by Adam Zundell

I hope you enjoy the new athletic website. This has been a long time coming.

First, I'd like to take this space to thank our previous provider for nearly a decade of great service. It was just simply time for a change.

So, we embarked on this re-design/overhaul in the spring. I had made a few calls about our new supplier, Streamline Technologies, because, quite frankly, I'd never heard of them. The feedback was all positive. They are a small company, but have an expanding list of clients. They are based out of Nashville and do some minor league baseball as well as college athletics. But, I heard nothing but good things.

So I talked to Alex Short, who is the president of the company and basically does the nuts and bolts. And here's when things got interesting. He didn't hand over a list of 15 templates and tell me to pick one. We talked. I told him I had concerns about sites that had scrolling stories on the front page. I told him I had concerns that I didn't have enough great photos for all sports to have a big photo with the lead story. And, sometimes, especially in men's and women's basketball, that we have lots of news come out in a hurry, and I wanted to make sure that those were still prominent and didn't get lost. 

But, having said all that, I liked having flexibility. If we have a really big story -- like, for example, the launch of a new website -- we can make it a big story. Or, if we have two big stories -- like the launch of a new website and winning an award from the NCAA -- we can have big stories that scroll through. 

And that's what we've done. Things are still very new to me, but you'll see the new site have several different looks depending on what is happening at FSU. Maybe one big story with a few smaller ones, maybe six smaller stories, etc. It will be dynamic and practical. 

Alex and Streamline didn't just stop there. The way that they implemented the video player into the site, I think, is awesome. The Facebook and Twitter feeds on the front page is slick and useful. And then check out the roster pages... Click on a player, and then see the rest of the roster when you are on that player's bio. That's a little detail that is a big deal. Archived rosters (as far back as our good electronic records can go) and archived results make the site a great reference tool.

(Another thing I'd like to direct your attention to is the online giving button found on every page of the site. FSU had not coordinated giving online until now. You can give a gift to athletics, or, you can give to a specific sport -- all online. It's easy and safe, and we're glad to kind of "catch up" in that regard.) 

As the days got closer I have been more and more excited. I think we've built a great site. And, like I mentioned before, this isn't like anything else you've seen. But we aren't different just to be different -- we are different with a purpose and a reason. Having said all that, I know that looks are just a small part of what makes a good website. We've tried to provide the best content of any school of similar size and staffing, and that will contine. We hope all information is easy to find and that the site is fun to visit and use. 

Thanks to the people at Streamline Technologies. They've been great. Honestly, I think we got on the ground floor with a company that is outstanding. I feel like if we had gone with a different company I would've been left compromising. I think we got everything we wanted out of this, and that's a great credit to them.

Thanks for visiting fightingfalcons.com. I hope you enjoy our new look.