Building a website is critical regardless of the type of sports organization you manage.
Whether you run a recreational soccer league for kids, a professional sports team, or something in between, a website is a great place to list information about your organization, publish game and event schedules, manage player registration, and post photos or videos.
But, building a youth sports website can be intimidating. There are a variety of sports website templates to choose from and an endless amount of different layouts and fonts you can use.
Below we've listed some of the best ideas for your sports website that you can use to promote your organization next year!
1. Jersey Watch
Jersey Watch has a variety of sports website templates to help you manage and grow your organization. It's super easy to use and is one of the most popular website builders for youth and community sports organizations.
Online registration templates and player payments are built-in so you don't have to start from scratch. You can post game schedules, player or staff profiles, and upload photos and videos quickly.
If you're looking for a fast website page builder with powerful features to help you manage your organization you should try Jersey Watch!
2. PrestoSports
PrestoSports is an all-in-one platform that includes websites, live streaming, infographic templates, and statistics management.
Source: PrestoSports
Many of the nation's leading collegiate teams use Presto Sports to promote teams to fans and students. If you run a highly competitive program with thousands of fans, you should check out PrestoSports!
PrestoSports has templates that help competitive sports programs monetize game photos and other events like camps.
3. DaySmart Recreation
DaySmart Recreation is a management platform built for facility management. Customers include ice rinks, indoor soccer facilities, parks & rec departments, and more.
Source: DaySmart Recreation
Templates include registration management, complex scheduling and facility booking, communication, and billing management. If you run a large facility you should check out DaySmart Recreation! It can help you manage all of the tasks that come with running a large facility.
4. Wordpress
Do you want to build your sports website from scratch? Wordpress is a powerful solution for more tech savvy organizations that want full control of the look and feel of their website.
Wordpress offers some sports plugins that can serve as templates to create pages like Standings, Scores, or Statistics. You can even create a bootstrap ecommerce store for your sports club.
Wordpress will take hours to build and maintain. But if you're a web developer or have a technical person at your organization, it could be a good solution to host your website. Pricing also varies depending on how many plugins you use.
5. Envato
With Envato, you can download over 114 web templates from HTML5 templates to mobile friendly ones. Whether you run a soccer club or own a fitness gym, you can find a good landing page and website templates for your brand.
6. Nicepage
Nicepage has many web design templates for all types of sports. You can find customizable sport Wordpress themes for everything from football clubs to basketball training centers and more.
What to look for in a sports template for your website
A good homepage that ranks on Google
What's the use of having a website if no one can find it?
The first thing you need to do when you build your website is make sure you can be found on Google. You should do your best to get your website listed first when people search phrases like "name of your sports organization", or even "youth sports in {insert your town}".
Google is incredibly complex, but getting your website to the top of Google results isn't too difficult. Most website templates will also include features that help with getting your site listed on Google.
On your homepage, you should list several paragraphs of information including:
- The sport(s) your organization participates in.
- Your location - including city and state. If your organization operates in a region, include the names of each city or community.
- The time of year your organization operates including when registration opens and when the last game of the season typically takes place.
You should also make sure you have relevant schedules and upcoming events listed on the homepage. This helps keep content fresh and allows your website visitors to know what is happening next with your team or league.
You also need to have plenty of content on your site. At least 10 pages is the minimum you should target when you launch your site. The more relevant content that is on your site, the more Google is able to "learn" about your organization and direct relevant traffic to your pages.
Staff page templates to promote coaches, staff, and board Members
It's important that your website visitors know who the administrators, coaches, and volunteers at your organization are. Posting information about the key people at your organization adds a human touch and makes it more likely for parents to register their kids, for sponsors to get involved, and for community members to make donations.
You can emulate professional sports teams when you create your Coaching, Staff, and Board Members pages. Profiles for the staff members can include photos, their history and experience in the sport, and personal info about their family life or career.
If you have a large organization, you can create different categories for age groups, teams, or different roles on your staff.
You don't have to have a professional staff to promote your coaches. Even if you run a youth sports program, you should still list information about your coaches and staff members to build credibility and trust in your community.
Team rosters with profiles to promote players
Most sports websites will include player rosters on the site. For recreational programs, simply listing basic information about each team - like the coach's name and contact info - can be plenty of information.
If you run a more competitive teams you should post rosters with player names, numbers, and profiles. Rosters with player profiles are simple to build. Simply including a player photo, name, number, and position can be a quick way to help your website visitors learn more about your teams.
For highly competitive teams you can even post highlight videos from the season and detailed bios about each player including stats and past accomplishments.
Player rosters are a great way to promote your teams and build excitement around your organization.
Online registration templates to manage player info and payments
Registering players, collecting payments, and managing player information is important at any recreational league or competitive club.
Your website should have built-in registration forms and sports registration software. Registration software allows players to easily register online, make payments, and enter any relevant information that your league needs for the season.
Most registration systems have pre-built registration form templates that you can customize. Sports registration templates can make it super easy to collect, store, and manage all of your critical player info like Name, DOB, Age Group, Uniform Sizing, Waiver Acknowledgements, and more.
Registration and payment templates should be built into your website so you can collect payments for registration, camps, and other events.
Pages to embed videos and post photos
Sharing photos and videos is an important part of marketing your organization to fans and community members.
Posting videos and photos online is a great way to enhance the look of your website. You can also build credibility and increase trust in your community.
You should plan to post photo albums a few times per year. You can use Facebook or Instagram to post photos weekly, and update your website with photo albums after important sports events like tournaments or banquets.
Fundraising, donation, and sponsorship pages
One of the biggest challenges facing most sports administrators is raising enough money to cover expenses.
Your website should help you raise money throughout the entire year. First, you should have a template built for posting your sponsor logos, names, and website links so that they can be recognized on your website. It's critical to deliver as much value as possible for your sponsors - so make sure they have prominent space on your website!
Pro sports teams like the Brooklyn Nets do a great job of recognizing all of their sponsors on their website. Even if you run a community sports program, you should still dedicate a portion of your website to sponsors!
Fundraising events should also be promoted on the website. Be sure to list dates, times, and other details well in advance of any events so you can increase participation.
You should also list all of the different opportunities to support your organization on the website. Providing details of how donations and sponsorships are used, including your donation letter, can help increase donations and sponsorships.
There are plenty of tools to help you raise money that can be integrated with a website. Making sponsorship, donations, and fundraising a priority on your website can help drastically increase contributions you receive before your next season!
Building a page on your website will all of the different opportunities to donate will help you raise more money. You should make it super easy for people in your community to make contributions of any amount to help your teams!
Built-in sports communication templates
Communication is a key part of sports participation - whether you're a coach, parent, GM, or volunteer.
Your website should serve as the year-round communication hub for your sports organization. Many website builders will have built-in communication tools to help you send messages out to your participants. Sending messages via text message and email are an effective way to reach your community proactively.
You should also make sure that your social media profiles are linked to your website. This will help people find your social media profiles, and is an important factor in Google Search. The more links pointing to your website, the better!
Using your website as a central location for all of your communication can help streamline all of your communication throughout the season.
Build your youth sports site with Jersey Watch
A modern sports organization needs professional looking website design. It acts as the digital face of your team, giving fans, athletes, sponsors, and parents vital information like sports news, schedules, and merch. A website also reflects your brand personality and commitment to the community.
A well-designed template provides the perfect foundation for your organization. It gives you industry-specific functionality, like online registration, contact forms, and communication tools. You can also promote your website flawlessly across all devices, from desktop to mobile.
