From the July 3, 2000 issues of Soccer America.

For the fans, by the fans
By Paul Swain

Billed as the site that's "for the fans, by the fans," A-league.com is being revitalized under new webmaster Dan Barnes. A remnant of the old A-league before the merger with the USISL - former commissioner Richard Groff retained the rights to the domain name - A-league.com was largely dormant until Barnes was handed the reins this past winter. The revised website debuted in March.

"He [Groff] knew that I was a crazy enough guy that I would probably say yes if he asked me to do it," Barnes said. "And he guessed right. That's what started it up."

Barnes also runs the USL Discussion Zone (more than 100,000 page views a month) and Dan's Soccer Zone from his base in Minnesota, while earning real wages as an independent computer consultant for a Fortune 100 company. he knew what he wanted to accomplish when he took the job.

"One reason I really wanted to do this, I knew there was a ton of news out there about A-league teams," he said. "i'm a Thunder fan - that's my local team - but I knew there was a bunch of stuff out there and there was no place to go find it."

Aside from the schedule and results, standings, team links and regular feautures that include a poll and a chat with an A-league personality, the site has a Newsbriefs area with links to newspaper articles concerning teams and the league.

Barnes' ambition is to get a fan reporter in each city sending in A-league game reports and opinion pieces. He figures at the moment he has 50% covered.

After an initally cold reception, Barnes has found the A-league teams increasingly receptive to his advances, and almost every team he has approached has issued press credentials for his reporters.

The same can't be said for the league, however. The A-league, whose own website has been largely fallow this season, won't even allow Barnes to display the USL logo.

"I don't know if they view us with suspicion or fear or what, but we really have to pull teeth when we deal with the league," Barnes said. "They're not terribly friendly towards us."

A-League.com got just over 14,000 page views in its March debut, and the number doubled in April. Another significant increase happened in May.