via Getty Images

Adidas’ New “Shackle Shoes” Present Major Controversy

Adidas just recently came out with shoes with shackles attached to them…bizarre right? The negative image portrayed from these shoes is pretty obvious with the link to our history of African-American slavery.  These JS Roundhouse Mids have created conflict not only because of the shoe’s look, but because it appears that Adidas is trying to worm their way into the Air Jordan industry. With success, the major gym shoe market holders, Nike and Reebok have forced the cancellation of this specific shoe. The writer of this article, Jason Whitlock claims that Adidas is attempting to “ride the wave of prison/hip-hop culture” by gaining a fan base from inner city youth because they are the key to controlling the gym shoe market. With that said, Adidas denies the slavery connection, stating that these shoes are meant to appeal to incarcerated men as a symbol of pride. Yet, these shackles seem to be overwhelming and inappropriate to the public eye.

 

What do you think?  Adidas’ shackle shoes fire up a controversy

LA Kings Playing To Break NHL Playoff Record Tonight

Los Angeles is on the verge of finally getting a Stanley Cup.  If the Kings skate to one more victory over the next couple hours, they will bring home the trophy to LA for the first time. More impressively, they would do so as the only No. 8 seed in history to win it! Not to mention tying the NHL’s best playoff record of 16-2.  Here’s a great story from Deadspin on how they got there:

 

How The Kings Toughened Up And Conquered The NHL

 

If you are not watching the game right now, tune in to NBC Sports Network. Its still 0-0, 2 periods to go.  Go Kings!

UEFA Euro 2012 is coming up in the near future…

What team will rise as the victor? Here’s a slideshow to get your adrenaline pumpin’ for what’s to come!
Euro 2012: Top 10 Reasons to Start Getting Excited

via bleacherreport.com

Beckham plays Beethoven’s Ode To Joy…

This guy has unreal performance skills all around #BeckhamNation

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