PSINet Inc. Tuesday
announced an innovative partnership with the National Football League’s
(NFL) Baltimore Ravens to develop a global Internet-based network for the
team.
Under the agreement, PSINet will develop and host a Ravens Web site,
containing unique and exclusive content. PSINet will also create a Raven’s
branded Internet service available only to subscribing fan members. Both
web sites will be fully operational April 17 in time for NFL
Draft Day.
PSINet services will provide Ravens fans unprecedented access to team
players and personnel. Revenues from service membership fees, e-commerce
and promotional ventures will be shared by both organizations. The
agreement also provides for naming rights to the NFL Stadium at Camden
Yards in Baltimore, which will become PSINet Stadium.
PSINet will also provide a variety of innovative technologies for
use in the stadium. Interactive kiosks will be placed on the stadium
concourse and PSINet will have the exclusive right to provide high-speed
Internet services to the stadium offices and all corporate suites.
“The PSINet/Ravens partnership will bring fan involvement to an entirely
new level” said Harold S. (Pete) Wills, president and chief operating
officer of PSINet.
“We intend to develop the first truly successful
affinity Internet service for the sports industry, which will significantly
increase awareness of various aspects of team operations and personnel as
well as football itself. We believe the agreement will benefit the Ravens,
their fans, PSINet shareholders and the sports industry,”
David Modell, executive vice president of the Ravens said the company is
pleased to be working with a cutting-edge Internet company, whose
operations match our organization’s efforts to develop an innovative
communications infrastructure that will take us well into the next
century. Modell added that “fans will finally be able to reach out and
touch the cloth of the players with the ultimate online sports tool.”
