Archive for category Canberra United

Digg and Australian/Kiwi women’s sport

Posted by Laura on Saturday, 27 November, 2010

digg is similar to social news.  Users submit links. Then other users can “digg” the links to indicate that the like them or thumb down the links if they do not.  The more “diggs” a link gets, the greater its visibility is on the site.  If it gets enough likes, it may be featured on the front page.  Being featured on the front page is considered highly desirable by many sites as it means a lot of traffic that they might not get otherwise.

According to Alexa on November 27, digg ranks 103 in Australia.  The AFL appears to have an official digg account, which they use to promote some of the articles that appear on their site.  Despite these two favorables, digg does not appear to play an important role in Australia’s sport fandom picture.  Over in men’s sport, when the Joel Monaghan story broke, it wasn’t Australians who submitted links to digg about it; rather, articles were submitted by Americans, a Kiwi and an Indonesian.  Similarly, two of the three links found for the ACT Brumbies were submitted by South Africans; only one was submitted by an Australian.  In a sample of around 200 unique Australian sport related digg submitted links, the average story had only 2.7 diggs, and median and mode of 1 digg per article.  Australian sport related articles are just not getting much attention on the site.  This reinforces the view that digg does not have a large, active community of sport fans despite its popularity in Australia.

Data was gathered on digg for Canberra United.  In gathering this data, a few other W-League teams were also picked up.  Getting information on the W-League continued to be problematic because the W-League shares a name with a US league and the W-League teams, with the exception of Canberra, share names with their A-League counterparts.  The easiest way to find W-League related links submitted on digg is to find a user who has submitted one link, and then see what else the user has submitted.
The links fall into two general categories: 1) Where to watch the games streaming. 2) Team profiles and game news.  The type of link submitted was based on who was submitting it.  In both cases, the links were posted during the W-League season, which suggests that interest in mentioning the league is not maintained during the off season.

The timeline of links being submitted also suggests that the digg users who posted them were posting them as part of a large digg submission effort: The digg submissions were not spread out over the season. It would be interesting to see if this pattern was repeated for other leagues, clubs and athletes.  If it is, it suggests other fundamental problems with the Australian and Kiwi female sport community on digg.  Namely, it suggests that people are less interested in long term promotion of sport but are focused on one off promotion of their sites to improve their own site’s visibility.  They are not necessarily interested in promoting women’s sport in a wider context.

