All club sites have to be under the NBL's deal with Sporting Pulse and so it won't be released until they have that all ready - late August.

How does that work Isaac. You go into all the other clubs websites and see all the news about new recruits and ticket sales. Does that mean that Adelaide can't advertise any of this until late August. Just a tad late.

EC, they're still using the old one (adelaide36ers.com) for that aren't they?

The current site announces the signings and will have ticket prices as soon as Telstra confirm. During an off-season, I think that covers the key stuff.

When clubs signed their new agreements, there was nothing about an online network (e.g., all clubs using the same provider). As a result, three clubs (including Adelaide) started work on new sites. Perth got theirs up, Wollongong have theirs almost ready. Other clubs stuck with their Sportal sites as they didn't have in-house or contracted expertise to do much else.

Since, the NBL have basically pressuring these clubs into using Sporting Pulse, though each would rather do their own thing. So, it's not economical for the 36ers to continue building a site that will be replaced come late August. Hope that helps explain how things got to where they are.

As it stands, you know who's in the team, the season schedule and that pricing will be released shortly. Is there anything else in particular you feel that you haven't been able to get?

Isaac I get that these guys are your mates or pay you for a service but you can't honestly expect season ticket holders to accept that.

Prices can be announced before the formal order forms are ready. The season is 10 weeks away and past season ticket holders, including those of us that registered on the website have received nothing from the club.

No email, no letter, no phone call, nothing. I don't accept that Ben Fitz (very professional to not even use his full name) posting on what is an independant fan forum is proper communication from the club.

Friends I attend games with do not even know this site exists. They will not be re-signing as they feel let down.

Phone lines should have been sorted before they moved in. I do not accept that as an excuse. I run a business and all it takes is proper planning. It sounds to me like whoever was responsible doesn't have the knowledge required to handle these things.

We deserve better and right now I would rather have the previous management back than this mess.

So John Foreman, you would rather not have a team, because if we have the previous management like you want, that is exactly what we would have NO SIXERS

John,

I will be the first to admit that I really know nothing on the topic. But surely you can appreciate that this was a last minute push to literally "SAVE OUR SIXERS" the consortiums main and probably only focus would have been to get the licence first and foremost. Once they acquired the licence they were forced to start from scratch as the sixers had packed up and gone. Be patient mate, there's still a couple of months before the start of the season, the sixers have posted on their make shift website (which isn't exactly hard to find... adelaide36ers.com, who would have thought it??) that information is coming and that they are just waiting on a few minor details to be confirmed and everything will be up and running.

I agree an e-mail to those of us have signed up would have been pretty nice but honestly it sounds like that may have been the only extra thing that they could be doing at this stage.

Just be patient and be thankful that we even have a team to support AND let's do everything we can to continue that.

John, I'm sure there are a lot of things that could have been done differently or timed better. I will speak with Ben about putting the base pricing up without the membership brochures so people at least know what's coming and can budget accordingly.

I do agree that the biggest oversight so far was not collecting the registration emails in a format that made it easy to keep people up to date.

John - I think it is a bit unfair to blame Ben and the rest of the SOS as I'm sure it is something that they will be learning from and will do better in the future.

Every new business has a few hiccups early on - I'm sure they will learn from it and in the end we should be thankful to have a team at all.

There has been talk that the prices havent been released because they cant get the phone number sorted out.
What is wrong with the existing Dome/Venuetix number? Surely that can be used. Or are they trying to get some premium number which has now had a negative effect because they cant release the brochures.

NVS, the brochures haven't been put online because they mention the new phone number (which hasn't been finalised) and putting up a non-working phone number would draw criticism. I am about to put the price overview up, but can just see everyone complaining about the lack of details (which are in the brochure). It's all fun.

Big Sexy, that is a stupid reply to John Foreman's post and really separates the idiots from those who are seriously interested in what's going on. Ever stopped to think that people are critical because they care? John Foreman has said exactly what I have been trying to say. As a season ticket holder sitting in the same seat for the last 7 years, I still have no idea as to what is happening with existing season ticket holders. Yes I submitted an expression of interest but have had no reply. Despite what you say about being lucky to have a team, yes people are thankful for that, especially the ones that you claim should be thankful. Now lets tackle the problem of letting people know that they will be looked after when wanting to get their tickets. Its great now that some pricing information has gone up on the website but it still leaves people wondering where they are at in regards to getting their tickets.

Isaac, what prompted me to ask the question about the website is that all the other clubs have a fully operational website that covers everything such as the team, the coaching staff, the venue they play at, schedule, how to get their tickets, pricing, latest news, etc etc. I wasn't aware that it all needs to change in August so they keep using what they have until then. I also don't understand why the 36ers could not continue to use their website in the previous format until August instead of what they have now which is pretty much useless. Confusion over what is happening is coming from everywhere, that suggests that fans are not being looked after. Sure the SOS team have their hands full in putting together a team and that is pretty important, but where are the PR staff to take care of the fans. You don't want to neglect them because they will bring in the money to make everything happen. Its like stocking up a shop with top quality merchandise and having no customers to buy it.

Its great now that some pricing information has gone up on the website but it still leaves people wondering where they are at in regards to getting their tickets.

They will wait for the brochures and membership form to go up, they will be contacted by email or post, and then they will sign-up like other years.

I also don't understand why the 36ers could not continue to use their website in the previous format until August instead of what they have now which is pretty much useless.

As I said, we started developing a new site and then had to can it because the NBL revealed their plan at a later date. The registration site is meant to provide a focus: here's who's been signed, here's where you can leave your name to be notified once pricing is finalised.

Had we known the NBL were going to do this, we could've kept the previous site in the interim.

What is there now is not useless: it tells people who has been signed, when they'll play, and what it's going to cost to watch them.

In the off-season, the previous site had:

- no members info (stay tuned, etc)
- no corporate info (as above)
- half-disassembled playing roster and that awkward situation of not being able to take people down until they'd been told they weren't required
- previous schedule or the new one
- news archive
- sponsors from the past season that may not be continuing
- etc

It certainly looked bigger, but when it came down to it, a lot of the real information is not always correct between seasons. Given that this isn't a big budget operation, I believe that it is better to save time/budget for the core things and future site, rather than flitting back to the previous site for limited gain.

Other clubs either have their 08/09 Sportal sites, didn't have a big office changeover and got a new site up more quickly (Perth) or put up a reduced site with a focus on a membership drive (Wollongong) and have a new site ready and waiting in the wings that they will now only be able to use for a couple of months before the NBL replace it.

Hope that explains the situation from my perspective.

Thanks for the reply Isaac.