Canadian Hockey League follows the NHL's lead on a digital refresh

The Canadian Hockey League, which is facing more competition than ever for the best young hockey players around the world, is stepping up its efforts in the ever-changing digital game.

Following in the footsteps of NHL.com, which partnered with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) and overhauled its redesigned digital product this season, the CHL is upgrading its network of websites, beginning with the relaunch of the Ontario Hockey League site on Wednesday.

“It’s no secret we live in a mobile-driven, digital age, and the CHL had that in mind when they set out to relaunch their digital products,” said Mark Dickie, the CHL’s senior manager of digital.

Central to the new look is a design that works across all platforms — so, whether you’re checking scores on a phone or a computer, the viewing experience should be the same.

“Our fans changed how they used our website and what their demands were and so to meet that we kind of had to keep up with the technology…specifically around mobile,” Dickie said.

The league’s network of websites had been in serious need of a refresh, having last been updated about six years ago, according to Dickie. So, the CHL partnered with Stadium Digital, a company founded by Canadian digital sports leader Mark Silver. The former Bell Media executive has been behind a number of successful online sports products, including the redesign of TSN’s digital properties and leading the Bell Media/Rogers consortium’s online coverage of the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games.

“It’s just about trying to be ahead of that curve and trying to be advanced in the industry so that we’re a leader, whether it’s another junior league or the National Hockey League,” Dickie said. “Really just trying to get our digital products to a point that they’re ahead of that curve and that we’re kind of leading that pack.”

Silver, whose company also has redesigned the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Golf Canada's digital offerings, added that as the media landscape changes, the digital experience of any business, sports leagues and teams included, needs to be friendly to both fans and corporate supporters.

“This is where these businesses need to go,” he said. “They need a best-in-class digital experience to make sure that advertisers continue to place their money there, but ultimately make sure that fans can easily interact with them, especially if the world moves into this direct-to-consumer sports consumption.”

New additions to the homepage include league standings and a scoreboard across the top. Another change is news articles and videos are no longer separated, but instead appear together in one content stream, as the focal point of the page.

A main feature of the new website is Game Centre, a portal that functions as a hub for an enhanced statistics experience, team-by-team information and a live game tracker. Much like the NHL’s version, the CHL’s Game Centre is rich in data and includes a play-by-play function that tracks figures like shots, goals, penalties and faceoffs. Fans can customize their play-by-play feed by choosing which of those stats appear.

In addition to the array of statistics fans will have at their fingertips in Game Centre, the portal also pinpoints the position of a shot and displays it on an image of an ice surface, letting fans know where the shot is taken from, by who and if it led to a goal. Interactive features like Game Centre are meant to enhance the user experience and make it easier for fans to access more with just one click.

“It’s a powerful representation of the game. Much better than what they ever, ever had in the past,” Silver said.

Fans will also notice an overhaul of another popular destination — the statistics page. Numbers are broken down into more categories, including game-winning, insurance and short-handed goals.

Aesthetically, league leaders are presented in a visual manner with their totals displayed in a graphical format along with a corresponding photo of the player. Technically, the numbers will be injected into the website directly by HockeyTech, a provider of statistics and also a CHL partner, allowing information to be up to date as well as load quicker.

“It’s just about providing more data and providing it in a manner where fans can actually use it and interact with it,” Dickie said. “Whereas in the past it might have just been a simple text table or some simple text, now it’s in a graphic format. Now it’s in something that should really enhance that user experience for a fan.”

Overall, the design covers over 70 websites across the league, and individual teams will be able to customize the look of their sites.

The new-look CHL, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and Western Hockey League sites are expected to go live before the end of the month.