Last night, ESPN's "Outside The Lines" examined the
relationship between sports and the Internet. Jeremy Schaap
looked at athletes who have their own Web sites and said
that Athlete Direct.com (AD) maintains 130 of these sites.
AD President Ross Schaufelberger: "We have been very
proactive in putting guaranteed amounts of money on the
table for athletes to get them involved, to get them kind of
focused on this as a business opportunity." Schaufelberger
added that money can be generated by these sites from
autograph and merchandise sales and through advertising.
Schaap said that "few athletes are as Web savvy" as Falcons
RB Jamal Anderson, whose site is run by AD and offers
message boards and Anderson merchandise. Anderson, on why
he responds to his e-mails without the help of an editor: "I
think it's a line of communication that's untainted between
you and that person [who sends the e-mail]." But NASCAR
driver Jeff Gordon, who was one of the first athletes to
have a Web site, said that he doesn't look to make money
from his site. Gordon: "It's not a profit center or
anything like that. It's really just an information center
for my fans and people that want to know more either about
Jeff Gordon or more about NASCAR" (ESPN, 9/14).
MASTERS OF THEIR DOMAINS? Kelly Neal examined
cybersquatting and looked at the case of Bucs DL Warren
Sapp, whose domain name (www.warrensapp.com) was registered
by Michael Noonan. Noonan: "They're kind of like one-of-a-
kind trading cards." Sapp: "To take a man's name, it's a
little steep. It's almost like slapping me in my face."
Noonan offered to sell the domain name to Sapp for $5,000,
then later for $1,000, but Sapp declined and instead
registered his Web site under the domain name www.big99.com.
But Bulls F Elton Brand paid around $2,000 to a
cybersquatter for the rights to his domain name. Brand's
attorney David Bauman: "It's just the cost of doing
business. But the key is we wanted to be able to tell the
shoe companies and the Bulls and the rest of the endorsement
companies that will be on board in the future that we do
have the right to do eltonbrand.com." Neal added that
"competition to be the first to register an athlete's domain
has driven some cybersquatters to buy the names of top high
school athletes" (ESPN, 9/14).
NET EXPOSURE: The recent trend of Internet companies
becoming involved in sports sponsorships was profiled by
Greg Garber, who cited CPBL President & Founder Paul
McMann's efforts to attract corporate names for its teams.
So far, Acunet.net, Lycos and Broadcast.com have signed on
with the league for naming rights to three of its teams.
Lycos Dir of Promotions Jim Hoenscheid, whose company's deal
is worth $1.2M over three years: "We understand when
opportunities come to us we take a very, very close look at
them because we know from the smallest, great things can
develop." Acunet.net President Fernando Colon Osorio said
that his investment in the CPBL "has already paid
dividends": "If I measure this investment relative to other
investments that I have made in advertising or in public
relations, this outweighs itself." For more on McMann and
the CPBL, see (#13) (ESPN, 9/14).
