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Papers streaming live stats

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Matt Stephens, May 14, 2012.

  1. Matt Stephens

    Matt Stephens Well-Known Member

    Hacker-
    An app would be perfect, but then again, you can browse the full web from so many phones these days, just an abbreviated mobile page would work, too, for people in attendance. And I agree that not many people would just sit at home on a Friday night and only watch live stats; however, there are plenty of people who just want to see an update of a game or follow closely for the final two minutes. I love Twitter, but this way you could provide the most in-depth and up-to-the-minute updates with not too much more of an effort.

    I can't count how many times in the past year, across all sports, I've wanted to check in on a game hours away, but even if a reporter is there, he/she isn't Tweeting or posting live updates to any website. Hoping to help rectify that problem.

    If I try to do this route, the big issue will be iPad vs. droid/iPhone. I fear with the phone option, it would be a little bit more difficult due to the screen size.

    Silky-
    I know what you mean about players. Especially at the high school level, they're the ones who care the most about stats and coverage ... a lot of times, even more so than their parents.

    GameChanger is becoming a nice tool coaches are using, but you have to pay in order to see stats. Scores are the only thing free for viewers. I even had a coach give my username access to view his softball team's stats on the year, but the website wouldn't let me without paying $30.
     
  2. The nice thing about iScore is it isn't just an iPad app. You can download it for a Droid phone, and I assume an iPhone. The app costs $8-10 I believe, which is fair when you consider the price for a scorebook is at least $5.

    I was thinking about the phone because I have 3G on it, and couldn't justify adding that to an iPad even if I bought one for myself. Fortunately my shop gave the sports department its own iPad with 3G to use. I know most places aren't that fortunate, but I figure many have 3G on their personal phones.
     
  3. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    GameChanger is indeed nice, but having to pay for stats is a big problem. The way it works, whoever has the account has to pay to let people see their stats. It's not cheap, either. Something like $10 per user or $150 to make it completely public.
    Like you, one of our coaches who uses it has hooked us up. He shared HIS username and password with me.
    Doing live stats for baseball or softball is a different beast than football and basketball, though. You have a pause in the action during baseball. You can enter the info, take a breath and get ready for the next pitch. And if you mess something up there's usually someone -- the teams, a parent, etc. -- keeping score that you can run it back and get caught up.
    Football? Good luck. You're on the clock. You have 30 seconds. If you screw up, especially something small like who carried the ball on a 2-yard run at a team's own 30-yard line, you're probably hosed. Much faster paced, much harder to manage.
    Same with basketball, except to the Nth degree. I'm pretty thorough with my basketball stats, and I have a hard enough time jotting down tic marks in the appropriate categories. I can't imagine what would happen when my touch screen got a little dirty or the teams decided to start running up and down the floor, and I end up putting down a rebound when it should have been an assist.
     
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