I’m really into sports. Any sport. I love the brotherhood that comes with playing on a team. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The majority of my good friends came as a result of my involvement with sports. Sport brings race, culture, communities, ideologies, religion and individuals together. Seriously. It’s a beautiful thing.

Amateur sport is almost perfect as it is. Usually every city in North America offers several competitive and non-competitive sport leagues. These leagues are usually geared towards adult males and females who are interested in playing sports after work. They’ve become increasingly popular as more individuals than ever become health conscious and want alternatives to traditional methods of exercise. Furthermore, local sports leagues are a wonderful venue for making life long friends, networking, honing communication skills, staying in shape and improving our game.

I’ve been a member of many such leagues in Toronto and have been pleased but not quite satisfied with my experience. I feel the leagues simply create a venue for athletes to play, and let the game itself do the magic of creating a good player experience. This philosophy has worked until now. The issue with this philosophy is that it can be easily replicated. All it takes is the initial hard work of acquiring a good player base and the rest is easy. That is, the game and the competition takes care of the rest. But because of this apparent ease of starting a league, players are now more selective in the leagues they chose to play for. There are simply too many of them. It is not as simple as getting all the best players together, hiring a few referees and crossing your fingers. Players expect more.

I feel the players deserve more. After all, most players pay close $200 dollars per league. That is significant funds for just one game per week for about 8 weeks. I feel the bridge between sports leagues and technology hasn’t been fully explored and it may hold the key to a better player experience. From player profiles, to game previews and recaps to in-game static and dynamic pictures – I feel technology can really bridge the gap and ensure good player experience. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter capture almost every bit of one’s life – but they fail to capture the adrenalin induced moments we remember forever from playing sports. They don’t capture our progression as players, i.e., as we improve from 5 points a game in 2001 to 15 points a game in 2005. These stats are lost forever. This doesn’t have to be the case.

Expect more from The League.

Coming very soon.