Friday is always an action packed day on the internetz. There’s #FollowFriday to do on Twitter (What is #followfriday? Here’s my #followfriday) not forgetting the Fan Page Friday a twist on #FollowFriday to share great Facebook pages. So I thought I’d start recapping the week to give you some great links to review with your weekend reading.

Nike #NBA Post-season Twitter Mashup – great way to see the tweets flying around your NBA team (if it made the playoffs that is ping @DetPistons)

Major League Baseball bans MLB.com writers from using Twitter for non-baseball topics – Caused a major storm with MLB fans on Twitter, main problem was MLB didn’t want personal tweets cluttering the MLB twitter stream but most fans thought this approach was a little heavy handed.

Yahoo! boosts UK brand with Premier League rights – interesting to see the web’s big players getting more involved in sports expect this to be BIG in 2010.

Who’s Presenting Your NBA Playoffs? – A great look by @sportsandalatte at the sponsors behind the NBA Playoffs.

Rugby World Cup promotion via Flickr – RWC2011 kicking off nice promotion using Flickr

Geolocation is a Game-Changer for Sports Business – Great piece from @GoSam on the work with Gowalla & New Jersey Nets

AFL stadiums, fields and ovals on FourSquare – Some great raw data on Foursquare in Australian sports from @ozziesport after #anzacswarm

NHL.com Unveils Integration With Facebook from @NHL – NHL profiled at Facebook f8 conference they have made huge digital strides in past 18 months.

Social Media Policies in Pro Sports: Q&A with Cleveland Indians PR team – A good behind the scenes look at the Tribe from @djlitten

Facebook Introduces “Suggested Pages” List – Facebook trying to get more fans (or likers) from new signups, interesting to note 30% were sports related via @Activ8Social

Facebook like’s world domination – New FB Like button opened up to all sites (as above (click if you likey)) from @mashable.

Best On Ground

This week’s BOG goes to Peter Robert Casey (@Peter_R_Casey) & Andrew Pawlowski (@pawlow34) who are wandering through the NBA online landscape with their Digital Disciple series.  Great stuff guys, so far they have covered the Nets, Timberwolves,  Wizards and Kings

YouTube Clip of the Week

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Nothing but a plug for some great ads from the Toronto Bluejays.  Not a bird-brain idea at all!

Toronto Blue Jays – Hotdog / Peanuts / Foam Feet from Spy Films on Vimeo.

Hat tip to @atosha

Don’t forget early bird registrations for SRG Conferences end Friday!

Got your ticket yet? HUGE lineup with speakers from Real Madrid, NBA (Trailblazers & Timberwolves) & Tottenham…
Engaging Fans & Participants in the Digital Age Sydney – Star City – July 13 & 14
Sport is Fantastic 2010 Auckland – Eden Park – July 19 & 20

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The AFL has launched it’s “official” iPhone application from the social media chatter we’ve monitored footy fans are not happy with the pricing of the app at a recurring $6 every 30 days.   Unfortunately for the AFL there is already iPhone applications that provide similar functionality for free  (Footy Lite sponsored by Triple M, Aussie Rules Live 2010 sponsored by CarSales.com.au).

The subscription-based iPhone application is relatively new concept as Apple has opened up the ability for in-app purchases.  In-app purchases allow upgrades inside the application rather than purchasing a new application in the App Store, a good example of this is extra levels or upgrades in a game.  As a contrast to the subscription model the MLB delivers one of world’s finest sports iPhone application MLB At Bat at a premium one-off price of $17.99 which has been a big hit with baseball fans despite the higher than standard price.

As sports fans what do you think? Have the AFL price this app correctly?

Do you think more iPhone apps will follow a subscription model?

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One of the biggest challenges many teams face is differentiating themselves whilst adhering league brand guidelines.  It was a common theme with the teams I met with on #sportsgeektrip.

Many leagues across the globe follow a similar digital model.  League web sites are developed and team web sites are created under the league umbrella.

MLB.com, NBA.com,  NHL.com, AFL.com.au are some examples of these Leagues that follow this “Umbrella model”.
(*edit thanks for comment: Essendon stand alone as an exception running independently of the AFL very successfully with EssendonFC.com.au)

If you take a look at team websites e.g. LA Dodgers Vs New York Yankees or Collingwood Vs Hawthorn you’ll see some team customization but they are locked into a League framework.  The NBA follows a similar model but teams are using custom landing pages (or splash pages like the Mavs do) to offer fans special deals.

Other leagues like the NFL.com & PremierLeague.com have decoupled the League’s web deal from the teams.

What’s better?

The “Umbrella model” makes administration of League branding much easier and sometimes can lead to a better sponsorship deal as it is league-wide.  However, it can be restrictive both creatively and financially to the teams who want to push the Web 2.0 envelope.  From a technical prospective a league wide CMS (content management system) does reduce the need for in-house web staff for teams but many people who use these systems find them too restrictive.  Leagues that abandon the “Umbrella model” face the problem of a potentially creating a tech gap between the have and have-nots.  Some teams like those run by MSG (Knicks, Rangers, Liberty) help promote their teams outside the standard team’s sites through the stadium (TheGarden.com), then again with so many sports properties MSG is a unique business.

What are your thoughts?

• Does the ability for league’s to secure deals outweigh a team’s desire to innovate?
• Would teams do a better job if they could go it alone?
• Would small-market teams struggle maintaining own website?

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