Coventry City Football Club has announced today that it has taken back ownership of its online rights and has launched a new, revamped official club web site with it’s chosen web partners, LSsport and sportcentric.

The club, in consultation with their appointed media advisers LSsport, have made the bold decision to go against the recent trend of passing all their rights to a media partner and instead have taken direct control and ownership of their online web presence.

The newly launched CCFC website was designed in-house on top of the world-class site management system from sportcentric.

Taking this approach means that Coventry City have direct control over all the content on the site, and, most importantly, are able to strike their own commercial relationships, meaning a higher percentage of the revenues raised will go directly to the club.

Neil Bryson, Managing Director of Coventry City, commenting on the announcement today said: ‘With the uncertainty in the marketplace surrounding media partners, we made a decision at Coventry City to bring our online rights back under our control. We contracted LSsport to carry out a review of both the marketplace and the skills that Coventry City have in-house and help us plot the next five years in terms of services we can provide to fans and the revenues that they will attract.

‘The new site that we launched today is the first milestone of that plan. I am particularly pleased with the look and feel of the site, as it has been designed in-house using our corporate brand ideas. In addition, by using the technical infrastructure that sportcentric provides means we have a site that is able to react dynamically to the daily changing requirements of Coventry City.’

‘We have been hugely impressed with the level of management and professionalism that both LSsport and sportcentric have shown, from initial design to live site took less than three weeks, including the transfer of the relevant content from our old site. We would also like to thank Sky, our site maintainers for the previous three years who have helped us reach the point where taking ownership of our online rights has become a reality.’

Ric Allison, Commercial Director of Coventry City, commenting on the new site today said: ‘Coventry City has always tried to work in partnership with its loyal fans. A vital element in our decision process to bring our rights back in-house has been that we want to control the commercial agreements.

‘We are now in the position to directly manage the deals struck online to ensure that the club and its fans are the prime beneficiary. We believe that our fans, which is where a site affectively derives it’s revenue from, would be happier seeing the profits going to the club rather than to the large media players.’

‘We hope that the site will remain a leading source of information for Coventry fans world-wide as well as become an invaluable interactive tool for all supporters of the Club. Over the coming months we plan to launch additional services that we believe will both benefit the fan as well as provide revenue for the club.’

Leo Mindel, Founding Director of LSsport, commenting on the launch today said: ‘We at LSsport are delighted to have assisted Coventry City in taking back ownership of their online rights. While there is no guarantee of revenues, in taking this approach we believe that in the long term Coventry will be in a far stronger position both financially and in terms of its communications than if they had sold their rights on.

‘An important first step in this process was to have a website that all staff members at Coventry could feel confident in updating, which is made possible by utilising the unique power of the sportcentric software.’

Paul Nelson, Founder & CEO of sportcentric, commented: ‘The launch of the new Coventry City web site is testament to our philosophy that the way forward for online media in sport is for rights ownership to stay under the club’s direct control. The sportcentric system is the only technology platform that makes this possible.

‘Coventry City designed the look and feel in keeping with their brand identity, are able to control content and structure without the costly intervention of technical staff, and can secure and easily implement only those commercial deals that are in its best interests’

For further information please contact:

Coventry City Football Club
Jo Lea
T: +44 2476 234076
E: jo.lea@ccfc.co.uk
W: www.ccfc.co.uk

LSsport
Leo Mindel
T: +44 20 7751 8986
E: leo.mindel@lssport.com
W: www.lssport.com

sportcentric
Paul Nelson
T: +44 20 7348 5155
E: nelson@sportcentric.com
W: www.sportcentric.com