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USSF Election Fallout: False Expectations and How We Forgot How Far We’ve Come

Published

6 years ago

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All right everyone, let’s take a collective breath. Feel better? Probably not. But I promise I’m going to do my best to calm everyone down. I get it, according to Twitter the “establishment” won. Carlos Cordeiro, former Vice President of U.S. Soccer, was elected by the voting councils with nearly 70% of the vote.

I can hear the cries of the many — or read the tweets — that “nothing will change” along with a myriad of mudslinging, uninformed, baseless claims that aren't anywhere near productive to the conversation. I myself have been in at least 10 different threads of debates with fans about the state of the U.S. Soccer Federation, Soccer United Marketing (SUM), MLS, grassroots, and the overall landscape of soccer here.

I’m not going to bury the lede here. Soccer isn't doing poorly in this country. We aren't in some catastrophic state, the sky isn't burning, and we’re certainly not this gif:

Merritt Paulson, the owner of the Portland Timbers and one of my favorite people on social media had a great take:

And if you want the take of someone I’ll guess you supported for the election — assuming you’re pro-revolution — Eric Wynalda had some great, inspirational statements in his election address (marked 2:32:30).

“This is NOT a revolution, this is an evolution.” Wynalda said in his address.

So forgive me for this exceptionally long article. Maybe it’s because I'm sick of trying to explain in 140 characters what I mean, but I believe this will help some come to grips with where we’ve been, where we are, and that, most importantly, there’s a future of change to come. Just as Wynalda mentions above, the sky isn't falling. It’s just changing.

I’m going to start off with something I hate to do, and that’s qualify myself. However I think it’s very important you understand where I’m coming from and what I’ve done to understand my analysis. I’m not just a writer. In fact, that’s the least of what I am. In soccer terminology, I would like to consider myself a builder. Someone who is finding their way to impact the game and make it better for the generations after us. I’m in contract work for PUMA involved with grassroots programming and European academy U.S. partnerships. I’ve done work for Soccer United Marketing (SUM) on Copa America Centenario and the Gold Cup.

I’ve been a coach for over 10 years in high school and club soccer. I've sat in countless conferences and conventions listening to much smarter people than me like Wynalda, Christopher Moore (U.S. Youth soccer CEO), Nelson Rodriguez (former senior vice president in multiple MLS and SUM roles), Lynn Berling-Manuel (United Soccer Coaches CEO), and so many more in an effort to understand the various levels and viewpoints. I've even been a referee for three very long years. I played soccer since I was 12 and in college. And writing is another outlet I hope to use to create change in this game. Don’t believe me? Feel free to check out my LinkedIn.

I have done studies on various international systems, including top-down analysis from professional to grassroots. I will bet money that I research as much as anyone can on the game. I’d say I spend anywhere around 100+ hours a week in soccer whether it be reading, watching, playing, or working. I’ve read the report on how the DFB remodeled its entire system (I’m happy to share the copy just DM me on twitter) and I plan to read the 109-page 2018 Book of Reports from USSF to gain a better understanding of what is happening. I was one of 83 people who watched the AGM live this past Saturday at 8 a.m. while most were either coaching, playing, watching soccer, or sleeping.

I’m not saying all this because I want to brag about how much I’ve done — very little in my opinion — or make you feel inadequate. I want you to understand that I don’t take this story lightly. That I come from a position of an informed person within the system who even struggles to understand it all sometimes. So I can imagine that if I don’t always have the full picture, then a fan is only going to have a small tip of the iceberg. The hot-button, sexy topics are everywhere because that’s what’s on social media (re: back to the Paulson tweet).

I know that was a lot, and there are actual points to come (stay with me please). I’m going to tackle this in a few different specific subsections to help focus my position. But in an effort to not turn you off yet, understand these premises I support so you don’t think I’m some corporate robot:

1. The best system is promotion/relegation.

2. I believe we need to foster more creativity in the game.

3. We need more focus on urban or pick-up play; specifically in lower socioeconomic areas.

4. We have to have a greater focus on minority participation and coaches.

We Have Come So Far Already, Don’t Forget That

I grew up playing in the mid-90s. For some of you, you probably came up even earlier than that. Here’s where we stood when I first started:

  • U.S. Youth Soccer was only 20 years old.
  • The Olympic Development Program was the only “elite” identification program.
  • U.S. Club and the USSF Development Academy didn't exist.
  • We had just hosted our World Cup and went to our second consecutive trip.
  • We had no professional league in either gender; NASL had been finished for nearly 10 years.
  • There were over two million youth soccer players in 1995 (according to USYS).

