The Offside Rules: MLS Radicalises Web Presence
It’s about time, the millions who have had to plug through the unwieldy navigation (let’s see how many hundreds of links we can pile into one homepage!) and mediocre writing of Major League Soccer’s website will say, but the news is still good for American soccer fans: MLS is bringing its website production in-house, planning to revamp it entirely for a slated re-launch in March 2010. And they have already hired a prominent blogger, Shawn Francis of the Offside Rules, to help with the transition and editorial content going forward.
Six years ago, MLS partnered with MLB Advanced Media to develop their website for them, a pretty wise move at the time. MLB.com was at the cutting edge of sports websites, and their subsidiary developed a decent site for the league at a much lower cost than in-house production would have been. MLS’ site remains well above the quality of international counterparts such as that of the Premier League, with video highlights a long staple including the excellent feature that allows users to piece together highlights videos oneself to embed and share on the web (unfortunately, much useful content like this was buried in the maze of the site’s tortuous navigation).
But in recent times, the cookie-cutter template used by most teams and the stale content and design has hindered innovation and the site desperately needed a refresh. WPS’ content and use of new media put it to shame and even US Soccer recently launched a much-improved site.
MLS has decided not just for a refresh, but for a radical change both for the league and team sites and in their online business model as a whole.
Hiring Francis, who will be working on their editorial content and the site’s revamp, is a fascinating move — is it the first time a top sports league has employed an independent blogger in such a fashion? And SF, as all followers of his at-times edgy site know, isn’t exactly a corporate suit. Top tags on the Offside Rules include “random coolness”, “gossip”, “Shep Messing’s mustache” and “The Biggest Midget in the Game”. The Offside Rules’ tagline is currently “spilling red wine on soccer’s social fabric since 2007.”
It’s fair to say SF will have to tone down this act for MLS.net to spare Don Garber an early coronary, but we can expect content that might not put us to sleep to appear on the new site. Design-wise, MLS have also taken on Memphis-based web consultancy firm RocketFuel to advise them during the transition, a firm which helped the NHL launch an improved site last year. Presumably, we will see a much cleaner design — the fresher Seattle and DC United sites have set a pace for the league internally with this already. Such a shift would be of considerable benefit to MLS’ online identity. Having a site that was long a watered down cousin of its major summer sports competitor, MLB, hardly differentiated MLS’ identity in the sports marketplace.
But beyond MLS itself, the league sees is making a significant investment in its own online subsidiary to generate significant revenue “through the syndication of content and creation of new subscription products, but also by developing an infrastructure to support other soccer sites and soccer properties”, according to the Sports Business Journal. MLS isn’t investing all this money and taking this risk just for its own site; the idea is, just like with its profitable marketing arm Soccer United Marketing, to make money from the sport’s growth as a whole in the United States. SUM has been crucial to the survival of the league, as one of the few profitable entities attached to MLS.
As MLS President Mark Abbott told the SBJ, “The thing that led us to the creation of Soccer United Marketing in the first place was the recognition of a broad soccer opportunity in the United States beyond Major League Soccer. The same is true in the digital area. There’s lots of opportunity for us to be involved in all aspects of the sport here, and that’s something that’s part of the strategy.”
It’ll be fascinating to see if this risky but worthwhile venture works out to be similarly successful, in what could be a win-win for MLS fans.
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Tom Dunmore is the founder and editor of Pitch Invasion. Follow him @pitchinvasion on Twitter.
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31 Comments
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- Daily Dose: October 5th, 2009. - - The Offside - Soccer News and Opinion from leagues around the world
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Can’t wait for the first “Stuart Holden’s Sex Is On Fire!” headline on MLS’ official site. That’ll be awesome.
The design was atrocious, but I love the internet subscription plan and the quality of the streams has improved each year.
Agree, Elliott — their video service has long been excellent, not surprising given MLB leads the way there. I’m sure that’ll stay (at least I hope so), it’s the design & editorial content that needs the revamp.
