While the Green Bay Packers don't take to the football field until late July for the team's traditional training camp, the Packers claimed a small victory on the Internet Monday. The official Packer website, Packers.com, placed tenth with a rating of 164.0 in a study designed by Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal with the Graduate Sports Communications class at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
In the study that rated the 121 MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL team web sites during a six-week period (Apr. 1 – May 8, 2002), NFL teams finished as 9 of the 10 best, 17 of the top 20 and 29 of the 54 best sites. The winner was the second-youngest NFL team website, of the Cleveland Browns, with the Detroit Red Wings bringing up the rear for last place.
The ratings for each team were based on content, design/technical, commerce and interactivity, and each site was reviewed eight different times using the criteria developed by the research staff. The timeframe the website was viewed encompassed the NFL draft, but the top-ten rating was likely helped by the website's consistent update of news, roster moves, interactive polls, and live stadium cam that shows a view of the developing new Lambeau Field.
The results of the survey will appear in the June 24-30 edition of the Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal.
Green Bay Packers staff members additionally scored for the organization and the community through their participation in the 2002 Cellcom Green Bay Marathon on Sunday. John Dorsey, an effective player for the Packers during the 1980s and currently the team's director of college scouting, completed the full marathon in 4:52:42 (chip time). Additionally, Wayne Wichlacz, director of information technology, completed the full marathon in a time of 4:52:26 (chip time). Andrew Brandt, the team's VP of Player Finance/General Counsel, ran the 5K in 21:37, finishing second in the men's 40-44 age group.
