Last night I had my annual fantasy football draft. It was the first step in my utter domination of 11 losers, which will result in a grand prize of about $1,500.
It’s too bad though, because the grand prize really should be about $1,600.
11 years ago we started this league on the CBS sports website. At the time fantasy football was just becoming popular, so there weren’t many options for online league management. I don’t know the details, but I’m pretty sure we paid about $50 or so to have the league that first year.
Today, it costs $179.99 a year to have a “Fantasy Football Commissioner” league on CBSSports.com (although we might have gotten a renewal deal, so I don’t actually know how much we spend, but let’s call it $100). The exact same service is available on ESPN.com (and many other websites) absolutely free.
So why do we still take over $100 out of the winnings and give it to CBS? Because we’ve always done it that way. Of the 12 guys in the league, I’m the only one who has ever recommended we switch. I brought it up to the commissioner and he said he wants to keep the league because “he likes the historical stats”.
The stats are fun to look at. Once a year I might go in there and take a gander. Maybe half the other guys in the league do it once or twice as well.
We are paying $100 a year for something people hardly use, and probably wouldn’t even miss if it were gone.
My fantasy football league has fallen into the trap of thinking you need something because you already have it.
Maybe it’s a gym membership that is hardly ever used, or cable television that you think you need but actually don’t. Maybe it’s young drivers insurance for your 25 year old kid who should be paying for it himself. Maybe it’s a wine of the month subscription or a daily newspaper. Maybe it’s a child you and your spouse thought you wanted 11 years ago but realized it’s just not a cute as you thought it would be. (edit: this last one was an attempt at humor that seems to be missing it’s mark. I don’t actually recommend any parents stop financially supporting children that didn’t end up as cute as desired. I’ll be funnier next time.) In all of these cases, the appropriate response is to just stop paying for it.
Most people are reluctant to change. It’s easier to just keep paying for something because you’ve paid for it in the past. Especially when it’s a small dollar amount, we usually decide to just keep the status quo.
Our fantasy football league has lost about $1,000 over the last 10 years, and is looking at another $1,000 of losses over the next ten.
I think it’s time my fantasy football league cuts itself off from the annual fee, and I’m going to petition the commissioner aggressively to make it so. Maybe it’s time for you to petition your household finance committee to drop some of the charges you think you need.
P.S. If you play fantasy football, or have even heard of it, and if you like hilarious adult themed comedy shows, please go watch The League. It’s utterly phenomenal.
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
Good point Kevin. People usually do things for very good reason, but once the ‘very good reason’ stops being a reason, the status quo tends to continue unchallenged, like you said.
The only bit I’m not sure about what you mean is this:
“Maybe it’s a child you and your spouse thought you wanted 11 years ago but realized it’s just not a cute as you thought it would be. “
That was an attempt at humor that obviously failed.
I don’t actually recommend anyone stop paying for a child that was a good idea a few years ago but has fallen out of his parents’ favor.
😀 Fair dues.
TMG
I’ve played fantasy football the last several years through various free platforms (including the free version on CBS Sports), and if I’m missing much, I sure don’t see it.
The only issue that I would pay for would have been live stat updates. Several years ago now, that was the hill that Yahoo was ready to die on, but as more sites offered free updates, eventually Yahoo got with the times.
By the way, I thought your attempt at humor was pretty funny. Heaven help me if my kid doesn’t turn out as cute as I thought he/she would.
Yeah, I really think it’s time to ditch CBS. I’m glad you reminded me, because live scoring was a premium years ago. Now it’s standard with free leagues. We really need to make the switch.
We just held our draft last night. We’ve always used CBS as well and paid the $150 fee. Maybe we’ll need to revisit this moving forward. It used to be that ‘live’ scoring was only available for paid leagues, but if that’s not the case any longer, does CBS benefit any more? Not sure. We also use CBS in our baseball league which I think we’ll continue to do, because the baseball league is a ‘keeper’ league so there’s no way anybody would want to re-enter all the player and salary information every year.
Unless you are getting some incredible value for the money, I don’t like the idea of paying for something that can easily be purchased free.
I read the child comment about five times , thinking I must be missing something. Then I assumed it must be a test to see if people were actually reading the blog .
Kevin , I’m sorry , but that humour was a fail .
I guess I won’t be getting your vote for “Most Humorous” in the Plutus Awards (which actually, I don’t think I deserve. There are definitely funnier writers than me).
This is such a great illustration for why people waste money. I personally only do fantasy basketball, but that’s just because I am more familiar with players’ stats. I’m not sure I will be doing basketball this year though.
Great post as always. I did laugh at your joke! I will still be feeding and clothing my children even if they aren’t as cute as they used to be! (Tee Hee)
I laughed at the child joke, even before I read your edit clarifying that it’s a joke. I think it’s a humor win. But then again, I’ve always secretly had that fear: What if I “don’t like” my kid?, and — in the wise words of Homer Simpson — things are “funny ‘cuz it’s true!”
OMG! The League is freaking hysterical. I didn’t know anyone else had seen it!
Fantasy sports are not for me. I do participate in a NCAA tournament thingy every year but that’s only to prove you don’t need to know anything about college basketball to do well. Not that I’ve ever won but I think I’ve made my point.