Greenville Drive Baseball

[phillytiger]

It has pretty much everything I look for in a site as well. I would imagine that the teams must pay a premium of some nature to get MiLB/MLB to maintain their web site. Does anyone know if that is, in fact, the case? I wonder how any such premium would compare to what a team pays a web designer locally?

Sites designed by MiLB/MLB are free to teams, however there are tons of restrictions which end up hurting the team - 1) The team has no say in the design. It's a cookie cutter, every one of their sites looks the same. Therefore no brand image on the website. 2) MiLB puts their own sponsors on the team's website, non of the team's own sponsors, even if they conflict with one of the team's corporate partners. For example, BB&T could have the naming rights to the stadium but the website won't have a BB&T ad but will have a Bank of America ad since BOA is a national sponsor for MiLB. 3) Teams cannot upload stories directly to the website. They must be sent to MiLB first for approval.

MiLB sites are good for the smaller teams that don't have the budget to pay for the upkeep of a site.

And to answer someone else's question from a week ago, I do not work or have any association with the website design team or Drive. Infinity Pro Sports is based out of College Station, TX and they do the websites for about 300 sports teams (Major, Minor, and Independent).

Somone else had also said that the Drive's new site contains too much info on the front page. I suggest checking out the likes of other sports teams. The Altoona Curve and Reading Phillies sites are packed with info on the front page and these are the teams that win annual awards for their sites. This is also on the extreme, but I believe ESPN and Sports Illustrated jam their front pages with info. It's easier to navigate then having to click on a ton of submenus.

Whitehourseview, the gametracker you speak of is also on the Drive's website. Where the box score is, click on Log and shows you batter by batter.

Edited April 24, 2007 by phillytiger

[RestedTraveler]

Sites designed by MiLB/MLB are free to teams, however there are tons of restrictions which end up hurting the team - 1) The team has no say in the design. It's a cookie cutter, every one of their sites looks the same. Therefore no brand image on the website. 2) MiLB puts their own sponsors on the team's website, non of the team's own sponsors, even if they conflict with one of the team's corporate partners. For example, BB&T could have the naming rights to the stadium but the website won't have a BB&T ad but will have a Bank of America ad since BOA is a national sponsor for MiLB. 3) Teams cannot upload stories directly to the website. They must be sent to MiLB first for approval.

MiLB sites are good for the smaller teams that don't have the budget to pay for the upkeep of a site.

And to answer someone else's question from a week ago, I do not work or have any association with the website design team or Drive. Infinity Pro Sports is based out of College Station, TX and they do the websites for about 300 sports teams (Major, Minor, and Independent).

Somone else had also said that the Drive's new site contains too much info on the front page. I suggest checking out the likes of other sports teams. The Altoona Curve and Reading Phillies sites are packed with info on the front page and these are the teams that win annual awards for their sites. This is also on the extreme, but I believe ESPN and Sports Illustrated jam their front pages with info. It's easier to navigate then having to click on a ton of submenus.

Whitehourseview, the gametracker you speak of is also on the Drive's website. Where the box score is, click on Log and shows you batter by batter.

Thanks for the explanation. It certainly seems advantageous for a team that can afford to do so to maintain their own site. That being the case, one would expect a team to demand the very best from their own design team, whomever that may be.

I don't mind all of the information being crammed onto the front page as long as it is easy to find exactly what I'm looking for and do so quickly. I don't mind navigating menus to find it either, as long as it's logically organized and actually navigate to something other than never-never land. I somehow don't feel I'm in the minority there, either. I just don't feel the interface is as user-friendly as it could be or should be. I don't want to be overly critical. In fact, I have refrained from really going into detail to explain what I don't like about the current G-Drive site....until now.

What I like:

• The "nostalgic feel" created by the brick background and the vintage photos.
  
• The "News" section that rotates through various stories/articles/etc.
  

It pretty much ends there...sorry

What I don't like (again, I'm just trying to provide some constructive criticism here):

• The bricks from the brick background image are so large that they are a bit distracting.
  
• The West End Field Scoreboard surrounding the video welcome off to the top right should really be what surrounds the "News" section in the center of the page...it should be the absolute prominent feature of the page, in my opinion...not to mention the ideal place to stick small rotating advertisements from the team's sponsors.
  
• The score from the current/last game should be displayed somewhere near the top of the page rather than at the bottom. Innstead of that black swath of whatever it is dividing the page heading from the rest of the page, that's where the green monster score board should be, in my opinion.
  
