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Can we have our old style OS back now?


gjphilsaint
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One of the many consequences of our financial problems and subsequent relegation was the demise of the more individual OS webpages. Currently our OS looks like evry other FL page..a sort of generic patch.

 

 

What does everyone else think... now that WE ARE PREMIER LEAGUE again, should we break away and reassert the true spirit of our Footie club?

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There was talk that came out of one of the 'Cortese Dinners' that indicated that we'd look to replace if we were promoted.

 

Apparently we are under contract with the football league to use the website template we have at the moment, and the only way we'd be able to break that contract and go our own way was promotion.

 

So I'd expect a new website in the near future....what with the new ticketing system, I'd imagine it will all be designed and integrated in some way.

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Saving grace of the generic OS is that you can log-in to everyone else's commentaries and highlights - more than compensates for its blandness.

 

To be fair that was handy in L1 and the Champ as the coverage was so minimal, we'll be able to see 90' mins of every game we play next year. Whether it's on Sky's football first, Live on Sky/ESPN, or a live stream as there will be one for every game.

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To be fair that was handy in L1 and the Champ as the coverage was so minimal, we'll be able to see 90' mins of every game we play next year. Whether it's on Sky's football first, Live on Sky/ESPN, or a live stream as there will be one for every game.

 

True

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Well our current sponsor provides web solutions, and I seem to remember NC saying that if we get promoted we can cancel the contract with the current providers. So I'm going to do a Nostradamus and predict that AAP3 will be making a new website for us!

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I'd be amazed if AAP designed or built the site, especially given that the websites of Manchester City and Chelsea (amongst others) as well as the premier league have been designed by some of the top design agencies in the country, ranking in the top 10 in Europe.

 

People massively under estimate the price of a well designed site and to achieve the kind of level that Saints would be looking for with a bespoke ticketing system, design etc you'd be looking at something close to around the £500,000 mark and probably about 6-8months for it to be done (at the top end).

 

In fact 99% of football club's websites are absolutely appalling and there's no doubt they're losing a massive amount of revenue from having such poorly built sites. Manchester City's on the other hand is an incredibly brave and well thought through piece of design and user experience and i believe it's won a few awards in the industry http://www.mcfc.co.uk/

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Yep, the City site is a class act. Demonstrates strong commercial awareness and delivers a sound user experience, the likes of which the templated, sterile Perform Group ones could never attain.

 

As a web designer by trade I'd love to have a dig at working on an upgrade but I'm not confident that my tender few years of experience could fully do it justice. Might be fun to put together a mock-up though :)

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Personally I find the Man City website too cluttered. There's a lot going on and it's not that aesthetically pleasing. Just my opinion, of course. I'm quite content with our current website, however generic and ordinary it may be. That said, the online shop and ticketing systems definitely need updating/improving.

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Personally I find the Man City website too cluttered. There's a lot going on and it's not that aesthetically pleasing. Just my opinion, of course. I'm quite content with our current website, however generic and ordinary it may be. That said, the online shop and ticketing systems definitely need updating/improving.

 

If bold images and large, legible headings aren't aesthetically pleasing then what is?! The rotating banner carousel grabs your initial attention and gives the headline articles the important they deserve (up to 15 stories no more than 2 clicks away). Important parts of the page are well highlighted and the modular design means that all other information is consistently well segregated. Yes, there's quite a bit of info on that homepage, but the headings on each box are pretty prominent which enables you to skim through and pick out which you require (not to mention the fact that you can add/remove sections as you please). The navigation is a simple, single-line and so all held in one place (well, if you ignore the floating 'shop' and 'tickets' quicklinks at the very top). There's a prominent search bar that actually churns up relevant results. Good social media integration... The list goes on.

 

Just thought that was a bit of a bizarre comment to come out with given you followed it up by accepting our own as OK - one of the most unnecessarily cluttered sites you'll see!

Edited by ant
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It's the "perform group" who provide the site not Football league.

 

They are sh1t aswell though I agree...

While Perform are the company who actually do the work and own the contract, it's all run through a joint venture with the Football League called - imaginatively - Football League Interactive.

 

I'm led to believe that the contract signed between Perform and the Football League a few years ago was a 99-year one, so would be pretty expensive to get out of. I'm not sure it's as simple as "we're out of the Football League now so it's not a problem" - there are quite a few current PL sides who also have the same generic FL template for their sites.

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While Perform are the company who actually do the work and own the contract, it's all run through a joint venture with the Football League called - imaginatively - Football League Interactive.

 

I'm led to believe that the contract signed between Perform and the Football League a few years ago was a 99-year one, so would be pretty expensive to get out of. I'm not sure it's as simple as "we're out of the Football League now so it's not a problem" - there are quite a few current PL sides who also have the same generic FL template for their sites.

 

99 years? Who'd agree to that?! Maybe if it was mindblowingly brilliant. Which it's not.

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I'd have thought that aap3 would want to be heavily involved in any new website, assuming they are going to be shirt sponsors for a while yet, after all, web site solutions are part of their core business and they did set up the online programme. Having said that, they do like to use Wordpress and it doesn't seem like they have much ecommerce experience, their sites are pretty, but without a lot of functionality.

It would be a little embarassing, I think, if SFC have to get someone else to create us a new site.

 

BTW, I notice that Bolton, QPR, Swansea and Norwich, are using the League template, so perhaps we will have to as well.

