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Fans are the most important part of the sports world. |
Fans are the most important part of the sports world. |
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Yet sports news, opinion, and knowledge is the fiefdom of an elite few, giving little opportunity to contribute. One cannot simply call up their sports radio station and demand their own show. Newspapers rarely, if ever, run op-eds or even freelance news coverage of events. And forget about getting a 5,000 word column on ESPN.com or in ''Sports Illustrated''' paying homage to [[Keith Hernandez]]. The only solution: Start a blog. |
Yet sports news, opinion, and knowledge is the fiefdom of an elite few, giving little opportunity to contribute. One cannot simply call up their sports radio station and demand their own show. Newspapers rarely, if ever, run op-eds or even freelance news coverage of events. And forget about getting a 5,000 word column on ESPN.com or in ''Sports Illustrated''' paying homage to [[Keith Hernandez]]. The only solution: Start a blog. |
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But that is not much of a solution. Breaking into the limelight requires an incredible effort. Most fans don't have the time to commit to running a blog nor the inclination to promote, design, and manage it, and these are the minimums needed for an effective web presence. You have to write well, write often, promote yourself, have an effective and pleasing aesthetic, and manage criticism and technical difficulties well. And you have to do this constantly: It takes a long, long time to build a readership. But it takes only a few days of idleness and disrepair (or one day of idiocy!) for it to crumble. |
But that is not much of a solution. Breaking into the limelight requires an incredible effort. Most fans don't have the time to commit to running a blog nor the inclination to promote, design, and manage it, and these are the minimums needed for an effective web presence. You have to write well, write often, promote yourself, have an effective and pleasing aesthetic, and manage criticism and technical difficulties well. And you have to do this constantly: It takes a long, long time to build a readership. But it takes only a few days of idleness and disrepair (or one day of idiocy!) for it to crumble. |
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Revision as of 05:23, 2 March 2006
Fans are the most important part of the sports world.
Without us, there would be no one to read the back page of the local tabloid. No one would sit on the couch to watch football all weekend. There'd be no water cooler debate about who should win the Cy Young or how good or awful the NHL's playoff system is. There would be no March Madness office pools, and no one who wanted to be Like Mike.
Yet sports news, opinion, and knowledge is the fiefdom of an elite few, giving little opportunity to contribute. One cannot simply call up their sports radio station and demand their own show. Newspapers rarely, if ever, run op-eds or even freelance news coverage of events. And forget about getting a 5,000 word column on ESPN.com or in Sports Illustrated' paying homage to Keith Hernandez. The only solution: Start a blog.
But that is not much of a solution. Breaking into the limelight requires an incredible effort. Most fans don't have the time to commit to running a blog nor the inclination to promote, design, and manage it, and these are the minimums needed for an effective web presence. You have to write well, write often, promote yourself, have an effective and pleasing aesthetic, and manage criticism and technical difficulties well. And you have to do this constantly: It takes a long, long time to build a readership. But it takes only a few days of idleness and disrepair (or one day of idiocy!) for it to crumble.
To make matters worse, the sports calendar is less than accommodating. From February until April, the NFL calendar is silent. From April until August, there are virtually no college sports of which to speak. This is true, to varying degrees, for all sports. Imagine the difficulty a great baseball blogger must encounter during that six weeks stretch when the NFL playoffs are the buzz and the MLB world goes silent. What is he to do? The only survivors are those with their own unique content -- an exceptionally time consuming endeavor -- and of course, the media powerhouses who simply let their MLB content idle while the NFL side takes over.
But again, one cannot simply write an article and expect it to appear on ESPN or SI. You can't tell your local radio station that you need 10 minutes or 1,000 words to explain why your team really should go out and sign an unheralded no-name free agent.
But sometimes, you just want to help relay the news. Or write a quick piece about how bad your team's offense is. Or build a foundation of sports history. We have, many times. That is where ArmchairGM comes from -- to give a voice to all us fans who think more about the game than we probably should, and want to share these thoughts with everyone else. Even if you have only five minutes.
Welcome to ArmchairGM, where fans rule.
Contact Us
Dave, Aaron, Rob, and Dan founded ArmchairGM. Four sports fans from New York (stronger than ever) and New Jersey. Contact us with any problems, suggestions, or questions. We like this site, we hope you do too.
Mascot
E.H., the official mascot of ArmchairGM