Oct 09 2009

What the UFL Web Site Got Right (and Wrong)

Published by Dave at 4:37 pm under American Football

With the DirecTV-Versus feud still in full swing, I figured I wouldn’t get a shot to watch the first United Football League game last night…

Dear DirecTV: FIX YO VERSUS!

Imagine my surprise, then, when I went to the UFL web site and discovered they were showing the Versus feed online for free. That page is still up, too, with an on-demand replay of last night’s broadcast. That’s a quality move by the league.

On the other hand, they probably could have done a better job publicizing it as it was happening. They have a Twitter account like everyone else — myself included, of course — but they didn’t use it to say, “Hey, DirecTV subscribers, missing Versus? Watch Locos v. Redwoods live on UFL.com RIGHT NOW!” There’s no hint of such a message in their Twitter feed. That might have helped a little. (Apparently, it did show up on FanHouse, which is now billing itself as an “Official UFL Digital Partner,” but I don’t check there as often as I check Twitter.)

You know what else could help? A nice little game recap.

fixyorecap

This is all the info that the UFL web site has about the game — a final score. No summary, no statistics, no highlight reel. No hint that J.P. Losman got off to a slow start, then recovered to lead Vegas from a two-touchdown deficit to victory, or that Locos kicker Graham Gano went 3-for-3 in field goal attempts, including a 53-yarder, which led to other players paying for his drinks at Tabu afterward*. Nope. Just the score.

That needs to change in a hurry. Fans of the gridiron game like numbers, and those numbers need to be up on the page. The NFL’s web site is loaded with stats, as is the CFL’s web site. So why am I getting more info about the game from FanHouse and the Las Vegas Review-Journal than I am from UFL-football.com?

These are problems that need to be addressed quickly — in no small part because the quality of play on the field isn’t so terrible. It might be damning the league with faint praise to say I saw a higher level of play from the Locos and Redwoods last night than I did from the Redskins and Buccaneers last Sunday, but there you go. These are guys with NFL experience getting coached up by guys who have coached games in January. They knew what they were doing out there. I wish I could say the same for the folks who designed the UFL’s web site.

* – May not have actually happened, but likely would have been awesome.

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