Toronto Star Sports
===================


Internet boosted team links
By Josh Rubin
December 31, 1997


URL: http://www.thestar.com/back_issues/ED19971231/sports/971231SPT06_SP-SNET31.html


   While the Internet is still bustling with activity, many people are on
   vacation, making this the perfect time to look back at some of the
   more important cybersports trends of 1997.

   RISE OF CYBERCASTS: Basketball and hockey fans around the world are
   now able to listen to their favourite pro team's games, thanks to
   something called cybercasting.

   The NBA and NHL official homepages both have links to the local radio
   broadcasts of every team in each respective league.

   For the NBA, this is a continuation of last season, when it began
   selling the package via ESPN's site.

   For the NHL, it's a new venture, and one that dovetails nicely with
   the rest of the league's ever-improving site. The NHL scored bonus
   points by making the games available to net surfers for free, in
   contrast to the $34.95 per season the NBA charged.

   If the NHL's everything-for-free was one cybercasting extreme, Major
   League Baseball's approach was the other. Early this year, MLB clamped
   down on several teams that had been cybercasting games via their own
   websites.

   Although it seemed at first that the move was a prelude to a
   comprehensive package being made available on the MLB homepage, there
   was no such luck for net surfers. By season's end, there wasn't a
   single MLB team with its broadcasts online.

   And where audio began, video soon followed. TSN, which has one of the
   biggest Canadian-run sports websites, had a dry run with the Canada
   Games, airing several smaller events. It followed that by putting its
   Vanier Cup telecast online. And, last week, it began doing the same
   thing with its telecasts of Canada's games from the world junior
   hockey championships.

   AMATEUR HOUR: In an era of government funding cutbacks, amateur sports
   groups are looking for every possible savings. And, in 1997, more of
   them began turning to the Internet for help.

   Two or three years ago, administrators from provincial and national
   sports federations would look at their budgets and see the Internet as
   a cost. Now, they're starting to realize that e-mail is helping them
   cut down long distance phone costs, not to mention cutting their stamp
   budgets.

   Some federations, such as the Ontario Hockey Federation, are starting
   to put their rulebooks online, meaning a significant savings in
   printing costs.

   FAN CITY: With the pro sports leagues and other major corporations
   pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into their online ventures,
   it was heartening to see that there's still a place for non-paid
   enthusiasts such as Peter Smith and Andria Hunter.

   Smith, a retired teacher, and Hunter, a computer science grad student
   at U of T, both spend hours maintaining websites on their favourite
   sports, and include information that simply isn't available elsewhere.

   Hunter runs a spectacularly thorough site devoted to women's hockey.
   She was formerly a member of Canada's national team.

   Smith, meanwhile, is the driving force behind the ICING site, the most
   complete online curling resource.

_________________________________________________________________

Josh Rubin can be reached on the Internet at sportsdesk@thestar.ca


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