GREAT SPORTS
Score an in-depth look at the Webby Awards nominees in Sports

by Stuart Wade
05.08.00

Sports Web sites do a number of things well: inform, entertain, analyze, provide accurate and up-to-date statistics, and offer smart design and interactivity. While the ones you've heard of are often network-backed, reaching huge online audiences, it's the smaller or more vertical sites that challenge assumptions, fueling the future of online sports content. Two of this year's sports nominees are network Web portals. One is a publicly traded, narrow-niche dotcom specializing in adventure sportscasts. And even as they demonstrate the vertical abilities of the Internet, the sports category's two remaining entrants evoke the passionate, early days of the Web, circa 1996.

FoxSports.com

Why go to FoxSports? Aside from the site's superior NFL coverage, sports business subsection, John Madden's "Chalktalk," and Fox Clubhouse's alliance with the very cool Rivals.com-- where you can find links to fansites for your favorite teams--there's really only one reason: Keith Olbermann's column. Olbermann, television sports' high-maintenance savant, writes with laser-like incisiveness. He can be very funny and is unafraid to rip sports celebrities for the precise reasons his broadcasting peers won't. Reading his free column--which the prolific author appears to post at will, up to five times a week and more--almost makes you want to switch your TV over to Fox from ESPN's "SportsCenter." Almost.

RemembertheABA.com

Wow. The Web is often about personal obsession, and Denver attorney Arthur Hundhausen's site clearly qualifies as the work of a man who's "all ate up" with the American Basketball Association--yes, the ABA of the red-white-and-blue ball, the Memphis Tams, three-to-make-two and gigantic Afros.

"I kept looking for Web sites about the ABA, and could never find one. So I decided to start the site," says Hundhausen. "It is designed to be a museum of the ABA. But I also started it to find other people interested in the league. Little did I know how popular it would be."

It isn't just Hundhausen's obsession that makes the four-year-old site so appealing. It's the content: ABA standings, statistics and a trivia quiz; player and coach profiles; original features; "Only in the ABA," a section devoted to the league's myriad publicity stunts; and "Freewheelin' ABA Fashion," a subsection including a tribute to the league's longest and largest hairdos. Hundhausen says he enjoys unearthing new stories and sound clips. Much of the content has not been heard or seen for 25 years, particularly the numerous photos.

Remember the ABA may not take full advantage of Web design and interactivity, but that isn't the point. What's so terrific about the site is it also serves to unite thousands of sports fans who share the love of that game.

ESPN.com

Although nothing beats the CBS Sportsline Fast Edition for quick news and scores, ESPN.com continues to outpace all other sports news sites because of its comprehensive free content, streaming and live audio and video, and intuitive navigation. With deep corporate pockets, the vaunted sports network's Web companion often scoops rival CNNSI.com despite the fact that CNNSI is often quicker to post scores.

Winner of this Webby category in 1997 when it was still known as ESPNet Sportszone, ESPN.com nevertheless has room for improvement. For instance, why pay for an ESPN pundit's analysis when you can get similar takes elsewhere? Despite clear evidence that few online subscription models work, ESPN.com believes you'll pay for the exclusive opinion of network personalities such as Dick Vitale. Nothing against Dickie V, but before you pay, check out last year's People's Voice sports winner The Sporting News. There are few college hoops experts more knowledgeable than Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Mike DeCourcy, whose thrice-weekly TSN column can be read for free.

Quokka.com

Probably the Sports category's most progressive nominee, this brilliantly conceived niche site pioneered what it now calls "total sports immersion." Go to Quokka for complete, exclusive coverage of live events such as mountain climbing, rock climbing and sailing. The site incorporates features, sports instruction and e-commerce. Because it's a specialist, Quokka is stickier than most sports Web sites, making it an attractive advertising prospect. Quokka will team with NBC Sports to bring the 2000 Olympics online.

SportsJones

SportsJones provides an alternative to the hackneyed fare that often passes for sports journalism these days. The Newcity.com site created by Royce Webb contains literary essays, interviews and commentary that steer clear of the usual rhetoric. The overall feel one gets from the brainchild of the former Iowa sportswriter is similar to that of reading Glenn Stout's annual "Best American Sportswriting" books.

"Coots of all ages have a stranglehold on the pages of the mainstream sports media, from Sports Illustrated to the local paper," says Webb. "The Web gives the rest of us a chance. There surely is a lot of immature crap on the Web. But maverick writers like Rob Neyer and sites like Baseball Prospectus are a glimpse at Sports Writing Future, because they challenge the conventional wisdom that, though older than Connie Mack, fills the mainstream press."

The SportsJones design is nothing to write home about, but the incisive original content that began in 1998 certainly is. SportsJones was recently relaunched as a daily but it's being evaluated by the Webbys on its former, less-frequently updated look and feel. This is commentary about sports, so the site's biggest strength is also its weakness: The writing is opinionated to a fault. It proves the Web's importance in creating discourse where one wouldn't normally be able to afford to.

Handicapping this category is tough. Each site has obvious strengths, so let's do this as a Daily Line:

 

FoxSports	5-1	Not better than ESPN.com
Remember the ABA	3-1	Sentimental favorite for its cohesive distillation of a fond, funny moment in American pop culture
ESPN.com	3-2	Odds-on favorite for its marriage of butt-kicking content and design, the site might not prevail simply because its predecessor won in '97.
Quokka	3-1	Nominated last year, it's still a corporate/indie 'tweener
SportsJones	2-1	A lock to win the People's Voice Webby in this category and the sleeper pick to sneak in and knock off ESPN.com

Stuart Wade lives in Austin and is a regular contributor to The Onion.

Editor's note: When this story was assigned, Newcity.com was in the process of acquiring the SportsJones site. The writer did not know such a deal was in the works, and was given complete discretion to rank the Webby sports-site nominees as he saw fit. Also, Newcity.com is a sponsor of the 2000 Webby Awards, but its coverage of the event remains independent of that agreement.