NHL raises profile online | ajc.com

NHL raises profile online | ajc.com:

2. Revamp NHL.com — The league is in the process of conforming all of the team Web sites into the same look and navigation. The content will all be created locally, but to help fans find their way around the team sites, the league felt it was important for all the sites to have the same look and feel.

This is, IMHO, a mistake, and is probably more about central control by the league than about standardization.

Standards and minimum functionality are good requirements for the league to put in place – it’s how you keep the badly or cheaply-run teams from creating an “uncle fred” disaster (or a static wasteland) that rubs off on the entire league.

But the more you force all teams into the mold of “looks like nhl.com, but with different colored banners”, the more you stifle innovation. It’s more likely that one or two teams will innovate new functionality (that the league can adopt out league-wide) than the other direction.

This is, I think, the wrong direction here. I’d rather see the league looking towards central infrastructure tools that teams can leverage off of (such as a good email newsletter setup, or a league-based SMS/texting system); build the underpinnings, and help the weak teams use them, and allow the strong online teams (like the caps) innovate.

(hat tip: kukla)

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