After canceling plans for an IPO on Monday and
dismissing almost 40 employees at the company's Raleigh-
based office, Total Sports will return to its "roots,"
according to Christina Dyrness of the Raleigh NEWS &
OBSERVER. Total Sports Founder & CEO Frank Daniels: "Our
target is not the average sports fan anymore. Our new target
is those who want to reach the sports fans." The company
will go back to developing technology to package sports
stats and selling the delivery of the information to other
Web sites. Daniels said that the "change will slow growth
-- he expects the company to double its revenue this year,
not triple it as he had previously projected -- but make
Total Sports profitable faster." He said the company's
"'burn rate' -- the pace at which it spends -- will be
significantly lower with the return to its focus on
servicing the sports Web sites of others." In addition to
its current partners, Daniels said that "the company is in
the process of trying to line up another 15 or so clients,"
which would be enough to "double Total Sports' revenue this
year from last year's $8.6 million and make the company
profitable by 2001" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 5/19).
TOTAL'S BID TO JOIN THE BIG BOYS PROVES COSTLY: Dyrness
adds that the bid to make Total Sports an online sports site
"was the main drain" on the company's finances. To "compete
with [the] big names" like ESPN.com and SportsLine.com, the
company had to "pay for marketing and advertising blitzes to
build traffic to its sites." Daniels: "It was an expensive
learning experience" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 5/19).
