Best NZ Club Websites

I'm really keen to modernise our club's website, which is a little dated in style and not particularly interactive or useful for members.

Who has some suggestions of NZ football club websites that "do it well", in terms of updates, information, and "selling" the club from the perspective of potential players etc?

I'd love to get links to some websites that stand out from the crowd, to get some ideas for what we can do, so please suggest any that you think stand out. Cheers.

Coastal Spirit

Everything we do is great

Costal Spirit one looks good - it's probably a little busy for me but that's just personal preference.

Looks like there is lots of information there which is key for a football website - and easy enough to navigate - the only thing and again this was personal preference is that I didn't know where to start as there was so much going on - ie not one thing really caught my eye.

Generally speaking club websites are pretty functional and low on design because that's what kind of works.

I quite like Onslow Juniors' website: http://onslow.org.nz/

Thanks for the suggestions,

Coastal Spirit site is excellent in terms of content, and shows what can be achieved with the default Fox Sports Pulse platform; although the style and look of the site are not too dissimilar to our existing site, actually even more dated than what we have. I'm after something a bit more modern, clean and fresh (without being "tacky").

Another one I found another one that uses the Fox platform, the Bay Olympics site - looks pretty good and clean actually. http://www.foxsportspulse.com/club_info.cgi?client...

Smithy, thank you so much for the Onslow suggestion - I love it, that's the type of "clean" look I'm after!

TBH I spent an hour looking at websites for most of the bigger clubs in the country and was rather surprised at how few clubs actually have attractive and usable websites... so I appreciate any further suggestions.

Not a fan of any that use the sporting pulse platform, it's clunky and not user friendly

I put one together using Wix.com for the cricket club I play at lpwcc.com. Very easy to use and they have heaps of templates to use, check them out. It's free if you're happy to have the word 'Wix' in the title otherwise about $100 a year

ours is a bit different - there are things I don't really like but it's worth having a look at to see a non Fox sports website.

www.ellersliefootball.org.nz

We liked the Fox based web as it means we can have all the fixtures and results on there for our teams as that's what our Federation uses.

you need to decide what your priorities are with content, and then assess again as to whether they need regular content mgmt and if someone will actually do it

this is one that I put together recently. I only do stuff in facebook really - thus the feed being made a priority

http://karorifootball.co.nz/

those ads though..

Thanks, we already have a website that's updated at least weekly and contains a reasonable amount of info, but it could really do with a good upgrade on the presentation side, and I'm keen to add some extra content while I'm at it.

I definitely want it to include a feed from our Facebook page, and ideally automatic feeds for league tables and results etc - has anyone achieved that on a non-fox website?

Thank you - that is actually very similar in style to what we have currently, but yours has much more depth of centent. Excellent content and looks like a really good practical "hub" for club members. Very functional site, just a little outdated in style/look.

To be honest it's a fine line trying to come up with something more modern without it potentially looking tacky or losing its functionality, so I'm treading carefully with any change!

Thanks, really nice looking site, probably not quite the style I'm after but is pretty cool. I've had some experience with wix in the past, decent platform, nice to see you can get some really original results with it.

Cheers, I actually quite like the look of that - a good balance between modern and clean.

Its in need of a bit of a spruce up but this is what I put together about 3 years ago - http://www.petonefootball.org/

http://www.otumoetaifootball.co.nz/ Nice clean modern site with easy navigation and a tonne of content. Loads quickly too

http://hamiltonwanderers.co.nz/  This is a Word Press Templated site. Fairly modern but a bit messy to get to the content. 

Cheers, there are heaps of templates you can use, so you'd likely find one that fits the look/style you;re after. You can display Facebook and Twitter feeds on Wix as well (which you mentioned earlier)

Squarespace is another similar to Wix I believe too.

The main thing about websites is whether they are updated regularly or not. Lots of football club sites or useless because theyre not.
Our site is http://plainsrangers.com

 

So, the opposite of the club it represents then? 

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzing

Don't use default fonts like Arial and Times New Roman

Depending on what your website is based on, some template sites will have a selection of fonts to use, or you can try google fonts if not and add it in the code. 

I recommend comic sans in highlighter yellow on a lime green background

Only if using blink and/or marquee tags.

Oh you guys

Melville's is one of the better ones: http://www.melvilleunited.co.nz/

Ive been building websites for nearly 20 years and in pretty much every case involving a 'club' the same things come up.

1. They wont spend the money to have a professional design and build it mistakenly believing it will cost thousands. Or they have been stung in the past by someone who charged them thousands and messed it up.

2. They believe once it's built the job is done. They never factor in maintenance and never consider it will need a refresh every 2/3 years.

3. They think something like Wix, Weebly or Squarespace will do the job which can be compared to taking your Ferrari to some bloke a mate of a mate found on Facebook who works from his back garden and owns two spanners and a screwdriver. If you are serious about your website, just dont.

4. They'll find an enthusiastic volunteer who says 'how hard can it be?' That volunteer then makes basic mistakes in terms of implementation and design and they lose interest once they realise just what's involved to do it properly.

5. The club rarely has a plan other than 'we want a website'. They have no idea what content they want on the site and almost certainly don't update the site anywhere near as regularly as they intended.

6. There is NEVER a contingency if the person who sets it up leaves. How many of you with your own websites own the domain name, or know the passwords to log into the hosting ? What about backups ?

The thing is, it doesn't have to cost thousands to build a half decent site. With a plan in place any club site can be made to be successful. But in order for that to happen you have to PAY someone who knows what they are doing and lets be honest, that's not the Kiwi way.

Don't get me wrong, not all clubs and businesses are like this. Some are lucky enough to have someone who is properly tech-savvie on the committee or as volunteers. But in my experience, most of them fill almost all of the above.

Dont get me started on the Fox/Sportingpulse sites. I wouldn't wipe my arse with them.

Now, back to lurk mode :)

I'll just put this here: www.matamataswifts.com

We've had a website up, in various shapes and sizes, for nearly 15 years. I use WordPress, which provides a good CMS and plenty of flexibility.