Splash, one of our favorite WordPress themes for sports teams, just got a fresh new look and added a number of new features. Today, we’re going to take a look at some of the new features and talk about what has made Splash so successful among professional teams, local leagues, and athletics clubs around the globe.
A fully-functional sports team website needs to be able to provide fans with a number of features. From stats and schedules to scores and an online shop, the Splash theme covers all the bases.
Splash has four polished demos for basketball, baseball, football, and soccer teams. But the theme is really built with any sports or athletics organization in mind, making it also ideal for hockey, cricket, rugby, volleyball, racing leagues, track & field, and more.
But, let’s get down to what makes Splash such an excellent WordPress theme.
Features of the Splash WordPress Theme
The first thing we noticed about Splash is the sheer number of athletics-specific features packed into this theme. Where other themes will leave you wanting (and searching for plugins to fill in the gaps), the Splash theme has you covered.
Four Dedicated Layouts for Basketball, Baseball, Football, and Soccer
Splash Theme Basketball Layout
The Splash basketball demo comes preloaded with every feature you could need for your basketball team or league.
With the home page header, you can show off your star player’s stats, recent scores, or a featured article about your last big win.
Splash Theme Baseball Layout
The dedicated baseball layout is another simple one-click install that includes everything from player stats like home runs, RBI, and averages to league standings.
Want to show off that epic grand slam front and center on your website? With the front page slider, you can feature photos and clips for your team or league’s best highlights.
Splash Theme Football Layout
The Splash football layout was designed specifically for providing fans everything they need to know about their favorite team.
Stats for touchdowns, points for and against, and individual player profiles make Splash a one-stop-shop for football teams.
Splash Theme Soccer Layout
Splash’s soccer layout makes it easy to show off your team’s trophies, awards, and player statistics.
Monetize your site by adding an online shop to sell jerseys and other branded apparel, and make sure fans never miss a game by promoting upcoming matches with a countdown, a map to the venue, and a season schedule.
A Sleek and Modern WordPress Theme
The designers of Splash clearly have an eye for clean web design. Each page element works together to create a sleek and stylish design that will fit right in with today’s top professional sports websites.
From the fonts to the social icons, each component of the Splash theme contributes to a cutting-edge web experience.
Works seamlessly with SportsPress Plugin
SportsPress by ThemeBoy has long been the go-to plugin for fixtures, standings, and player rankings on WordPress powered websites.
Splash is designed to easily integrate with the latest versions of SportsPress at the click of a button.
Better yet, if you are currently running a sports team site with the SportsPress plugin, you can easily migrate your stats and data over to Splash without having to worry about re-entering data.
Update Stats and Scores in Real-Time
So, you’re at the game and want to update stats and standings on to go. No problem! With Splash and the free SportsPress plugin, you can simply update your stats right from your smartphone, giving fans the most up-to-date scores and play-by-play statistics as they happen.
The free version of SportsPress will cover the needs of most sports team website managers. But, if you want even more features and functionality, Splash also supports SportsPress Pro.
A Selection of Top-Notch Page Templates Designed for Sports
The Splash theme provides a number of page templates that are designed specifically for sports teams. Publishing stats, fixtures, scores, and more are vital to providing the best experience for fans and website visitors.
Want to create a countdown page to the next game? Splash makes it easy with a drag and drop page builder. That means you can create a well-crafted page without ever writing a line of code.
Have a particularly exciting game that you’re itching to share? Splash comes with a single page fixture template that can be set up in minutes. This allows you to write a recap, embed a video, and include stats to provide a rich-content experience for fans and visitors.
Speaking of recaps–Splash also comes with blog templates designed just for sports reporting. Not only will this help you break down the exciting matches for your fans, but it will also help you boost your SEO by providing Google with important keywords for your team.
Does your team or league have an exciting announcement to make? Blog templates make it easy to create breaking and latest news pieces that can easily be shared on Twitter or Facebook.
No Coding Necessary: The Splash Theme Visual Composer and Page Builder
A good WordPress theme makes it easy for people with no web design or coding experience to create a sleek and fully-functional website.
When you purchase Splash, you get a copy of the Visual Composer drag and drop page builder. That’s a $59.00 value added to your site for free! Visual Composer lets you create web pages that are a simple as complex as you need, all without ever having to learn HTML, CSS, or Javascript.
With the Visual Composer page builder enabled on your WordPress website, you can create pages that are far more engaging and visually appealing than you could with the regular WordPress post editor.
Want to make an FAQ about your team or league How about a Google Map to give fans directions to the game? With the page builder you can include these features on your page with the click of a button.
Slider Revolution for Free?
Oh, did we mention that aside from offering a free copy of Visual Composer, the Splash theme also throws in a copy of the amazing Slider Revolution plugin at no additional cost?!
There’s a reason over 4 million websites use a slider made with the Slider Revolution plugin. For $25 you get a number of slider features including blur, parallax, color pickers, animation, font icons, and a huge library of background images.
