On Friday, MLB named former Outpost.com CEO Robert
Bowman to head MLB Advanced Media, an operation that
"eventually will have" 100 employees and operate MLB.com, as
well as all individual team sites, according to Terry Lefton
of the INDUSTRY STANDARD. Lefton: "MLB lags behind other
sports leagues in its Internet efforts and is preparing a
relaunch before the New Year." Bowman, on his role with
MLB.com: "The job the owners have assigned me is to build an
asset with real revenues and real profits, not just to use
the Internet as a marketing tool. We've got 75 million
people watching the game (combined stadium attendance). Our
goal online is to at least equal that number. Right now, we
probably get 25 million or 30 million people to our league
and team sites every season, but if we create a compelling
site, we should be able to equal our in-person attendance
online." Bowman, on MLB.com's revenue components: "Commerce
needs to be exploited every way we can do it. ... We only
did $6 million in e-commerce last year, and I think with a
site that's positioned as the first and last place to go for
baseball gear, that shouldn't be hard to beat. ... There's
also a huge opportunity in online ticketing for baseball
games. ... The final and maybe most compelling opportunity
for baseball is customization. ... There is an extraordinary
opportunity for us to offer some kind of subscription
service that combines (deeper) elements in a robust offering
that could be a desktop or a wireless offering. While MLB's
broadcast agreements prevent MLB.com from streaming local
in-market games in real time, Bowman said, "What we want to
move toward is something more like a satellite package,
where out-of-market fans can subscribe to games ... for a
one-time fee" (INDUSTRY STANDARD, 11/17).
TEAMS STILL WANT FREEDOM: MLB Giants Senior VP/Consumer
Marketing Tom McDonald said MLB teams are working with MLB
to retain "special elements" of each team's Web site even
after the site is integrated with the new MLB.com: "We are
working very closely with the team at MLB.com to make sure
that a lot of the features our customers have become
accustomed to -- the look that they've become accustomed to,
the ease of moving around the Web site -- are integrated
into our part of MLB.com. ... I think one thing that the
teams all made clear: It's very important to us to have the
distinctive look, the distinctive features that our
customers have gotten accustomed to and that are tied very
much into our marketing plan and look. I think that, unlike
some of the other professional sports leagues, baseball
teams have been very clear that they want distinctive,
personalized Web sites" (WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE, 11/16).
