Today, THE DAILY debuts "Online Drive," which profiles
the Web development of each MLB franchise. First up, the
Marlins, whose site is located at www.flamarlins.com.
THE LINE-UP: The Marlins have a partnership with
SportsLine USA and pay an undisclosed sum for the company to
produce, edit and manage the site. The SportsLine deal is
currently being renegotiated, with the team seeking a two-
year pact. Marlins Assistant Dir of Baseball Information
Julio Sarmiento is the team's liaison to SportsLine. The
site currently features no advertising, but Sarmiento says
the team is looking at that option as a "revenue builder."
SportsLine will aid in training the team's sales staff in
this new medium, and once the team goes forward with online
ads, Sarmiento speculates they will "probably" be sold as
part of a team package. For the first time, the Marlins are
offering merchandise online through SportsLine's Super
Store. While Sarmiento would not disclose the revenue
split, he said the team is able "to recoup production costs"
through its relationship with the Super Store. Marlins game
tickets can be bought via a link to www.ticketmaster.com.
PLAY-BY-PLAY: During the first five days of the season,
April 5-9, the site received a total of 200,000 hits, 30,000
page views and 12,000 unique hosts, with the average visit
lasting over nine minutes. Sarmiento noted the site has the
most traffic during the week, with Saturday and Sunday being
the slowest days in terms of users. While the team has no
mechanism to capture user data, it is looking to add a
registry in an effort to build a database.
BOX SCORE: Under new Owner John Henry, the Marlins have
achieved a greater presence on the Web. Sarmiento: "He's
very technology driven and often online. He has made the
upgrade of the site a priority with the team." Sarmiento,
on the team's approach to the Web: "Instead of going for the
news only, we are looking to offer more bells and whistles."
The site is bilingual, with content available in Spanish.
Sarmiento: "Our goal is to have it as fan-friendly as
possible, and as informative to the fan as possible, while
still generating revenue. Eventually, we will get there."
