Maryland Business

By: jackie.sauter

In a tight economy, even a super fan might consider giving up season tickets or betting hard-earned money on a fantasy football team.

Today’s economic downturn hasn’t hurt just the average American; for some of Wall Street’s players, this probably feels worse than getting sacked by Ray Lewis. But try telling that to some of the financial world’s big-money boys who are still able to pony up the $100,000 entry fee into an elite fantasy football league where the total purse is $1 million, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.

According to two participants and several business associates of league members, each of its 10 teams pays $100,000 to enter. The winner takes home a grand prize of $600,000, with $300,000 going to the second-place finisher and $100,000 for third place. These sums dwarf the typical pot for a fantasy football league, where each member antes up somewhere between $250 and $500 and the winner’s prize rarely exceeds $3,000.

Lest you should think these high rollers are only in it for the money, apparently the league champs have previously donated their winnings to unnamed children’s charities and Tsunami Relief Inc. All participants also give to the pet cause of one member, the New York-based Robin Hood Foundation that fights poverty.

In the same vein of US Weekly’s regular feature on stars being “just like us,” the WSJ article says the fantasy football league is just like the ones regular Americans play in, aside from the money.

There’s plenty of trash-talking, especially on Sundays, when the most active owners post comments, and occasional insults, on the league’s private message board on ESPN.com. … This season, participants say there’s been a little less chatter on the message board. “The last thing you want to do is talk about is the financial crisis,” says one owner. “But I would all bet we’re all spending a lot less time on football these days.”

So everyone needs an escape, but it’s still good to know that the financial crisis is weighing on them too. I just wonder how much time they spend reassessing their teams and trading players during the workday, while the economy continues to go down the tubes.

Isn’t it high-stakes gambling — not necessarily by these particular guys — that got us into this mess in the first place?

DANIELLE ULMAN, Business Writer