The New West?

I went to look up some information today on the Canada West website, and the image to the left is what greeted me. It seems as though Canada West has decided to upgrade their website, and this should be seen as a good thing after struggling for years with a website whose functionality was best suited for a Geocities website in 1995. It got the job done and all the information was there, but it was multiple clicks and menus to find the information one needed. When Canada West began using the hashtag "#TheNewWest" after redesigning their logo, there was hope the website would get a refresh. Well, better late than never, right?

I haven't seen any literature regarding what will change, will be added or removed, or any other details, but I assume there will be greater emphasis placed on Canada West TV where there have been some solid advances made in both quality of broadcast and production value. Canada West had all teams add high-definition cameras to their equipment two seasons ago, and the picture quality alone has improved immensely with this decision. Being that Canada West TV is a good revenue stream for the organization, I assume we'll see the TV options pushed heavily.

I had a love-hate relationship with the statistics portion of the site where by I hated that I had to dig through 30 links to find the one piece of info I needed, but loved that it had archives and historical information built into the site. I want to see more advanced stats, and that's something that Canada West and its member schools need to embrace before anything can be added to the site. Here's hoping we can find a few math majors around the University of Manitoba who want to get in on the advanced stats club. Either way, the stats side needs to keep the archived information because it's good for seeing trends and predicting future events.

I rarely went to the other sports' webpages on the Canada West site, but I assume all the Canada West sports have complaints about certain things found or not found on the website. Regardless of what I want, it seems there will be a new Canada West website unveiled on Monday as Canada West embraces "#TheNewWest" with their updated logo and, now, website.

Make sure you visit the new site on Monday, and leave a comment here one what you like, don't like, hate, love, want to see changed, and anything else the website makes you feel. Sometimes, new doesn't come with improved, but I'm hopeful Canada West will lean heavily towards the improved side of the equation as opposed to the new side.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!