Send your ideas: Crowdsourcing 41 Amazin’ ideas for the Mets

I had lunch with a really smart guy named Brian Reich who, among other things, runs a blog called Thinking About Sports which I will be checking in on during the World Cup.  We talked at length about various things including The Mets.

Brian came up with the idea below.  It really stuck with me and I want to share it with you.  (He said I could steal/have it).

We’re going to crowdsource 41 good ideas for the Mets.

Here’s what I need you to do:  email me ([email protected]) your ideas.  Make my life easy and actually write a few paragraphs about your idea and put your name/twitter handle to it so I can just cut and paste it.  I’ll post one idea a day starting on Friday.

Here’s what I need you not to do:  waste time with “Sell the Team” or ridiculous trades or general negativity.

The goal here is to crowdsource some cool ideas, publicly post them, and then the Mets can use them or not.

What kinds of ideas?  Don’t limit yourself.  Could be big, could be small.

Some thought-starters:  

• What if the Mets thanked people on the way out of Citi Field (also stolen/borrowed from Brian).  
• What if we got our giveaway posters on the way out so they don’t get crumpled.  (The Devils have figured out a way to do this.)  
• What if the Mets posted the uniform schedule so fans knew how to dress?  
• What if they handed out cardboard and markers in the stands for a variant Banner Day?  
• What if they played more Saturday day games?  
• What if there were an actual Kiner’s Korner?
• Here’s an actual solution to the first responder caps…

That kind of stuff.

…

Now about this project.  This idea has been in my head (via Brian) for about five hours now.  Over lunch the discussion was to do 81 during the second half of the season.  Then I thought about doing June.  Then the number 41 seemed a good one.  Plenty of ways we could go.

So I decided to just start.  Right now.

I believe in what I call the Captain Kirk school of management.  Just decide to go do something and surround yourself with smart people.  Along the way you may run into problems – but Scotty always fixes the engines, Spock finds a solution, and McCoy keeps your ego in check.

So I’ll be the pudgy guy in the center, and you guys get to be the smart ones around me.

Rather than waste two weeks figuring out the best way to do this, let’s just do something.  It’s just a blog.  It’s just electrons on a macbook.  We can change the “rules” along the way and don’t have to stop at 41.  But let’s start, today.  (The day after a day game usually is a good time to get media attention since there is less feeding the news cycle.)

 

 

Send your ideas to [email protected] – put something like CROWDSOURCING in the title so I can pick them out easily (lest you get buried in a slew of You Own This Jersey emails.) and again write a little but about your idea.  “They should have Kiner’s Korner” isn’t enough.  What is Kiner’s Korner? How would it work?  What is your vision for it?

 

…

Brian also had a good suggestion for the Queens Baseball Convention which is to do some “hackathon” sessions.  No, we won’t be building apps, but maybe we should do some in-person discussions like this one we will have on line.   So in addition to “panels” where people talk at you, maybe we could have a big conversation.  A convention of sorts!

I shall ponder that as we get closer to QBC 15.  There have been a few interesting developments on that front that I have only shared with the innermost circle of Mets Police, but it could be way cool.

Lastly, Brian got in my head about something else – and I have a “fake meeting” on my calendar for Thursday called “Cerrone.”  First I need to collect my thoughts on that but expect an email Matt.