NFL union seeks fees

WASHINGTON The union that represents 300-pound defensive linemenis threatening to get tough with fantasy geeks.

Many of the geeks are just laughing.

The National Football League Players Association contends it cancharge a licensing fee to fantasy game operators for using statisticsto run their contests. The union says compiling touchdowns andyardage is the same as using a player's picture without permission.

Just by threatening companies, the union said this year it's goingto collect $1 million in fantasy football licensing fees, enough topay each NFL player about $500.

But until the union shuts a company down or wins a court case,many game operators will take the association about as seriously as aNew Orleans Saints fan guaranteeing a Super Bowl victory, fantasysports executives said.

"You either get scared and pay them, or else you throw the letterin the trash," said Charlie Wiegert, vice president of CDM Inc.,which said it will collect $15 million in fantasy sports revenue thisyear. "Most are just tossing it in the garbage."

The union's fees, plus a share of profits, run from as little as$10,000 for the smallest entrepreneur to more than $125,000 for St.Louis-based CDM and large media companies such as Walt Disney Co. andCBS Corp.-backed Sportsline.com.

When the NFL union started taking on the fantasy football industrysix years ago, the association had one person combing throughmagazines for a few hours a week looking to find game operators theirlawyers could threaten to sue.

Since then, the Internet has helped fantasy sports grow from anarcane hobby to an industry that generates an estimated $100 millionin revenue a year and involves about 30 million Americans, accordingto a Harris Interactive poll.

It's gotten so big that 100 companies, including Yahoo Inc. andNews Corp., gathered last month in Chicago for a fantasy footballconvention and talked more about revenue than running backs.

"Anybody who wants to view fantasy football the way it was, just anice fun game people played among friends, has their head in thesand," said Pat Allen, the union's chief operating officer, who isspearheading its licensing effort.

In fantasy leagues, fans draft imaginary teams of real players andscore points based on statistics the players compile. Many leaguesare informal, made up of friends and co-workers.

The union said it can't do anything about these so-called backyardleagues but can do something about Internet games. Union lawyers whoseek payment from game operators base their argument on case law theysay supports players' rights to be paid when their names are used forprofit.

The union this year will have as many people working on generatinglicensing fees for fantasy football as it does on video games, whichproduces $10 million in revenue. Two full-timers and an intern spentthis summer scouring publications and Web sites for unlicensedfantasy games.

They helped get the biggest game operators to pay. But when theNational Football League season kicks off Sept. 3, only about 25 ofthe estimated 300 fantasy football games will be licensed, and theunion won't be getting at least $1 million more from those companies,game operators said.

"Until they go out and close a company's doors or win a trial, alot of companies out there will just laugh at the union," said CarlFoster, president of the Fantasy Sports Players Association, anonprofit group that represents the industry.