• The SAL Standings should be on the front page somewhere...if you're going to stuff a lot of information on the page, this one is essential, yet it's missing. (as a footnote: I really like what the Augusta Green Jacket's site did (instead of the typical "Greenville" and "Kanapolis" etc., they've put "Drive" and "Intimidators" on the standings...very cool, in my opinion.)
  
• The huge "Purchase Single-Game Tickets" seems unnecessary to me (not to mention the image used here illustrates season tickets, not single-game tickets). I'd recommend replacing it with a combination of things:
  • Navigate from the Lineup Card: Tickets-->Individual Game Tickets-->A page that actually shows you the schedule where each date on the schedule has a link to allow you to purchase tickets...this can be the same page that you go to from Lineup Card: Schedule-->Season Schedule, for that matter....just like the "standard" schedule/ticket purchase interface from the mlb.com site.
    
  • Provide a links from the individual line items listed under "Upcoming (Promotions)" or "Game Center" to purchase tickets for upcoming games.
    

  [*]Some of the menu items from the Lineup Card still don't appear to actually do anything, but it's not as incomplete as it was earlier in the season...so there is some improvement there.

There are more things I could list, but these are the ones that stand out the most to me.

[RestedTraveler]

Geesh, I thought that'd elicit some response. It's not very often that I go on a rant like that one. Surely someone agrees/disagrees with some of these points?

[RestedTraveler]

Oddly enough, the Drive/MiLB appear to have employeed their own legion of photographers (Billy Crowe, Tom Priddy, etc.); however, I'm not sure what they use the photos for other than for the "First Pitch" program? I never see any anywhere else, especially online. One would think they'd make an effort to have a photo gallery for each game or at least open up the site to submittal of fan photos?

I've been advised by one of the MiLB photogs that a baseball page for GoUpstate.com is currently in the works that will include baseball news, Atlanta Braves news, and Greenville Drive news and photos. They'll let me know when it goes live and I'll be sure to pass it along here as well.

[whitehourseview]

Geesh, I thought that'd elicit some response. It's not very often that I go on a rant like that one. Surely someone agrees/disagrees with some of these points?

Oh I agree with just about everything you said. The site tells you quickly a lot of nonessential information and you have to hunt of the essential information. It's just poorly designed all around.

[breed]

Too add to RT's comments...

Positives

-Banner looks good

-there are several unique graphical elements that are well done (lineup card, random player card, banner, rotating news stories)

-the content is there (which is more difficult to improve than graphics and layout)

Negatives unfortunately these are always easier to point out

-banner is way too large

-site is too wide (IMO, having to scroll left to right is unacceptable)

-graphics are inconsistent (some good, some bad)

-an overuse of the team's logo (I understand the importance of branding, but having 15+ logos on the main page in one form or another is overkill. It seems like each graphical element was designed in as a stand-alone object and then just thrown on the page without consideration for what is around it)

-it should be obvious from looking at the site what is a link and what isn't... it isn't

-ESPN is often viewed as site that is very busy, which it is, but it's organized and intuitive, so it works. The Drive site is busy, but anything but intuitive.

-IMO, a visitor should never be forced to view a video

-The Lineup Card, while a unique element, loses some of its appeal when you actually use it, due to the submenus that present a different style

-Fonts... how many do you really need? I counted ten... and that doesn't include fonts used in logos and ads.

-ads... inconsistent in size... resizing an image isn't rocket science

-background... the brickwork is attractive and busy... as a result, the stuff on the page needs to be simple, otherwise it looks chaotic

-aside from the four most recent, older news stories are hard to get to

-seems to me it would be easier to incorporate one schedule that contains all information than to have an awkward calendar schedule, a promotional schedule, and a single list schedule

-all the text on the secondary pages should be framed better, reading a single line of text all the way across the page is difficult... and there isn't enough of a border around the text

My guess is that the website is being handled internally to some degree, because if you look at the following InfinityProsports sites... many of the issues don't exist.

http://www.daytondragons.com/

http://tarrantproball.com/

http://www.podrazahomes.com/

Although one common theme that I don't like is the tendency for the banners to take up as much as half the website. That's alot of wasted space.

[RestedTraveler]

Former Greenville Drive players, Bubba Bell and Michael Bowden garnered Red Sox Minor League Player of the Month honors for April.

Way to go, guys!

P.S. ... I had to go elsewhere to find this information ... wasn't on the G-Drive site.

Edited May 6, 2007 by RestedTraveler

[GvilleSC]

CLEMSON plays tomorrow night against Wofford at West End Field! I expect a great crowd! I'll be there sitting on the grass with the rest of the students. Today, an orange Tiger Paw flag was flying under the American flag at the ballpark. More games need to be played here!!!