Team Diggs Title Description Submitted Submitter Comments Checked
Canberra United 1 WATCH LIVE MATCH QUEENSLAND V CANBERRA ONLINE VIDEO STREAMIN watsports.blogspot.com — Canberra United again will prove that they are the only team that can defeat the Queensland Roar on the green field. WESTFIELD W-LEAGUE FIRST GRAND… 16-Jan-09 ngl0323 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Canberra United 1 LIVE MATCH QUEENSLAND Vs CANBERRA ONLINE AND DOWNLOAD VIDEO watolin1.blogspot.com — WESTFIELD W-LEAGUE FIRST GRAND FINAL LIVE AT BALLYMORE STADIUM, HERSTON. IT WILL BE AN EVENT THAT WOULD SHAPE THE COURSE OF THIS PART OF WOMENS LEA… 16-Jan-09 ngl0323 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Brisbane Roar 1 WATCH LIVE MATCH QUEENSLAND V CANBERRA ONLINE VIDEO STREAMIN watsports.blogspot.com — Canberra United again will prove that they are the only team that can defeat the Queensland Roar on the green field. WESTFIELD W-LEAGUE FIRST GRAND… 16-Jan-09 ngl0323 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Brisbane Roar 1 LIVE MATCH QUEENSLAND Vs CANBERRA ONLINE AND DOWNLOAD VIDEO watolin1.blogspot.com — WESTFIELD W-LEAGUE FIRST GRAND FINAL LIVE AT BALLYMORE STADIUM, HERSTON. IT WILL BE AN EVENT THAT WOULD SHAPE THE COURSE OF THIS PART OF WOMENS LEA… 16-Jan-09 ngl0323 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Sydney FC 1 Sydney FC Womens Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Sydney FC 6 days ago womenssoccer 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Sydney FC 1 Sydney FC 4 – 2 Brisbane Roar Round One W-League Match Photos – Women’s Soccer United womenssoccerunited.com — Sydney FC has run out comfortable 4-2 winners over the Brisbane Roar in the opening round of W-League In a replay of the 2009 final, Sydney were o… 6 days ago womenssoccer 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Perth Glory 1 Perth Glory Women Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Perth Glory 6 days ago womenssoccer 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Newcastle Jets 1 Newcastle Jets Womens Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Newcastle Jets 6 days ago womenssoccer 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Newcastle Jets 1 Adelaide United V Newcastle Jets Round One W-League Match Photos – Women’s Soccer United womenssoccerunited.com — Newcastle Jets have opened their Westfield W-League account with a 2-0 win over Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium on Saturday. A double to forme… 6 days ago womenssoccer 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Melbourne Victory 1 Melbourne Victory Womens Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Melbourne Victory 6 days ago womenssoccer 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Canberra United 1 Canberra United Womens Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Canberra United 6 days ago womenssoccer 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Canberra United 1 Canberra United V Perth Glory Round One W-League Match Photos – Women’s Soccer United womenssoccerunited.com — Michelle Heyman’s hat-trick has ensured Canberra United enjoyed a winning start to their Westfield W-League campaign, producing a 4-1 victory … 6 days ago womenssoccer 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Brisbane Roar 1 Brisbane Roar Women’s Team Photo Slide-Show – Women’s Soccer United womenssoccerunited.com — Team profile photos Photos: Brisbane Roar 6 days ago womenssoccer 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Adelaide United 1 Adelaide United V Newcastle Jets Round One W-League Match Photos – Women’s Soccer United womenssoccerunited.com — Newcastle Jets have opened their Westfield W-League account with a 2-0 win over Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium on Saturday. A double to forme… 6 days ago womenssoccer 0 Comments 14-Nov-10
Team Username Location Followers Following Diggs Daily Diggs Submissions Daily Submissions Comments Date checked
Adelaide United womenssoccer 1 0 186 0 190 3 0 14-Nov-10
Brisbane Roar ngl0323 Farwania 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14-Nov-10
Brisbane Roar womenssoccer 1 0 186 0 190 3 0 14-Nov-10
Canberra United ngl0323 Farwania 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14-Nov-10
Canberra United womenssoccer 1 0 186 0 190 3 0 14-Nov-10
Melbourne Victory womenssoccer 1 0 186 0 190 3 0 14-Nov-10
Newcastle Jets womenssoccer 1 0 186 0 190 3 0 14-Nov-10
Perth Glory womenssoccer 1 0 186 0 190 3 0 14-Nov-10
Sydney FC womenssoccer 1 0 186 0 190 3 0 14-Nov-10
League Team Keyword Story Results Profile Results Date checked
ANZ Championship West Coast Fever West Coast Fever 9243 0 25-Nov-10
ANZ Championship Melbourne Vixens Melbourne Vixens 1 0 25-Nov-10
ANZ Championship Queensland Firebirds Queensland Firebirds 0 0 25-Nov-10
ANZ Championship West Coast Fever West Coast Fever 0 0 25-Nov-10
ANZ Championship Melbourne Vixens Melbourne Vixens 0 0 25-Nov-10
ANZ Championship Queensland Firebirds Queensland Firebirds 0 0 25-Nov-10
Hockey Australia Hockeyroos Hockeyroos 2 0 25-Nov-10
Hockey Australia Hockey Australia Hockey Australia 194 0 25-Nov-10
Hockey Australia Hockey Australia Hockey Australia 5 0 25-Nov-10
W-League Canberra United Canberra United 4 0 14-Nov-10

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Data dump: Australian sport on bebo

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 24 October, 2010

This is a data dump. It is raw data that I’ve updated a bit recently. It may or may not be useful to others.