Never been a Shawn Francis fan. Too mean-spirited for my taste. If the MLS site takes on anything like the tone of his blog, MLS will be alienating a lot of readers, especially women.
At least we know his real name, anon. Care to point to some posts to back up your claim?
I can’t let this go. I’m a longtime MLS fan and this news has ruined my entire day.
Then take the time to backup your assertion!
A couple for starters:
http://theoffsiderules.blogspot.com/2009/03/seattle-rookie-is-edward-cullen-for.html
Sure this is a little unusual and probably not all that smart to post, but a naive kid who posts a joke video for her friends on YouTube doesn’t deserve to have it ridiculed as “post-puberty/pre-colligiate lesbian, acoustic stalker anthems” under the tagline “Freak Shows.”
And this one blew me away.
http://theoffsiderules.blogspot.com/2009/04/wordsi-have-none.html
Get over your initial reaction and realize that as far as I can tell this unfortunate woman never asked to be photographed and certainly never asked to be humiliated like this.
I’m sure I can come up with more if you’d like. My point is, these aren’t public figures, but they aren’t real people to him. They’re just women he can dehumanize to get blog hits.
Get over yourself anon. That is all.
Gosh, Eric. Thanks for the mature contribution to the discussion.
I am sorry but accusing him of dehumanizing people for blog hits seems to me to require knowledge of his motivations. At the very least it is a harsh overreaction.
Don’t ask me how I know this but there’s indication Perform Group (the folks who manage much of the EPL/Football League online media via PremiumTV) are perhaps assuming a similar role with MLS’ (and its constituent clubs’) new venture.
Francis was probably hired for presentation more than writing (you notice there’s not that much writing in his posts). And there’s no doubt the tone will modify somewhat on an official website (an official website will almost always be a little more bland than independent sites like this one, which is why there will always be a place for blogs like these).
Anyway, one take on this is that MLS now has enough cash to do the website itself, which is already a good sign. And I agree the front page would do a lot better if it were streamlined and the presentation looked more rational.
I certainly don’t come to this conversation impartial, as I count SF as a friend, and our websites are loosely affiliated through large links on each of our sites, but I thought there was something missing here, and too thought it worth mentioning.
I find it interesting that in the article and the comments discussion (and certainly all people are free to have their opinion) SF is viewed as simply the blogger of The Offside Rules.
Does anyone think that was his full time job? If the answer is yes, color me insanely surprised. As someone who moonlights on their own soccer website and over the last five years has gotten to know a good chunk of the people in that world (soccer blogging and soccer journalism), I find it hard to believe someone could think anyone this side of past or present newspaper-backed or TV-backed (ESPN) soccer journalists is really making a good living at this game. From what I know most are closer to KFC’s “failure pile in a sadness bowl” than a 14oz Filet. I don’t know, maybe Match Fit USA is killing it with Google Ads and World Soccer Shop percentage points. I truly hope they are.
But.
So.
Could it not be true that TOR is simply a fun side project for a guy who works within the media world of NYC, and thus has an entire skill set unknown to anybody reading TOR that just may qualify him for this new position within MLS? Could that perhaps be the reason he was hired–TOR simply standing to help prove that he is a soccer fan and at least somewhat knowledgeable of the sport and culture?
answer (again, I know because I am friends with him): yes.
All this talk about him having to tone it down is so misguided. The two jobs, if we can even call TOR a job which I don’t think we can, are completely different beasts with different editorial directions, job descriptions etc, etc. As if MLSnet.com is going to now start pulling players’ party photos from facebook and riffing on their contents. In the New York media landscape it is not at all unique for people to go from editing US Weekly to Men’s Journal.
Robert De Niro made his name in Hollywood playing tough-ass gangsters, boxers, psychotic taxi drivers, and a war veteran. Then out of no where he did a comedy. Then another comedy, and more gangster films. A man’s skill or lack thereof in one world can, it is important to note, say absolutely nothing about his ability to change gears.
