Note to Bolts - Update your web site

by John Fontana on Aug 20, 2005 6:34 PM EDT in Media

David Singer at the Ice Block did a good job several weeks back complaining about the fact no NHL web sites have RSS feeds on them. I tried to give owners the benefit of the doubt because they wouldn't have invested in their web presence during the lockout.

...And in some cases, teams haven't done much investing in their web presence in the last couple of years.

Note Tampa Bay Lightning.com -- which most every Lightning fan has ventured to at one point or another. While the current site is certainly an upgrade over the first iteration of TBL.com, it is showing it's age greatly at this point. The current design, featuring slight variations of what was originally there, has been in use since the beginning of the 2001-02 season. In Internet design circles, that is a Gods age.

The site does not work properly in the Firefox web browser, there are javascript errors on the page from what others have told me. There are probably dozens of features out there that can be implemented on the site and they are not there or people are unaware of them (such as RSS or Atom feeds which are certainly lacking and growing intensive popularity - as Bloom's article mentions).

Having a splash screen on the site might look cool but it's known as a hindrance to web surfers (why the barrier between the web URL and the actual content?) and web-page indexing (meaning your web pages don't get added so easily by Search Engine spiders). This hurts web traffic and thus might limit income... though in the case of a major sports team like the Lightning, where the URL is known automatically, it's much less a deal -- except when special content is involved (such as articles from the past, special site features, etc) .

I'd offer my own services to help manage the web site if I could -- of course I am but a novice webmaster and blogger out there, yet I am devote to what I do: trying to provide content as well as making it accessible to all. That should be the case first and foremost with any web page - and unfortunately the Bolts aren't even achieving that right now with their web offering.

Edit: The St. Petersburg Times reports (Sunday, August 21st) that SportsBusiness Daily ranks TBL.com #30 of the 30 NHL franchise (I can't find a source URL on that however).

Tweet Comment 4 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Well said. I concur.

by Lynch on Aug 20, 2005 7:29 PM EDT reply actions

The Lightning web development department is an example of a bare bones operation, under-staffed and under-budgeted. The entire web staff is ONE person who develops and does all updates to the website. This person also is responsible for the TBL message board and the TB Storm website and Sotrm message board. Other NHL teams have anywhere from 3 to 20 employees who’s sole focus is the team’s website and it’s content.

I have many friends within the Lightning organization and historically the departments other than Hockey Operations and Ticket sales are barely skeleton crew with little budget. The Lightning in the past have taken the majority of their bugeted money each season and invested it in the on-ice product and departments that directly effect the on-ice product and ticket sales.

by missK on Aug 21, 2005 11:13 AM EDT reply actions

A single person with a full-time job running two websites and two message boards is not necessarily a skeleton crew. Sounds like a pretty cush job to me. Imagine all the free time! Especially if you never bother to work on any of the sites…

But seriously… someone who knows what they’re doing shouldn’t have any problem keeping four websites up to date on a, say, weekly basis. If, however, the TBL site is going through a redesign, then I’m sure the back-and-forth involved in getting the site design approved by the NHL isn’t fun or easy.

by Gary on Aug 21, 2005 12:07 PM EDT reply actions

Gary’s right… I mean, I’ve been running several web sites (personal blog, this blog, trying to re-design an older site I have, I do two web sites for others who pay me and I helped set up (in part) Sticksoffire.com’s web site] and I’m not being paid for most of it. I keep content fresh where it matters, I make sure the site performs in all web browsers, etc.

MissK, that’s not trying to piss on the guy in charge of the site. There’s probably a lot I don’t see with regards to his work criteria. If he has to keep tabs on the message forums — well, that’s what moderators are hired for. It’s a volunteer job and there are more than a few willing to do it free of charge.

From someone who’s helped admistrate a forum of 60 thousand members, I know it’s no easy job but it’s easier (just tedious) than how it’s being played out if TBL.com is suffering because of this. And from that SportsBusiness Daily report, I’d say that the site is suffering big time.

BTW guys – I added a thread on the forum here at Boltsmag with regards to just asking what features the site could have:
http://forum.boltsmag.com/showthread.php?tid=2

I’d appreciate feedback. I realize everyone wants to post elsewhere — on the blog, on other message forums, etc — but consider boltsmag a fallback forum if those other sources fall apart.

by John F. on Aug 21, 2005 12:51 PM EDT reply actions