GO TIGERS!

by the way, how is attendance this year in comparison to last year's???

And it's good to see concerts being held at the venue. Little Big Town (a country group) will be playing July 3rd. More things to attract people to the West End.

Edited May 8, 2007 by GvilleSC

[RestedTraveler]

by the way, how is attendance this year in comparison to last year's???

Check it out: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...att&lid=116

Team Total Games Average

Greensboro 89,247 14 6374

Greenville 69,873 14 4990

Lakewood 60,415 13 4647

Lexington 61,808 14 4414

Charleston 65,944 16 4121

Lake County 54,685 15 3645

Rome 53,866 16 3366

West Virginia 46,942 16 2933

Delmarva 39,462 14 2818

Augusta 39,361 15 2624

Hickory 20,524 9 2280

Asheville 24,827 14 1773

Savannah 22,972 14 1640

Kannapolis 20,994 13 1614

Hagerstown 18,263 13 1404

Columbus 14,663 15 977

Compare that to the Mississippi Braves and the rest of the Double-A Southern League: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...11&sid=l111

Compare that to the Charlotte Knights and the rest of the Triple-A International League: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...17&sid=l117

The paid attendance is only going to keep growing as the weather gets warmer and kids are out of school, too.

[gs3]

^ Wow! Averaging right at 5,000 per game! Seems the popularity of the Drive is up this year over it's first year. Great to see this kind of success! Thanks for posting all the attendance stats.

[whitehourseview]

Check it out: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...att&lid=116

Team Total Games Average

Greensboro 89,247 14 6374

Greenville 69,873 14 4990

Lakewood 60,415 13 4647

Lexington 61,808 14 4414

Charleston 65,944 16 4121

Lake County 54,685 15 3645

Rome 53,866 16 3366

West Virginia 46,942 16 2933

Delmarva 39,462 14 2818

Augusta 39,361 15 2624

Hickory 20,524 9 2280

Asheville 24,827 14 1773

Savannah 22,972 14 1640

Kannapolis 20,994 13 1614

Hagerstown 18,263 13 1404

Columbus 14,663 15 977

Compare that to the Mississippi Braves and the rest of the Double-A Southern League: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...11&sid=l111

Compare that to the Charlotte Knights and the rest of the Triple-A International League: http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/st...17&sid=l117

The paid attendance is only going to keep growing as the weather gets warmer and kids are out of school, too.

Good numbers for Greenville, especially considering that the team isn't very good this year.

Course Mississippi and Charlotte have the advantage of not having to make a mortgage payment, being in a government built facility, though the Knights will have one in two years.

[gs3]

Good numbers for Greenville, especially considering that the team isn't very good this year.

Course Mississippi and Charlotte have the advantage of not having to make a mortgage payment, being in a government built facility, though the Knights will have one in two years.

While Mississippi does have a ballpark that was paid for outside the team, I would think the team would be concerned with the low attendance numbers. This team is still in it's first few honeymoon years and just hasn't averaged very good attendance. I lived in Jackson briefly several years ago and the city always seemed to have issues with public support. Hope for the Braves that attendance numbers get better.

[whitehourseview]

While Mississippi does have a ballpark that was paid for outside the team, I would think the team would be concerned with the low attendance numbers. This team is still in it's first few honeymoon years and just hasn't averaged very good attendance. I lived in Jackson briefly several years ago and the city always seemed to have issues with public support. Hope for the Braves that attendance numbers get better.

Depends....

There might be more than just a raw average number: how many buy luxury suites? Do the M Braves get access to concession, parking, concert money? Hard to say which factors affect their bottom line.

Liberty Communications just bought the Braves organization from Time Warner, they intend to sell off the Richmond, Mississippi and Rome Braves, ending a rare relationship between minor league ownership and their parent club.

Should be interesting to see how it all works out.

But at the end of the day, the M Braves make a net gain on their facility from day one because they don't own it, didn't construct it and pay a very minimal rent. Hard to beat those terms. Their financial/ real estate deal is probably = 1,500 fans per game.

The Drive have great attendance, especially in the profitable suite attendance, but they still have a mortgage hanging over them.

[gs3]

^ Totally agree with you on the financials.

I was looking more from a fan support base / civic pride angle. Greenville, a single A team is averaging 5,000. Mississippi, a double AA team is averaging 3,400. Both teams are in their honeymoon stages. Says alot about the fan base.

I'd also rather be in West End Field a 5,700 seat ballpark near capacity, than in Trustmark Park, a 7,200 seat ballpark half full. The people and the energy really are a big part of the game experience.