Service League Team Interest People Video Music Groups Apps Skins Date gathered
bebo AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 143 37 11 20 24-Oct-10
bebo A-League Adelaide United Adelaide United 76 104 13 26 1 0 1-Jul-10
bebo W-League Adelaide United Adelaide United W-League 0 0 0 0 0 0 1-Jul-10
bebo World Cup Soccer All Whites All Whites 184 113 27 53 0 0 19-Jun-10
bebo World Cup Soccer All Whites All Whites 184 113 27 53 0 0 22-Jun-10
bebo World Cup Soccer All Whites All Whites 184 113 27 53 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 280 156 53 75 2 0 8-Jun-10
bebo NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 280 156 53 75 2 0 15-Jun-10
bebo NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 280 156 53 75 2 0 18-Jun-10
bebo NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 280 156 53 75 24-Oct-10
bebo NRL Brisbane Broncos israel folau 99 26 8 30 0 0 8-Jun-10
bebo NRL Brisbane Broncos israel folau 98 26 8 30 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo NRL Brisbane Broncos israel folau 98 26 8 30 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL Brisbane Lions brisbane lions 132 59 12 16 24-Oct-10
bebo A-League Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar 19 19 0 3 0 0 1-Jul-10
bebo W-League Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar W-League 0 0 0 0 0 0 1-Jul-10
bebo NRL Canberra Raiders Canberra Raiders 85 56 42 47 1 0 16-Jun-10
bebo NRL Canberra Raiders Canberra Raiders 85 56 42 47 1 0 18-Jun-10
bebo W-League Canberra United Canberra United 4 7 1 2 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo W-League Canberra United Canberra United 4 7 1 2 0 0 3-Jun-10
bebo W-League Canberra United Canberra United 4 7 1 2 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo W-League Canberra United Canberra United 4 7 1 2 0 0 25-Jun-10
bebo W-League Canberra United Canberra United 4 7 1 2 0 0 1-Jul-10
bebo W-League Canberra United Canberra United 4 7 0 0 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo NRL Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 11 14 50 33 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 46 26 5 5 0 0 8-Jun-10
bebo AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 46 26 5 5 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 46 26 5 5 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 46 26 5 5 24-Oct-10
bebo A-League Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners 24 77 14 17 0 0 1-Jul-10
bebo W-League Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners W-League 0 1 0 0 0 0 1-Jul-10
bebo WAFL Claremont Tigers Football Club Claremont Tigers 3 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Collingwood Magpies Collingwood Magpies 68 17 7 15 0 0 9-Jul-10
bebo AFL Collingwood Magpies Collingwood Magpies 68 17 7 15 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Collingwood Magpies Collingwood Magpies 68 17 7 15 24-Oct-10
bebo NRL Cronulla Sharks Cronulla Sharks 102 46 39 52 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo WAFL East Fremantle Sharks Football Club East Fremantle Sharks 2 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo WAFL East Perth Royals Football Club East Perth Royals 1 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 84 22 12 10 0 0 9-Jul-10
bebo AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 84 22 12 10 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 84 22 12 10 0 0 23-Aug-10
bebo AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 84 22 12 10 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 85 18 17 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 85 18 6 17 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL Geelong Cats Geelong Cats 77 23 6 9 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL Gold Coast Suns Gold Coast Football Club 1 1 0 0 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL Gold Coast Suns Gold Coast Suns 0 0 0 0 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo NRL Gold Coast Titans Gold Coast Titans 136 45 46 65 0 0 16-Jun-10
bebo NRL Gold Coast Titans Gold Coast Titans 136 45 46 65 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo State Basketball League (Western Australia) (SBL) Goldfields Giants Goldfields Giants 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney 2 0 0 0 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL Greater Western Sydney Team GWS 0 0 0 0 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL Greater Western Sydney Western Sydney Football Club 0 0 1 0 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL Hawthorn Hawks Hawthorn Hawks 31 26 7 11 24-Oct-10
