Windsor Soccer League

Client Overview

Client: Windsor Soccer League

Industry: Adult recreational sports

Location: Windsor, Ontario

Project Type: Website redesign and custom WordPress theme

Tech Stack: WordPress, SportsPress Pro, custom theme and theme options

The Windsor Soccer League runs men’s and co-ed 7v7 leagues, indoor and outdoor, for 72 teams this season, up from about 60 the season before. We’ve sponsored the league for about a year, so we already knew Shane and his team when they asked us to rework the website.

The Challenge

The old site held years of standings, results and player stats, but players had to dig to find the two things they came for: scores and schedules. The design also didn’t reflect how far the league had grown.

There were hard constraints too:

• Every stat, result, team and player record had to survive. That history is part of the league.
• The season was already underway. League staff entered scores every week, and their admin workflow couldn’t change.
• No data migration. The new site had to run on the existing SportsPress Pro data.

Our Approach

Research first

We estimated that about 90% of visitors are current or prospective players, so we asked Shane and a group of players why they visit. Scores and schedules came up over and over. We also studied how major leagues like the NHL and LaLiga structure their homepages, then scaled those ideas down to fit a local rec league.

A homepage built for players

• Upcoming match ticker under the header on every page, with the next fixtures and kickoff times.
• Two-column hero: a news slider on the left and the live league leaderboard on the right. It replaced our first draft, a generic SEO-style hero that didn’t help returning players.
• Season information below the fold for people thinking about joining: divisions, match days, season dates and registration status.
• A moving team wall: all 72 club logos in two rows that scroll automatically in opposite directions.
• League Champions: a carousel of past title winners by season and division.

Team pages that build pride

Players feel ownership of their rec teams, so we gave each team a page worth sharing: current standing and record, seasons played, championships, founding year, manager and leagues.

A custom theme, not a rebuild

Instead of migrating to a new platform, we built a custom WordPress theme from scratch that reads the league’s existing SportsPress Pro data and displays it in the new design. Custom theme options add what SportsPress doesn’t do on its own, such as the ticker, the homepage sections and the extra team details.

Launching meant uploading and activating the theme. No data was moved, nothing had to be re-entered, and the staff’s weekly workflow didn’t change.

Results

• Launched mid-season with every legacy stat, result and team record intact.
• Scores, schedules and standings are on the homepage instead of a few clicks deep.
• No change for admins: league staff manage the site the same way they did before.
• Positive response from players and fans since launch.

For the full story behind the design decisions, read our write-up: Redesigning the Windsor Soccer League website.

Services Provided

• User & Industry Research: player interviews and a review of major league websites
• UX/UI Design: homepage, match ticker, team wall, champions and team pages
• Custom WordPress Theme Development: built on the existing SportsPress Pro data
• Zero-Migration Deployment: launched mid-season by switching themes

Planning a Redesign?

Whether you run a league, a club or a local business, we build sites around what your visitors actually come to do, and we can redesign without losing the content you already have. See our Windsor web design services, or contact us to talk about your project.