At FootballScoop, part of our mission is to inform our audience about interesting content we come across, in part to shine some light on those who created it but mostly to inspire others to improve their own programs by doing something similar.
We did it last month by giving some (pardon the pun) exposure to South Carolina's Exposure.so site that chronicled their historic pro day. A few smaller programs followed suit.
With that in mind, we urge you to visit OneTeamOneChant.com.
The site opens with this incredible promo video, which we've highlighted previously. (One critique: the ability to pause or mute would be nice.)
The site then lays out everything a prospective season ticket buyer would ever need to know about Kansas football.
There's a section on ticket prices:
and then a calendar featuring key off-season dates and every Jayhaywks home game.
Next, the site brings you a section on head coach Charlie Weis and each of his coordinators, and then key players for KU...
... and each opponent.
Each player has a short bio that appears when the user scrolls his image.
Finally, there's a primer on each of KU's major traditions.
The site closes with a map of Memorial Stadium and the adjourning campus, and then a form to give the school your contact information. The site is laid out perfectly. There are links where there should be links. It knows when to give information and when to hold back. And, most importantly, it's very easy on the eyes.
It's everything any casual fan would ever need to know about Kansas football - and nothing they don't. It's the perfect sales pitch, saying anything Weis or AD Sheahon Zenger ever could, and it's available to anyone with an Internet connection.
Now here, many of you are thinking, is where the rug gets pulled from your feet. You'll be shocked at how much Kansas spent on this site... but it's the right kind of shocked. The video (which, to be fair, Kansas did outsource) was already produced, and the coding was done, as Kansas web designer Kevin McCarty says, through various plug-ins laying around the web. The design was a brainchild of the Kansas communications department, primarily McCarty, strategic communications manager Kyle Babson and graphic designer Jackie Berra. The coding process, which was not much more than trial and error and some digital elbow grease, took around a month. Outside of the video (which, again, was already paid for) and the time of people already on staff, Kansas spent less than $100 getting the site up and running. McCarty estimates most colleges have someone already on staff who could do something similar.
OneTeamOneChant.com launched last week, and the domain was registered three to four weeks before that.
Every athletics department pools its collective resources to sell football season tickets. The Kansas communications staff has done its part.