bebo NRL Manly Warringah Sea Eagles Manly Warringah Sea Eagles 16 10 11 29 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo Women’ World Cup Soccer Matildas Matildas 22 21 6 1 0 0 1-Jul-10
bebo Women’ World Cup Soccer Matildas Matildas 22 21 6 1 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Melbourne Demons Melbourne Demons 33 30 3 3 24-Oct-10
bebo A-League Melbourne Heart Melbourne Heart 82 14 1 1 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo A-League Melbourne Heart Melbourne Heart 82 14 1 1 0 0 25-Jun-10
bebo NRL Melbourne Storm Greg Inglis 107 76 21 33 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo NRL Melbourne Storm Greg Inglis 106 76 21 33 24-Oct-10
bebo NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 402 28-Apr-10
bebo NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 402 9-May-10
bebo NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 402 174 69 109 0 0 8-Jun-10
bebo NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 402 174 69 109 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 402 174 69 109 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 402 174 69 109 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 107 144 14 22 1 0 25-Jun-10
bebo A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 107 144 14 22 1 0 1-Jul-10
bebo W-League Melbourne Victory W-League Melbourne Victory 0 1 0 0 0 0 1-Jul-10
bebo NRL New Zealand Warriors New Zealand Warriors 45 88 31 52 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo NRL Newcastle Knights Newcastle Knights 261 112 74 84 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 14 6 3 4 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos north melbourne kangas 0 0 0 0 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos north melbourne roos 1 0 0 0 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo NRL North Queensland Cowboys North Queensland Cowboys 69 25 35 56 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo NRL NRL NRL 2,944 1,226 483 575 16 1 18-Jun-10
bebo State of Origin NSW Blues Andrew Johns 139 86 34 27 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo State of Origin NSW Blues Andrew Johns 139 86 34 27 0 0 17-Jun-10
bebo State of Origin NSW Blues Andrew Johns 139 86 34 27 24-Oct-10
bebo State of Origin NSW Blues NSW Blues 77 6 29 26 0 0 17-Jun-10
bebo NRL Parramatta Eels Parramatta Eels 471 151 134 130 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo NRL Parramatta Eels Parramatta Eels 471 151 134 130 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo NRL Parramatta Eels Parramatta Eels 471 151 134 130 24-Oct-10
bebo NRL Parramatta Eels Timana Tahu 11 8 20 7 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo NRL Parramatta Eels Timana Tahu 11 8 20 7 24-Oct-10
bebo WAFL Peel Thunder Thunder Football Club Peel Thunder Thunder 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo NRL Penrith Panthers Penrith Panthers 163 61 50 60 1 0 18-Jun-10
bebo WAFL Perth Demons Football Club Perth Demons 7 0 2 16-Aug-10
bebo Gridiron Australia Perth Blitz Perth Blitz 0 3 0 16-Aug-10
bebo Gridiron Australia Perth Broncos Perth Broncos 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo A-League Perth Glory Perth Glory 29 79 8 19 1 0 25-Jun-10
bebo A-League Perth Glory FC Perth Glory 28 79 19 16-Aug-10
bebo Claxton Shield Perth Heat Perth Heat 27 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo WNBL Perth Lynx Perth Lynx 2 1 0 16-Aug-10
bebo State Basketball League (Western Australia) (SBL) Perth Redbacks Perth Redbacks 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo Australian Rugby Championship Perth Spirit Perth Spirit 4 0 1 16-Aug-10
bebo NBL Perth Wildcats Perth Wildcats 3 4 1 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Power 26 23 10 5 0 0 9-Jul-10
bebo AFL Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Power 26 23 10 5 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Power 26 23 10 5 24-Oct-10
bebo State of Origin Queensland Maroons Queensland Maroons 53 3 21 29 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo State of Origin Queensland Maroons Queensland Maroons 53 3 21 29 0 0 17-Jun-10
bebo State of Origin Queensland Maroons Queensland Maroons 52 3 21 29 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL Richmond Tigers Richmond Tigers 77 29 10 8 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Richmond Tigers Richmond Tigers 76 29 10 8 24-Oct-10
