The Ultimate Fantasy Team

If you didn't read it, you wouldn't believe it. The Schaumburg Flyers, a minor league baseball team in suburban Chicago has decided to let the wisdom of crowds determine its fate for the second half of the season. It will turn over to the fans decisions such as the lineup, fielding positions and pitching roster, in a project called Fan Club: Reality Baseball.

The team, which plays in the independent Northern League, will will be embarking on the project with an alliance between the production company LivePlanet and Microsoft's MSN web site. The idea is not entirely new to baseball either, as Bill Veeck, promoter extraordinaier and the owner of the White Sox, the Browns and the Indians at times in his career once had fans vote during Grandstand Managers Day at a St.Louis Browns game. The fans voted on the lineup and every major decision in the game. The Browns won too, one of their only 52 wins that year.

This endeavor should be a great experiment in the wisdom of the crowd approach to management. We'll be able to see how well the crowd manages and whether the opportunity to actually participate in decision-making attracts fans to the park. The scorecard will not be reflected in just wins and losses but also in crowd participation and attendance receipts. I expect this project to be a winning experiment on all counts and we'll follow it for the rest of the season.

HT to Business Pundit for the tip.