Sport association/club websites

This article appears in the August 2009 edition of Sportshorts.

Just about every sport association/club has a website these days. Some sites work very well and meet member needs perfectly – while others need a little ‘tender loving care’!

Regardless of where your site is at, there are certainly many reasons to invest in a website and channel all your communication through it:

• web is widely used – most people have regular access to email and the internet
• Information is always available – to anyone 24/7
• Information is timely – news can be posted and viewed quickly
• Save on printing costs
• Build your profile
• Create a one-stop information shop – all club information ‘lives’ in one location.

If you’re lucky enough to have a volunteer “web guru” at your club, then you’ll have no trouble developing and managing your website.

But for the rest of us, we need to muddle through a maze of terminology and technology.

Whether you need a new website or you’d like to overhaul your current website, there’s much to understand. Here’s where to start.

1. Planning

• Browse the web - Check out other websites – see what sites you like and don’t like.
• Talk to your national, state or regional body - Ask who developed their website – and do they have capacity or provision to help with your website?
• Talk to members - Ask members what they need from your website – either through informal chats or a survey.

2. Find help

Assuming you don’t have expertise to build a website, then you’re going to have to get help. Here are a few ways to approach it:

1. Develop a website from scratch using a web developer (company or freelance individual). There are thousands in Australia.
2. Find a ready-made website/framework that you can customise. Search the internet for options, which range from free and very simple to set up, through to more complex and requiring development expertise.

There are no easy answers for which way to go, although your initial research will be useful in narrowing down the options.

Cost will be the deciding factor for most clubs. Make sure you carefully examine all costs involved, including initial outlay and ongoing costs.

Here are a few tips for selecting a company to work with:

• Look locally – there may even be someone willing to sponsor you
• Check out their portfolio of websites – do you like what you see?
• Look for those that have developed sports club sites or similar
• Don’t get taken in by the ‘fancy stuff’ – your site only needs to be simple to be effective
• Ask about the integration of other applications you may use (e.g. competition management system, member management).

3. Domains and hosting

If you’ve chosen to work with a web company to develop your site, they can manage these next steps for you.

Domain name

A domain name is your internet address or URL (e.g. www.yourclub.com.au or www.yourclub.net.au). If you don’t have a domain name, then you need to:

1. select one
2. check if it’s available
3. register it.

Start by visiting the Australian Domain Name Administration website, www.auda.org.au. It provides a good overview to registering domains, as well as contacts to registrars and resellers. You will pay a fee to register a domain name – which needs to be renewed on a regular basis.

Hosting

All websites need to “live” somewhere. A hosting service provides this and allows your site to be seen on the internet. You will pay an annual fee for hosting. Many companies provide hosting services and packages vary in features and price, so shop around.

4. Design and build

Building your website is the next step. This is hugely influenced by which way you choose to go in step (2). While it’s hard to be general about this stage, here are a few important concepts to take onboard.

Look and feel

The overarching look of your site should be appropriate for the image of your club. Use colour and imagery that is you. It’s important to maintain consistency in look throughout your website.

Accessibility and usability

Accessibility refers to ensuring people can access and use your website easily, including people with a disability. You can find more information on this at World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) www.w3c.org

Information architecture/navigation

How you organise all the information on your website is known as information architecture – and it’s critical. Sorting, grouping and labelling information well means users can easily find information.

Content

Web content (or text/copy) needs to be very simple – short, punchy and easy to scan. Readers want up-to-date, relevant and uncomplicated information. Don’t use long blocks of unbroken text. Do use short paragraphs, bullet points and headings. Content management system (CMS) A CMS simplifies the management and update of content, images and downloads on your website. Generally this is an administration area you log into via your web browser. A CMS allows the ‘lay person’ to post information to a website – you don’t have to be a web expert!

Photographs

Photographs must also meet copyright, privacy and child protection laws. It’s very important to understand that to use a photograph, you require permission from both the photographer and the people in the photo itself.

A useful reference is the Australian Government e-business guide www.e-businessguide.gov.au

Sports club website case study:
Sutherland Shire Junior Water Polo Association

Like so many clubs/associations, the Sutherland Shire Junior Water Polo Association (SSJWA) needed to change their website.

“Following consultation with members, the SSJWA launched a new site 12 months ago,” said Alex Mednis, Director, Operations Management, SSJWA.

“Our website is divided into public and access controlled areas. The public area is very simple content designed to give players the game draw, results, point scores, contact information and latest news.

“The private area is accessed only by the Executive. It’s split into Executive portfolios – human resources, club management, asset management, learning and development, electronic systems, finance and media.

“It is highly interactive and we manage everything from player details and team allocations, to tracking our assets and staff payment all in the one location.

“The overarching concept is a user-friendly, unified management capability for all our operations. Our new website system allows almost all our data to be centralised, cutting out inefficient steps and systems, and allowing complete management of each season.”

Mr Mednis says the website has been well-received.

“I think on the whole, we are getting better loyalty from our players as it gives them a more interactive experience. They can see results and point scores from week to week. “We’re currently experimenting with social media, such as Twitter, to better communicate with our players, given that a majority are in the 10-20 age bracket.”

The SSJWA was lucky – Alex has a background in websites, so developed and maintains much of the site himself.

But he advises those with little or no experience not to be deterred.

“If your website needs an overhaul, work out what it is that your players/coaches/staff come to your website for – and provide the information in a clear way.

“Information overload, or conversely, little to no useful information, is one of the biggest problems affecting the sporting industry. If you can, separate your information into discrete packages – draws, results, news, contact information, et cetera.”

Mr Mednis recommends those tackling a major website redevelopment follow three main steps – requirements, design and testing.

“Firstly, work out your website requirements at every level– committee, staff, players and potential players.

“Jumping straight into website development without understanding what it is that people want out of your website, means the uptake will be minimal and will be a giant waste of time and money.

“The best way of course is to go to the players and staff personally, and conduct short interviews or focus groups.

“Secondly, you move to design. There are two options here – engaging a designer/design firm, or buying an ‘off the shelf’ product.

“In my experience, custom designs work better than off-the-shelf designs, unless your association/club and competition can tailor an off-the-shelf to their needs. Often lack of expertise, money and time mean an off-the-shelf solution is chosen by clubs.

“Finally, whichever design path you choose, you need to test throughout development. As your site is coming together, ask people to perform tasks, locate information and comment on things like design and colours.

“Simply asking people what they want, then testing as you go can provide a solution that will save you time and money in development time, and build a strong information architecture that you can use in the future.”