Quantitative Assessment of the Official Websites of Iran's Top Sports Clubs (Case Study: Official Websites of Football, Basketball, and Volleyball Clubs)

The purpose of this research is quantitative assessment of the virtual websites of Iran's top sports clubs. Descriptive-analytical method used to describe and evaluate quantitatively the content of Iran football, basketball and volleyball sport clubs websites. The statistical population include all the official websites of all clubs and the statistical sample of the five clubs in the Premier League football, basketball & volleyball clubs (Official websites of 15 clubs) in 2017-2018 season. The method of sampling was theoretical (judgmental). The research tool was a researcher-made instruction coding sheet and its validity were confirmed by the professors specializing in marketing and sports media and its reliability was obtained by the coefficient of agreement between coders by the P-Scott formula (0.91). To analyze data, descriptive statistics (percentages, averages) were used. The results showed that the average percentage of football clubs' sports websites in each of the 4 domains of speed, content, navigability and accessibility were higher than the sports club websites in the volleyball and basketball premier league. The official website of the Mahram Basketball Club, the 24 items, the Saipa Club website, 23 items and the Zobahan Club website, covered, 22 items of 34 items  of evaluations in the 4 domains mentioned. None of the 15 websites reviewed had a newspaper review, lens tool, ticket sales and the pop up advertisements. Sports managers of Iran's top sports clubs should, in addition to identifying issues, existing problems and limitations, have a futuristic approach to identify, discover new opportunities in exploiting the massive media capacity of the club's official website, and directing fans and the club's economic activities to innovation and creating value in sport.