bebo AHL SmokeFree WA Thundersticks WA Thundersticks 0 0 0 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 167 169 56 29 0 0 14-May-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 167 169 56 29 0 0 3-Jun-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 167 169 56 29 0 0 12-Jun-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 167 169 56 29 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 167 169 56 29 0 0 19-Jun-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 167 169 56 29 0 0 22-Jun-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 167 169 56 29 0 0 24-Jun-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 167 169 56 29 0 0 1-Jul-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 167 169 56 29 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo WAFL South Fremantle Bulldogs Football Club South Fremantle Bulldogs 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo NRL South Sydney Rabbitohs South Sydney Rabbitohs 93 81 51 66 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo NRL St George Illawarra Dragons St George Illawarra Dragons 66 34 41 46 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo AFL St Kilda Saints st kilda saints 13 12 4 4 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL St Kilda Saints st. kilda saints 13 12 4 4 24-Oct-10
bebo WAFL Subiaco Lions Football Club Subiaco Lions 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo Western Australian Suburban Turf Cricket Association (WASTCA) Subiaco Marist Cricket Club Subiaco Marist Cricket Club 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo WAFL Swan Districts Swans Football Club Swan Districts Swans 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo NRL Sydney Roosters Sydney Roosters 260 109 100 108 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 219 88 37 33 0 0 8-Jun-10
bebo AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 219 88 37 33 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 219 88 37 33 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Sydney Swans sydney swans 219 88 37 33 24-Oct-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Three Lions Three Lions 63 199 27 34 0 0 22-Jun-10
bebo World Cup Soccer Three Lions Three Lions 63 199 27 34 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo World Cup Soccer USMNT USMNT 0 7 0 0 0 0 22-Jun-10
bebo World Cup Soccer USMNT USMNT 0 7 0 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo WNCL Victorian Spirit Victorian Spirit 2 1 0 0 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo WNCL Victorian Spirit Victorian Spirit 2 1 0 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AHL Victorian Vikings Victorian Vikings 0 0 0 0 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo AHL Victorian Vikings Victorian Vikings 0 0 0 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AHL Victorian Vipers Victorian Vipers 0 0 0 0 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo AHL Victorian Vipers Victorian Vipers 0 0 0 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AHL WA Diamonds WA Diamonds 1 2 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL West Coast Eagles West Coast Eagles 300 120 44 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL West Coast Eagles West Coast Eagles 300 120 32 44 24-Oct-10
bebo ANZ Championship West Coast Fever West Coast Fever 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo WNBL West Coast Waves West Coast Waves 5 18 2 16-Aug-10
bebo WAFL West Perth Falcons Football Club West Perth Falcons 2 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo S.G. Ball Cup Western Australia Reds Rugby League Club WA Reds 4 2 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 5 10 0 0 0 0 8-Jun-10
bebo AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 5 10 0 0 0 0 9-Jun-10
bebo AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 5 10 0 0 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 4 10 0 0 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 4 10 0 0 0 0 24-Oct-10
bebo AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 95 40 8 13 0 0 8-Jun-10
bebo AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 95 40 8 13 0 0 15-Jun-10
bebo AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 95 40 8 13 0 0 24-Jun-10
bebo AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 94 40 8 13 0 0 16-Aug-10
bebo AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 94 40 8 13 24-Oct-10
bebo Super 14 Western Force Western Force 54 52 17 16-Aug-10
bebo WNCL Western Fury Western Fury 1 2 0 16-Aug-10
bebo Sheffield Shield Western Warriors Western Warriors 17 3 3 16-Aug-10
bebo NRL Wests Tigers Wests Tigers 184 114 79 88 0 0 18-Jun-10
bebo W-League W-League W-League 41 53 48 58 0 0 25-Jun-10
bebo W-League W-League W-League 41 53 48 58 0 0 1-Jul-10

