Condors Have Best Website, Ticket Staff
June 9, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL)
Bakersfield Condors News Release
Bakersfield, Calif. - The Bakersfield Condors claimed two honors from the 2004-05 season from the ECHL League Office this week at the annual league meetings, which were held in Las Vegas from Monday to Wednesday. The Condors were honored as the ECHL's Ticket Department of the Year and www.bakersfieldcondors.com was picked as the league's Top Website.
The Condors ticket sales staff, headed up by Director of Ticket Sales Jose Rivera, received the bid after driving one of the largest attendance increases from the previous season. Attendance in Bakersfield shot up 20%, and the Condors ranked fifth in the ECHL at 5,408 fans per game. They ranked seventh out of 50 teams in "AA" hockey in 2004-05 and also outdrew half of the teams in the American Hockey League. The Condors had the second-highest first round attendance average among the 16 post- season qualifying clubs, at over 5,500 fans per game. Also splitting the award with Bakersfield was the Long Beach Ice Dogs.
"The ticket staff is the backbone of any successful sports franchise," said Bakersfield Sports Entertainment President Matthew Riley. "Our ticket staff and the hours they put in help make every game an experience here in CondorsTown. I'm proud of Jose and the job he has done with our ticket efforts and the amount of work that goes into it."
The Condors website was chosen as the inaugural winner of the ECHL Web Site of the Year. The web sites for each of the ECHL teams were reviewed by Rich Libero, who is in his sixth year as Vice President Editorial & Production, NHL.com, the official web site of the National Hockey League.
Libero was instrumental in the development and implementation of the NHL.com Network which includes all 30 member teams in the NHL as well as numerous league and hockey-related web sites, including the ECHL. During his tenure, NHL.com has seen traffic increase from hundreds of thousands of page views and tens of thousands of visitors to millions of page views and visitors. NHL.com is the No. 1 hockey site in the world, the No. 1 sports site in Canada and is ranked consistently among the Top 10 sports sites in the world according to Netscore.
"The Bakersfield web site is neatly organized, colorful, clean and simple and it offers good news representation. CondorsTown is a solid program and the fact that they include fan feedback is terrific. Fans are provided with a good seat-finder tool that shows what their seats will look like," said Libero. "The Spanish language web site is very innovative and impressive," Libero added. "The Condors have put together a good overall concept with 'The Nest' (the merchandise section)."
The team redesigned its web site in September 2004 and launched the Spanish language site in March 2005. The site was designed by Jason Best at IWS/D in Bakersfield and is hosted by The Marcom Group in Bakersfield. The web site is maintained and updated by Kevin Bartl, who is the Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations for the Condors. IWS/D (iwsd.net) is a privately-owned web-based solution and design company that focuses on small businesses and non-profit organizations with a commitment to provide a quality web experience to those who need it since 2000.
"This is an unbelievable honor not only for IWS/D, but for the Condors organization as a whole," said Best. "It definitely speaks to the steadfast effort on both our parts to create a memorable online experience for the great fans here in CondorsTown."
"We pride ourselves in providing our fans with timely information and being innovative, so we're thrilled to be receiving the Best Website Award," said Riley. "Jason's been fantastic to work with on the site and we have some exciting new features planned for next season."
The countdown is on until the drop of the puck on the 2005-06 season. Opening Night 2005 is only 138 short days away. Season tickets are on sale now at the Condors office located at 1001 Truxtun Avenue or by calling at 324-PUCK (7825).
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