Site Scene

SportsGroupie was mentioned in this Sunday's Washington Post. Here are the details:

TRAVEL TECH
Site Scene
On the Web, 10 Worth a Click

By Carol Sottili
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 12, 2006; Page P04

Every year, as more travelers use the Internet to plan and pay for their vacations, more players are trying to get a piece of the action.

In 2005, more than 64 million Americans bought or reserved an airline ticket, hotel room, rental car or package tour online -- up nearly 20 million from 2004, according to the Travel Industry Association of America. And with each leisure traveler spending an average of $1,288 online, real money is changing hands. We took a look at several dozen sites that have come online during the past year. Most weren't worth more than a cursory glance, but several broke new ground, fit a niche or at least accomplished what they set out to do. Here are 10 sites worth checking out.

...

• SportsGroupie.com

WHO IT'S FOR: If you don't know the Jets from the Nets, this site is not for you. Geared to those who plan their vacations around playoff schedules. The name says it all.

PROS: Great resource for sports schedules, from the Olympic Games to baseball spring training. Offers sports tickets ($2,565 for a Super Bowl ticket a couple of days before game time), hotel and flight booking, and sports-oriented vacation packages.

CONS: Travel-planning aspect of the site just links you to other places, namely Kayak.com.

Boston Sunday Globe article

Bruce Mohl wrote a column about SportsGroupie (and TuneTrips). He has a column called The Sensible Traveler and captured the history and details of this site perfectly.

Read article.

SportsGroupie.com: Travel Search for Spring Training and Bowl Games

Search dozens of travel sites at once to plan the perfect sports vacation to any spring training game or the BCS bowl games.

December 8, 2005 - SportsGroupie.com, an innovator in sports travel search, has added coverage for Major League Baseball 2006 spring training games in Florida and Arizona. This comes just days after the site added travel search options for the Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta Bowls.

“We are committed to meeting the requests of our users,” said Ronald Lohse of SportsGroupie.com. “They have asked for the ability to build their own itinerary that allows them to attend a wide variety of sporting events. SportsGroupie is not another ‘sports fantasy’ tour site; we offer real travel meta-search (searching many travel sites for the best deals) and complete flexibility for fans to build their trip.”

SportsGroupie.com’s site allows users to select a sport and team, view the upcoming schedule, and then search for airfares, hotel rates, car rentals, and now tickets. Sports fans now have all the tools they need to build a custom package for an unforgettable road trip.

Travel search is offered for most NFL football, NBA basketball, NHL hockey, and Major League Baseball games. NASCAR and many other special events are also available.

About SportsGroupie.com:
Sports Groupie is a free travel meta-search site that focuses on sports fans that want to follow their team on the road. SportsGroupie.com tracks hundreds of sporting events and maintains information about each venue including address and nearest major airport. SportsGroupie.com users select a game or special event, then the site searches the Web for the best airfares, hotel rates, and car rentals. SportsGroupie.com also includes links to online ticket affiliates to find tickets to the game.

Baseball Spring Training on SportsGroupie.com

December 7, 2005 - SportsGroupie.com has announced the addition of Major League Baseball spring training to its list of offerings. Diehard fans heading to Florida and Arizona next spring can save money by searching over 100 travel sites for the best deals to their destinations.

SportsGroupie also provides access to single game tickets via their online ticket affiliates.

The spring training schedule and search tools are available at the SportsGroupie Spring Training page.

Kayak in the Boston Globe

The travel search partner for Sports Groupie, Kayak.com, was in the Boston Globe Business Section. A great article about online travel search. Read the article.

Our first TV spot!

SportsGroupie.com was featured on tonight's (11/29/05) installment of "The Click" on Boston's ABC channel WCVB-5. It was great coverage and good instructions on using the site.

Watch the video or Read the story

Free Link Share at SportsGroupie.com

November 18, 2005 - SportsGroupie.com has announced the release of their link share program. Travel, ticketing, and sports sites are encouraged to contribute links and reciprocate with the provided SportsGroupie button or banner.

The link exchange is available at the SportsGroupie Links page.

Ticket Partner for SportsGroupie.com

November 14, 2005 SportsGroupie.com announced a new, close affiliation with TicketsNow.com. "By expanding the relationship previously dominated by smaller ticket outlets, the relationship with TicketsNow will allow SportsGroupie to provide context sensitive ticket searching, " said Ronald Lohse, the owner of SportsGroupie.com. "Where previous ticket requests were simple links that took our users to resellers' home page, we can now direct sports fans to the sport and, frequently, to the team they want to see."

About SportsGroupie.com:
SportsGroupie is a free travel meta-search site that focuses on sports fans that want to follow their team on the road. SportsGroupie.com tracks hundreds of sporting events and maintains information about each venue including address and nearest major airport. SportsGroupie users select a game or special event, then the site searches the Web for the best airfares, hotel rates, and car rentals. The site also contains links to online ticketing outlets.