The Globe and Mail recently told readers that Canadian information and communications technology companies are surging back into the black, out-performing the economy at large.

That’s dandy news, no question. Yet the bosses of one smokin’ little Calgary ICT outfit report they’ve reaped indirect rewards from the tech slaughter that decimated equities markets.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
ITSportsNet president and CEO David Cooper, left, with vice-president Chris Groot.

Examples? Well, their private company, known as ITSportsNet, is poised to lease prime downtown office space at a discount. Mean-while, intense competitive pressure within the sector has driven the wholesale purchase price of essential high-tech gear – servers, etc. – into the bargain basement.

“And something else . . . the tech crash made our company leaner, really forced us into bootstrap mode. I think it’ll make us stronger in the long run,” testified ITSportsNet president and CEO David Cooper.

Cooper and sales VP Chris Groot may be quick to pounce on marked-down sale items, but they’re faster than a CF-18 test pilot when it comes to moving product.

Since first marketing their user-friendly software to
amateur sports organizations 12 months ago, Cooper, Groot and seven staffers have sold their wares to more than 100 such groups, including several in the U.S.

Today, ITSportsNet is on the brink of swallowing up another small tech company. They’ll be bringing aboard a host of new employees to keep up with demand, because their client base is expanding almost weekly.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Executives David Cooper, left, and Chris Groot are wearing their game faces these days at sport management software specialist ITSportsNet.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest catches in North America is already dangling from their hook.

The sprawling Ontario Soccer Association, representing almost 340,000 amateur players, is fascinated by the potential of ITSportsNet software products and has agreed to use them within selected OSA testing districts as a pilot project. It starts this fall and continues throughout the spring of 2003.

The OSA hook-up was facilitated with the aid of
former national team soccer coach Tony Waiters, the
ex-Liverpool goaltender who brought a North American Soccer League title to Vancouver in 1979.

Waiters now concentrates on education and youth development within the sport, and he’s a believer in the company’s technology. He’s also the one who put Cooper and Groot in touch with Ontario soccer’s powers-that-be.

The entrepreneurs, both graduates of the University of Calgary MBA program, demonstrated the software personally for clubs and leagues within the association. Impressed, club administrators then carried the message to the top, persuading senior OSA officials to give the westerners a look.

“Tony gave us credibility,” Cooper said. “He believes, and we believe, that to get Canada back to the World Cup level, you have to build from the grassroots.

“If we can help organize and professionalize the amateur leagues, help them to spend less time on sorting out registration, schedules and standings, and spend more time on development, it’ll be a huge plus,” he added.

Closer to home, ITSportsNet clients include the Minor Hockey Association of Calgary (12,000 players) and the Central Alberta Hockey League (3,500 players).

As of this fall, Cooper estimates 50,000 Calgary jocks and jockettes will either register for leagues, or receive real-time team standings and scheduling updates via ITSportsNet technology.

And this stuff sounds like heaven for every angst-ridden coach who’s ever tried to get past a perpetual busy signal to learn whether the Under-17s are playing in Marlborough, Haysboro or Roxboro tonight.

The software is described as a complete office suite for sports leagues, providing advanced league and tournament management capability as well as online registration and fee payment; facility management; and advanced web design and maintenance.

“We found most organizations have huge bottlenecks when it comes to getting information (ie. schedule changes, game venues, updated league stats and standings) out to members at the administrative level,” Cooper explained.

“It’s a complete, end-to-end solution for sports leagues.”
Cooper and Groot patiently studied their market before launching and learned from Stats Canada that nearly one in five Canadians, from teens on up, are involved in organized sport.

“It’s a fragmented market, though,” cautioned Cooper. “And these organizations don’t have a lot of money.”

Bonus: ITSportsNet solutions are affordable, costing associations less than a dollar a player.

Heading into this enterprise, Cooper and Groot nursed visions of dazzling clients with spiffy web designs, chatrooms, downloadable photos, etc.

But focus-group feedback nixed that approach: “Ninety per cent of the athletes we talked to wanted updated standings and current schedules. That’s really all they care about,” said Groot.

And nobody ever went broke by giving the people what they want.