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FOR THIS GRAND PUBLISHING EXPERIMENT WE CALL THE FANSOURCED ISSUE, we leaned on you, dear readers, to help us put together the magazine. Lest you think us ungrateful work shirkers, we came up with a few gestures of our appreciation -- in the form of inventions designed to change your sports-viewing lives forever. We started by putting our heads together (and, occasionally, throwing realistic business plans out the window), then took our product and app creations to a San Francisco Giants game -- home of the country's most innovative sports fans! -- where we asked folks to vote on which one they'd most like to see become a reality. So technically, they're hypothetical gestures of appreciation that need a lot of venture capital. But still. You're welcome.
BEST APPS
Stadium Beer Aggregator
You've already laid down megabucks just to get into the stadium, so who can blame you for not being jazzed about shelling out for overpriced, lukewarm beer while you're there? No, we can't create a brainwashing device that'll coax stadiums into lowering prices, but we could get an aggregator app that lists all beer prices in a given stadium by the ounce. Plus, you'll be able to check out a mapping display that allows you to type in your seat location and get directions to the nearest beer stands and bathrooms, along with real-time line trackers. Two small improvements to stadium life -- but a giant leap for fankind.
Seat Swap
There are few more frustrating stadium experiences than when your team is marching toward the goal line ... on the opposite end of the gridiron from your seat. When teams switch sides, fans shouldn't be forced to suffer a subpar sight line for half the game and miss critical touchdowns. To remedy this grave injustice, the Seat Swap app finds a seat equal in distance from the action, price and field range to your seat and allows you to connect with that fan to swap seats when your team changes field position -- always keeping you on the right side of the action. Kind of like a game of musical chairs that's rigged in your favor.
He Got Game?
Most online dating sites already ask for preferences like political affiliation and faith, so why not ask about what really matters -- team allegiance! After all, can the awkwardness of an accidental Democrat-Republican blind date really compare to the shock and horror of an ill-planned Alabama-Auburn setup? Enter the He Got Game? app: Fill out a short questionnaire about your team loyalties and it matches you up with like-minded mates at your next sporting event. Make a virtual connection in the first half, meet for a beer date at halftime and, who knows, you could be proposing on the Jumbotron by overtime.
BEST PRODUCTS
YouChoose
Fans who don't live in their team's home state face a common annoyance -- games are rarely carried in outside markets, and if they are, you're stuck watching the Other Guys' broadcast (and who can sit through that obnoxiousness?). Baseball is actually on the right track here: MLB broadcasts out-of-network games on MLB.TV, which has seen an 8,000 percent increase in subscribers since 2002. Not exactly a coincidence. To let all pro sports fans in on the customizable action, we thought up YouChoose, a remote control that allows fans to pick not only the game they want to see but also the camera angle. And, most important, it can sync up play calls to your hometown announcer. Thank goodness, because if we have to listen to that totally impartial color guy one more time ...
Front Seat
When you've got a bratwurst and a beer in one hand and you're trash-talk texting your fantasy team opponent with the other, it's kind of a pain to, ya know, cheer. With well north of 8 million football stadium seats in the U.S., the time has come for a portable tray table that clips to the metal bench or chair and unfolds across a fan's lap. Because when the stadium experience can make you long for the tray you had on that overbooked flight next to the screaming kid on the way into town, that's just wrong.
Cargo Cap
Sorry, but your mini grill, folding chairs, cooler and cornhole boards won't all fit into your sporty new subcompact. (But congrats on the better gas mileage. Good for you.) Luckily, we've come up with Cargo Cap -- a car-top carrier that's shaped like a ball cap and emblazoned with your favorite team logo. Of the 240 million people who tailgate every year, research shows that 41 percent do so eight or more times annually: Think of how much you'll get to show that sucker off! And fret not, frat bros, you can attach your Cargo Cap backward.
The Hat Clapper
In 1988, Daniel Perlman patented the Hat Clapper. You remember: the ball cap with little hands above the bill that do your cheering for you. But Perlman could never find a manufacturing partner overseas, and his patent eventually lapsed. Shame, really. So we've decided to revive Perlman's brilliance and take the Hat Clapper to the next level. Let's add an electronic remote so that it will clap while you hold your beer(s), enhance the sound capabilities with external speakers, and program in your team's favorite cheers so that you're always on the beat. Style points? Those come free with purchase, my friend.
Ian Gordon contributed reporting to this story.