HomeTeamsONLINE Press Release

September 29, 2008

HomeTeamsONLINE.com provides a fast, easy way for a sports organization to set up a website their teams and leagues. It is designed so that users will very little website experience can create a very professional looking webpages, and more experienced users will enjoy the flexibility available.

HomeTeamsONLINE is focused on the needs of teams and leagues, so if you are a manager, coach, athletic director or league administrator you will find that the support staff will understand the unique issues that sports programs face. 

So why use a website service for a sports organization? It might sound like a lot of extra work when you are busy enough as it is, right? Here are a few things to consider:

Do you spend a lot of time printing, copying and distributing schedules and announcements? Do you spend a lot of time on the phone calling about schedule changes, practices? Are you able to keep up with all the communication needed to manage your organization? Having your own sports website allows you to put all your information in one place and make it available to the right people. With HomeTeamsONLINE you can even tie-in to email and automated phone services to get messages out quickly and easily.

Sometimes your players, coaches and fans are the ones making it clear that you need a website... or that your current website is not cutting it. If your teams have young adults or minors, it is pretty certain they will be asking about a website.

One more thing to consider is the process you go through to manage game results, scores, rosters, schedules, and statistics tracking. With an online sports site you might find you can distribute the work easily to the coaches or scorekeeper for the games. HomeTeamsONLINE gives you a lot of flexibility for setting up your account, whether you want centralized control, team control, or a mix of both. An example is a option allowing teams to input scores until a certain number of days when a lock on editing automatically kicks in - after that only the league administrator can make changes. That's the type of feature that only an advanced sports website service can provide.

OK, so it looks like I need a website, but how do I find the right website? There are a number of obvious and not so obvious things to look for:

Find a website provider who specializes in sports websites for teams and leagues. Using "myspace" will not handle the needs of a sports organization, and you will quickly find that generalized web page services will not get you very far.

When you find a "sport website" provider, go ahead and test the support. Can you call them? How fast to they respond to your email. If you look for a number to call and can't even find one listed on the site that's a pretty clear sign that support may not be easy to get. A sports website service like HomeTeamsONLINE has phone support available and a policy of answering emails within one business day.

Make sure the pricing is clear, with nothing hidden. Some sites list monthly pricing and some annual so be sure you know what you are getting. Some websites will start sneaking costs in for important features so be sure what you get for your money is spelled out up front. If you can't find the prices on a sports website service that is usually not a good sign. The best services also offer free trials, which is a great way to get started. Free trials give you a chance to try the site and see if it is easy for you to work with, and to show others so they can help you decide if it is what you want. HomeTeamsONLINE also has a policy to find the least expensive package to fits your needs. This is especially helpful for medium and large sports programs not only for the savings in cost, but it also saves you the hassle of having a lot of extra features you don't need to look at. You want to keep things as easy as possible.

Check the policy on privacy, especially how advertising is handled on the website and whether they will use your email for unwanted promotions, or worse spam. Good sports website providers will have password protection options and clearly spell out their advertising policy. HomeTeamsONLINE does not post unwanted ads on your website, will only use your email for matters pertaining to your service, and provides password protection options for your pages.

Another great way to check out a service is to look at actual websites that are using it. HomeTeamsONLINE keeps a list of featured users for different sports right on the home page so you can see exactly the kind of product you are getting. Wee are always wary of services that seem to hide the actual users sites, or only put one demo site that the service carefully set up themselves. The only sure way is to see what the real users are doing.

Of course, when you select a sports website service you will want to be sure they offer the features that are most important to you. Quite frankly, it is hard to anticipate all your requirements, and you will find lots of cool stuff that you probably didn't even know you could do once you get started! HomeTeamsONLINE made it easy as 1-2-3:

1) Get your FREE TRIAL, 2) Mess around with your site, and 3) Call us if you have questions.

When you choose a leader in sports website technology like HomeTeamsONLINE you know you can count on getting the features you need at a good price; and with a free trial and privacy protection, all you need to think about is finding ways to make managing your sports program easier, and keeping your players and fans happy!