THE GREAT OUTDOORS: CBS MARKETWATCH's John Thorsberg
profiled Quokka Sports and Mountain Zone, adventure sports
sites that are "cybercasting to audiences drawn to outdoor
sports as participants and observers." Gartner Group
Research Dir Patrick Meehan, on Quokka: "I'm very impressed
with the use of interactivity, the advanced theories of
interactivity, that they are applying to the sports
experience. In terms of really getting it at that level,
Quokka is pretty much leading the way." Mountain Zone CEO
Chuck Gottschalk: "We absolutely have the opportunity to
grow this well into a $100 million-plus opportunity and
that's just E-commerce. We think we can be bigger than
that" (CBS MARKETWATCH, 4/11)....MA-based Eastern Mountain
Sports (EMS) has retained FL-based Internet Marketing Group
to provide services toward building brand awareness and
traffic for its site at www.emsonline.com (EMS).
CHANGING THE MODEL: Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch
reported first-quarter online ticket sales of "nearly" $60M,
up 265% over the same quarter last year. During the month
of March, the online company accounted for "nearly" 10% of
total ticket sales for Ticketmaster (N.Y. TIMES, 4/14).
MORE NOTES: Golf.com, a joint venture of NBC Sports,
Total Sports and MediaOne, reported a site record 2,031,786
page views during its coverage of The Masters (Total
Sports)....CNNSI.com cites Media Matrix data which shows
that it was the second most-visited sports site on the Web
in February '99, behind ESPN.com. The site registered 2.5
million unique users, representing 4.2% of all Internet
users (CNNSI.com)....USA TODAY's Michael Hiestand writes
that personal Web sites for pro athletes "represent a
supplemental marketing outlet" for some and "constitute a
new revenue stream." Athlete Direct has set up sites for 70
athletes, with another 30 "in the works." Company President
Ross Schaufelberger says that today's top athletes "can earn
annual 'six-figure' sums" with Web sites (USA TODAY, 4/14).