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An interview with the CEO of the Canberra United

Posted by Laura on Saturday, 5 June, 2010

On Friday, I had the pleasure of talking to Heather Reid and Russ Gibbs at Canberra United.  I’ve tried to convey as accurately as possible what they have told me based on my memory and I asked their permission to reference them in my blog and paper while I met with them.

If you’re not familiar with the Canberra United, they are a W-League team based out of Canberra.  Unlike other teams in the W-League, they do not share a name or facilities with an A-League club.  Most of the funding and general support for the W-League comes from state based football associations.  This support insures a certain degree of financial stability that they might not be able to afford otherwise.  Some players in the league are paid but many are not.  The W-League was created in order to foster high levels of competition that could feed Australia’s women’s national football team, the Matildas.   The league intentionally schedules their games around the Matilda’s schedules to avoid conflicts for players. This has been successful in that many of the Matildas that played in the AFC championship played for W-League, three of whom play for the Canberra United.  The Canberra United have the highest average attendance of any team in the league, with over 1,000 people attending home matches.

My purpose in talking to them was to help provide background knowledge for my literature review and to generally enhance my understanding of Australian team sport as it may apply other parts of my research.  Going in, I had four questions I wanted answers to.  These questions were:

1. How do you define fandom?
2. How do you reach out to the fan community?
3. How much influence does league management provide in terms of defining fandom and how to engage in outreach?  Do they give guidance on social media policies?
4. How much do other sports, teams and leagues play a role in development and implementation of concepts related to fan engagement and social media?

The research out there about sport fandom defines it differently depending on your relationship to it.  Sport marketing and management literature tends to define fans and fandom as spectatorship or viewers.  Sport sociologist and historians tend to define fandom as identity that is sustained over longer periods of time.  Newspapers and fans themselves tend to define fandom as identity coupled with actions to express that.  I was interested to see how a team would define that.  In the case of the Canberra United, they define fandom for their team based on spectatorship.  In the case of spectatorship, it is not a wide definition of any possible fans but rather a subset of people they have identified as having the highest potential to attend their games.  The group that the team has decided to target is the female players in Capital Football, the ACT’s state soccer organization.  This is a group that the team feels would turn out to see the games as they are already interested in soccer, have knowledge of the club, and may dream of playing on that level or for the Matildas.    It is also easy to target as the team has access to Capital Football’s membership list.  They can easily send out e-mails to the members before a game to encourage them to attend and after a game to let them know the results.

Beyond that population, the club also hopes to attract an audience of general football fans located in the ACT.  The Canberra United are the highest level of soccer in the territory and play during the summer, when there are fewer sport options for people to watch.  When watching the team, fans have the potential to see future and current Matilidas, something that they might not otherwise have a chance to see regularly.

Most of the outreach that the team does involves reaching out through Capital Football.  They have a database of members which makes this easy to access this population.  Beyond that, they do outreach through sponsor related events.  Their major form of outreach beyond those two venues involves their website:  canberraunited.com.au. The site includes information about the W-League, the team and local Canberra football clubs.  When shown data regarding how the club ranked on Alexa compared to A-League clubs, they were pleased.  W-League sites, with the exception of the Canberra United, are hosted as subpages inside A-League sites.  It is not possible to use publicly available data to distinguish between different pages.  Using Alexa, the Canberra United ranked 52,076 in Australia.  This compares to 50,430 for the Adelaide United, 60,807 for the Central Coast Mariners and 26,091 for the Sydney Football Club.  The Canberra United outperformed two teams, are about even with one, and are behind three teams.  This comparatively high rank happened when the team is not playing and against A-League sites that have a bigger attendance draw than the Canberra United.  In addition to the website, the team has ventured some into social media with an official presence on Facebook, where they have 460 fans. When we looked through a list of networks that their followers belonged to, they were able to explain pretty much every network on the list. The team has a Twitter account but they do not actively maintain it.  In the future, they plan to grow their social media presence.