Adam — That’s all helpful to point out, though I don’t think anyone really believed MLS was going to start posting players’ party photos from Facebook. It’s hardly unsurprising that people connect someone best known in the soccer world for their soccer blogging hired for a soccer media job…to the content on their soccer blog. What one blogs prominently does reflect on one’s image in a small niche cultural space, whether one has another main job or role in the NYC media or not. MLS would have realised this too, one presumes.
Not that I found anything wrong with TOR, even if we have a different approach here. I actually really hope a little of TOR’s edginess and savvy does leak into the main MLS website. WPS has shown that new media can help portray some player personality without invading privacy, and we need that in American soccer — SF himself said he hoped to in some vein continue his work on his blog (he writes he is excited “to get a chance to show & prove to the world and not just my message board-frequenting brethren is an opportunity as rare as scoring at the Azteca.”)
I vaguely know of SF’s other background, but he’s never posted much about it on TOR (a few asides), so it’s not surprising people aren’t talking about it much. I did ask him for an interview about all this and he was kind of enough to say he’d like to do it, but not yet (understandably, as this project is so nascent: he was only hired last week). But hopefully down the line that will make things clearer (unless you’ve already got that interviewed nailed down for TIAS!).
I’m not sure I have much to add, since I’m not personally familiar with SF, but I find the pre-judging of what he’ll bring to MLSnet to be distasteful.
MLS, as a corporate entity with an image to maintain, isn’t going to go out and hire someone that doesn’t know what their doing. I don’t know the reasons behind their decision to hire SF, but I’m certain it’s not just about his blogging; like Tom, I was vaguely aware of his background through the few times he mentioned it on TOR, and I simply assumed that MLS hired the man because he knows what he’s doing.
To jump to the conclusion that MLSnet will somehow become a carbon copy of TOR on a different scale and with a different focus is naive to the extreme. Will some edge be added to what is currently a staid, bland, product? Probably, and for me, that would be a good thing. But there’s a line that SF and MLS are both surely keenly aware of, and I don’t think there’s any reason to decide now that MLS made a mistake (for those of you that think it was a mistake).
I don’t want to turn this into some blogger sewing circle, but since Adam mentioned me (or my site rather) specifically, I’ll comment on that aspect as well. MFUSA is a labor of love for me, just as most blogs are for the people who run them. Sure, we’re usually looking for a way to make some money from the effort, especially in light of the hours (at least for me; sometimes I get the sense that Tom’s post leap fully formed from his mind and directly on to the screen) we put it. Because I know what the hustle is all about, I’m excited for SF, even thought I know that for me that same leap is well out of reach. SF didn’t get the job (I assume) because he was a successful blogger, though I’m sure that helped in some small way. Still, there’s an exciting element to the news because it he is/was one of us, no matter his approach and some people’s distaste for it.
One thing I learned very quickly, and I’m typically no where near as edgy as SF, is that some people will just never like you, no matter what.
Sorry for the ramble. Now if any of you guys want to head on over to my site and click a few ads or buy some World Soccer Shop gear through the banners on my site….
Didn’t Francis work for MTV until recently, in some sort of marketing/pr/internet role? At least that’s what I pieced together from regularly reading his blog. So Adam is right, he has a lot more tools in his kit than photoshopping text onto pictures of MLS players.
For a fat, ugly, bald guy who feels entitled to publicly humiliate and insult women, SF needs to take a good look in the mirror and know that’s he’s being physically judged also. Yuck.
Don’t like this one little post on this little blog? A whole lot of people don’t like the tenor of SF’s posts and his POV shouldn’t direct the media outlet for a national sports org.
A “whole lot of people” is a claim that needs to be backed up to not be thrown out as garbage.
The tone you are taking is suggesting that you think he hates all women and degrades all women and is this anti-women. That is a logical fallacy in which one does not necessarily follow the other. It is pointless to make outrageous claims about his motivations, intentions, or personal feelings seeing as you would have no way of substantiating such statements.
