Broadband Sports
Encyclopedia
Broadband Sports is a social media and video sharing website focused on extreme sports. The Broadbandsports.com domain and "Broadband Sports" name was originally founded in 1998, later becoming a high-flying dotcom
-era network of sports-content Web sites that raised over $60 million before shutting down in February 2001.
A new company with the same name and domain was launched in November 2005, today the company is based in Seattle, Washington and allows users to upload, view and share both professional and user-generated sports media, covering over 20 sports. Its focus is to allow sports fans and athletes alike to connect directly via a community of fellow enthusiasts. It shares no relationship to the failed dot-com company that shut down in 2001.
-era network of sports-content Web sites that raised over $60 million before going bust in February 2001. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company originally started out as Athlete Direct ("AD"), that served as the host of 350 official web sites for such athletes as Troy Aikman, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Brett Favre, Mia Hamm, Eric Karros, and Anna Kournikova. It later acquired RotoNews.com (now RotoWire.com), a leading fantasy sports web site and Pro Sports Exchange, a network of sports content from newspaper beat writers.
In 2005, the Broadbandsports.com domain was re-launched, by Greg Prosl, a founder of MountainZone.com.
, the founder of Dell Computer, Frank J. Biondi Jr., the former chief executive of Universal Studios
and Sequoia Capital
. Goldman, currently the CEO of Buzznet.com, was one of five members of Steinberg & Moorad, the country's preeminent sports law firm, where he led the firm's media and investment initiatives prior to launching Athlete Direct. In February 1998, the company (then known as E-Sport) secured an investment of $4.5 mm from NMSS Partners. The agreement was signed by Goldman, Ross Schaufelberger and Michael Scharnagl on behalf of E-Sport, and Ahmed O. Alfi on behalf of NMSS Partners, LLC.
In the early stages of Athlete Direct’s growth, the company also focused its energies on developing strong online communities around their athletes. Troy Aikman
, then the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys
, made unannounced visits to the AOL Athlete Direct chat room to interact with community members. Elliott Gordon, who resigned from AOL Sports to become a founding employee of Athlete Direct, cultivated what was arguably at the time the largest motorsports community section on AOL – the AD NASCAR Family – where NASCAR drivers such as Michael Waltrip
occasionally visited. Following AD, Gordon was Director of Programming for NASCAR.COM through 2006 and currently works for the National Football League.
On September 2, 1999, Yahoo!
Inc. announced an agreement with Athlete Direct to bring professional athletes to their users. Through the Yahoo! Sports All-Star Club fans could connect to athletes' official clubs and stores as well as learn about upcoming athlete events, including chats, interviews, and appearances. Additional athletes that joined Brett Favre and Karl Malone in the Yahoo! Sports All-Star Club included NBA players Donyell Marshall and Chris Webber; NFL players Drew Bledsoe, John Mobley and Ricky Watters; NHL players Ed Belfour, Sergei Fedorov and Teemu Selanne; MLB players Tom Glavine, Shawn Green, A.J. Hinch, Trevor Hoffman, and Ivan Rodriguez; Wimbledon tennis champion Jana Novotna and tennis star Anna Kournikova; and NASCAR
drivers Ward Burton and Michael Waltrip.
By the late 1990s, Athlete Direct had acquired the digital rights for more than 250 athletes, which essentially became a portal site for "jock blogging." For example, after tossing a bat at Mike Piazza during the 2000 World Series, Roger Clemens
stiffed reporters in the locker room following the game but offered a full explanation on his web site. When Albert Belle refused to grant press interviews, media outlets like the Washington Post and ESPN.com had to use his journal postings for quotes in their articles – as illustrated by a note Belle posted in his locker to reporters in 1999: "If you want an interview, check my Web site."
Richard Nanula
was hired as chairman and chief executive in October 1999 after he resigned as president and chief operating officer of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc.
Nancy Kerrigan
, arguably the most prominent figure skater of the 1990s, announced her association with Athlete Direct in November 1999. "I am proud to be associated with Athlete Direct because it is the No. 1 choice in online sports entertainment. This relationship will allow me to expand my interaction with skating fans worldwide," said Kerrigan.
At its height in November 1999, Broadband Sports offered $53 million in stock for Stats, Inc.
, an offer that was seriously considered before owner John Dewan sold the company to News Corporation.
With its S-1 filing on November 26, 1999, Broadband Sports Inc. was defined as:
By December 1999, Athlete Direct expanded its influence in the digital media space through a strategic relationship with eBay Inc. eBay launched regional sites and in partnership with Athlete Direct, consumers could bid on equipment from local sports stars with the proceeds of these sales being donated to the athlete’s sponsored charity.