Not to ask a common-sense question here, but is that anywhere near where we are today? If I could point my personal top highlights:

Now, you’re going to try and poke holes here because it’s in people’s nature to get defensive and try to discredit pieces vs. the whole argument. You're going to distract by saying that participation rates are down. However, all team sports are down. Or you’re going to say the attendance numbers are fudged. News for you, all sports organizations in all leagues do this. “But we didn’t make the World Cup!” I get it, I’m not happy either. But other federations are in the same spot (more on this later).

There are a lot of problems in the system, not everything in the above was achieved in a manner that I would recommend it was done. But at its core, it’s huge growth in almost 30 years. If you can’t accept that, I’m sorry if we’re done here, but goodbye. Please don’t pretend that we’re not in the best place we’ve ever been. Don’t romanticize the good old days or the inevitable comparisons to other countries.

Recognize the growth that thousands of people have busted their asses for, from the CEOs, to the state association volunteers, to the 14-year-old who referees your son’s/daughter’s U-8 match. To say we haven't achieved great things is spitting in the face of all those people, many of whom are still involved, who helped get us to this point.

Agree or disagree with how we got here or where we are going ,but don’t ignore the immense growth we’ve made.

We’re In Our Infancy As a Soccer Nation

Continuing on from the above point to understand the growth we’ve made, you need to understand how long it takes to build everything and that there needs to be a realistic timeline of expectations.

We live in such a “now” world that patience is a lost art at this point. TV on our phones, Twitter updating by the second to beat organizations via leaks, and you can even have groceries delivered to your door. Saving time might be the greatest asset of any idea or organization at this point. The problem is we want to attribute this to everything. Ignoring the myriad of reasons something can’t be as instant as UberEats.

We see the 1999 Rams go from 4-12 to winning a Super Bowl or Leicester City come out of nowhere to win the English Premier League after being 14th at 5000-1 odds, and we wonder how the United States of America, “The Greatest Country in the World,” is not a soccer world leader by now. We lead in just about every major sport and it just doesn't make sense why this hasn't figured itself out yet. Something must be very, very wrong.

The NFL was created in 1920. It is often said that the NFL didn't reach its turning point until Commissioner Pete Rozelle began in 1960. It took him 29 years to turn league valuations from one million to 100 million. During that time, the NFL had very little competition in pro sports. It wasn't like there were already established multi-million dollar leagues they had to compete with. Keep that in mind when evaluating MLS’ growth.

To put all this in perspective, MLS is only 20 years old and the growth of team valuations has grown 80% since 2013 with the LA Galaxy leading the way with $285 million. In 1997, MLS owners bought in for $5 million. On the high end, that’s a 5700% increase. The NFL’s in 29 years was 10,000%. And that was in a market that was ripe for the taking, whereas MLS has to contend with a billion dollar franchise and three continents of soccer for entertainment dollars.

Or look at how long The Football Association has existed — since 1863. That’s 155 years! U.S. Soccer, even if we ignore the lack of emphasis on its part, wasn't founded for another 50 years. The Football League in England — what eventually became the Premier League when clubs factioned off in 1992 — started in 1888. The 22 clubs that formed the Premier League had a 104-year head start when they started their own league. And then another five before we even started MLS after every other professional league had failed in the U.S. We didn't even get our first professional league in the U.S. until 1967 for further comparison.

When you combine all of this, one should take a step back and understand we are so far behind the world in infrastructure and organization that we have to understand, not to be corny, “that Rome wasn't built in a day.” You can’t expect — no matter how much national pride you have or the culture we live in — that we can’t do in 30-ish years what others have been building for a century or more.

To the facts I referenced in the previous section, we are gaining in American popularity, club valuations, money and many other areas in such a short time already. But we need to take a realistic look at our expectations and understand that if we’re going to become a world power, it’s going to take a lot of time. And don’t forget, it’s not like these countries have stopped improving. The gap may get smaller and smaller but they're all searching for improvement as well.

