Internet Sports

Surf Potatoes Get Exercise On The Net...!

Although the Web has long been the home of sporting archives and presentations, the pace is getting hotter and those original low budget academic pioneers have a struggle on their hands as the cash moves in. Last issue we had a peek at the golfing exploits of Unisys, this time we are regaled by many more.


Anyone for Tennis..?

Well, we couldn’t resist this opening line, could we: “The ATP Tour is serving tennis across a different net - the Internet.”
The Association of Tennis Professionals has put up a remarkably detailed presentation covering the events and players. It’s an awesome piece of the highest quality marketing work and sets standards that should be seen at http://atptour.com/

You can look up the details and download a picture of your favourite tennis star, right down to the correct pronunciation of their name: “ANDRE AGASSI (USA) (pronounced: AG-us-see)" He’s earned $7,700,705 in prize money, and he’s the youngest of four children (Tamee, Rita, Phillip).


News balls please...

Tennis strikes again, and the World Wide Web Tennis Server, claimed to be the first tennis information centre on the Internet World Wide Web, celebrated its first online anniversary in August. Since its inception last year, the site has served up tennis information to an estimated audience of more than 100,000 tennis enthusiasts from over 65 countries, with over 2.1 million accesses in total.
http://www.tennisserver.com/
"Twelve months ago we never dreamed how popular the Tennis Server would become. People thought we were crazy putting a tennis information centre and tennis store on-line," explained Cliff Kurtzman of the Tenagra Corporation, the Web marketing and public relations firm that founded the Tennis Server. "Today our on-line sponsors are thriving and new subscriptions to our free monthly email newsletter Tennis Server INTERACTIVE are over 3,200 and continue to grow at 40% per month.


"Football Crazy"

And not to be outdone, the Daily Mail has sprung soccer on the Web at http://www.soccernet.com/
There are all sorts of details of the players and the managers of the teams. Did you know that Stuart Nethercott was born in Chadwell Heath?
The reporting style leaks through in the commentary, which spares no blushes: Former England U21 international fond of pushing forward from central defence. His approach suited Ardiles' pattern of play but he was replaced by Mabbutt last season when Francis arrived. Could well struggle to make the first team. Sounds like transfer material to me, Saint...


Cricket Snipet

Cricket lives at http://pipkin.lut.ac.uk/~ben/Cricket/index.html where the classic “Beefy loses his bails” advert poster can be found.


And the rest...

Plus there’s a growing (US-centric) list of dozens of sports at http://www2.info seek.com/doc/netdir/sports.html
This all underlines the basic function of the Web as an information distribution medium, and reminds us all once again of the ultimate dilemma that faces those with “the knowledge”.

Just where is anyone going to find the time to cope with all this stuff?