Come November 20, 2000, Broadband Sports and ESPN had teamed up to jointly create and program a new Athletes Channel on ESPN.com. However, this relationship was short-lived, as Broadband Sports closed its doors on February 16, 2001. Despite raising $20 million in the company's final year and proclaiming in September publicly that the company was financially stable and didn't need an IPO, the company shut down and dismissed 160 employees just five months later.
Following the demise of Broadband Sports, athletes such as NASCAR driver Ward Burton
sued under the ICANN Policy to obtain ownership of their respective domain names.
Dot-com company
A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com , is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website that uses the popular top-level domain, ".com" .While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used specifically to refer to companies with...
-era network of sports-content Web sites that raised over $60 million before shutting down in February 2001.
A new company with the same name and domain was launched in November 2005, today the company is based in Seattle, Washington and allows users to upload, view and share both professional and user-generated sports media, covering over 20 sports. Its focus is to allow sports fans and athletes alike to connect directly via a community of fellow enthusiasts. It shares no relationship to the failed dot-com company that shut down in 2001.
Overview
Broadband Sports was originally a high-flying dotcomDot-com company
A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com , is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website that uses the popular top-level domain, ".com" .While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used specifically to refer to companies with...
-era network of sports-content Web sites that raised over $60 million before going bust in February 2001. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company originally started out as Athlete Direct ("AD"), that served as the host of 350 official web sites for such athletes as Troy Aikman, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Brett Favre, Mia Hamm, Eric Karros, and Anna Kournikova. It later acquired RotoNews.com (now RotoWire.com), a leading fantasy sports web site and Pro Sports Exchange, a network of sports content from newspaper beat writers.
In 2005, the Broadbandsports.com domain was re-launched, by Greg Prosl, a founder of MountainZone.com.
History
The company was founded in 1998 by Tyler S. Goldman and had several well-known, deep-pocketed investors such as Michael DellMichael Dell
Michael Saul Dell is an American business magnate and the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Inc. He is the 44th richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$14.6 billion in 2011, based primarily on the 243.35 million shares of Dell stock worth $3.5 billion that he owns,...
, the founder of Dell Computer, Frank J. Biondi Jr., the former chief executive of Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
and Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...
. Goldman, currently the CEO of Buzznet.com, was one of five members of Steinberg & Moorad, the country's preeminent sports law firm, where he led the firm's media and investment initiatives prior to launching Athlete Direct. In February 1998, the company (then known as E-Sport) secured an investment of $4.5 mm from NMSS Partners. The agreement was signed by Goldman, Ross Schaufelberger and Michael Scharnagl on behalf of E-Sport, and Ahmed O. Alfi on behalf of NMSS Partners, LLC.
In the early stages of Athlete Direct’s growth, the company also focused its energies on developing strong online communities around their athletes. Troy Aikman
Troy Aikman
Troy Kenneth Aikman is a former American football quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League. The number one overall draft pick in 1989, Aikman played twelve consecutive seasons as quarterback with the Cowboys...
, then the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
, made unannounced visits to the AOL Athlete Direct chat room to interact with community members. Elliott Gordon, who resigned from AOL Sports to become a founding employee of Athlete Direct, cultivated what was arguably at the time the largest motorsports community section on AOL – the AD NASCAR Family – where NASCAR drivers such as Michael Waltrip
Michael Waltrip
Michael Curtis Waltrip is a semi-former professional race car driver, co-owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, and a published author. He is the younger brother of three-time NASCAR champion and racing commentator Darrell Waltrip. Waltrip is a two-time winner of the Daytona 500; having won the race in...
occasionally visited. Following AD, Gordon was Director of Programming for NASCAR.COM through 2006 and currently works for the National Football League.
On September 2, 1999, Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
Inc. announced an agreement with Athlete Direct to bring professional athletes to their users. Through the Yahoo! Sports All-Star Club fans could connect to athletes' official clubs and stores as well as learn about upcoming athlete events, including chats, interviews, and appearances. Additional athletes that joined Brett Favre and Karl Malone in the Yahoo! Sports All-Star Club included NBA players Donyell Marshall and Chris Webber; NFL players Drew Bledsoe, John Mobley and Ricky Watters; NHL players Ed Belfour, Sergei Fedorov and Teemu Selanne; MLB players Tom Glavine, Shawn Green, A.J. Hinch, Trevor Hoffman, and Ivan Rodriguez; Wimbledon tennis champion Jana Novotna and tennis star Anna Kournikova; and NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
drivers Ward Burton and Michael Waltrip.
By the late 1990s, Athlete Direct had acquired the digital rights for more than 250 athletes, which essentially became a portal site for "jock blogging." For example, after tossing a bat at Mike Piazza during the 2000 World Series, Roger Clemens
Roger Clemens
William Roger Clemens , nicknamed "Rocket", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who broke into the league with the Boston Red Sox, whose pitching staff he would help anchor for 12 years. Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards, more than any other pitcher. He played for four different teams over...
stiffed reporters in the locker room following the game but offered a full explanation on his web site. When Albert Belle refused to grant press interviews, media outlets like the Washington Post and ESPN.com had to use his journal postings for quotes in their articles – as illustrated by a note Belle posted in his locker to reporters in 1999: "If you want an interview, check my Web site."
