Internet and Sports

Internet revolution helps
world of sports save time

April 9, 2004

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Internet has had a strong effect on people and the use of time. This remains true when it comes to sports. People in sports and time spent have both been revolutionized with the help of the Internet.

Sports reporting has risen to a new level with the Internet. Universities around the Iowa are saving time in putting athletic events together. Smaller sports franchises, of which there are many in Iowa, are seeing stronger fan bases thanks to advances in communication.

A seemingly large number of scandals has broken loose recently in the world of sports. Different allegations, such as recruiting violations at the University of Colorado have received an unprecedented amount of publicity thanks to online news organizations.

Iowa is no stranger to these problems. Only a year ago, Iowa State University's men's basketball coach at the time, Larry Eustachy, was caught drinking and socializing with college-aged women at campus parties.

More recently, the University of Iowa faced the problem of having to investigate questionable recruiting practices within its football program.

With such problems, sports reporting around the state, mainly online, has had to adapt to cover them on a much wider and timely scale.

"Everything gets publicized more quickly," said Drake basketball coach Tom Davis, who coached for 13 years at Iowa. "Our communication skills are much greater today with the Internet. There is so much more rapid transfer of information, so that if something does go wrong it gets brought out pretty quickly."

Many news services across the World Wide Web now constantly update news, including sports as it happens. Sports headlines for most news services may change several times a day based on news and results coming in.

"Now the consumer can expect that if a game was played last night then they can go online now and get the information they want about it," said Jeff Cravens, president of CollegeSports.com. "They want news and they want it now."

On top of this, the Internet allows these stories to reach a mass audience much faster. There are no limitations on distribution or audiences with access to the material.

"I suspect that in years past things were done incorrectly and it just never made the light of day and never became a huge problem," Davis said.

Cravens has used CollegeSports.com in combining college athletics and the online world. CollegeSports.com is an outsource agent for universities to have their athletic Web sites designed.

This is especially important to sports information departments at universities all over. With the almost instantaneous speed offered by the Internet, information departments are able to aid sports media outlets more quickly.

"The Internet is the fastest growing communication mechanism for SIDs (Sports Information Directors) to communicate with their constituents, whether it is media, fans or even co-workers," Cravens said.

Before online communication was available, SIDs had to transmit all stories and statistics by fax. Cravens noted that now – using the Internet – it is possible to update both stories and stats as games are occurring.

In terms of fans, schools and other sports teams' Web sites are mainly visited by the diehard fans, according to Cravens. This has helped almost every sports organization develop a more solid fan base.

"The Web sites are a tool for the very passionate fan," Cravens said. "The sites are solely focused on their team and are a good way for the fans to communicate."

While the ability for news services to update information immediately through the Internet has reduced the amount of time it takes stories to reach an audience, the biggest saver in terms of time may be putting together sporting events.

One of the most well-known sporting events in Iowa, the Drake Relays, sees hundreds of athletes from different programs compete every year.

Before the Internet was available, all entries had to be mailed in. Then entries were inputed into the computer and athletes were enlisted into the events in which they were accepted to participate.

With the availability of online forms and e-mail, Drake Relays entries are now filled out online and immediately added to a registration document already created. Entries are automatically sorted through and qualifiers are added to their event.

Drake Relays director Mark Kostek noted how much time the Internet has saved certain personnel in putting together the event. According to Kostek, in the past extra help was hired to get through all the applications and input all the data. Now that is no longer necessary.

"We do everything online now," Kostek said. "We used to receive applications that took 400 man hours to do data entry and sort through. Everything comes in through computers now. Now it takes about 30 hours to clean up."

College athletics in general have also used the Web for an advantage. Most universities, including Drake, Iowa State and Iowa, keep their athletic sites separate from the academic page.

Students and alumni use this for an easier way to find team schedules. The site usually is maintained by the school's sports information department and provides a good place to post press releases and statistics for simple media access.

Perhaps one of the biggest contributions the Internet has had to sports is in its aid to smaller professional teams. This is especially important within Iowa, which has no major league sports teams. Instead, lower-level professional squads have used the Internet to gain more publicity.

Teams like the Des Moines Buccaneers of the United States Hockey League or the Swing of the Quad Cities, a single A baseball team, have had trouble recruiting interest and fans in the past. Lower budget organizations such as these have trouble affording some print or television advertisements.

"Our Web site has three goals," said Dustin Godsey, marketing and media relations director for the Des Moines Bucs. ÒWe want to provide information for the fans, recruit new fans and use it as a recruiting tool for players."

According to Godsey, the Internet now allows teams to appeal to a much wider audience. He said he believes this has been most helpful in terms of recruiting players who otherwise may have never heard of the league or the team.

With the use of the Internet, smaller sports franchise teams now have their own Web sites people can visit from anywhere. At a relatively low cost, these sites can maintain accurate and updated information on the team.

Also, teams' sites are easier and quicker means of purchasing tickets and merchandise for those interested. While the major professional sports teams have quickly adapted to the idea, the Des Moines Bucs are working towards it.

"We are looking to add a fourth aspect of e-commerce to the Bucs site," Godsey said. "Mainly we want to make tickets and merchandise available to fans."

Technology has allowed the world of sports to move online by providing a means of ticket sales, event organization, information, marketing and many other means. However, athletics still do not completely rely on the Internet the way many other departments now do.

Box offices are still a very effective way of getting tickets to events. All the pre-online resources needed to put events together are still available. Statistics and team information can still be obtained from sports information departments. Smaller sports organizations still market through other forms of media.

While people praise the Internet for being a large advantage in the world of sports, it, too, comes with some pitfalls. The biggest one is change.

Teams' Web sites are currently trying to adapt to the advantages now offered in video streaming, whether it is being able to show highlights from previous games or showing entire games in real time.

Changes brought on by the Internet may be mostly for the better, but Godsey acknowledged that small sports franchises have had a difficult time keeping up with the rapid pace of change.

But no matter how fast the changes are occurring, Cravens still sees the young medium continuing to surge ahead at a faster pace than some of the sports themselves.

"I think we are going to see the continued evolution of the Internet as a very influential medium in sports as bandwidth continues to grow," Cravens said. "But it is hard to tell where we'll be in any number of years."