Without the drawing power of the NCAA basketball tournament, nearly every major sports Web site took a dip in April, according to traffic statistics kept by Media Metrix Inc. While ESPN.com, the SportsLine USA Inc. sites and CNNSI.com maintained their respective positions at the top of the chart, all had reduced traffic, SportsLine USA by some 25 percent. ESPN.com dropped 14 percent from March and CNNSI.com 11 percent.
The drop-offs were not entirely a surprise, as ESPN.com and CBS SportsLine had leveraged their television partners' coverage of college basketball for significant increases in March traffic. Both sites can take heart that their April numbers still represent an increase over the February traffic, this probably due to their coverage of the NFL draft and the beginning of the MLB season.
"When you look at just one month or certain months of the year, you will see certain bumps. But the consistent growth we've seen over the last nine months is indicative of the ongoing strength of the ESPN brand," said Steve Zales, senior vice president and GM for ESPN Internet Ventures. "It also shows the vital importance of integration with our television side in the promotion of the site."
CNNSI.com did not see an increase in March and dipped again in April, making it the only multisports site in the top 10 to see a decrease in traffic two months running. Single-sport site NBA.com also dipped in April for the second straight month, despite close races for top seed and final playoff positions in both conferences.
Upstart sports news site SportsFeed.com and MajorLeagueBaseball.com both broke into the top 10 in April, SportsFeed for the first time.
The Houston Astros raised more than $40,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston in the first online auction of game-worn, autographed jerseys from an MLB team. The auction was hosted on popular auction site eBay for a week after an ESPN-televised game May 16. eBay.com handled the logistics in exchange for considerable in-stadium and on-air promotion. eBay had temporary signage, message board and radio mentions during the game and in-stadium kiosks to introduce fans to the site and the auction. In addition, leaflets were handed out to the nearly 30,000 fans in attendance, and ESPN did a short segment after a commercial break showing fans at the kiosks. The event was promoted on eBay.com and Astros.com, with extensive directions on the Astros site for newcomers to the online auction world.
A jersey signed by the entire Astros team fetched the most, $4,050, followed by Jeff Bagwell's autographed jersey, at $3,450.
The New York Knicks expect to pass out 50,000 multimedia compact discs by the end of the summer featuring audio and video highlights, the team song, a tribute to late Knicks coach Red Holzman and a link to the team's Web site. New York-based CDKnet (www.cdknet.com) produced the disc, and IBM Corp. sponsored it.
Partners: The Sapphire Group Inc. (www.sapphiregroup.com) has been selected by fishing portal WorldWideAngler.com to redesign, build and host the site.
Total Sports (www.totalsports. com) has been retained to host www.Pinehurst99.com, the official site of the '99 men's U.S. Open golf tournament.
Going places: Coach's Edge (www.coachsedge.com) has retained Raymond Harmon, principal of r.f.harmon media ltd., to develop its broadband applications. Harmon spent 28 years at CBS Sports, handling financial matters, before founding r.f.harmon media.
Action Performance Cos., producer of GoRacing.com, has named Howard Jacobs senior vice president for worldwide marketing and business development. Jacobs was in charge of Coca-Cola Co.'s NASCAR involvement.
Noah Liberman is a free-lance writer in Chicago. He can be reached at noah@interaccess.com.