Richard Nanula
Richard Nanula
Richard Nanula has served as Chief Financial Officer of Amgen Inc. since August 2001 and as Executive Vice President since May 2001. On April 10, 2007 Amgen announced that he would be resigning from his position "to pursue other opportunities." He will be at Amgen until July 2007 to assist in...
was hired as chairman and chief executive in October 1999 after he resigned as president and chief operating officer of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc.
Nancy Kerrigan
Nancy Kerrigan
Nancy Ann Kerrigan is a two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist and 1993 U.S. champion.-Early life and skating career:...
, arguably the most prominent figure skater of the 1990s, announced her association with Athlete Direct in November 1999. "I am proud to be associated with Athlete Direct because it is the No. 1 choice in online sports entertainment. This relationship will allow me to expand my interaction with skating fans worldwide," said Kerrigan.
At its height in November 1999, Broadband Sports offered $53 million in stock for Stats, Inc.
STATS, Inc.
STATS LLC is a global sports statistics and information company – the company name originated as an acronym for "Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems". It was founded on April 30, 1981 by John Dewan, who became the company's CEO...
, an offer that was seriously considered before owner John Dewan sold the company to News Corporation.
With its S-1 filing on November 26, 1999, Broadband Sports Inc. was defined as:
"a leading Internet provider of original content and commerce for hundreds of individual sports communities. These geographically dispersed communities are composed of fans who follow individual sports, teams and athletes and are characterized by a passionate demand for content and commerce relating to their particular interests. In aggregate, these sports communities generated over $130 billion in revenue according to the most recently published study from the Georgia Institute of Technology. We believe that we are well positioned to target these communities through our development of distinct online media properties, each of which is built around a set of proprietary assets. By leveraging these proprietary assets, we have created a unique and compelling network of content, community and commerce offerings. Through our partnerships with AOL, eBay, Fox, uBid, and Yahoo!, we are able to efficiently reach these various communities with the type of content and commerce offerings they demand and derive revenue from multiple sources. During October 1999, we had over 35 million page impressions across our properties."
By December 1999, Athlete Direct expanded its influence in the digital media space through a strategic relationship with eBay Inc. eBay launched regional sites and in partnership with Athlete Direct, consumers could bid on equipment from local sports stars with the proceeds of these sales being donated to the athlete’s sponsored charity.
Come November 20, 2000, Broadband Sports and ESPN had teamed up to jointly create and program a new Athletes Channel on ESPN.com. However, this relationship was short-lived, as Broadband Sports closed its doors on February 16, 2001. Despite raising $20 million in the company's final year and proclaiming in September publicly that the company was financially stable and didn't need an IPO, the company shut down and dismissed 160 employees just five months later.
"It was a case study in how not to run a company, but I learned a lot by reverse example." - Jeffrey PollackJeffrey PollackPollack has been named to Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal of "40 Under 40" and twice to The Sporting News 100. He has also won two Emmy Awards. Pollack is married, and resides in both Los Angeles and Las Vegas...
, current vice president of sports and entertainment at Harrah's Entertainment Inc., and former Broadband Sports VP.
Following the demise of Broadband Sports, athletes such as NASCAR driver Ward Burton
Ward Burton
John Edward Burton III is an American NASCAR auto racer, who has a total of five career Sprint Cup wins. He last drove the #4 State Water Heaters Chevrolet Impala SS for Morgan-McClure Motorsports in 2007. He is the older brother of fellow NASCAR driver Jeff Burton, against whom he first...
sued under the ICANN Policy to obtain ownership of their respective domain names.
Sources
- Yahoo! and Athlete Direct Team to Put Sports Stars at Users' Online Doorsteps
- To avoid the press, pro athletes turn to the Web.
- Ward Burton vs. Athlete Direct
- Athlete Direct to Create Official Web Site For Garciaparra
- Athlete Direct Launches Official Nancy Kerrigan Web Site
- Belle to Press: Talk to the Web!
- History of NASCAR Family Chat on AOL
- eBay Launches 23 Sites, Adds Pro Sports
- History of NASCAR Family Chat on AOL
- Players and Fans Ponder Net Worth
- Broadband Sports Prospectus Summary
- ESPN.com and Broadband Sports Team up for Athletes Channel
- Buzznet Names Internet Veteran Tyler Goldman as CEO to Continue Driving Substantial Growth
- Sports world reaches out, helps Virginia Tech cope (by Elliott Gordon)
- http://www.broadbandsports.com