New Web site dedicated soley to Zag Baseball

There's a new Web site devoted entirely to Zag Baseball. Launched by the marketing department of athletics, the site is currently selling tickets for Zags games, but those in the marketing department intend to do more with the site.

"We will look to develop the site and enhance its features next season," Director of Marketing, Matt Beckman said.

"We may consider including game stats if we feel like the need exists and is something that would be a valuable addition," said graduate intern of marketing Shelby Ulman.
Simply titled zagbaseball.com, Beckman hopes to reach baseball fans through social networking sites. He hopes this will give Gonzaga baseball a stronger presence on the Web.

"The site can easily be passed along to friends through social media," Beckman said. "[It will] engage the consumer and hopefully entice the consumer to purchase tickets."

A similar site was launched last fall for the women's basketball games against USC and Washington.

"One of the main methods of dispersment is through social media," Ulman said. "It's much easier to bring people to the site who are already engaged through a social media platform, than to ask them to visit the site through a commercial or billboard."
Hosted by the company Row27 Studios out of Minneapolis, the site is updated by the marketing department.

Other than raising ticket revenue, Ulman wants to provide the baseball team with a passionate audience.

"It will help us drive attendance for this season and good attendance makes for a great atmosphere at a game." Ulman said. "It's hard to argue that a home-field advantage doesn't exist when the crowd is loud and excited."

Beckman hopes to see an increased interest in Zag sports and thinks that more sites like this will arise in the future.

"I believe similar micro-sites will continue to increase every year," Beckman said.

A micro-site, also known as a minisite or weblet, is a name for an individual Web page or group of pages used as a supplement to a main site. In this case, zagbaseball.com supplements Gonzaga Athletics' main site gozags.com.

"It's an extra step to see the billboard, go to your computer and log onto the site than to click a link you've seen through a social media outlet," Ulman said.

Beckman is looking toward the future, and social media may be the outlet of the future for athletics.

"Each year we will look to build on our success and look for ways to strategically market our athletics," Beckman said.

But don't expect a site dedicated to every Gonzaga sport.

"We've had quite a bit of success in the past few years with micro-sites like this," Ulman said. "However a need for a site like this in another sport is something we'd need to evaluate on a sport-by-sport basis. "

Ulman wants to see the success of these micro-sites continue without losing its allure.
"We don't want the concept to lose its novelty and appeal," Ulman said.
Beckman and Ulman have one driving inspiration for the continuance of sites like zagbaseball.com.

"As we continue to draw attention to Gonzaga's Baseball program and its success, the fan base will continue to grow," Ulman said.