Welcome To Free Teams
Free Teams is a service that provides free websites for teams. This is not a limited site or trial, only to get you to pay to upgrade later when you need more features or space. The service is completely free. We include an easy to use administration panel, give users immense cntrol over the look and feel of their website and give teams gobs of online storage (500 Megabytes and rising).
How Does This Work? Who Updates My Site?
Your site, including all of the features listed below, is automatically created for you when you sign up for it. Once created, you will be able to log into our administration program from your Account page. From there, you will be able to create news stories, edit your roster, add games, write game reports, update statistics, upload photos and files, and do much more. You will be in full control of your site, from the content to the colors and graphics - you will not have to go through us to keep your site updated. In fact, we will only get involved with your site if you ask us to.
Full Feature List
The lists below describe each feature that is included with your team website or domain purchase
Website Features
- Team website, including unlimited photo storage and 500 Megabytes of space for other files.
- Full page customization, including color choices for most items on your page, and graphics uploads for your header and background
- Site name of your choice (http://freeteams.net/mychoice)
- Social Networking features that let users join your team as a Fan, Player, Coach, Parent, Booster, additional Admins and more
- Messaging between teams and users who have joined your team.
- Integration with other social networks like Twitter to display your updates right on your team's website
- Privacy features to limit parts of your website to specific user groups
- Messaging system to send out notes to the users associated with your team.
- News / Blog system with automatic RSS News Feed creation of your stories
- Team Types, in case you have a Varsity, JV, Freshman squad, etc. you won't need separate websites for each.
- Box scores
- Roster page including a bio page of each player and coach.
- Archives of past seasons. No need to move any info around when a new season starts, our software will automatically archive each season for you.
- Easy to use Photo Gallery with unlimited photo uploads
- Links section to link to relevant websites
- Sponsors page to recognize sponsors of your team
- Forums to let your players and fans chat with each other
- Unlimited custom pages of your own design
- Email notifications when users submit content such as comments or new forum threads, or for when your teams create content
- Contact forms for people to get in touch wtih your team.
- Prep Sportswear store to sell customized apparel and team gear at no cost to you. You can also earn commission for a team fundraiser.
- Team Store to sell items and gear you already have, charge team dues and more.
- Events Calendar and electronic invitation system.
- Many more features are constantly in development.
Aren't there other sites like this one?
True, there are other team website providers, but Free Teams provides most of those services and a few extra at a much lower price - FREE. You can compare the main features of some popular sites below.
| Free Teams | eteamz.com Basic PLUS | Varsity Networks TeamAssist Plus | HomeTeamsONLINE ALL-STAR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting Services | ||||
| Price | FREE | $54 / annually | $99 / annually | $45 / annually |
| Photo Storage | UNLIMITED | 30 Megabytes | 1 Gigabyte | 35 Megabytes |
| Other Disk Space | 500 Megabytes | 30 Megabytes (tied to photos) | 1 Gigabyte (tied to photos) | 35 Megabytes (tied to photos) |
| Site Hosting Included | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| News / Blog Pages | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unknown | None |
| Additional Custom Pages | Unlimited | 16 | Unknown | None |
| Team Types (multiple teams per site) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Sport Seasons and Archiving | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unknown | Unknown |
*Features and pricing are current as of January 4th, 2009.
This Sounds Too Good To Be True. How Is It Free?
Yes, we offer as many or more features and functionality than most other team websites, and do it all at no cost to you. We are able to provide this service through small advertisements we place on team websites. We keep these advertisements small and unobtrustive though, so visitors don't see bright flashing lights, have pop-ups all over their screen, or have actual content on your site covered up by huge flash advertisements with video and loud audio. We try to keep things simple but effective, as well as topical to your visitors, such as advertising athletic gear, summer camps, training programs, etc. We have also teamed up with a couple of other companies such as Prep Sportswear to provide your team with gear and apparel (which your team can earn money by making commissions off of) that we also make a small commission on. By using partners and advertising in an effective manner, we do not have to charge you to use our services. We know how tight team budgets can be, especially in weaker economies, so we will always keep the service free for our teams.