Well, I'm not sure what to think of this. On one hand, it sounds kind of silly. Are they really outsourcing team decisions to fans? (And haven't we seen something like this before? Granted, it worked then; maybe the Pirates are on to something here.) What will that entail? Polls?
"Who should the Pirates sign? Winner will be offered a competitive contract.
_ Zack Greinke
_ Kevin Youkilis
_ Michel Bourn
_ Other"
"Should the Pirates sign Mark Appel?
_ Yes
_ Not if it means going over slot"
"Which of these two deals should we offer poll winner Kevin Youkilis?
_ $30 million/3 years
_ $24 million/2 years"
It sounds like there are other things, too. Message boards (which can be found online for free, but whatever). Gifts. Tickets and deals. Those sound more like a reasonable thing to offer-sort of like fan club offers for different things.
What if they did want to get fan input, though? What type of fan input could they reasonably get? My first thought is give aways at the park-maybe which players should get bobble heads next season or things like that. Maybe they could include questions about honoring players with special days/inductions into a team Hall of Fame/retired numbers/what-have-you? That still seems like a weird thing to pay for, though.
Don't get me wrong, I actually think this could be interesting if it's executed properly. I'm just trying to figure out what proper execution in this case would be. Online streaming of games? Ticket packages? Outsource promotional ideas? Outsource front office decisions? I'm kind of stumped. I feel like other teams should take this idea and see what they can do with it, though.
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