But, with Splash theme, you get all of those options added for free.
Sliders are an excellent way for sports teams and athletics clubs to show off top content on their website. Want to focus on increasing traffic to your blog? Add a featured posts slider. Trying to get more fans to visit your online shop? Include your best-selling items right in the slider.
Donation Campaigns for Sports Team Fundraising
When you depend on donations and contributions to keep your league running or you want to give back to your community by starting a fundraiser, Splash theme makes it easy to start a donations campaign.
Create multiple campaigns, encourage donations via calls-to-action buttons, and track campaign progress right on your website. The donations module includes a progress bar that increases as you work toward your goal, whatever it may be.
Since many website visitors are reluctant to enter their credit card information, Splash uses PayPal–one of the most trusted names in ecommerce–to receive donations.
Easily Embed Videos of Game Footage and Audio Commentary into Your Website
Hi-res photo galleries are a great way to show off your team’s talent and gain recognition in the media. The Splash theme takes WordPress’s galleries and media section to a new level. With Splash’s Media Gallery, you can keep track of your team’s audio files, video clips, and photos all in one place.
But that doesn’t mean you have to start uploading your YouTube videos to WordPress. Simply paste the URL of your audio or video files from a site like YouTube or SoundCloud right into your Splash Media Gallery.
Splash then makes sure that your files are formatted properly for your website, so you never have to worry about malfunctioning or poorly formatted audio and video embeds.
Responsive Design for Fans Browsing on Smartphones
More fans use their phones than ever before to look up scores, shop for gear, and watch videos featuring their favorite sports teams.
The Splash theme looks great on mobile and tablets, and is responsive for displays of all sizes.
Search Engine Friendly
If you’re a local or regional sports team, local SEO is going to be a huge part of your business. Impressing Google with a well-designed website is vital to ranking on search engine results pages.
Splash incorporates best practices in SEO and makes it easy for you to do the same.
Theme Customization Options
Sure, Visual Composer makes it possible to customize just about every element of your page without writing a line of code. But, all of those customization options can get a bit convoluted and detract from the core aspects of your page.
The Splash theme is designed to give you the customization options you need to make your website easy to use and navigate for fans and website visitors.
You’ll be able to create a cohesive branding strategy on the site by selecting typography options (like font families and default fonts and sizes for headings and body text). And, make sure your site is recognizable by choosing color options that fit your brand and logo.
All of the customization options can be edited right through the default WordPress customizer, which WordPress users have grown to know and love. This makes it easy for newcomers to WordPress to jump right in and design a professional-looking website.
Ecommerce Feature: Sell Your Team’s Merch Through the Online Shop
Merchandise is a big money-maker for professional sports teams. It’s also a great fundraiser for small and local leagues that need to buy new uniforms and equipment.
Splash comes with a fully-integrated online shop customizer that uses the top ecommerce tool in the business, WooCommerce.
For no additional cost, set up an online shop and start selling your team or club’s gear in minutes.
Since Splash uses WooCommerce as its main shop module, that means you easily have access to WooCommerce’s massive list of extensions to add functions to your online shop.
Other Great Features Packed into the Splash Theme
Breaking news ticker
Over 700 Google Fonts to choose from
Ability to create unlimited custom sidebars
24-hour support turnaround
Optional hosting and premium WordPress support service available
Easy to follow PDF user manual
Pricing Options for the Splash WordPress Theme
Splash is currently listed on ThemeForest, the top destination for WordPress themes, for $59.00. Included in that price you get two premium services–Visual Composer and Slider Revolution–for free!
Splash also comes with six months of support from the creators at Stylemix who can walk you through any issues you might face installing or customizing the theme. And, for an extra $17.70 you can get an additional six months of support in case you run into any problems down the road. With over 1600 overwhelmingly positive reviews on ThemeForest.
So, for just over $75, you get a professional sports website and a full year of support. An excellent value, in our opinion.
Splash Theme Customer Support and Documentation
Stylemix, the team who created the Splash theme, is quick to respond to any technical issues. Boasting a 24/7 support team, the extra six months of technical support is a worthwhile investment.
The Splash theme also comes with WordPress help documentation and video tutorials if you want to master every feature the theme has to offer.
Final Thoughts on Our Splash Theme Review
Splash is a great choice for sports teams, leagues, and clubs at all levels. Due to its versatility, it can be used for any number of sports around the globe.
Whether you want to gain media exposure through hi-res photos and video, sell merchandise through your online store, or collect donations to keep your league running, Splash makes it easy to set a main focus for your website.
The Splash theme was recently updated with all new demos that can be easily imported into WordPress. The demos come with everything you need to get your website started, helping you lay the foundation for your team or club’s web presence.
Overall, Splash is a highly impressive WordPress sports theme that you should definitely take for a test drive.
Joe uses WordPress to create websites of all types and loves sharing his experiences of using this software with other users. If you need a steady stream of great content for your website, or you want the latest WordPress news and review then check out his writing services and WordPress blog.
This Post Has 0 Comments