Business-to-consumer models in e-commerce are generally considered passe, but that’s not stopping financiers from pouring money into a local dot-com that promises to revolutionize community sporting leagues.
StreetZebra.com offers information about league play and other recreational events, along with e-commerce opportunities and other resources targeting local sports and leisure activities. The Los Angeles-based company has been announcing deals like crazy this summer, has a Web site overhaul in the works, and is weeks away from announcing another major round of funding.
Perhaps part of the secret to the site’s growth is that instead of just tossing content at users, StreetZebra.com tries to encourage teams and players to get involved with the online efforts. For example, every league, team and player can set up a Web page, and they can send out an automatic e-mail reminder to all the players on the day before a scheduled game.
“Teams can post their schedules, standings and statistics through StreetZebra,” said Andy Solomon, the company’s president and chief executive. “(Players) can register for a league and pay on a credit card, so they don’t have to fill out the papers and drive over to pay the fee.”
Currently on StreetZebra.com, users can access in-depth information and original content tailored to Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth. Additional information for just about every major city in the country much of it made available through municipal parks and recreation departments is accessible through a “national” section.
The amount of information available impressed Christopher Todd, an analyst at Internet analysis firm Jupiter Research. “Parks and recreation departments tend to have some kind of online scheduling, but nothing quite this extravagant,” Todd said while exploring the site.
Expansion in the works
The information is only going to grow, Solomon said. At the end of October, StreetZebra plans to launch a revamped Web site that will be more comprehensive in content. Instead of choosing between the national, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago sites, users will be able to simply punch in a zip code to access, say, bicycling leagues in a particular community. And the database will encompass 55 to 60 major U.S. cities.
Partnerships with major recreational organizations have given the company access to a large client base and have helped it grow rapidly. A string of recent deals has also helped the company bolster its presence in the local sports arena.
With its acquisition of the Sport and Social Clubs of the United States, a company that organizes coed sporting events for young professionals around the country, StreetZebra now owns and operates sporting leagues in 18 cities.
And StreetZebra’s purchase of Intramurals.com gives it access to thousands of intramural participants at more than 400 colleges nationwide, including UCLA, Michigan State and Ohio State University. The site, located at www.intramurals.com, lets players keep track of schedules and register online, and lets administrators check the availability of different facilities, as well as oversee the registration process.
Keeping team and league information online helps eliminate the common problems associated with recreational sports. Digging through piles of paper to find a photocopied game schedule or a list of whose turn it is to bring snacks can be frustrating; setting up phone chains in case of a cancellation or schedule change is less than an exact science. Through StreetZebra, schedules can remain posted online, so they’re always in the same place, and schedule changes can be sent out via e-mail.
“If StreetZebra.com gives an opportunity to soccer moms to see if games are on or if it’s her turn to bring the oranges, (those women) are going to perceive that as easier than calling around to see whose turn it is or ask ‘Have you heard anything? Is the game on?'” Todd said. “That’ll be very appealing to a certain portion of the demographic.”
The money problem
But even if the Web site becomes a staple for thousands of local sports and recreation participants, the company faces a challenge common among today’s tech companies: making money.
“From a profitability and revenue standpoint, the question is, is that going to provide them with a revenue stream to continue operating the site and grow the business and continue to build the infrastructure?” Todd said.
Solomon concedes that advertising is an important part of the company’s revenue model, and sites that rely on advertising are having a particularly tough time turning a profit. But Solomon adds that advertising is only one component of the revenue stream.
“When people register online, there’s a convenience fee, similar to Ticketmaster or Moviefone,” he said. The company also collects registration fees from its owned-and-operated Sport and Social Club leagues and teams.
Another major source of revenue is direct marketing, Solomon said. “We know who these people are, what they like to do, and when they like to do it,” he said. “With their permission and only with their permission, we can send them offers for products and services that are relevant to their passion in the world of sports and recreation.”
Developed with help from Guidance Inc., an incubator in Marina del Rey, StreetZebra is privately held and funded by the Dallas-based venture capital firm Hicks Must Tate & Furst Inc. The company closed its Series C round of financing in February and expects to announce its next round of funding by the end of October. Solomon would not specify how much venture capital funding the company has received to date.