Promotion / Relegation is Something We Can’t Sustain Right Now

OK, I know this is going to be met with vitriol. Please remember my above premise. I want pro/rel. We need pro/rel. But it’s not the time for it. Read this Forbes article on MLS operating income. It’s a must. They account for all MLS and SUM shared revenue plus individual club revenues to come out with their operating income.

Over half the league is losing money. Now, you’ll say most sports teams lose money. That’s very true. But with the single entity structure, SUM/MLS has taken some of the financial risk to control losses from owners that aren't all billionaires. In fact, there are only six. The NFL boasts 18. And their franchises are worth five times more, and they're profiting in the hundreds of millions.

Now what does that mean? The owners don’t have the financial capabilities to run in an open market and you’ll start getting the NASL /USL turnover. It’s not a secret the financial solvency of the ownership groups means a lot to the MLS. It’s why Arthur Blank and Atlanta are their darlings. Billionaire owners mean money injection into resources. It’s why they brought in the Manchester City ownership. It wants stable, spending franchises.

Now look at the USL, our current D2 league. It talks about having a combined net worth of over $4 billion. It talks about a league expansion fee of over $3 million (note Nashville FC just joined at $4 million). Forbes is reporting the valuations of USL clubs are as high as $21 million. Admittedly, I’ve scoured the internet and cannot find operating income for USL clubs. But if USL clubs were so strong and doing so well, they wouldn't have lost 15 clubs in five years.

There are various reasons for these losses, but the important piece is that MLS saw the hits it has taken with losses of the Tampa Bay Mutiny, Miami Fusion, Chivas USA, and potentially now the Columbus Crew. They understand a shifting team model does nothing for the brand.

On the low end, MLS teams are valued above 10 times the value and have expansion fees at five times the value of USL clubs. They're spending a year what USL clubs are currently valued at. Again, at the low end.

Looking at all this, it is very clear that there are MLS clubs that wouldn’t survive and USL clubs that couldn’t spend at the level needed. And no shared revenue is going to compensate. It’s not strong enough.

There will be a time. Hopefully within the next 10-15 years. But it’s not feasible right now. The best trial period might be candidate Mike Winograd’s take on a unique trial of pro/rel, one I hope MLS takes seriously.

Change Is On The Way

So here’s the good news, change is coming. Carlos Cordeiro was not the favorite of Sunil Gulati nor MLS. He was only the vice president so don’t confuse a board member position with president, they have very different abilities.

There’s a reason the Athlete’s Council voted for him as a bloc. You need a business sense with an openness to the “soccer-people” mentality.

The first step is the introduction of the two soccer GM roles in U.S. Soccer (one for each gender). This is a big first step that Gulati didn't want. This shows an openness to have collaboration on the soccer side and not being an authoritarian, sitting up high from 30,000 feet mandating.

There’s an open vice president role now too, along with open spots for a board member and an independent director spot. These people will be important to how the change will happen along with Cordeiro and I’ll haves my eyes glued to see who runs (fingers crossed for Winograd since he hasn't ruled it out).

Look it’s not going to happen overnight. We’ve come a long way and, as Wynalda said, we just need to evolve. But everyone has to have some patience and some perspective before lashing out at hot button topics. There was so much more we could have talked about and I look forward to the debates. I believe there is a lot of change on the way and it’s needed. But stop with the sky is falling, the system is broken talk. If it wasn't for one game we’re probably not even having this conversation.

If you’re really upset, Get involved! Learn the business, inform yourself. Join a club, a state association, volunteer, whatever gets you into the game and more informed. I promise you’ll see it’s not as easy as Twitter makes it out to be. And you’ll see it’s not all that bad.

There’s so much good out there and we just need time to keep growing. Give people the time. We’ve come so far, in so little time. Once you accept that and have taken a deep breath, you’ll find we can all focus on how to improve. Instead of detracting from the whole situation.

*(PSA – all these views are my own and are not reflective for any organization I've worked for or done work with)

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Reflecting on Eight Years with The Mane Land

A look back over my time with The Mane Land (so far).

