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MyColts.net Coming Soon

Not content with a mere Super Bowl victory, those Indianapolis Colts are now out to conquer the world of social networking! They are planning to launch “MyColts.net” (hmmm, wonder what inspired that name?) which they describe as:

a free, on-line community built by Colts fans, for Colts fans. The system will be free for registered users. Members will be able to create personal profiles, arrange their own pages, and connect with other fans anywhere, anytime, inside the Colts Fan Network.

Although they say this, they also say that the site is owned by the Colts and there’s a humongo AT&T logo on the page with this announcement so one does wonder what will happen should those fans start getting more critical than the club is comfortable with. What happens if, oh, say Baltimore decides to woo them to their city and the fans all turn?

Along with the presumably massive amounts of sports talk, and the social network site-standards of blogging, email, and groups, they also say the site will have reviews:

MyColts.net allows you to read reviews on many products created by fellow Colts Fans like you! Browse through automobile reviews, fashion reviews, food reviews, entertainment reviews, and more. Want to review a product? The tools are all there for you to express your opinions on goods and services.

Now that promise strikes me as odd. With so many review sites out there already, what is the special expertise or shared world view that a Colts fan has that your average epinions or cnet reader doesn’t?

They also discuss that they already have a fan forum and the hoped-for implications of this network on that forum:

Our fan forum (at Colts.com) is already a vibrant, ongoing conversation among avid Colts fans. When the fan network launches, the forum will expand to include more topics, more people, and more interaction than ever before.

Usually you get social networks where there weren’t forums, or the forums arise out of and within the social networks, so I’m curious to see what really happens to the forums once a network launches and how the two spaces will be integrated. How do you get a bunch of people to invest in building a social network AND bring more people topics and interaction to the old space? (win the Super Bowl?)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 8:54 AM
and filed under Social Networking Sites, Sports.

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Comments (2) to “MyColts.net Coming Soon”

  1. Mark Bell wrote:

    Try living in Indiana. The entire state is Colt’s blue right now. I think these sites are a bit faddy and will disappear quickly.

    M

    Posted on 08-Feb-07 at 1:11 pm | Permalink

  2. Nancy Baym wrote:

    I can imagine — I lived in Detroit when the Red Wings won the cup. It was a very happy feeling, though, even though I didn’t follow hockey.

    I wonder if it will be a fad. I mean, I’m sure it’s all a fad, even MySpace will pass one day. But I think that a team-based social networking site has more potential longevity than a SNS based around, say, a rock band (I posted about one of those a while ago). I have no doubt that if the University of Kansas launched a Jayhawk Basketball SNS it would be a success (if done right), people develop such life-long strong identifications with sports teams.

    Posted on 08-Feb-07 at 5:01 pm | Permalink