Mel
10-01-07, 5:03 PM
I have long been of the opinion that the NHL would do well to take a lead from Major League Baseball regarding the internet packaging and marketing of their league. If you're not familiar, take a gander at mlb.com (http://www.mlb.com), and then poke around to the individual team sites. Notice the continuity and the consistent feeling you get, no matter where you go. They also provide up to the minute stats and live interactive game broadcasts of almost every game in multiple formats. MLB.com is the undisputed site to visit if you want the best online baseball coverage, and each of the individual team web sites is neatly folded into the main MLB site.
By contrast the NHL has always stood by as teams fund and operate their web sites individually. There is not much consistency from one site to the next. THe only way you would know team sites are connected is via the antiquated NHL network dropdown menus that each team keeps on their home page. But even worse than team pages is the typically sorry state of flagship site NHL.com (http://www.nhl.com).
It has undergone numerous changes in just the last 3 years. It's not as bad as it used to be, but quite honestly when I want the best hockey coverage online, especially scores, stats and game wraps/boxscore, I go to ESPN, not NHL.com... and that to me is the true indicator of just how lacking the NHL has been in this area. And in this day and age, there's really no excuse for that. It's relatively easy and inexpensive to produce a slick, professional, content-rich interface instead of a bush league one. Nobody on this earth should have better NHL web content than the NHL... but that was exactly the case for many years.
Till now... it looks like the NHL has finally decided to take the web very seriously, and is requiring all teams to relinquish control of their web sites for (what I assume to be) a big re-invention of the NHL and its teams online. I look forward to that.
As you can imagine however, not everyone is happy as I am about this. The Rangers[cablevision] for example who have sunk big money into their site for a long time, are flat out refusing to hand it over to the league. In fact... in the face of $100,000 per day fines levied by the NHL last Friday, the Rangers have filed a lawsuit against the league to block this "seizing" of their asset. (link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/29/AR2007092900653.html)) And I'm not exactly sure I disagree with their protest.
Cablevision may be the fat cat everyone loves to hate... but that does not make it OK for the NHL to walk up and snatch money of their pocket in the name of the greater good... so this remains to be figured out, but I hope in the end there will be some kind of settlement made that works for everybody, to let this move ahead.
As a fan I would really appreciate a top-notch NHL web presence that has been inexplicably lacking for many years.
By contrast the NHL has always stood by as teams fund and operate their web sites individually. There is not much consistency from one site to the next. THe only way you would know team sites are connected is via the antiquated NHL network dropdown menus that each team keeps on their home page. But even worse than team pages is the typically sorry state of flagship site NHL.com (http://www.nhl.com).
It has undergone numerous changes in just the last 3 years. It's not as bad as it used to be, but quite honestly when I want the best hockey coverage online, especially scores, stats and game wraps/boxscore, I go to ESPN, not NHL.com... and that to me is the true indicator of just how lacking the NHL has been in this area. And in this day and age, there's really no excuse for that. It's relatively easy and inexpensive to produce a slick, professional, content-rich interface instead of a bush league one. Nobody on this earth should have better NHL web content than the NHL... but that was exactly the case for many years.
Till now... it looks like the NHL has finally decided to take the web very seriously, and is requiring all teams to relinquish control of their web sites for (what I assume to be) a big re-invention of the NHL and its teams online. I look forward to that.
As you can imagine however, not everyone is happy as I am about this. The Rangers[cablevision] for example who have sunk big money into their site for a long time, are flat out refusing to hand it over to the league. In fact... in the face of $100,000 per day fines levied by the NHL last Friday, the Rangers have filed a lawsuit against the league to block this "seizing" of their asset. (link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/29/AR2007092900653.html)) And I'm not exactly sure I disagree with their protest.
Cablevision may be the fat cat everyone loves to hate... but that does not make it OK for the NHL to walk up and snatch money of their pocket in the name of the greater good... so this remains to be figured out, but I hope in the end there will be some kind of settlement made that works for everybody, to let this move ahead.
As a fan I would really appreciate a top-notch NHL web presence that has been inexplicably lacking for many years.