Soccer is the world's most popular sport, bringing in a fan base spanning from around the globe. With the popularity of blogging on the rise, online material for fans is more accessible than ever.
Ryan Knapp, creator of the Center Holds It (CHI) soccer Web site and a Ph.D. student studying linguistics, created an Internet haven where fellow fans can obtain information about what's going on in the world of soccer, as well as post opinions and arguments.
According to Knapp, CHI attracts a variety of different people ranging from those new to the soccer scene to avid players.
"We get a lot of people who come in just getting into soccer and they like reading the blog," Knapp said. "It just takes all the thousands of stories out there and condenses the material. This way people can get the main stories quickly."
CHI hosts other information about major events in the soccer world, including trade rumors, coaching changes and just for fun posts.
"[During] the first game of the season in the Spanish league, one of the players for Sevilla had a heart attack on the pitch and died, so I had a huge post on that," Knapp said. "People who Google-searched [the death] chose my Web site as their news source. There was something like 7,000 hits that day with over 100 comments."
Since launching CHI, Knapp has teamed up with two other people in hopes of expanding the Web site further.
"I found a bunch of blogs run by individuals and sent out mass e-mails to 20 people or so to see if anyone was interested," Knapp said. "Two people replied back to me right away whom covered two different things. Between the three of us, we can cover a chunk of what the most popular things are."
Since the blog's inception in August, the Web site has grown in popularity, bringing 2,000 to 3,000 hits in the past two months and 150,000 hits overall, according to Knapp. CHI has also caught the eye of other companies looking to promote through Knapp's blogging site.
Knapp said he has received offers up to $500 from those who wanted to post advertisements on the Web site for a year. Since Wordpress.com offers free hosting, operation costs for maintaining CHI are nonexistent.
"I put the money in my bank account and I write two checks to the other guys I'm working with," Knapp said.
He explained that the original intent of the blogging site never included the use of advertising, and never even thought of in the first place. The payoff ended up being an added bonus. Knapp now has high hopes for the further expansion of advertising, and feels that the Web site still has growing to do in the future.
"The places that bigger companies normally sponsor aren't necessarily established, but they have a clear path they're going down," Knapp said. "Blogs are a dime a dozen. In order to expand, we have to go for a year or two and have a set direction."
Knapp also hosts another satellite blogging site called The Offside, which covers certain teams and gives people the opportunity to blog about a specific team. The Offside also hosts a weekly Podcast, which gets a couple hundred hits a week.
CHI has led Knapp to other opportunities including working with Buffalo's semi-pro soccer league and the Queen City Football Club.
"Through Center Holds It, I got the job working for Queen City doing PR stuff like interviews and stuff for their Web site," Knapp said. "It works out well because I post stuff about their league on my blog and people go to visit their site and come to the games."
According to Knapp, based upon the amount of hits his Web site gets, The Queen City Football Club has the potential of increasing game attendance and the awareness of the league in Buffalo.
At the end of the day, the blog is open to anyone who is interested in soccer or anyone who wants to learn about the game, according to Knapp.
"We started doing it just for fun," Knapp said. "Now we have advertising and people approaching us to advertise on our page and we make pure profit."
Anyone who is interested in Knapp's soccer blogging sites can visit www.centerholdsit.wordpress.com or www.theoffside.com.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
