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November 06, 2006
IT#6: Thoughts on Social Networks for Professional Sports Teams -bilandre
These days, mega social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and Friendster are known and used by millions of people every day. While these websites incorporate all forms of entertainment ranging from video clips, to music players, to picture slideshows, they do not lend themselves to probably the most well known form of entertainment: sports. The Portland Trailblazers of the National Basketball Association are trying to capitalize on this huge market. With the help of Affinity Circles, the leading provider of trusted social networks for membership organizations, the Portland Trail Blazers announced plans to launch the first official social network for a professional basketball team. Utilizing Affinity Circles proven social networking platform, the Trail Blazers will create an online community in which fans can share their passion for the team, its players and the game.
My initial thoughts on this were somewhat mixed. I am an avid sports fan, so the idea of a sports related social networking site was very appealing. "Portland fans are passionate about the Trail Blazers, and about technology, so merging the two to create an official online community to support our team makes perfect sense," said team president and general manager, Steve Patterson. After giving this some thought, and realized that the Portland Trailblazers may not be the best team for this. The reason is because, well, they aren’t very good. In addition to this they do not have a huge following outside of the Portland area. Instead of using the site to cheer on the Trailblazers, or to meet new Trailblazers fans, it may give these disgruntled fans a forum to criticize the team. While Portland may not be the best team suited for this, the idea of creating a social network where fans can gather is a great one. Teams that are successful (and have a lot of fans) such as the LA Lakers or the Miami Heat could create thriving sites where people can interact by exchanging information on the teams and themselves.
These kinds of social networking sites are different from the social networking giants because they have a central theme: sports. Myspace and Facebook use general networking as an end to themselves, but these sites use social networking to promote a specific sports team. This is interesting to me, primarily because it might be an answer to the question on everyone’s mind: how can social networking sites turn a profit? The team-related social networking sites could lead to a somewhat viable business model by offering game tickets, team memorabilia (both new and vintage), etc. to these fans.
The Portland Trailblazers are not the only team to have caught onto the idea that this might be a worthwhile endeavor. The Indianapolis Colts as well as the NHL have come up with social networking sites, and in my opinion, this is just the beginning. It won’t be long before other teams see the potential of these sites and jump on the bandwagon.
The only question is, will people use these sites? We have already seen the pitiful reception of sports centered technology advances such as ESPN’s mobile phone; will this be another feeble attempt by marketers to capture the attention of the massive market segment that makes up “sports fans”? Personally, I think if this is well-executed, it could be a raging success. Granted some teams/sports will garner more interest than others, but let’s be honest, how cool would it be for a die-hard Mets fan living in LA to meet 10 other people in LA and get together to watch games? I think the potential for these sites is incredible. As always, considerations must be taken into account: there will be a number of uneducated fans spewing useless information, there may be multiple sites created for each team thereby diluting the number of people in one place, etc; however, there’s no doubt in my mind this can be done. Let the games begin!
Posted by brennels at November 6, 2006 01:38 PM
Comments
Very interesting!
Posted by: mcelhiney1986@yahoo.com at November 11, 2006 12:48 PM
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