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GoPack.com Re-launches With New Look
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You’ll find something different when you visit NC State’s athletic site online: the new GoPack.com.
On Monday, August 11, 2008, after six months of planning, reorganizing and working with partner JumpTV Inc. of Sanford, Fla., NC State re-launched its official athletics department website to provide an enhanced experience for Wolfpack fans.
The site not only has a new look and new features, it also has more information than ever before about all 23 Wolfpack varsity sports. The athletics department has added staff – including some All-America talent – to work exclusively to make GoPack.com more aesthetically pleasing, more informative and easier to use.
“I am excited about where GoPack.com is heading,” said NC State athletics director Lee Fowler. “We are investing greater time and energy to ensure our finished product serves our teams’ and our fans’ needs. Our staff views this as a project that we continually need to evaluate and improve.”
One of the newest staff members is former NC State track and field All-American Dexter Adams, who has joined the athletics department as its graphics design intern. His work will enhance the look of the site on multiple levels. Adams, a native of Greensboro, was a three-time ACC champion in the long-jump and won All-America honors at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championship.
The athletics department is also in the process of hiring a video intern who will work exclusively for GoPack.com to increase multimedia content, both free and for PackPass, the premium portion of the website.
The site redesign is the result of a web committee headed by senior associate athletics director David Horning that included Wolfpack Sports Marketing general manager Brian Asbill, associate athletics director for external relations Dick Christy, assistant athletics director for video services Jim Sherrill, assistant athletics director for media relations Annabelle Myers, media relations assistant Brian Reinhardt, marketing director Chris Alston and GoPack.com managing editor Tim Peeler.
“During the past seven years, school-sponsored websites have evolved at lightning speed,” Horning said. “They are terrific outlets for telling our own story, for ticket distribution and for creating revenue for our athletics department. We brought the committee together for this redesign because we believe it is imperative that we remain on the cutting edge of information and customer service to our fan base.”
The committee considered feedback from the site’s patrons and worked with JumpTV to take advantage of new technology to create a platform capable of handling a larger volume of content.
“Our goal, from the outset, was to give readers more information about Wolfpack athletics,” Peeler said. “As we get rolling, we hope to double the content on the site.”
The center of the site is partitioned into five rotating sections: Headlines, Upcoming Events, Recent News, Multimedia and Blogs. Users can toggle through the sections or allow it to advance automatically from story-to-story, tab-to-tab. This new front page allows readers access to more than two dozen stories from the center of the site, in addition to easy access to a greater volume of free and premium audio and video content.
The multimedia section includes live and on-demand content. PackPass subscribers will still receive live football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball games, as well as live and archived weekly press conferences and coaches radio and television shows.
Each sport has its own video player that features audio and video content from Sherrill and his staff, including more highlights, postgame interviews and other features.
The blog section is a significant enhancement. Fowler will write a weekly piece highlighting what’s happening at NC State, in the ACC and throughout college athletics. Two student-athletes will make weekly contributions to the blog area, allowing patrons detailed insight into the lives of a college athlete. And Peeler will work with various segments of the department – the Wolfpack Club, compliance, academic support, the Student Athlete Advisory Board, the training room and others – to address issues happening throughout the NC State athletics.
The site not only has a new look, but also an international flair: one of our initial bloggers is former NC State swimmer Dan Velez, who has sent multiple e-mails from the Olympics, where he is representing Puerto Rico in the 100-meter breaststroke. Velez is one of two NC State athletes competing in Beijing, China, along with former teammate Cullen Jones, who won a gold medal Sunday night in the 4X100-meter relay.
The organization of the site also allows one-stop shopping for tickets and NC State athletics merchandise. The convenient Tickets Center offers one-click shopping for season tickets, student tickets and single-game tickets, when available. Wolfpack Sports Marketing has opened a new store at Ridgewood Shopping Center off Wade Avenue in Raleigh and all merchandise at the store will be available on-line.
Enhancing both the quality and quantity of merchandise available through the GoPack.com store is a key enhancement to the site, according to Asbill.
“To achieve that goal, we changed our entire product line and we are working with a new vendor with a proven history of outstanding service,” Asbill said. “We also increased our selection of official adidas team apparel, since many of our fans have expressed a desire for a wider selection of teamwear. We also felt it was important to extend the GoPack brand in the retail sector with a full-time, year-round store to provide our fans with the best selection of official Wolfpack apparel and merchandise offline.
“We officially opened the GoPack store on Aug. 1 to coincide with the launch of the new GoPack.com.”
Fans will continue to see more integration between the online store selection and the items available in the retail store. If there’s something you would like to see in either location, let GoPack.com know. And fans looking to gear up for the coming football season can take advantage the 10 percent off with a re-launch special this week. [Use coupon code “GrandReOpening2008”.]
Fans can now buy their favorite pictures from the site on the GoPack.com Photo Store. Click here for all available pictures.
NC State’s best student-athletes will still be spotlighted in the Caterpillar Scholar-Athlete section.
Fans can still sign up for e-mail alerts from the front page and vote on a weekly poll, regular features that will continue to be a part of the new site.
The new site is the product of a team of designers from JumpTV that have worked with members of the website committee since February to bring a new look to GoPack.com.
“JumpTV is committed to delivering the best online experience to college sports fans and is continually working with our partners to expand their presence in the online arena,” said Nada Usina, President of JumpTV. “With a bigger focus on multi-media content and GoPack.com’s new e-commerce store, donor management tools and the One-Fan Profile, North Carolina State provides a unique platform to fans and alumni following their favorite NC State teams.”
Remember, it’s still a work in progress. We’ll be rolling out new features in the coming months, including more about the school’s rich athletics history.
Take a look around, and let GoPack.com know what you think.
Thanks to GoPack.com for this capcom story & graphic.