Published

10 months ago

on

June 20, 2023

By

Nick Leyva, The Mane Land

As of last week, I have been a contributor at The Mane Land for eight years. That’s longer than I’ve ever been at any of my actual jobs in my life. There are literally only a couple of people who have been with the site longer, but I’m still amazed at how long it’s been. This is not to say I’m going anywhere, but rather I wanted to take the opportunity to look back at the past eight years, and look ahead to the future.

Unlike some, I didn’t come to be a supporter of Orlando City until it was announced that the club was joining MLS. At the time, I was contemplating picking a club to follow in MLS, but being in Tallahassee, there were no nearby options at that time. I considered FC Dallas and D.C. United, given the two were geographically closer in proximity to me than any others. Fortunately, it was literally while I was considering my options that the announcement was made regarding Orlando City’s jump to MLS. It was an easy decision.

As I do in many aspects of my life, I immediately started researching my new club, which led me to the content being produced by The Mane Land. There was also an article on the site titled “Join The Mane Land Staff.” I had often over the years internally bemoaned that I rarely used my Bachelor’s degree in English, and the desire to write welled up in me so much that I emailed the staff. 

In response, one of our former editors, Andrew Marcinko, contacted me and said “I think your voice would be a great fit on TML.” He asked me to submit a Fan Post (those went away with our presence on SBN), and then another piece for review. Following that, our founder and managing editor, Michael Citro, emailed me to welcome me to the staff. I had no idea at the time how big a part of my life this blog would become.

I started out writing Monday’s Lions Links — often one of the more difficult days to write — and a feature piece. It’s been many years gone by now, but there was a time when the feature piece was “Pride Pub,” an ongoing series that paired craft beer and good food based on Orlando City’s opponent. I can tell you that the research for that was very enjoyable, and I still use some of the recipes I found to this day.

Eventually, I started contributing more match coverage and analytical pieces. Staff came and went, but I never thought to leave since I was enjoying myself. Sometime after that, I was promoted to senior columnist, for which I’m grateful. I can without reservation say that I’m a better writer thanks to my time with the site, and from working with such excellent staff.

In November of 2016, Michael asked if I wanted to give co-hosting The Mane Land PawedCast a try. My first recording was for Episode 71. We just recorded Episode 354, and with the exception of maybe two or three episodes, I have been on every single one of 283 episodes over the last six plus years. Michael and I have spent a lot of time talking on and off the podcast over the years, and I’m proud of what we have produced and to call him my friend.

We recently added an Orlando Pride-specific podcast called Skopurp: An Orlando Pride PawedCast. For years we wanted to give the Pride the time and attention the club deserves. Now, it is a reality, but one that I ask you to listen to and share. I’ll even put out that although Michael and I are the current hosts, we merely consider ourselves stewards and are hoping to get others to come onboard and eventually take it to the next level.

When I started with The Mane Land, the site had just made the move from a free WordPress site to the SBNation network. It was a big deal, and for many years it was a good partnership. Of course that all came to an end not too long ago, and our blog went the independent route thanks to the incredibly generous support of our readers and listeners. In fact, if you want to be one of those supporting our efforts, please go to our Buy Me A Coffee site to become a member. The move has allowed a flexibility we didn’t have before, but I really want others to have the same sense of joy and accomplishment that I have as a member of our staff. 

At one point we had nearly twice the staff that we do now, and as you know, many hands make light work. The opposite of that is also true. I genuinely believe that there must be others out there with the same passion for Orlando City as I have — with the same desire to have their voice heard, whether through the written word or on a podcast. I promise you there is an opportunity to contribute here with us. Our internal discussions are informative, engaging, and often funny. Please consider joining us, as I did eight years ago. I haven’t regretted it and I know you won’t either.

I want to thank all of those who contributed to The Mane Land over the years. There are many that I am still in touch with, though they are no longer a part of the staff. Of course, the current staff are a pleasure to work with, and I appreciate their dedication to what we are trying to do.

Finally, I want to thank the readers and listeners over the years. From those who regularly comment on our articles, to those that I’ve personally met at matches or even randomly on the street, you are a big reason that we do all of this. You are a big reason why I’ve been doing this for the better part of a decade. it is always a genuine pleasure hearing your thoughts or simply sharing a moment of joy together — U.S. Open Cup final, anyone?

So, thank you. I look forward to many more years of this journey together.