The club has a fair amount of autonomy when it comes to making decisions regarding how to promote their team in their own market and online.  The W-League has their own promotions that are intended at promoting the league as a whole and the Canberra United participate in those promotional events.  The club also has some guidance from Capital Football.   Still, there is no indication that there are a lot of restrictions regarding how the club goes about promoting themselves.  The W-League does not have a formal policy regarding social media usage for its clubs or players in the league.  Canberra United also does not have such a policy as it has not been an issue so far.  Senator Kate Lundy is involved with the Canberra United and is keenly interested in social media and the law.  She is apparently helping the club think about the legal implications involved with this issue.

The team is aware of what other teams and some of the other leagues in Australia are   doing.  They were able to discuss how the AFL handled things compared to the NRL, and were willing to speculate as to how each league would handle certain situations.  They are also aware of what is going on with the Socceroos and the Matildas.  However, they did not know if the FFA had official policies regarding player usage of social media.  This was interesting in that player usage has been an issue the media has paid attention to in the run up to the World Cup, with the US allowing players to use social media but England banning players from using it. The team appeared to be more aware of other Australian leagues than they were of how international footballing bodies handled social media and marketing related issues.

Several other things were discussed that are not easy to categorize as part of the four questions.  These were rather interesting.  The team is aware of the major blogs and message boards that cover their team.  One of these included Girls With Game, girlswithgame.blogspot.com/ .  Another was Capital Punishment, capitalpunishment.forumotion.net/canberra-united-w-league-f3/ .  It sounded like they monitor them to see what people are saying.  They were not as aware of the Wikipedia article about themselves.  They did find it thorough and assumed that some of content was generated by finding information from their site.

Another issue discussed was the marketing of the W-League.  If you’ve been to their site or seen some of their promotional pictures, the players look like models with their hair done and wearing lots of makeup.  This was originally done as the W-League was aiming for a teenaged girl audience and because some in the league believe that sex sells.  Players were given the option of it they wanted to be photographed like that and participate in a sponsor-related event where they were asked to model clothes.  There was a question of “Was that sexist?”  The team told me that the players did not necessarily feel that it was because they were given a choice and they were portrayed positively.  Some of them considered it very feminist in that they could be high level athletes who are also capable of being beautiful women.

One issue I brought up was the issue of being female fanspace.  I referenced a study done involving the WNBA and how lesbians carved out their own space and definition of the league as being lesbian friendly.  This happened in a space that is not obviously queer space and is shared equally by other groups that a team might have greater incentive to maintain.  I asked how this type of issue was handled inside the W-League.  According to the Canberra United, part of the early marketing attempts by the W-League were to counter stereotypes of female athletes as lesbians by using advertising that played up on the players’ femininity with the modeling type pictures. I was also led to believe that this was an ongoing issue with women’s sports defined as pinks vs. ponytails, where some teams and players have gone out of their way to identify one way or another. My impression of what they said was that this was a regular battle of how to be as inclusive as possible while realizing that certain segments are not going to be very tolerant of each other.

In conclusion, the Canberra United use a definition of sport similar to those described by sports marketers.  The only caveat is that they more narrowly define spectator to specific populations they are intentionally targeting.  The club has a great deal of freedom to define their target audience and create their own social media policies.  Most of the team’s influence for how to handle marketing and social media policies comes from within Australia.

In preparation for talking with the Canberra United, I completed an overview of the size of the online community for the team.  It can be found at : ozziesport.com/Canberra_United.pdf

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