PlayCoed.com Allows Active Participants and Organizers to Plan Less, Play More

Millions of people play sports, attend social events, or organize events. However, the hassles and difficulties of organizing the activities makes it harder to play. PlayCoed.com has been proven by beta testers of the Web site as the best way to spend less time planning and more time playing!

Thousands of participants and organizers have recently tested the system performing a variety of functions and applications. People are organizing teams, connecting with other players for sport leagues, tournaments, games, recreation, fitness, and social activities. Nielsen NetRatings estimates that 22 million Americans still use outdated means to organize their sports and activities, which PlayCoed.com has confirmed.

Interactive profiles, approved real-time content, automated tools, and real-world applications make this service valuable and unique. Professional sports teams, parks and recreation departments, sports associations, sport and social clubs, sports facilities and complexes, non-profits and charities, personal trainers, athletic clubs, and party promoters can benefit from the applications of PlayCoed.com.

Since it's inception in early 2006, PlayCoed.com has grown by four organizations and 500 participants a day. The Web site is currently getting close to 1 million Web site visits per day and is ranked in the top 50,000 of all Web sites online according to Alexa.com. PlayCoed.com sets up organizers for free and anyone can register on the Web site in less than two minutes.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Auraria Campus, home to 40,000 students and three universities (Metro State, University of Colorado at Denver, and Community Colleges of Denver have increased sports participation by 75%, revenue by 40%, and saved over 550 hours in management.

Organizations such as AMF Bowling Centers, Lucky Strike Lanes, Ultimate Frisbee Organization, Western Alternative Sports Association, and sports and social clubs in Miami, Kansas City, Denver, and Indianapolis benefit from ease of use and automation tools as such as registration, scheduling, budgeting, reporting, and payment processing.

"I used to spend countless hours making schedules, managing waivers, signing up players, communicating with teams, and updating standings," says Michael Ertell of the Phoenix Adult Soccer Leagues. "Now it takes me a fraction of the time. Scheduling alone saves me over fifteen hours a year."

At its core PlayCoed.com is a search engine for active people to find things to participate in their area. Subsequently it's a marketing tool for organizations to reach out to participants. For instance, The Denver Athletic Club, one of the oldest and most prestigious private athletic clubs in the United States began using PlayCoed.com and has gained new memberships, member referrals, generated additional revenue, cut costs, and reduced paperwork. They also find value for their members to network with existing members, sign up for leagues, tournaments, activities, classes, and more.

Party promoters have been getting in on the action by using PlayCoed.com as a source of advertising and ticket sales for events like MTV The Real World launch parties and Carmelo Anthony Shoe Release parties.

Denver night club, Vinyl, had its biggest night (sales) in history working with PlayCoed.com. Ski resorts have even jumped on board, opening up special discounts and allowing their patrons to form car pool groups, post stories of their experiences, and photos of their trips.

Mentoring agency Big Brothers Big Sisters promotes events like Bowl for Kids Sake, Sports Buddies, social happy hours. PlayCoed.com allows mentors to connect, post progress reports, and for potential mentors to interact with current mentors. It's also used as a registration tool for their events.

Kroenke Sports Enterprises came to PlayCoed.com looking for a partner for their brand new multi-million dollar sports complex and Colorado Rapids stadium, recently named Dick's Sporting Goods park. The professional sports giant who owns the Rapids, Colorado Mammoth, Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, and the Pepsi Center partnered with PlayCoed.com to advertise ticket discounts, packages, and deals as well as market and promote their new stadium.

Benefits for Participants

Fans of professional sports teams enjoy the ability to connect, share stories about their favorite players, experiences and photos from the games, and get special discounts to games. Fans of the Colorado Rapids Major League Soccer team enjoy discounts on gear, VIP treatment, their own section at games, and specials at the bar.

PlayCoed.com adult members get coupons, freebies, and prizes. Examples are free tacos, free drinks, two for beers for the price of one and other deals. "It's the perfect solution for an active person like myself, on a budget," says Sarah B., a frequent PlayCoed.com visitor and player.

Privacy driven social interactive tools such as posting photo galleries, message other members, form groups, blog, organize games, and more. Of course privacy is a top concern for the company, allowing users to block messages and members.

Nielsen NetRatings estimates that 11 million Americans don't play sports at all because it's too hard to organize games. PlayCoed.com is successful at getting a lot of people off of the couch and onto the field.

"I started off as a free agent, and now I create my own teams, register, recruit new players, invite people to my teams, and manage my rosters," says Jason Weintraub, who has been finding and playing sports through PlayCoed.com for a year now. He plays on average 4 times a week. "PlayCoed.com allows me to focus on work and play, rather than organizing."

Background

Mike Downey, founded the company based on understanding the need for event management technologies and systems after he moved to Colorado from Ohio in 2000. He didn't know anyone and heard through someone about a sports league, which get got involved in. Due to lack of communication amongst players and organizers and poor organization, he decided to start his own leagues. In two years he had run over 20 leagues and tournaments and had connected thousands of like-minded individuals looking for activities. Even then Mike was managing everything by paper, email, spreadsheets, and a slow and inefficient Web site.

Combining his knowledge and experience working for online software companies during the day and managing sports and entertainment activities by night, he realized a need for technology and automated processes and invested profits into systems, development, and software engineering. In 2005 Downey quit his full time job selling software for one of the three major credit beureus and started PlayCoed.com with Jet Partners, a Denver based investment firm, who invested cash and sweat equity into the business.

"The heart of our mission is to connect participants with organizers in an easy to use fashion, so that everyone can save time, money, and focus on playing," says Downey. "We offer practical applications and our focus is customer driven."

About the Company

PlayCoed.com works with organizations in 15 states and has 6 employees, over 65 independent contractors. The company works with over 50 organizations including The U.S. Army, Bally Total Fitness, Anheiser Busch, Kroenke Sports Enterprises, The United Way, Brent's Place, The MS Foundation, Judi's House, and Easter Seals. The company's board of directors is headed up by Scott McFarlane.

PlayCoed.com generates revenue on payment transactions between participants and organizers when it takes a small convenience surcharge. The company also offers advertising and merchandising solutions for its customers.

At the request of its customers, the company is beginning to work with fitness, pilates, and yoga studios and plans to offer its Web site to youth and high school sports in 2007. For more information contact Mike Downey at 303-477-7529 x 208 or mike@playcoed.com