The Houston Dynamo became the first Major League Soccer team to launch an official fan social network with the debut of MyDynamo.net, a site where fans can interact with players, staff, and each other and share stories, pictures, videos, and more.
"This is a terrific opportunity for the Dynamo to connect more directly with our fans," Dynamo Chief Operating Officer Chris Canetti said. "We are excited to be the first team in MLS to launch a site of this kind, and we hope it will serve as an online gathering place for all Dynamo fans."
Dynamo season ticket holders and Dynamo Academy players were among a select group of members invited to join the site earlier this week, prior to Friday's public launch. The site will partner with the Dynamo's main website, HoustonDynamo.com, to provide the most comprehensive online experience in the league.
The new site, which was created using the Ning platform, will host the Dynamo's Forever Orange blog and various player, fan, and staff blogs that will be publicly available. Many Dynamo players have online profiles that can be seen by other site members. Fans can create profiles, set up blogs, add photo galleries and videos, and track the number of games they've attended, among other features.
"Major League Soccer believes that social networking represents a great opportunity to allow our teams to create new and exciting relationships with their fans," said Chris Schlosser, Director of Digital Strategy for MLS. "We are thrilled with our partnership with Ning and look forward to the launch of additional team and property sites in the coming months."
The Houston Dynamo are a Major League Soccer franchise that has won two MLS Cup championships in its first three seasons and represented the United States in three consecutive regional championships. The Dynamo will begin their 2009 MLS campaign on Saturday, March 21, taking on the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew. Their 2009 season opens with CONCACAF Champions League play on Tuesday, February 24 at 9:00 p.m. For more information, please log on to HoustonDynamo.com or call (713) 276-7500.
ABOUT NING
Ning is an online platform for creating social networks. With more than 750,000 social networks and people in more than 190 countries, Ning makes it possible for anyone to create a social network for free in a few simple steps. Ning is privately held and based in Palo Alto, Calif. For more information, please visit www.ning.com.
