I really want WPS to succeed and I’ve been thinking a lot about how a fresh approach to technology can save the league. The other day, I suggested that the league should blow up its existing website and start from scratch using a lean approach. This go around, I want to get more specific.
Goals of the new website
- Let the players’ compelling stories on and off the field sell the team
- Build and nurture a community of supporters around each team and its players
- Engage the community with awesome, regularly updated, honest content (not canned marketing stuff)
- Sell tickets and merchandise and promote special events
- Build, learn, and iterate quickly — the clock is ticking
Building from the ground up
Let’s just all delight for a moment in going into the old code, selecting all, and pressing delete. Aaaah, a fresh start; rid of the old ball and chain. Create directory: WPS 2.0.
Our new site is going to be all about the players: who they are, what they’re about, what they do off the field, etc. The theory is that making the players and teams accessible to young girls and their families, will help fans connect with the players and the team. The personal connection with the players will put butts in the seats and get the league on the right track. The philosophy that this is a professional sports league like the NFL or MLB with larger than life characters doesn’t fit the market. Fans need to be able to reach out and touch WPS players. And the way to keep people engaged en masse is through the web.
This is where I’d start
With a 1-2 week build using Rails and Heroku to speed up development and minimize sysadmin work, build a simple, elegant community site. Get rid of all the fancy background graphics in favor of sleek, subdued minimalism that helps users focus on what matters most, fresh new content about the players. The site should look and feel like a modern web-app, not like the mess of loud sports team websites out there.
For each player, there’s a player page, which is essentially a tumblog of Tweets, text updates, videos, and photos that the players take on their phones. Players can upload content directly to their pages. To maximize speed, it would make sense to wrap Tumblr or Wordpress. Their mobile apps would make it easy for players to post. For each post, there’s an “upvote” button. Posts that get the most upvotes appear on the team’s homepage, which is basically an aggregator of all the most popular posts from across the individual player pages.
At the top of the individual page, there’s a nice headshot and a player bio written in the first person with a text field and the call to action “Subscribe to my personal newsletter by email or SMS.” Each player page also lists the date and time for the next game and a link to buy tickets. For Round 1, that’s it.
The coaches would each have pages — as would members of the front office. And to emphasize that this is a “community team,” there would also be a page for fans to post to as well. Fan posts would be submitted initially by email.
These 30 or so individual pages would roll up into one very active, exciting, continually fresh team page. This would create a steady stream of interesting, honest content.
The result
Imagine you’re a 13-year old girl who’s a Tobin Heath superfan. Now you can learn about who Tobin is, interact with her, and get her newsletter the day before each game, reminding you to rally your parents and friends to go.
You also know that for Tobin Heath superfans, she’s going to be hanging out with her fans and signing autographs at the Mall at Short Hills on Sunday afternoon. You go, you meet her, and become even more passionate about supporting her. You buy her jersey, go home, and check her WPS page for the pictures she’s posted from the outing. You see that her next game is next Saturday. You share it on Facebook, telling your friends how awesome Tobin is and that they should join you at the next game.
Online reinforces online reinforces online. It’s a virtuous circle.
