SportAccord picks CORE for .sport gTLD bid
SportAccord, an international association of sporting federations, has picked CORE as its registry services provider for its .sport generic top-level domain application.
The organization, which has International Olympic Committee backing, has also confirmed that it will be applying for .sport as a “community” gTLD.
Community applications can avoid a costly auction in the event that their chosen gTLD string is contested and the applicant can meet a rigorous set of community support criteria.
With over 100 international sporting organizations, covering everything from football to tug of war, comprising its membership, SportAccord’s bid should be good for a few points on the Community Priority Evaluation, but success is by no means assured.
The Lausanne, Switzerland-based organization announced its intention to apply for .sport, issuing an RFP, back in September 2011.
I’m aware of at least two other organizations that have publicly announced potential .sport applications.
CORE currently runs the back-end for the .cat and .museum gTLDs.
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The irony: I think this is one of the worse proposed TLDs I’ve heard of. Who would want a .sport domain? Too general.
I suspect that some of these .sport applicants are planning a three-level structure.
manutd.football.sport
Also crappy, but for a different reason.
I’m sure that’s their plan. But I’d rather have name.football
From the RFP, it seemed as though the were hedging their bets. Initially they want .sport, but hope that they will be able to ‘have input’ in other sport’s as well. So .football could be applied for with their support and they could get a recommendation letters from FIFA (one of there members) for example. They could also oppose if it is not done through them.
Basically looking to have a level of control (oversight) over all sports gtld’s. Could be very good for CORE (& SportsAccord).
(See FAQ No.2 on the RFP Page, final paragraph).