[goodbye]

^ Totally agree with you on the financials.

I was looking more from a fan support base / civic pride angle. Greenville, a single A team is averaging 5,000. Mississippi, a double AA team is averaging 3,400. Both teams are in their honeymoon stages. Says alot about the fan base.

I'd also rather be in West End Field a 5,700 seat ballpark near capacity, than in Trustmark Park, a 7,200 seat ballpark half full. The people and the energy really are a big part of the game experience.

Plus you have to add the fact that our new team is just that - completely new to Greenville. This was Braves territory (and still is to a certain extent) for decades, yet look how much support is out there for a single A team downtown. Greenville has tons of "can do" attitude!

[whitehourseview]

Plus you have to add the fact that our new team is just that - completely new to Greenville. This was Braves territory (and still is to a certain extent) for decades, yet look how much support is out there for a single A team downtown. Greenville has tons of "can do" attitude!

My time is a bit limited these days, but the one great drawback to the Drive is their being a low Class A team. Given a choice, until college baseball season ends, if I'm just about watching quality baseball, I'd rather watch nationally ranked Clemson play than the Drive, as the players are virtually the same age; and I enjoy the collegiate level of competition better.

Other than that: amenities, fan experience, distance, etc, the Drive is/are a nice entertainment option.

[cundvale]

My time is a bit limited these days, but the one great drawback to the Drive is their being a low Class A team. Given a choice, until college baseball season ends, if I'm just about watching quality baseball, I'd rather watch nationally ranked Clemson play than the Drive, as the players are virtually the same age; and I enjoy the collegiate level of competition better.

Other than that: amenities, fan experience, distance, etc, the Drive is/are a nice entertainment option.

I love Clemson. I love baseball. I think lower A is quality baseball. Try to think of it as collegiate level baseball with wood bats and BEER!

[Galley]

I remember when the rumors were floating that the Braves organization wanted to move their AAA affiliate to Greenville. Wouldn't that have been something!

[whitehourseview]

I remember when the rumors were floating that the Braves organization wanted to move their AAA affiliate to Greenville. Wouldn't that have been something!

Long term I don't expect the Richmond Braves to remain. I could see a Nationals or Orioles farm club in Richmond, but there are issues there and with the impending sell of the R Braves....

If that happens, you would think that a city like Birmingham, AL could contend for an Atlanta AAA club.

Love the Drive management, what they have done, just sayin...

[RestedTraveler]

If that happens, you would think that a city like Birmingham, AL could contend for an Atlanta AAA club.

It's funny you should mention that...I suspect this is where the Braves' AAA club will land if the Braves don't get the ransom they're demanding in Richmond...but then what would become of the Barons, I wonder?

P.S. Speaking of a VERY WELL DONE WEB SITE...check out http://www.barons.com/ .

Edited May 9, 2007 by RestedTraveler

[whitehourseview]

It's funny you should mention that...I suspect this is where the Braves' AAA club will land if the Braves don't get the ransom they're demanding in Richmond...but then what would become of the Barons, I wonder?

P.S. Speaking of a VERY WELL DONE WEB SITE...check out http://www.barons.com/ .

Oh wow, now that's a web site.

[whitehourseview]

CLEMSON plays tomorrow night against Wofford at West End Field! I expect a great crowd! I'll be there sitting on the grass with the rest of the students. Today, an orange Tiger Paw flag was flying under the American flag at the ballpark. More games need to be played here!!!

GO TIGERS!

6th largest crowd yet at West End Field for Clemson v Wofford. Coach Leggett says he wants to come and play at WEF again. Great to see it....

http://www.greenvillenews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...S0101/705080445

[RestedTraveler]

Oh wow, now that's a web site.

That Brad Koltas is one rockin' web designer, that's for sure.

6th largest crowd yet at West End Field for Clemson v Wofford. Coach Leggett says he wants to come and play at WEF again. Great to see it....

http://www.greenvillenews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...S0101/705080445

6,404! WOW! My wife said there was a huge crowd downtown this evening for the game...I didn't make it myself...was spending some time alone with the kids.

[wellen]

P.S. Speaking of a VERY WELL DONE WEB SITE...check out http://www.barons.com/ .

That is a GREAT site. It flows very well and has all the pertinent info on the front page.

[Chickenwing]

It's funny you should mention that...I suspect this is where the Braves' AAA club will land if the Braves don't get the ransom they're demanding in Richmond...but then what would become of the Barons, I wonder?

P.S. Speaking of a VERY WELL DONE WEB SITE...check out http://www.barons.com/ .

Maybe you should send that link to the Drive! Great looking site that is also well laid out.