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New Lightning site up and running

By GREG AUMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 29, 2000

The Tampa Bay Lightning unveiled an improved official Web site Wednesday at tampabaylightning.com, just in time for the NHL team's season opener against the New York Islanders one week from today.

"It was a key for us to have it up before the season," Lightning director of marketing Sean Flynn said. "We really wanted to be able to introduce it with everything else we're doing this year."

The Lightning has a new slogan ("Join the Charge"), and that statement looks to be true online as much as it could be on ice. Flynn said the team made upgrading its Internet presence an off-season priority, and the new site has had good initial reviews.

Weekly player chats are planned during the season, and when radio analyst Bobby "Chief" Taylor and center Ryan Johnson chatted this week, close to 100 people joined the Lightning chat room.

"We want to create a hockey community," Flynn said, pointing to the chats and several links to local youth and adult recreational hockey leagues. The site had been under construction in recent weeks until its relaunch, and Flynn said fans from the bay area and as far as Canada and Europe sent e-mails responding to the site's new look.

This is only a "soft launch," meaning more is on the way. Flynn said to look for more audio and video clips, with highlights from games, news conferences and the team's weekly radio and TV shows.

The site has several schedules -- one for all games, with links allowing fans to buy tickets, and another for the team's televised games. One schedule lists the team's promotions, with giveaways like interactive CD-ROMs on Dec. 31 against Toronto and Lightning caps Jan. 12 against Philadelphia.

One page details mascot ThunderBug's presidential campaign ("I won't lie to you, because I can't talk," his slogan explains), with the next scheduled stumping stop set for Tuesday at Countryside Mall in Clearwater.

QUE PASA?: ESPN.com unveiled a parallel Spanish site, espndeportes.com (which translates to ESPN Sports) and for fun, you can have the site translated by typing a story's address in at world.altavista.com. The translation is amazingly fast, but not always accurate: Thursday's Rays-Yankees game story identifies manager Joe Torre as the "team pilot" and mentions that Jose Guillen's home run "was a great impulse for Tampa Bay in the second entrance, in which they marked four races."

LET THE DAWGS OUT: The Tampa Bay ThunderDawgs are one of four teams in the new American Basketball Association with a team store online. Three months before the ABA season starts, there's a full Dawgs wardrobe available at aba2000.com, from the Khaki Bucket Hat with Contrast Trim ($27) to the Black Wool/Leather Varsity Jacket ($286). The logo is impressive, if only because the dog pictured actually can palm the ball.

CHATWATCH: Bucs lineman Frank Middleton will chat at 2 p.m. today at buccaneers.com ... Blues defenseman Chris Pronger, the reigning NHL MVP, chats at 3 p.m. Monday at ESPN.com ... Seahawks running back Ricky Watters, ranked 10th in the NFL with 290 rushing yards, chats at 8 p.m. Tuesday at athletesdirect.com, and at the same time, Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson chats at nfl.com.

TID-BYTES: An autographed Christmas card from Packers quarterback Brett Favre with two tickets to the Bucs-Packers game on Christmas Eve enclosed went for $1,000 on eBay.com Thursday night. Proceeds went to the Brett Favre Forward Foundation. ... NFLtwins.com, the site Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber shares with his brother, Tiki, is offering T-shirts of the Giants' "Thunder and Lightning" backfield of Barber and Ron Dayne. Cost is $20, or $50 with Tiki's autograph ... The University of Florida women's soccer team will have its final three home matches broadcast online at gatorzone.com, starting with a showdown against Georgia at 2 p.m. Sunday. Can play-by-play man Javier de Diego comeclose to the 22-second "GOOOOOOOOOAALL" call recorded during the Olympics by the incomparably long-winded Andres Cantor? If so, perhaps Sucrets should sponsor the Webcast.

- If you have a question or comment about the Internet or a site to suggest, send an e-mail to staff writer Greg Auman at aumanac1@aol.com.

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