In general, I thought my delivery was excellent. My speech was concise, fluent, and loud enough for the entire audience to hear. Of course, it was practicing my speech over and over again that helped me to nearly perfect this. If there is one think that I want to work on, it’s my talking speed. I realize that I talked a little fast while I was up there. Part of the reason is because I wanted to get everything I had to say in under the time limit, and part of the reason is because I was slightly nervous, like most people are. But, overall, I think there is not too much to fix on my delivery.

For my TED Talk, I’ve opted to create an outline that more fits what I’m going to be trying to present. Rather than significant “main ideas,” my TED Talk is more going to be about a logical chain of discovering why football has become more popular than baseball in America, thanks in part to fantasy sports. I may make a few adjustments here and there. Feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments.

TED TALK OUTLINE

THESIS: Fantasy sports are a major factor in the popularity of modern sports, and the fact that fantasy football is so much more popular than fantasy baseball is a big reason why football has become more popular than baseball in America (not explicitly stated in speech).

INTRODUCTION:

• Poll of the audience
  • Who plays fantasy football? Who plays fantasy baseball?
• Explanation of results (why they are expected or surprising)
  • Football has become more popular than baseball in America
    • Evidence in The Harris Poll
    • It used to be the other way around (baseball as “America’s Pastime”)
    • Reasons for this change: advertising, watchability, FANTASY (what I’ll be focusing on)

MAIN IDEA #1: HISTORY OF FANTASY FOOTBALL AND FANTASY BASEBALL

• History of fantasy football
  • Founded in 1962 by Wilfred Winkenbach
    • Previously founded fantasy golf in 1950s
  • Founded in hotel room in New York with seven of Winkenbach’s friends, known as The Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League (GOPPPL)
    • Still around today
    • First pick of GOPPPL was Oilers’ QB George Blanda
  • Coach the Pros founded by high school students in 1976, still around today
  • Popularity skyrocketed with internet
    • No pen and paper required, computer could keep score for you
  • Only 500,000 playing fantasy sports in 1988, almost 60 million today
    • 21% of Americans (1 in 5) play fantasy sports, 73% of these play fantasy football (almost 40 million)
  • History of fantasy baseball
    • Founded in 1960 by William Gamson
    • Popularity never took off until Rotisserie style invented by Daniel Okrent
      • Many fantasy baseball players use Rotisserie style today
    • Also gained popularity thanks to internet, but not as much as football
      • Only 35% of fantasy sport players play fantasy baseball (less than half of football)

MAIN IDEA #2: WHY THE DIFFERENCE?

• Fantasy football is easy, fantasy baseball is hard
  • Lineup changes
    • Football – take a minute out of one day per week to edit lineup to accommodate for byes and injuries, very simple, works well with simple NFL schedule
    • Baseball – labor-intensive, requires lineup changes almost every day, even more complicated with bizarre MLB schedule
  • Season length
    • Football – short season (4 months, late August to early January)
    • Baseball – long season (7 months, late March to October), requires you to dedicate more than half a year to fantasy baseball
  • Because of difficulty, people avoid fantasy baseball
    • I always play fantasy football, I have never considered playing fantasy baseball

MAIN IDEA #3/CONCLUSION: IMPORTANCE OF FANTASY SPORTS

• Importance of fantasy sports cannot be stressed enough, they play an enormous part in making pro sports popular
• If you play fantasy sports, you’re not just watching your hometown team, you’re watching every team to see how your fantasy players are doing
• Fantasy sports cause you to be more engaged with the sport
  • This is why fantasy sports contribute so much in terms of popularity of these sports
  • When people stop playing fantasy baseball because of its difficulty, baseball’s popularity goes down
  • When people are happy playing fantasy football because it’s easy, football’s popularity goes up
  • Demonstrates why fantasy sports has contributed to football’s rise and baseball’s fall in popularity in America

VISUAL AID OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION:

• Intro slide (possibly ESPN fantasy sports logo)
• Harris Poll data table

MAIN IDEA #1:

• Wilfred Winkenbach
• GOPPPL
• George Blanda
• Coach the Pros
• Some visual manifestation of the internet
• William Gamson
• Daniel Okrent
• Simple data table comparing football and baseball’s popularity

MAIN IDEA #2:

• “FANTASY FOOTBALL IS EASY. FANTASY BASEBALL IS HARD.”

MAIN IDEA #3:

• Picture of hometown NFL team’s logo (Steelers or Eagles)
• Picture of every NFL team’s logo
• Family/person watching sports on TV