The Calgary Flames are giving terrible on-ice performances this season, but they’re hoping to keep fans engaged with a new smartphone app.

The app, currently available for the iPhone and soon to be available for BlackBerry, offers up-to-date stats and standings, game photos, live scoring updates, an interactive stadium map, team news and pre-game and post-game videos. It will be promoted through the Flames’ social media channels and website, as well as in the Saddledome.

Here, Mike Board, digital content director, CalgaryFlames.com, tells MiC why an app was an ideal medium for the team’s fans far and wide.

MiC: Why did you decide to build an app for Flames fans?
MB: It’s a fun project and a fun thing to do, and it’s just another way to reach our fans. It’s an evolution of our website and digital areas.

MiC: Who is this app targeted at?
MB: The hockey fans, and sports fans, in general. There are Calgary Flames fans around the world, and Calgarians travelling all over the world, and now they can take us with them. In the oil industry, a lot of those guys are travelling, they’re doing work in Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, places like that, and they like to keep in touch with their team, and this is another way to do that. Plus, we’ve got some Finns and Czechs and Swedes on our team, so people in Europe are pretty interested in us, too.

MiC: How do you see this app evolving going forward?
MB: I’d like to see us incorporating more social media games, push notifications and special offers for fans in the building, and potentially adding highlights to the package of videos. Moving forward, we just hope to add more fun features. Eventually, fans get used to an app and they think, ‘it’d be cool this way,’ so we’re looking forward to getting some feedback from them, too.

App-etite is an ongoing MiC series dedicated to covering branded mobile applications. For a bird’s eye view of branded apps in Canada, just type ‘App-etite’ into the website search engine.