NHL and MySpace
The NHL contends its fans are among the most technologically savvy in all of sports.
As a result, the league continues its leap into the 21st century adding an NHL page to MySpace, the popular social networking Web site. The league announced the page this afternoon and says it's the first major pro sports league to enter such a partnership.
The page gives fans access to video clips from games from the 2006-07 season and the ongoing 2007 playoffs. Fans will also be able to add video clips to their own MySpace pages. As of this writing, the page already has nearly 500 MySpace friends or other MySpace users who've added a link between their own pages and the NHL page.
“The NHL fans get more of their information through digital means than any other professional sport,” Keith Ritter, president of NHLInteractive CyberEnterprises, said in a statement. “As the first major professional sports
league to have an official presence on MySpace, we can give the community access to NHL coverage in a very unique environment.”
Locally, the CA Championship, the World Golf Championships event at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in March, experimented with a MySpace page as a way to reach a younger audience and grow golf's fan base.
In November, the NHL became the first sports league to partner with YouTube, the video sharing Web site, to provide NHL game highlights. The NBA signed on with YouTube in February as a way to show game highlights and behind the scenes videos and for fans to share videos of themselves shooting hoops on an NBA Channel.
CRAIG DAVIS In more than 33 years at the Sun Sentinel, Craig Davis has written about a wide variety of sports topics from baseball to yachting, fishing to triathlons, and also worked as a copy editor and page designer. Recently he reported on local sports, including running, swimming, cycling, equestrian and beach volleyball. He enjoys sports as a participant as well as a spectator, is active in the South Florida running scene plays in the curling club at Saveology Iceplex. This blog offers a glimpse at the business side of sports in the interest of enhancing enjoyment of the games and sporting options as a spectator as well as a participant.