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The Mane Land Announces Membership Program

Maximize your Mane Land experience with our new TML membership program while supporting our independent efforts.

Published

12 months ago

on

May 4, 2023

By

Hello, readers of The Mane Land and listeners of our podcasts. Before you start reading this, please note that the most important part of this post is at the end. So, don’t stop until you get to the bottom.

You may recall that when we left SBNation to become independent, we really weren’t sure the best way to go about that. Many of our readers and listeners generously offered to help us make that transition, but we still weren’t sure the best path forward, so we took a poll.

The poll was pretty much split down the middle between those who preferred a one-time, Kickstarter-style campaign (which we did, and those of you who stepped up to help completely blew us away!) and those who favored a Patreon-style, subscription-based membership with extra perks. In fact, the member subscriptions option got a few more votes in our poll.

The folks who took part in our GoFundMe fundraiser were fantastic and are now immortalized on this very site on the “Our Founders” page. But we had always planned to give folks the option to choose whichever method of support they preferred and we tried to communicate that throughout the process. It took a little longer than expected to get up and running, but our membership subscription program is now in place! (You may notice the fancy new banner ad about it on the home page, echoed below.)

Supporting TML helps build a better TML for you to enjoy, so you’re really subscribing to your own Orlando soccer fandom.

Part of that delay was thinking up something that didn’t encroach on the benefits we gave our Founders. Those folks helped us get started and deserve the exclusivity of the perks they got. The other part of the delay is that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. (However, for you guys, I’m willing to be cloned.)

We have utilized the popular Buy Me a Coffee platform to run this program. You can find the basics here. The Mane Land premium membership program includes three tiers of membership, as well as the option to click on the “Support” tab for those who just want to help us out whenever, without joining the program or adding any recurring “appointment-based” payments to their budgets. We love that feature of Buy Me a Coffee (or “Buy Us a Beer” in our case…you drink what you like).

For those who do choose to become members, we hope we have provided value and we are planning to add benefits along the way, in addition to providing special giveaways, events, etc. (more on that below). We have also provided subscription options — with monthly or annual memberships. The annual cost essentially gives you 12 months for the price of 10.

Current Benefits

The current membership benefits depend on which level of support you choose — Homegrown Player, TAM Player, or Designated Player level. Each level includes all benefits from the lower tiers, with additional benefits for each higher level.

Homegrown Player: This is a basic set-it-and-forget-it level of support for The Mane Land, providing a way for our readers and podcast listeners to contribute to the success of TML‘s independence goals. We want to compensate our current volunteers, replace lost income of those who previously received small stipends from being part of the SBNation network, add photographers, attract new writers, and expand our coverage. Additionally, each Homegrown Player Level member will be recognized in a Lion Links column, which is still typically our most widely read post of each day and one of the top daily links columns among soccer sites. Homegrown Player Level members will also be included in any future prize drawings we have or events we host and may be subject to future benefits as they are added.

TAM Player: In addition to Homegrown Player benefits, TAM Players will receive a new weekly e-newsletter in their inbox (unless you opt out…some people hate email). These will be informal missives from myself, other TML writers, or a combination, discussing what’s on our mind regarding Orlando City, the Pride, OCB, or soccer in general. Think of it as an extra post from our site that may cover multiple topics. Additionally, you’ll get a 10% discount from our web shop items that we control (presently, that means everything except our listed MLS Shop items). We will definitely have more benefits coming for this level soon and will look for opportunities to include additional benefits as they become available.

Designated Player: This limited availability level of support includes all perks from the Homegrown and TAM levels, but it goes beyond. Your discount at our webshop (for items we control) will be 15% off. Additionally, we’ll send you Zoom links to watch us “make the doughnuts” whenever we record the podcast. This includes when we interview guests. You’ll see how the sausage is made behind the scenes and everything that we say, some of which will end up on the cutting room floor before the final podcast is sent out. This includes both The Mane Land PawedCast and SkoPurp Soccer: An Orlando Pride PawedCast. And after two months of membership you can commission a bonus episode of either podcast simply by letting us know what topic you want us to cover. Think of this as an extended Ask Us Anything. We’ll do a whole show about your topic and you can even join us to discuss it if you wish.

The DP Level will certainly have additional benefits tacked on as we move forward. It is currently limited to 40 members but could be expanded slightly depending on demand and our Zoom attendance.

