The NFLPA "predicted it will earn" $1M a season by 2000
by charging fantasy football operators for using players'
names, according to Scott Newman of BLOOMBERG NEWS. Fantasy
football has grown into an estimated $50M industry with four
to six million players, and NFLPA Assistant Exec Dir Doug
Allen said, "I think it's apparent that if there are people
making money from names off the backs of players' jerseys,
the players should get a piece of that." The union "has
been trying to get paid for four years," and this fall,
"about 15 of 100 game operators -- mostly small companies --
are expected to pony up." Newman wrote that while big
operators like ESPN SportsZone and CBS SportsLine see the
fees as "pocket change," some fantasy observers said that
the fees "can fall hard on the small businesses that
pioneered the industry." Players Inc Senior VP Clay Walker
said that the union has spent "at least $100,000 in legal
fees pursuing fantasy operators who haven't paid the union."
Most large operators such as ESPN and SportsLine pay,
"though they wouldn't say how much." St. Louis-based CDM,
which runs leagues for USA Today and MSNBC, said it paid
about $40,000 last year. The union hasn't gone to court
over fantasy payments yet (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 8/25).
