One requirement of SportsML is that it provide a single, core set of properties that could be used to describe scores, schedules, standings, and statistics for a wide variety of sports. This Core DTD, while using U.S. English to express its contructs, has to support properties of sports in a way that is readily usable by publishers from any nation.
The Core SportsML DTD refers to a separate, small DTD file known as the SportsML Control File. This file contains no particular sports properties in it, per se. Instead, the Control File activates any SportsML Plug-In DTDs that a publisher wants to use.
SportsML allows a publisher to express properties that are highly specific to particular sports. It does so by support individual, sports-specific DTDs that "plug in" to the core SportsML DTD.
As long as the SportsML Control File includes the plug-in for, say, Ice Hockey, a publisher is able to represent such Ice Hockey-specific constructs as shift changes, penalty shots, and power plays. The IPTC has decided to support seven sport-specific plug-ins at the launch of SportsML 1.0, and drafts of these plug-ins are also available with the SportsML 0.5 release. Sports with plug-ins are:
Samples of SportsML with other sports are also available for browsing in the Examples section.