Your posts thus far have only shown that you have an ax to grind.
That would work a lot better if you signed your name onto it, otherwise you’re just being a coward.
RE: comment about women being alienated, possibly, by The Offside Rules and the MLS’s interest in working with SF
Anon, you are right. SF might be a great friend and a nice guy, but those posts are shameful – and quite frankly pointless.
Consider this female reader officially turned off. To put it mildly.
Thanks for the tip.
JD
Oh, and let’s think about this, when it comes to sexism, gender politics and sports:
The MLS wouldn’t go near a blogger who posted racist blog entries – most sports fans in the US especially would never tolerate it.
The SF posts are totally banal in sports blogging – they aren’t that extreme, actually, but they show at the very least a lack of sensitivity to the issue.
Oh, how I wish that made him unique in the world of sports media! But it doesn’t. Excepting Pitch Invasion, The Global Game, and a few other critically-aware sites, you’d have to look pretty far and wide to find fan-bloggers who had never gone down this road.
Sexism & homophobia are completely accepted in popular sports media – especially in blogging. More guys than we would like to admit really want to hold on to their sense of entitlement to the sexist joke.
If you want some food for though, read my blog article “Modern Minstrels”
http://fromaleftwing.blogspot.com/2008/10/modern-minstrels-sexist-jokes-about.html
Cheers, Anon – to your sense of outrage,
JD
The first of those examples isn’t sexist at all. Anyone who tells you there isn’t “let’s all make fun of the awkward teen with an embarrassing crush” joke isn’t made about boys is flat lying. If it’s anything -ist it’s age-ist.
The second one I kind of understand, but as sexism goes it’s not the most clear cut nor the most vicious you’ll see. There’s a double standard concerning beauty with regard to gender, but there are “let’s all point and stare at the ugly guy” jokes out there (Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin).
It doesn’t strike me as similar to the link presented above, and I tend to find the “let’s lump it all together” method of debate counterproductive.
As a lady who reads Kickette (the most sexual soccer blog in creation) daily I don’t think he’s sexist at all and that everyone (including himself) is worth laughing at.
They should make goal area bigger – more goals, more fun for everyone, except goalkeeper.
It’s the way he uses the word lesbian. And the idea that a fat, unattractive woman makes for a good joke. Doesn’t matter how much one likes a sexual joke – fact is, once you see the connection between the acceptance of these things as ordinary and the way that gays and lesbians are policed by these things out of sports, and the way that women’s sports itself is treated as something no one wants to see (unless the athletes are “hot” & in skirts), these stupid jokes just stop being funny.
I do think that most guys, when they understand this, come around, too.
But I don’t expect the MLS to be taking the steps to imagine what a feminist sports culture would look like. I kindof think they are going the other direction, in fact.
First, anon and anon2 are different people. Imagine that. Why anonymous? Because typically when you voice objection to this kind of crap, you’re subjected to vicious irrelevant personal and professional attacks. Which is probably why you’re demanding this info.
Second. It’s not just a gay issue. Not gay, here.
Third, many top US players have grown up with athletic moms, sisters, friends, and girlfriends, often had female trainers at some point, and they don’t share the same misogynist viewpoint. It seems to be the province of the fan and lonely blogger whose primary sexual relationship is with the Internet. And just cause you like to have sex with women doesn’t mean you’re not misogynist. Educate yourself, I can’t be bothered.
Fourth, its new “degrade women” PR policy is just another stupid business decision on the part of MLS, who have made many other stupid decisions in the past (turf?) and will eventually reverse the initial lame decision at great cost. US soccer can’t afford to alienate one-third of its limited fan base and make MLS more of a silly sideshow than it already is.
Bitchy? Not to men who act like men. ; )
Wow, what a hypocritical post from anon2. Clearly not as bothered by irrelevant personal attacks as claims to be.