The Green Bay Packers are the closest thing we have to a fan-run professional sports franchise in America. The non-profit, community-owned NFL team allows fans to buy stock in their favorite squad. Their power ends there, however. According to Trading App Vergleich, shareholders elect a board of directors and an executive committee represents the franchise at owners meetings while football decisions are made by the general manager. If fans don’t like the decisions the front office made, it’s not like they can step in to change it. That kind of power is strictly for your fantasy football team.
It was only a matter of time, however, before someone made it possible for fans to gain that control. It’s not on the NFL level but the 2017 Indoor Football League season will include a brand-new franchise whose every decision is made by it’s fans.
The FANchise will become the world’s first fan-run professional sports team when they play the inaugural game of the 2017 Indoor Football League season. Every decision that will shape the direction of the organization – from the city they will play in and uniforms they will dawn, all the way to final roster decisions and even play-calling in real time – will be made based on the majority vote of the FANchise community.
The team’s decisions will be decided via mobile app and fans who “consistently display the most football knowledge” will be given “increased influence” on decisions. Fans will also be able to consult with an advisory group that includes former San Francisco 49ers President Andy Dolich as well as NFL players Ray Austin, Ahman Green, and Al Wilson.
Fans already made a big decision right off the bat when they decided whether or not the team would call Oklahoma City or Salt Lake City home. That’s two pretty specific choices and does immediately showcase the limitations of a fan-regulated sports franchise. The initial question “brought in thousands of votes” and will be announced on April 21.
While the stakes are relatively low considering it’s an IFL team, there are still many ethical questions worth considering as decisions get made. How is the franchise protecting itself from fraudulent voting? How is the franchise making it clear that voting results are, in fact, legit? Should a collection of random fans be determining financial decisions such as contracts or cutting players? Should they be calling plays from afar that affect the wellbeing of athletes? It’s one thing to shuffle a lineup for your fantasy football team, it’s something else to shuffle a lineup of actual human beings.
First things first, let’s see what fans come up with for a team name and uniform colors. If they screw that up, we might want to cut them loose early.
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