Sportscasting enters a new age
01.03.02
By Dale Meggas
Sun Newspapers

What's the latest word in Cleveland sports?
You'll Find out on thesportsking.com - Cleveland's Sports Website
We've entered another generation of sports communication. Things got started back in the 1920's with radio broadcasts of Major League baseball games. It continued in the 1950's when television joined with baseball, and followed soon after with football being telecast nationally.

We are now in the Internet phase, with sports joining the parade. And among those pioneers is thesportsking.com, which operates out of suburban Cleveland and features Cleveland sports from the professional level through college and high school competition.

It happened in a strange way, said thesportsking.com president Tom Mercadante. I was in the car one night with a friend in September of '99, and it wasn't convenient to turn on the radio to see how a critical Indians game was going. By the time we parted company, the game had ended, the post game recap concluded and there was no way to get the story. After arriving home I couldn't even find the score on the internet, and I wondered why there wasn't a Cleveland's Sports Web Site.

Mercadante found out that all the good ideas were not taken. Thus, the conception of thesportsking.com - Cleveland's Sports Web Site began and, after organizing personnel, investing, designing and launching, the business is going strong.

We had 68,000 hits our first month in September of 2000, and we thought that was terrific, added Mercadante. Now, we surpass that number daily (1.4 million hits in December 2001) and are continuing to grow. Many of those hits per day log on between 10 a.m. and noon, when FOX 8 Cleveland's Tony Rizzo hosts his tremendously popular Web TV Show each weekday.

Thesportsking.com now boasts 5 LIVE Web TV sports talk shows throughout the day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition to Rizzo, the other hosts include Ryan McNaughton, Matt Loede, Ryan Kilbane and Jeff Sack.

We didn't even have the Web TV programming in our original business plan, admitted Mercadante. But that bonus has been a bonanza for thesportsking.com, whose unique name came from a potential list of more than 500 choices to establish their Web site distinction.

We work hard 24/7, we have a number of full and part-time contributors who bring their expertise from radio, television and the print media, Mercadante added.

In the short time it has been active, the site has had its share of breaking stories come its way. Site editor Matt Loede was on the sideline when (Browns quarterback) Tim Couch broke his hand in practice back in 2000, remembered Mercadante. Matt reported and we were able to get that information to our ever-growing Breaking News e-mail subscriber list and on the Web site right away. You don't always have things first but, when you do, you can be proud of that, said Mercadante, who formerly was marketing director for 10 years at Hilarities Comedy Hall in downtown Cleveland.

Rizzo, Cleveland's WJW TV 8's 6 and 10 p.m. sports anchor, and Mercadante have known each other since they both attended Midpark High School. The two then went to Ohio University together, and have been best friends for years. Loede joined the pair through meeting Rizzo while serving in the sports media business in Cleveland after attending Parma High and Columbia School of Broadcasting, which is now the Ohio Center for Broadcasting.

Loede who recently was promoted to vice president and in charge of editing and updating the Web site throughout the day, also hosts the 2:00 - 3:30 p.m. Web TV slot. Matt attends over 300 events each year, including games, practices and press conferences for pro, college and high schools for the site.

Kilbane, the Noon - 2 p.m. Web TV host, attended Strongsville High before going to Ohio Center for Broadcasting and snaring a job as the play-by-play voice for the Class A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ryan worked out west for two summers before committing to full-time status at thesportsking.com in January.

McNaughton (9 - 10 a.m. Host) and Sack (3:30 - 5 p.m.) come to Cleveland from east coast beginnings. Ryan graduated from Syracuse University and Jeff is a Boston native. Both are now veterans of the Northeast Ohio airwaves as you may be familiar with their sports updates on local radio.

Mercadante knows that things are looking good. Our advertisers have been very happy, he said. We offer 6 and 12 month contracts and, at this time, many have come up for renewal. I'm proud to report that everyone onboard has experienced more than favorable results. We have not had any dissatisfied advertisers or, in fact, any that have chosen not to renew with us.

Is there competition for thesportsking.com? Not now but Mercadante welcomes it if it comes his way. Let's face it, we have a terrific concept here. It wouldn't surprise me if a few similar variations come and go. We will simply continue to do the best job at what we are doing. Any competition we may get is for the better. The real winner, in the long run, will be the Northeast Ohio sports fans and our sponsors, understated Mercadante.

God has blessed me, he added. We've worked hard, but I have been surrounded by very good people who love to work together. And with the Web site hit numbers going up each month, there is no ceiling for thesportsking.com at this time.

I do check our numbers each night, and everyday is even more encouraging, I don't know where that will take us. I would think that we will, at some time, have a month when the numbers just don't go up. But now with the Indians getting started and the Browns looking forward to a strong year, I cannot foresee when that might happen.

Mercadante knows where he wants to go in the future. Long-range, we want to franchise what we do in other cities, Mercadante said. I have had talks with people in cities like Phoenix, Dallas, Boston, Chicago and New York. We would do the same thing there and localize what we do in those cities with a link to each on our homepage. Eventually covering most major cities, thus, truly becoming The Sports King.

This is a winner. The people who log on with us stay with us. We don't lose them. They are very loyal and stay with us and patronize our sponsors. We have come a long way since September of 2000. We're always open to change. The new ideas that work stay, but we'd be nowhere without Tom Roberts of CM & D Inc., who is our Web site hoster and has done wonderful things for us from the start. He's right here in Cleveland, I highly recommend him and his 1st class staff for any Internet/Web Site needs.

Mercadante knows he has a good thing. In addition to having a staff reporter at all Browns, Indians, Cavs and hundreds of high school games, thesportsking.com also carries LIVE gameday webcasts of Cleveland Crunch soccer, Cleveland Barons hockey along with all St. Ignatius High School football games, he added.

So, as the world changes, thesportsking.com is fitting right in there with television, radio and newspapers in giving you the latest information, entertainment, scores, sports rumors and transactions, and all along the way encouraging interactive interaction with the best fans in the world.