12/21/24
September 29, 2007
Madison Square Garden Sues NHL over Promotions....: MSG which owns the Rangers. The lawsuit said the NHL insisted last week that MSG transfer control over the Rangers independently produced Web site, including the "nyrangers.com" address so that the league could convert it into one of 30 "cookie-cutter" club Web sites at "nhl.com." After spending way to much time on the Cookie Cutter NHL Controlled Team Websites I'm on the side of MSG in this fight.
posted by skydivedad to hockey at 12:37 PM - 5 comments
Yes, the cookie cutter approach... I can understand it from the leagues perspective. And yes, it looks like crap.
posted by Drood at 02:51 PM on September 29, 2007
I go to mlb.com for game audio, but other than that I never check out the official league or team sites. I expect them to be dull cookie-cutter sites.
posted by rcade at 07:27 PM on September 29, 2007
They (NHL) can't even keep a decent TV contract.
posted by ricanpam at 08:30 PM on September 29, 2007
That's sad, rcade. I wouldn't expect bloggy ranty snark or anything too out there (each team still is, after all, a multimillion dollar corporation), but a splash of individuality would only help me to differentiate as a fan between one team and another. I understand the league's desire to homogenize across all franchises, but I don't think it would kill them to allow each team to hire a local developer and give them a mandated set of guidelines about what needs to be on the site and what they're allowed to use, and then let the individual teams work within that kind of a framework. In fact, I think that's ultimately where the future of team sites is headed. Otherwise the genuinely useful content for each team's supporters (meaning, fans and business leaders for each team) will wind up on unofficial "second sites" operating in gray areas of sanction, which does no one any good. As a team owner, I'd rather have room for whatever is necessary to run my business and serve my clients under my umbrella instead of someone else's, thank you very much.
posted by chicobangs at 08:33 PM on September 29, 2007
I remember when the MLB did the same thing. I always liked the original Cubs web page. It sucks now that all 32 teams have the same pages with the same stories. I hope the Rangers beat NHL in this.