Technology Leveraged to Create New Sport, Kronum

New organized sports are not created every day. This is why I was pretty excited to hear of a new sport out of Philadelphia. Kronum is a self-proclaimed “new game for the modern era of athletics, media and entertainment.” The Kronum site describes how popular modern sports were created prior to radio, TV or the internet. Therefore most sports were conceived with only the athletes in mind and the fans became an afterthought.

The game is described as follows, “The game of Kronum is played between two teams of ten players on a circular playing surface with one ball and four goal structures. The surface is divided into several zones which govern the style of play, the manner of handling the ball, and the number of points awarded for scoring shots into various areas of the Kronum goal.” The object of this sport it to score more points than your opponents. Check out this brief video to see more about how this sport is played: http://youtu.be/etm54u7MA3A

The Kronum website claims to leverage technology (internet) to allow fans to jump in on the action by acting as general managers, boosters, journalists and cheerleaders. They go so far as to claim to be a league “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Fans can vote on-line to help pick the starting lineups and game strategies. The popularity of Kronum has spread via blogs, YouTube clips and other forms of social media. In all likelihood, this sport could not have existed before the dawn of the internet. Kronum fans believe the fact that it was developed with both the athletes and fans in mind, makes it an ultimate sport. It is an interesting concept. The sport itself looks fun to try, and I love that they are using technology to spread buzz, but the front office/gm side? I am skeptical that ‘the people’ can really play that role. However, in light of the fact that 2011 may not see a NFL season, any sport that takes the ‘office’ out of the picture is alright by me. Ref: kronum.com, thrillist.com