Today's "Online Drive" profiles the Pirates Web site,
located at www.pirateball.com. Pirates Dir of Marketing
Communications Mike Gordon says that the team originally
sought the domain names pittsburghpirates.com and
pirates.com but both were taken. MLB lawyers are currently
working on obtaining the domain names for the team. The site
has been powered by Silicon Graphics since '96, but the team
is in the process of establishing a new relationship with
Sun Microsystems, which Gordon said has been established to
"help develop portions of the Web." Gordon says there will
be no immediate changes to the site with the changeover.
TO THE POINT: Pirates tickets are offered online
through a site link to Ticketmaster.com. Merchandise, which
has been offered online for the past three years, is handled
by 3 Points Consulting, which does not share in the sales
revenue, but receives a fee for handling the sales. Gordon
says that merchandise relating to the new PNC Park has been
a "hot seller." The Pirates sell all site advertising.
Various pages of the team's Web site feature a main sponsor,
such as gianteagle.com sponsoring the minor league page and
hardball-manager.com sponsoring the roster page.
SIGN UP HERE: More than 20,000 users have registered
via the site's listserve registry. The site averages 7,000
unique visits per day, and Gordon said that interest in C
Jason Kendall's recent ankle injury was so significant that
traffic "increased tremendously," and Kendall received more
than 4,000 "Get Well" e-mails. Real-time audio broadcasts
of Pirates games is available and an average of 1,200 people
tune in on the Web per game. Pirateball.com also features a
clock counting down the days until the opening of PNC Park.
All stats and standings are up to date.
JUST A CLICK AWAY: Gordon says the team's site "started
off as an informational tool, but developed into a marketing
and revenue-generating tool as well. However, first and
foremost, the site is an information tool." Gordon says a
Web site can help teams "build relationships between players
and fans and bring them closer." While the team sees its
Web development as a priority, Gordon acknowledges that it
is a "slow process." In terms of adding a premium service
to the site, Gordon says the Pirates' goal "is to provide as
much as possible to as many people as we can." He adds that
the cost of running the site "is not expensive" compared to
the team's marketing costs (THE DAILY).
