does the washington post not understand people?
Yeah, that 30 million people number is complete bullshit. I think that might be the sum total of people that watch NFL weekly.
From nbcsports.com, in 2007:
Welcome to the ever-growing world of fantasy football. More than 19 million people play fantasy sports in U.S. and Canada, according to numbers released in August by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. Football comprises the majority, around 14 million. Major Web sites, such as the aforementioned CBSSports.com and giant ESPN.com, cater to players by offering leagues and fantasy columnists, as do hundreds of lesser-known sites. And it’s not just for men. Women comprise about 15 percent of fantasy players.
And these are numbers from the “Fantasy Sports Trade Association”. Want to take bets on how inflated that number is? I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re counting leagues, and the number was closer to 5 million, given that many people are in 2+ leagues. Which at 2% of the country, I would argue, makes it very much a niche.
Look guys (I’m talking to us, the 16-32 ESPN crowd), our vision of the world is very skewed. We think we’re more “mainstream” than we really are.
I’m not excusing the Post - they’re idiots - but I do think it’s passable to review the show from the lens of someone who knows nothing about fantasy football, aka the silent majority. But if they were in tune, they’d know it’s a niche show on a guy-heavy network (as pointed out by bfizzle), and would explain and review it as such.
Srini, you may be right on skewed numbers (though I’m less convinced), and you’re certainly right that we think we’re more mainstream than we really are. But at least use a current source. From Time (not my favorite but it uses the same source for its data): “But even in this harshest of realities, fantasy is doing just fine. There are 30 million fantasy players in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, a 54% increase from two years ago.” I’ve heard the 28-30 million figure tossed around a few places, most recently Karabell on espn. Even if skewed it’s a significant number.
Sure, the review is passable, but it’s got the journalistic value of having me review an opera or Omar review bacon - largely useless if you don’t have any background whatsoever or even attempt to put it in context.