Edited by Leslie Charteris
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While Perform are the company who actually do the work and own the contract, it's all run through a joint venture with the Football League called - imaginatively - Football League Interactive.

 

I'm led to believe that the contract signed between Perform and the Football League a few years ago was a 99-year one, so would be pretty expensive to get out of. I'm not sure it's as simple as "we're out of the Football League now so it's not a problem" - there are quite a few current PL sides who also have the same generic FL template for their sites.

 

Stoke City, Norwich, Swansea, Bolton, West Brom, Wigan to name them.

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I suppose the main benefit of that is keeping Saints Player. Though it's true that most games will be televised I prefer the All Angles Covered highlights to re-watching full games I was at. Plus it's nice having all of the interviews uploaded and the odd little extra e.g. from pre-season and the promotion vids of the past couple of seasons.

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99 years? Who'd agree to that?! Maybe if it was mindblowingly brilliant. Which it's not.

I assume there's more to the deal than meets the eye, I guess it depends on when that deal was actually agreed. It's possible that finances across the league appeared particularly tough and they wanted security of revenue from advertising and content (via the Player software).

 

Stoke City, Norwich, Swansea, Bolton, West Brom, Wigan to name them.

Cheers, couldn't be bothered to go through them all myself :lol: :toppa:

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All very well having a flashy new web site design, but totally wasted if there is nothing to put on it, no real content. The way we operate these days there are no news stories, so the headlines would be/are embarrassingly boring and the stories very bland. The way the current site is run there is very little journalistic input, unlike when Graham Hiley was around (by the way I believe he works at Solent Uni these days for the person asking if he was still alive). I would be surprised frankly if aap don't get the contract to implement it, would be rather embarrassing for them if a competitor were to get the gig, thats not to say they might not partner with a design house of course. They have already done the Saints Foundation site apparently, although the comparison is not a good one I accept.

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Web development does seem to be a relatively minor string to aap3's bow, to be fair. Looking at the case studies on their website, they all seem to be fairly basic content management systems. With the club OS having to manage advertising campaigns, email newsletters (presumably with bounce/read tracking), multimedia content, etc, that's a very significant step up in both expertise and cost from what they seem to offer - or at least what they're demonstrating to potential clients on their website.

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Chaps, there will be a new website this summer. My company Sceneric helped FLi choose a new web supplier:

 

http://bit.ly/o7LAL5

 

and it's on it's way. I'm not close enough to it to know exactly when, these chaps are doing it:

 

http://sape.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=605828

 

Perform will still do the video and audio streaming. It's not a 99 year contract.

 

Best part for me of this whole thing is visiting FA / FL / Premier League HQ - it's a blast signing in behind baby Fergie in a sadly pathetic way. Was wishing I had a Chaplow Saints shirt on that day :)

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I'd be amazed if AAP designed or built the site, especially given that the websites of Manchester City and Chelsea (amongst others) as well as the premier league have been designed by some of the top design agencies in the country, ranking in the top 10 in Europe.

 

People massively under estimate the price of a well designed site and to achieve the kind of level that Saints would be looking for with a bespoke ticketing system, design etc you'd be looking at something close to around the £500,000 mark and probably about 6-8months for it to be done (at the top end).

 

In fact 99% of football club's websites are absolutely appalling and there's no doubt they're losing a massive amount of revenue from having such poorly built sites. Manchester City's on the other hand is an incredibly brave and well thought through piece of design and user experience and i believe it's won a few awards in the industry http://www.mcfc.co.uk/

 

Despite the fact that their online shop is a load of gash, and that's where they'd make most of the money.

 

In other news, that Saints site linked on the Wayback Machine didn't actually look much like that, there are a load of ads, links and images missing, and the Skates revamping of their site when they were in the Prem was a triumph of design over content - AND they didn't pay for it. Design's a load of gash, it's content that drives hits, IMHO of course.

Edited by The9
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This is a better reflection of the 2003 site : http://web.archive.org/web/20030416232916/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/index.asp

 

...and there were quite a few changes each season before we capitulated to the "Football League template".

 

Hey look, here's Mike Williamson's u-19 profile : http://web.archive.org/web/20030206151813/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/player.asp?plid=11378&title=Michael+Williamson&clid=786&navlid=academy

 

And here's the "new look" website announcement : http://web.archive.org/web/20021229130032/http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/article.asp?article=124104&Title=Welcome+to+the+new-look+site

Edited by The9
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Chaps, there will be a new website this summer. My company Sceneric helped FLi choose a new web supplier:

 

http://bit.ly/o7LAL5

 

and it's on it's way. I'm not close enough to it to know exactly when, these chaps are doing it:

 

http://sape.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=605828

 

Perform will still do the video and audio streaming. It's not a 99 year contract.

 

Best part for me of this whole thing is visiting FA / FL / Premier League HQ - it's a blast signing in behind baby Fergie in a sadly pathetic way. Was wishing I had a Chaplow Saints shirt on that day :)

 

Pah' Sapient one of my rivals ;) Very good agency btw and have been no.1 in the European top 100 agencies for the last few years, expect them to do something very good if they are given the right amount of time to achieve it.

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Eric, ping me an email, could be worth a chat. I'm Jim at Sceneric (you'll find the email in the site somewhere).

 

My mate Simon Nixon did the IA for the Man City site with Aqeduct. They made him collect the award. He is a massive Man Utd fan!

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