The fusionSpan Blog

6 P’s for a Strong Baseball Season and Website

By Mary Glavin |April 19, 2016
CMS

“That’s the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball” ~Bill Veeck, 1976

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Despite the unusual cold that swept parts of the nation last week, the promise of spring beckons as cities savor opening day. Season openers are a light hearted welcome as teams and fans gear up for the long winded season that unfolds over the course of 162 games spanning approximately 6 months. Regulation games themselves average just shy of 3 hours; to succeed teams and fans need the right mindset and perseverance to make it through. Persistence and stamina are relevant in so many aspects of life and if you’re a non-profit professional, you know that launching a website will undoubtedly require patience and resolve.

Detailed below are the parts of the maintenance life cycle, a set of core processes that apply not only to a websites longevity but a baseball team’s as well. As a fair weather fan of baseball I thought how those of us in that category also fit into the maintenance life cycle. I’ll leave this here if anyone’s wondering…MLB Power Rankings: The Worst Fair-Weather Fans in MLB.

1. Purpose

Team: What are the goals for the team? Where do they anticipate problems? How do they capitalize on strengths to achieve those goals?

Website: What is the goal of your site? What functionality is most important? What is the image your going for?

Fair weather fans: Who has season tickets? Now is the time to decide if they are worth buttering up for and if your home team is worth said buttering.

2. Planning

Team: Trading, contracts, and spring training.

Website: Do you go for open source and pay for specific customizations catered to your needs? Is a commercial CMS suitable and the included upgrades beneficial? Decide between the two and get your information, functionality, and image squared away with an implementation team.

Fair weather fan: Any last year team apparel on sale? Post instagram of said friend with season tickets soon for MCM (man crush Monday) or WCW(woman crush Wednesday). This is a bold move if you are not actually that good friends and not playing it off as a joke, but it’s crunch time so go big and try to lock in at least one free game this year.

A baseball game is twice as much fun if you’re seeing it on the company’s time” ~William C. Feather. Agreed William.

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3. Persistance

Team: It’s opening day and the season has kicked off; things are moving. Everyone’s finding their stride and line ups are taking shape.

Website: It’s go-live day and your new website is available for the whole world to see. Your implementation team is keeping track of what is working and what isn’t. Your team is getting feedback from customer/clients and things are running.

Fair weather fan:”A hot dog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz” ~Humphrey Bogart

…But it just might cost the same. Remembering the cost of beers in the park is a reality check but you’re already at the stadium and you can’t leave to get food so you’re determined to only get one, two beers tops. OK, maybe three.

4. Preservation

Team: Practices, trainers keeping up with the injured and making efforts to prevent others from injury, management looking into minor leagues or possible trades if lacking in an area.

Website: Check for updates, dead links, replace old content and update, update, update.

Fair weather fan: The season’s underway, you wear your team apparel on game days if it’s clean and you remember they are playing. Even if you get the dates wrong, all the better, people think you live and die in that garb regardless of when the game is.

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Florence Haynes, 100 year old fan

5. rePeat

Team: Renew contracts, implement a new training method, hire nutritionist, team yoga.

Website: Reconstruction and make serious updates to give it a face lift.

Fair weather fan: Purchase some tickets for the same day or night you have obligations you do not want to attend. Example: middle school play, family oriented parade, outlet shopping with out-of-towners. Hey, you’re starting to have fun at these things. Maybe you should go to more games.

6. rePlace

Team: Let go off who you can to make room for who you need.

Website: Trash what doesn’t work, update your webpage and replace outdated articles. Make the steps necessary no matter how big or small to revamp your site.

Fair weather fan: Well, my team isn’t doing so well. As a fair weather fan, it is my prerogative to replace this team which a newer, better and more attractive team.

“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday’s success or put its failures behind and start over again. That’s the way life is, with a new game every day, and that’s the way baseball is“~ Bob Feller

Keeping up with your website is one of the most important investments you can make for your association and the clients you serve. It’s a long season, but the fans will keep returning if they see the dedication and strong performance during your long winded season.

 

P.S. As we are located in D.C. (some) in our office are obviously rooting for the Washington Nationals, plus they did pretty well last year. Who are you rooting for? Share your team spirit in the comments section below.

Mary Glavin

Mary is the Client Support Associate at fusionSpan. She takes care of administrative, communication, and marketing related duties in the office.

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