Passionate Sports Fans
Today while reading the story about Yahoo buying Rivals.com, I found myself saying out loud “you got that right” (and I was alone in my office at the time) to the story comment about how, for Yahoo, sports fans are among the most passionate of fans. We are certainly experiencing that right now.
You see, we work with with the local organizating committee for the NCAA Men’s College World Series and one of the many things we manage for this event is the official web site for the event, CWSomaha.com.
To make an event like this happen there are a million moving parts with a zillion details and all of that has to be boiled down and presented on the web site to make hundreds of thousands fans aware of what is happening and keep them up-to-the-minute on event changes (like announcing the need for a tie breaker game and how to get tickets — late last night after North Carolina beat Rice).
It’s a 24/7 job for about 12 straight days — from opening celebration on June 14 until the final best of three championship game is played on with June 24th or 25th. In addition to creating, updating and managing the web site we also are the webmaster and deal with the thousands of emails that pour in from fans during the course of the series.
It’s a fantastic (and instant) feedback loop. Some fans have questions, some have tips, some want to share stories, some have requests or suggestions, some point out errors or confusing information. And we try our best to answer ever single email personally and to incorporate as many suggestions and changes as possible and quickly.
It’s because of the passionate fans that we keep getting better and better and keep pushing to improve and refine everything to make the fan experience the best it can be. This constant feedback cycle is incredible and keeps everyone on their toes, because there is nothing like a die-hard college baseball fan rooting for their team that is in the Series for the very first time.
P.S. It’s a repeat! North Carolina will again play defending champion Oregon State in only the second finals rematch in the CWS’ 61-year history. Arizona State and Southern California met in 1972 and 1973.
This post was written by: Kim Mickelsen
June 25th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Another fabulous CWS. The NCAA, the City of Omaha, the organizing body, Bozell and the fans should be commended for making it the success that it is.