12/22/24
July 17, 2002
Buffalo News columnist Greg Connors asks: Why are there so few good sports weblogs?
I think it's tough for sports 'blogs to compete with message boards such as FanHome.com and ESPN.com, not to mention all of the individual teams' message boards on their sites. Also, local fish wraps tend to have message boards as well and some of them are quite popular. When I think of weblogs, sports doesn't come to mind. In fact, it took me a couple of years to even think of searching Google for any sports-minded 'blogs. Don't know why exactly, it just never popped in my head that there may be something like this site out there somewhere. /shrug With that in mind, I think that when Billy Bob the Hurricanes fan wants to rant 'n rave about the latest goings-on in the hockey world, he goes to his favorite message board and does his business there instead of a 'blog where only his close friends will see it. People just need to get the word out in sports fanboydom about sites like these.
posted by NoMich at 08:28 AM on July 17, 2002
I also think blogs step in to fill topical voids. Especially in NY, I get my fill of sports talk on the radio, New York 1, with my friends, in the Shea Mezzanine, etc. etc.
posted by djacobs at 08:59 AM on July 17, 2002
Last winter, I kept a weblog for the University of Minnesota Men's Hockey team. My only visitors were friends that lived out of state, and a few other random visitors. I tried to update statistics every week, and also link to news items about the team. I didn't have the time to really make the site fun, but I thought that for a simple sports weblog, it did the trick.
posted by emoeby at 09:28 AM on July 17, 2002
If you check the portal at Eatonweb you'll find a few sports-centric weblogs, and there are some good baseball-minded weblogs linked to here. Not many, but a few. I wonder why there are so few sports related weblogs too. Maybe the diehard fanatics are too busy being rabid about their sports to keep up a weblog. They just have enough time to post a comment or two to a sports forum and then it's back to the tv or the stands. My first exposure to a sports related weblog was The Hockey Diaries, penned by a girl who plays on an all-female ice hockey team.
posted by iconomy at 09:31 AM on July 17, 2002
I am rather fond of the Curse of the Bambino even though I am in no way a Sox fan. There are some others out there: I was surprised Connors missed that one. The Buffalo News isn't really hip to the weblog thing
posted by outside counsel at 11:57 AM on July 17, 2002
Comments by Connors about SportsFilter are being discussed in the Locker Room. On a more general note, I've been asking myself the same question about the lack of sports weblogs, especially good local ones by people obsessed with specific teams. Where's the crazed Cowboys fan who lives, eats, and breathes the subject in Dallas? Where's the sumo wrestling blog? Where's the 16-year-old Mel Kiper wanna-be publishing his theories on LiveJournal? Where's owillis' Hail to the Redskins weblog? Sports isn't attracting the same critical mass as other subjects in weblogging.