Long-time Capital Athletic Conference rivals University of Mary Washington, Salisbury University, and St. Mary’s College have jointly agreed to move production of game programs for most sports to a digital format beginning in the fall 2017 seasons. The joint effort, in addition to saving an immense amount of paper throughout the school year, will also save the institutions thousands of dollars in printing costs each year.
Game programs, which typically are given out at each home contest, provide rosters, schedules, and game notes for each event. That information, as well as much more, is now found online at any given school’s athletic website. UMW programs will be available prior to each contest at http://www.umweagles.com/programs.
“Converting our media content to digital format will enable us to promote our teams and student-athletes in a more efficient manner and will provide some cost-savings to our department”, said UMW Director of Athletics Ken Tyler. “Our different social media platforms will provide greater flexibility and will enhance the experience for student-athletes and fans. “
“Digital programs”, which have been adopted at most NCAA Division III Championships in lieu of hard copies, can include links to more in depth information found online.
Larger schools such as Ohio State, Michigan, and Wisconsin have eliminated printing media guides, instead providing the information to the media and fans digitally online. Major League Baseball has also ceased printing their traditional preseason guides in print format, instead offering the publications to the media online.
“We feel this is a good time to not only provide our fans with a greater in game experience by providing a much greater source of information than a fold over piece of paper can, but also do our part to save the environment and cut an unnecessary cost by moving to the digital world”, said UMW Assistant Athletic Director Clint Often. “We will open a new era for our fans to access unlimited information at their fingertips while they are watching our events.”
Digital programs will be available from both schools on their athletic websites, and will be accessible through social media such as Twitter and Facebook. They will include hyperlinks to both opponents’ schedules, results, box scores, player profiles, and game summaries.