Amateur Internet sites survive against groups with more resources
By Christopher Walsh
Post-Crescent staff writer
Stephen Anderson is not your typical 14-year-old.
He�s from Laurium, Mich., near the northern tip of the Upper Peninsula, attends Copper Country Christian School and spends a lot of time on his home computer. That�s the normal part.
What�s a little unusual is what Stephen does with his computer. This young Green Bay Packers fan has created an elaborate Web site (www.angelfire. com/mi4/greenbaypackers/) dedicated to his favorite National Football League team.
�The Ultimate Diehard Packer Fan Website on the Internet,� continues to evolve, but features statistics, schedules, rosters, polls, a chat room and message board, and links to news services, wire stories and press releases.
Anderson recently added a list of Green Bay attractions and guides to local restaurants, hotels and bars. He may know more about the city than some of its residents.
�I love the Packers and wanted the experience of putting together a Web site,� Anderson said. �I love them a lot, that�s for sure.�
NFL fan Web sites are not new, but they are becoming difficult to find. Five years ago, a computer user needed only to search for a catch phrase associated with the Packers, but today just a handful remain.
�There used to be way more than 50, maybe even hundreds,� said Green Bay�s Al Davis, developer of packernet.com. �I think a lot of them were trying to take advantage of the team�s success after the Super Bowls.�
Many fan-site organizers have found that they can�t compete with the numerous message boards and national sites with more resources. While the Packers have a tremendous fan base, many fans go to the team�s official site, packers.com, which the team says consistently ranks in the NFL�s top three for site visits, or a newspaper site like The Post-Crescent�s packersnews.com.
Consequently, many fan sites that once thrived have shut down or haven�t been updated recently, the cyber-equivalent of cobwebs.
�Time factor is probably the biggest (problem),� said Kenosha�s John Prue, who is in the process of redesigning his �Packer Tundra� site. �I think the last editorial I wrote was when Mike Sherman was hired. Once I started the editorials, I debated whether I could keep it up.
�I�m going to keep it going. That�s my one vice in life, at least that�s what my wife says.�
Frequently updated sites can still draw attention, however. For example, the forum page of packerchatters.com, based in Green Bay, receives approximately 2,500 hits per day. It�s not uncommon for a subject on the message board to be viewed more than 1,000 times, especially as events like the NFL�s annual college player draft approach. Overall, more than 500,000 messages are posted on the site.
Most fans run sites for nothing more than enjoyment, but for others it�s all about business. Davis began his site to sell merchandise, even though almost anything can be found on the Internet.
Want to buy an official Cheesehead to wear Sundays? Go to www.cheesehead.com, the online site of Foamation Inc. (It also has a trivia section for those with a �Gouda� sense of history).
How about official Lambeau Field Pack Rats? The stuffed animals can be found at www. thepackrats.com.
Some athletes have their own sites, like that of Packers running back Ahman Green (ahman30.com).
Brett Maresca was surprised to discover that Packers quarterback Brett Favre�s domain name was available, and quickly secured its rights. Though not a Green Bay fan, Maresca signed on a number of people who are in building brettfavre.com. He�s looking for sponsors to help defray costs, but hopes it someday becomes Favre�s official site.
�It�s a by-the-fans, for-the-fans Web site,� said Maresca, who lives in Sacramento and works for the California Department of Fish and Game when not developing Web sites. �Our team is a group of everyday Brett Favre and NFL fans that want to make sure his domain name did not once again end up in the control of cyber squatters, people (who) get the rights to a name and try and make money off it.�
Maresca�s staff includes Tim Evans of Palatine, Ill.; Christopher Waite, a student in Stevens Point; Matthew Mondt, a student in Chino, Calif.; Christa Clament of Vancouver, Wash., and Kevin Wruck of Marysville, Wash. Other sites have similar support staffs, including many people with ties to the region
Of course, not all Packers fans are born that way. Australian Peter O�Dwyer got into football when he started watching weekly highlights on television, and became a Packers fan when defensive end Reggie White signed with Green Bay in 1993. That Green Bay wore the same colors as national teams from his country was a nice bonus.
�By the time I finally got onto the Internet in 1996, I was able to chat with other Packers fans and read more and more about my newly adopted team and I quickly became a full fan,� O�Dwyer said. �I also decided about that time that as there were no decent Web sites dedicated to Reggie White, that I should do something about it.�
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