Learning from the Telstra AFL website problems

As a regular user of the Australian Football League website, I wasn't too suprised to hear former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett (now Hawthorn Football Club president) recently give the AFL's website a spray.  But I am suprised that noone has said anything before this, they probably haven't had the courage to do it.

There are many other problems with the AFL and official club websites which have obviously frustrated fans and turned away customers.  The website experienced significant downtime which is just not acceptable for this kind of site.  It is slow to load even on the fastest Internet connections (primarily due an apparent overdose of client side scripting), it fails miserably to work on a Mac and much of its content is only accessible to users of the most recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, which as discussed in my earlier blog "The Importance of Browser Compatibility" still accounts for less than 50% of the league's audience.   Much of the content is also out-of-date and inadequately managed. 

The new AFL website site built by Telstra has been in apparent beta testing mode for the almost the whole pre-season and half of the premiership season.  Apparently the developers even resorted to requests for comments from AFL fans and users on Internet forums in an attempt to fix many of the problems with the site.  You'd wonder why they didn't engage in some user-centred design or user consultation when they decided it necessary to rebuild their website and what sort of testing was actually done before it was launched.  The general consensus is that their new site is a major step back from previous efforts.

Surely they can do better.  Afterall, they are the dominant league in Australian sport.  Afl.com.au has consistently polled #1 most popular Hitwise Australian sports website and has a growing international audience.

In 2006, Telstra paid around $60 million over 5 years for the multimedia rights to run the AFL's website as well as its member club websites.  As part of the deal, the AFL gets a cash injection for simply having a website, and wipe their hands clean of its management.  The AFL clubs net between $500-600,000 each for the privilege.  Telstra significantly leverage the exposure of the high traffic site in many ways, such as advertising and the lure of exclusive online content for subscribers, to their broadband Internet service.  On paper, it would seem like a match made in heaven.

But despite the great deal on the surface, the Essendon Football Club at least still feels the need to run the Bomberland website in competition to its "official" AFL website.  To be honest, I really don't blame them.  While I am not personally a Bombers fan, I can say that the Bomberland site is unique, innovative and appealing, a cut above the Telstra sites and I believe it offers enormous competitive advantages to the football club.  With the deal done, now the AFL is busy threatening to sue its own fans just to protect Telstra's interests.  If its fans and club's presidents aren't happy, one would wonder just who are the websites for ?  Are the AFL in the business of providing a genuine service to their members, fans and clubs or just going for the quick and easy option ?

Frankly I'd question why the AFL would hand their club's websites to any organisation which is known to outsource their IT development to India and turns their back on local Internet developers.  You'd have to wonder what sort of Chinese whispers might be going on in terms of communication of the AFL's website requirements, or if indeed they are consulted at all.  Now, don't get me wrong, this is not just a Telstra bash.  I think they have a strong brand, some good mobile phone plans and great GSM coverage, I myself am a loyal customer, and I don't really think they are at fault here.  But after all the issues, I would question whether the AFL undervalued its Internet rights and greatly undersold the importance of their website. 

Back in 2006, Datalink re-developed and hosted athletics.com.au for Athletics Australia, which incorporates a similar set of interactive features as afl.com.au.  A great return on investment was achieved.  The site has experienced over 99% uptime.  They had the peace of mind of knowing that their website was 100% Australian made by an 100% Australian owned company.  Sure, they have to haver resources to manage their website and they didn't get their site for free, but more importantly, Athletics Australia realise the value of actually owning their site and their own content and their members and fans are the ones who reap the benefits.