February 15th is going to be a busy day!

[Mike]

On the front of the new official web site you will see this notice:

Join us every day as we build our website in preparation for our full public and media launch on February 15.

On the front of the new Carlton official web site you will see this notice:

Join us every day as we build our website in preparation for our full public and media launch on February 15.

On the front of the new Western Bulldogs official web site you will see this notice:

Join us every day as we build our website in preparation for our full public and media launch on February 15.

...and that's not all, Hawthorn is about to join the list ...and God knows who else.

All the sites are also carrying this gem on their feedback pages: <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>YOUR FEEDBACK
Tell us what we are doing well!
Tell us what else you would like to see on your website!
Your feedback will help ensure that insert club name here has the Number One football club website on the net!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Is this a scam? Have Sportsview been able to supply at least four AFL clubs with web sites for the cost of developing one?

February 15th is obviously going to be a red letter day for Sportsview, a great pr coup, but it won't be for the Clubs, with each of them having to share the limelight with at least three others.

Only the best for Collingwood Eddie? ...yeah, right.

[Mich@el]

What you've written is quite upsetting! But you have a point.

[London Dave]

What's the big deal. It's a business, not a sport. As soon as the people who pay to watch a game don't cover players wages, fans lose control of the game. It happened years ago to footy. Who really gives a flying f**k about our web site? We are supposed to be a bloody great football club that wins football games. As the MBA's out there may suggest, get the core business right and the brand will build itself!

[Mike]

You might be right Dave and I have to be aware that, as a web developer, I have a vested interest in believing in the importance of the web as a public interface medium for high profile organisations.

I also have to admit that if I had not seen Carlton's and the Bulldog's sites I would be very happy with what we've got.

And I am aware that once more than one club was signed by Sportsview, the only way to prevent one site being better than another, and causing Sportsview problems with their clients, was to make them identical.

And I understand that the cost of producing individual sites is dramatically decreased if the design and development overheads can be shared between four clubs.

It's all very rational and easy to understand.

But I still don't like it. Something inside me that defies the rational, objects to sharing anything, especially with Carlton.

[Lozza]

I think London Dave is pretty much spot on. At the end of the day, we are there to win football games. I understand Mike that having a decent web site is important to Collingwood as a business and it looks as if we have finally achieved that, even by your own admission. Whether they are similar in design etc. to our enemies (even Carlscum) doesn't make a difference to me. Who really needs to look at their web sites anyway?



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Long Live Collingwood!!!

[Mike]

Looking at it logically Lozza, you're dead right and I have no argument with anything you say and the only argument I have with Dave is to say that I give a flying f**k about our web site. I have always believed that web sites in footy are important to those of us who have no other way of making contact and keeping up with the Club. Dave, being in the UK, is a classic example and is more isolated than I am, so perhaps I need to rethink that.

Perhaps it is unrealistic to expect the official site to reflect our passion and meet all our needs and perhaps I'm confusing the role of the official site with that of sites like Nick's. If the purpose of the official site is purely to project the Club's image in a professional manner, provide contact and disseminate information then it doesn't matter that all the official sites have the same format as long as they do their job and as long as there are unofficial sites to pick up the slack and provide the passion. In fact it gives the unofficial sites a reason and a purpose in the scheme of things

Hopefully the site we see now is a starting point from which each club will travel in it's own direction. Pie no sauce raised an interesting point:

",,,i wonder if Vizard will effect a knowledge transfer to the CFC during the incubation period so the site will eventually become CFC owned and customised."

If that is the case then the sites will evolve and become individual.

Another friend had this to say in an email to me:

"I believe that the Club should go in with other Clubs for large developments as they have shown a lack of finance and ability to organise their own in the past."

Also a valid point.

As I said before; logically, I agree with you and can see the all the pros, but my Magpie soul rejects it, rejects even the thought of it (bloody Magpie soul!!).