Greg do you have a license from MLB?

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 12:05 pm

Greg, I assumed you had a license for this year.

But I haven't seen a post that you actually have one.

The question is do you? Theres alot of money on our behalf involved with this. I hate asking it but alot of folks here will feel alot better if you can say yes right now.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 2:58 pm

We were licensed through STATS, Inc. last year with the MLBPA as we have an outstanding relationship with the Players Association. The MLBPA sponsored our last five spring Fantasy Sports Trade Conferences and brought in the likes of Donald Fehr, Rollie Fingers, Tug McGraw and Harmon Killebrew as guest speakers. Our company works so closely with Major League Baseball in our sports collectibles industry that Tuff Stuff is the official sports collectibles publication of Major League Baseball. We work on a number of projects together, including a Beginner's Guide to Baseball Card Collecting booklet with MLB.

As of today, there isn't a single fantasy company that has a license for 2005. All of the contracts were year-to-year and they ended after the 2004 baseball season. In years past, contracts were negotiated after the World Series, but this year there was a delay and most of us knew what the delay was well in advance of the announcement. So we are no different than anyone else in the industry as we are waiting to talk with the new licensing person about getting a license for 2005. Whether that's under the same agreement we had with STATS last year or totally on our own, I don't know at this point.

We'll see what happens, but the answer is no as nobody currently has a license for 2005. All of the 2004 licensees are trying to get renewed and that takes time. Some companies reacted to that waiting period differently than others.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 3:18 pm

Let me add just one more point on this before this gets out of hand: At this point, nothing in the industry has changed, despite the $50 million, five-year deal between the MLBPA and MLB Advanced Media. Nobody has been denied a license for 2005 and in fact after talking to several folks today who were in New York this week to talk with MLBAM, there could be more licensed games in 2005 than ever before. This has to play out and we'll see what terms are being offered and what the long-term goal of MLBAM is. I've obviously talked with many of the big companies about this and so far everyone is just working through the process, which takes time whenever something like this happens. I understand why the three companies mentioned elsewhere did what they did this week and it makes sense.

However, nobody should be afraid to sign up for the NFBC because of this licensing issue as it's my job to work that out. There was a reason why the MLBPA chose to license our game last year and there's a good reason to do it again and Krause Publications has every intention of doing this the right way as we did from Year One.

Interestingly, one of the first guys I shared this multi-city, high-stakes vision with back in 2002 was Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com. We talked about partnering together with our companies and taking this big-time. It never worked out and many more companies turned down my offer to split ownership for promotional help until we finally flew alone in 2004, taking all the risk and all the reward. Jonathan and I still talk about those early days of this crazy idea I once had.

JerseyPaul · Post by **JerseyPaul** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 3:19 pm

Originally posted by Walla Walla:

I hate asking it but alot of folks here will feel alot better if you can say yes right now. Can you name any other than yourself?

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:15 am

JP, I stand corrected than. I wanted to know. Thank you Greg for answering the question. You explained it well.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:17 pm

And, of course, Walla, if it didn't work out, you'd always have NASCAR.

Walla Walla · Post by **Walla Walla** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:48 pm

Hey I'll take the heat for asking it. Someone had to. I'd never quit the NFBC as long as I can afford it. But that doesn't mean I'm not concerned about whats going on. Like I posted before Greg responded well to the question and I'm happy about that. It just proves once again this is the class of fantasy baseball. No one from espn, CDM or others have come out and told thier people whats going on. I think by me asking and Greg responding it shows the class of NFBC.