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Tampa Bay area teams link to support efforts

By GREG AUMAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 22, 2001

There aren't a ton of people visiting tampabaymutiny.com right now, whether it be because the Mutiny's season was ended a game early last week, or because there hasn't been much room for soccer in Americans' minds since last week's tragedies.

Those who visit the site, however, will find a logo on the right side of the page: a small Mutiny logo with a candle burning on top, next to an American flag in the shape of the United States.

The image links to fbsblood.org, the online home of Florida Blood Services, and as Mutiny president and general manager Bill Manning sees it, it was the least his team could do.

"I don't think a lot of people are thinking about soccer teams this week," Manning said. "But this is something that maybe puts an idea in their heads. We're just trying to do our bit."

The terrorist attacks in New York hit home for Manning, who was born on Long Island and lost a family friend who had been hired as a building manager for the World Trade Center six weeks ago. As he watched the tragedy unfold Sept. 11, the idea to link to a blood bank was a no-brainer.

"It was one of the first things we thought of," said Manning, whose staff took part in a blood drive at Raymond James Stadium with FBS this summer. When colleagues tried to donate blood last week, they found out they hadn't waited long enough since their last donation.

"We have to wait a week," he said. "They keep very good records there."

The FBS site has addresses and phone numbers for 11 donation centers in the Tampa area and has been getting much attention since the attack.

"Some people just link up without telling us," said Paula Rothmann, webmaster for the St. Petersburg-based center. "We found out this week that a local church had linked to us from their site. I'd like to be able to give a link back to sites that send people our way."

Rothmann said traffic to the FBS site has seen a recent surge: on Sept. 10, the site recorded 453 user sessions, but on the day of the attacks, there were 7,241 sessions -- more than 15 times as many people visited the site in a one-day span. In four days, FBS collected 7,296 units of blood.

The Mutiny isn't the only area team with a prominent link to help fans join the national support drive: devilrays.com has an easy-to-find "how to help" link, and tampabaylightning.com has a red, white and blue ribbon that links to redcross.org.

Area blood centers say there isn't a pressing national need for blood after last week's outpouring of support, but they encourage anyone interested to make regular donations to help keep up with a community demand of more than 600 units a day.

BACK OFF THE MAT: Sportsline.com can rest easy after taking active measures this week to keep Nasdaq, which can remove a stock if its value stays below $1 for a month, from deleting its listing. Sportsline's stock, which peaked at $63 in December 1999, fell below $1 on Aug. 24, but on Monday the company announced a repurchase program, offering to buy up to 6-million shares to show it believes its stock is undervalued.

The move worked: more Sportsline shares were traded Monday than any day since April, and after closing at 81 cents Monday, the stock closed at $1.20 on Friday.

TID-BYTES: NBCsports.com ranks Miami's Ken Dorsey and Florida's Rex Grossman first and second, respectively, in its Heisman Watch feature. Fan balloting has Fresno State's David Carr, fresh off a Sports Illustrated cover, first with 24 percent of the vote, with Dorsey and Nebraska's Eric Crouch second at 16 percent. ... Hoping to raise $100-million in 100 days, eBay.com launched "Auction for America," a program that waives listing fees for auctions whose proceeds will go entirely to the September 11th Fund. Among 3,000-plus sports-related items available are a football autographed by Martin Gramatica and a 7-inch Buccaneers fishing lure.

- If you have a question or comment about the Internet or a site to suggest, e-mail staff writer Greg Auman at auman@sptimes.com.

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