How to Manage Your Sports Team Using a Mobile App?

A variety of mobile technologies available today is incredibly wide. It seems like only a couple years ago we could envision nothing of the sort, but now they are changing our lives beyond all recognition. Large data needs big questions and big answers. For the future of any enterprise, the development of mobile or web services is crucial. Why is that? For a modern company, creating a mobile application is a way to increase the interest of the audience and promote business by delivering the right information to users.

The company, owning a qualitatively designed mobile application is obviously in the trend these days. It is not always convenient for users to use bulky website, so an easy and affordable alternative is needed.

It is no secret that the economy has penetrated all sectors of our life. Sport is no exception. Many sports teams are alike companies in other fields of activity. And, like any business, they tend effectively to profitability and ease of management. Not surprisingly, to achieve these goals, the sports teams are using the same tools that other companies do, including mobile applications, namely team management app in this case.

Read also: Why Do You Need to Outsource Mobile App Development?

What may the management of sports team include?

Sports managers are involved mainly in the organization and planning of the work of their teams. Sports managers release their players from many responsibilities not related to the actual game, allowing them to focus on winning, and not to worry about the financial or organizational aspects of the sport.

Main tasks of the sports manager:

• Scheduling the team;

• Handling the finances;

• Human relations and communication with players;

• Communication with press.

In most professional teams, the team is usually managed by the hired specialist, preferably with degrees in BA and sports management. In the case of a small, local, municipal or amateur team, this role can be played by the coach, team owner or government official. And, if it’s a junior team, one of the players’ parents can fill the post.

As any seasoned manager does, a sports manager uses an assortment of tools helping to organize and simplify their daily work. That’s why one might need to build team management app.

What might the app for team management look like and what can it be used for?

A good sports team management app should be a sort of Swiss Army knife, helping in solving dozens of big and small problems associated with the team management.

The project may include features such as:

• Creation of timetables and schedules (games, trainings, appointments, meetings, etc.);

• Team chats, conferences, forums to discuss game issues and for personal sports team communication with the possibility to differentiate the access rights;

• The ability to create events and send invitations to them to employees of the club, management, players, their families, and fans, as well as to request their RSVP;

• Sending reminders via push-notifications about the club and other events, club or league news and other sports news;

• Registering, editing, and publishing of the games results with embedded movies containing the best moments;

• Shared cloud storage of management documentation, photos and videos from games and trainings with the ability to upload and download them, and sharing them with other users, applications, or social networks;

• The ability to organize team balance management, integration with full CRMs and billing systems.

In general, mobile technologies nowadays are so advanced that the list of available options is limited only by the imagination of the customer and the sports team management app development budget.

The application itself can be different in scope - starting with a simple roster planner up to a large-scale team-centered social media app. It may be purely off-line, with messages sent through email/SMS, be connected to the server backend for the authentication, synchronization and complex calculations, or be a mobile interface for the team website.

In addition, you can create different versions of the application designed for different user groups - the club management, coaches, players, fans, sponsors, advertisers, etc., or allow the availability of different functions depending on user roles, set during registration, or depending on the installed software modules. Overall, the most flexible seem to be a modular application organization when the base version is available to all and free of charge, and additional/premium modules are available depending on the user roles/payments. In parallel, the functions delineation based on the user roles is organized.

The performance of modern smartphones is sufficient enough that implementing the CRM features, financial indicators’ analysis, an advertising platform, and many other equally interesting opportunities into the app is possible.

See also: How to Find Best Mobile App Development Company?

Using the platform-specific hardware capabilities allows for creation of such impressive features as:

• Navigation through the stadium or venue of the event, with indicated points of interest, souvenir shops, toilets, public caterings, etc., and most convenient routes calculation; an opportunity for the audience to mark each other’s positions in the stands or on the map of the area;

• The possibility for audience to upload the photos/videos taken at the match accompanied by text and voice comments for the public overview;

• The possibility for coaches to draw animated tactical schemes for the upcoming match and send them to their players;

• The possibility to monitor the state of the players during trainings/matches for the timely prevention of over-fatigue and injuries (with the help of fitness bracelets).

There are, in fact, hundreds of opportunities to develop team management app, but it should, nevertheless, be borne in mind that the more functions implemented in the application, the longer and more expensive cost of its development would be. As developers of mobile applications with more than 4 years of experience, we recommend that you start by identifying the most important features of your future application and order the MVP first. Examples of our work can be found here. Unfortunately, most of the applications that we have made, and among them our most important and impressive victories, are under the non-disclosure agreements, and we are not accustomed to disappointing our clients, even for the sake of attracting the new ones.

If you are interested in cost to develop a mobile app for sports team, you might want to check our article about mobile app pricing.

Examples of popular sports team management apps:

1. Teamstuff/Teamstuff4Clubs
Teamstuff is an award winning, free social mobile application and web-service for sports teams’ management.

Features:

• Game and event alerts;

• Events (games) with maps, descriptions, notifications, attendance checks and game results;

• Multiple schedules and rosters;

• Team chats;

• Player profiles with medical info and family contacts;

• Sponsors management.

2. TeamSnap
TeamSnap is a simple mobile app and web-service with powerful team management capabilities.

TeamSnap offers four usage plans:

• Free. Features basic functionality including scheduling, email exchange, team fansite and Facebook integration. Has a banner showing ads and 30 members per roster limit.

• Basic. $59.99 per team annually. In addition to Free functionality, features 500 MB of cloud storage for team’s files, email reminders, messaging, attendance and payment tracking, online payments collection, tracking tab, ads banner is turned off. Has 30 members per roster limit.

• Premium. $89.99 per team annually. In addition to Basic functionality, features cloud storage of 2 GB, weather forecasts, statistics, custom domain name and customizable team logo, colors and player fields. Has 40 members per roster limit.

• Ultra. $129.99 per team annually. In addition to Premium functionality, features unlimited cloud storage and rosters, multiple team sponsorships are possible.

3. Teamingly
Teamingly is a free highly customizable sports team management app and web-service with a rich calendar sync capabilities.

Features:

• Schedules;

• Rosters with customizable member profiles;

• Events with maps and attendance checks;

• Automated schedule and event update notifications;

• Team photo exchange;

• Parental management;

• Email alerts/notifications;

• Calendar integration with Google Calendar, Outlook and more;

• Duty/volunteers management.

Final thoughts

The cost of creating a mobile application, on average, is higher than the website creation, but the mobile app is a long term investment, the need for which will grow from year to year, and a valuable tool, saving lots of time and effort. Because the future of the world is mobile.

If you are interested in this topic or you have long thought about creating your own application to manage a sports team, please contact us and let us discuss your ideas for startup.

 

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