New Website (again)

I'm sorry but it's still pants. As I understand it there was a choice of three different designs - we appear to have chosen the wrong one. And don't ask me how well it works on my iphone! Leeds have an excellent, fully functioning website - why can't we adopt their design?

Leeds are not part of the FLi deal. They were in the PL from the outset and have always retained their own digital rights.

Also, this piece from Paul Barber earlier in the season gives some additional background:

The Football League, via their FLi offshoot, currently owns the digital rights of 86 Football League, Premier League and Conference clubs. This has been in place since 2001 and runs through until 2017, and in commercial terms has been a great success for this club in terms of the revenue it has helped us generate.

Historically, as a collective, the clubs have been able to command far greater revenues, but at the same time we have all had to adhere to the same site framework. As a club we have been and will remain responsible for the provision of the majority of the content within the site, in terms of words and pictures, with FLi responsible for the framework, and other areas such as stats, fixtures and results.

While the deal has worked very well from the commercial side, the flexibility for clubs in terms of what can be offered to supporters has not always met expectations. However, with a new management team in place at FLi, working under the Football League’s new head of commercial operations Richard Heaselgrave, I hope we will see that change in the coming months and years.

As a club, we were the last to switchover to the new platform, as we had our own reservations, but having worked with service providers Sapient Nitro and Richard and his team to overcome the most pressing of those, we felt it was the right time to move across. There is still room for improvement, and of course new technology will always be available, and we are working with FLi to improve the service and will be encouraging them to embrace new technologies to give supporters a cutting-edge service.

Alongside this we will continue working with a number of our own suppliers, from Talent who supply our ticketing solution, to Bright Site, who are responsible for the online retail site, and we will be asking the same of them over the coming months; while also developing other digital offerings to supporters such as social media and investigating the feasibility of other projects such as offering supporters Wi-Fi within the stadium.