More thoughts on why sporting clubs are a bit backward in coming forward

I must say that looking at the use of new media in sports by established sporting clubs and organisations that there is little really proactive work going on out there. I admire the US sports for adopting the blogging aspects (e.g. MLB.com) but it is noticeable that the initial blog text , while followed up by many 'fan' comments, rarely develop into any discussion or sharing of views. Whilst this may be good for PR in the lost sense of the word - being seen to at least pay service to the notion of the 'fan public', there doesn't seem to be any point in in except a type of modishness and willingness to be seen to be doing something.

I think I would argue at this stage that the vast majority of sporting sites which belong to professional clubs are still exploring web 1.0, and despite putting themselves on properties such as MySpace their presence there is little more than another billboard in another piece of the cyber landscape. In the UK, the cricket Board, the ECB have a MySpace profile linked to from their web site advertising their programme for youth participation in cricket. However the Myspace site is not very active and there is little information that isn't based on the web site itself. Therefore it is unclear to me that this is anything other than a simple placement or covering the bases as opposed to a thought through approach to using social media.

There is far more richness in terms of consumption on sporting websites - from mobile based info to video clips, but interactivity, and use of the new medias capacity to engage is still rather limited 9or my explorations are limited), and sporting organisations still seem to be , media wise, preferring to keep the various sporting publics (in a PR sense) at arms length. Press statements appear on the web sites but as one way communication. message boards are probabaly monitored for libellous comments but otherwise there is rarely interaction between the sports clubs and their fans in this media or via blogging. Where blogs exist e.g, Arsenal FC have a fan blog, the content is fairly anodyne and responses have to be sent via e-mail and don't appear to be available to the web reader.

It was noticeable two years ago when i was researching the use of the web by professional rugby and cricket sides in the UK that they had hardly caught up with web 1.0 and were still seeing the web as an unproven means of communication. I would say that today the same people have embraced the potential of the web as a repository of information and a site for the fans to consume information about the club, but still resist the ideas o using technology to open up new means of communication. It may be that sport, because of its fierce tribal loyalties, and the notion that every fan is a Monday morning quarterback means that exchanging information or comment 9as is done on may commercial m and marketing sites for other consumer goods) is a thankless task. the fans use the interactive facilities such as message board mere;y to criticise the club and offer suggestions on performance improvement. However, there are no signs of using this energy in anyway that may be constructive e.g. by channeling debate into areas where the fans opinion could be used to create new ideas or innovation around the match day experience for example. It is known that the clubs do poll supporters and have question and answer sessions on a regular basis , but this does not pick up on the more inclusive aspect of new media , nor does it allow the fan who cannot attend Q&A sessions part of the process. It may be that clubs are confident they have the hold over the fans through the uniqueness of their product, allied to the attraction of competitive professional sport per se. but in days when fans can consume virtually through the proliferation of media broadcast and streaming, that the clubs will need to adopt new ways of building the fan community both from a sense of maintaining support, but also to ensure that they can extract the optimum marketing reward from the loyalty and commitment of the fan base. I am not sure that marketing and sport, despite the many volumes of management advice and learning that have been produced, has advanced far beyond merchandising and sponsorship, with sales of corporate hospitality. Few have really developed with purpose, the brand potential of sport, rater relying on a self selecting mechanism from the customer base of supporters.