Future Benefits / Benefits Under Consideration

While we won’t be able to schedule these due to the random nature of items falling into our hands, there will be periodic prize giveaways in drawings that include all of our members, regardless of level. The catch is that you get one entry per level of support, meaning Homegrown Player Level members will get one entry per prize drawing, TAM Player Level members will get two entries per drawing, and Designated Player Level members get three entries for prize drawings. Some of the kinds of items we have come across in the past include match tickets, trinkets, posters, scarves, and so on.

We are planning to add a message board to our website, well…soon-ish is the word that comes to mind. The plan for the message board is to build our community and further the discussion about the club. As part of this, we’re planning an exclusive, members-only area of that message board that TAM and DP members can access. This will be a place our staff can share informational nuggets we can’t necessarily write stories about for various reasons and interact with our members on a daily basis.

Other things in the works include meet-and-greets/watch parties where you can chat with TML staff members and catch a road match with a bunch of like-minded Orlando City/Pride fans while we all cheer on the team together. There may also be other informal outings with one or more members of the staff, organized fantasy leagues, random Zoom calls for Q&A sessions, and perhaps even some organized group outings for Orlando City / Pride matches, national team games, etc.

The Most Important Part of This Post

Remember at the top of this post, when I said the most important part is at the bottom? Well, that seems like a long time ago, now, so it’s OK if you’ve already forgotten.

The most important part of our membership program is you. We want your feedback so we can make this program something that interests and excites you. We want to know what you like and dislike about this program. We want to know if there are some things we didn’t think of that interest you. If you like what we’re offering, tell us! If you hate what we’re offering, we want to know what you’d prefer instead or in addition. If you want to go drinking with Dave, we can probably arrange that, but it’ll be a unique tier and we’ll have to figure out the cost of that.

No idea is too crazy to suggest, even if it’s too insane for us to actually offer. Let us know what you want from your subscription and we’ll see if that’s something we can do. We’ll make it easy for you by putting the form right here below this post, which is now concluded.

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Welcome Home!

Published

1 year ago

on

March 31, 2023

By

Where do I even start? When we were told in January that SBNation was pulling its support of The Mane Land and other MLS and NHL blogs — and many podcasts — I was devastated. The site had become my new baby in September of 2014 and after eight and a half years, I wasn’t ready to let it go.

I was in a pickle. I couldn’t afford to lose the monthly stipend I had been getting from SBNation to manage the site and provide a steady stream of content. It wasn’t that it was a huge monthly sum, but it mostly covered my car payment. That car was purchased when my salary was higher. The pandemic hit my day job like it did to many, and after a four-month layoff, I got my old job back but not at the same rate. So, imagine taking a pay decrease at work and then, on top of that, losing the amount you spend per month on your car payment. There was simply no way to launch The Mane Land independently, I thought, because I simply couldn’t cover the startup costs. Even with some generous offers from the staff to pitch in, there simply wasn’t a way.

Once we took the news public, there was an outpouring of support on social media. We appreciated both the pledges to help out that we got from the community and the signal boosting that the national media gave blogs like ours. Those national folks rely on local reporting for background.

Encouraged by this outpouring of public support, I met with the TML staff and we threw some ideas around. We polled our Twitter followers to see how our community would prefer to show their support. We got pretty close to a 50/50 split between those who wanted to provide a one-time donation via a Kickstarter or GoFundMe crowdsourcing effort, and those who would prefer some sort of premium subscription add-on service like Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee.

We didn’t get a lot of responses to that poll, but we decided as a group that since the results were so similar, we would offer both and let the public choose one path, the other, or even both. (Stay tuned for news soon-ish on the premium subscription level, but rest assured, everything you’ve been getting for free at TML will remain free!)

I was, admittedly, skeptical that we could raise enough startup money to create a private business, pay for hosting a new site and two podcasts (having long wanted to give the Orlando Pride their own unique show), registering a domain, paying for some design work and consulting, and any unexpected expenses that might come up. However, I thought we’d at least give it a try.

Then the amazing Orlando City, Orlando Pride, and TML community got involved. You guys pushed us past our bare minimum goal in just four and a half hours when our fundraiser went live on March 1. We reset our goal and you met that by midnight. We reset our goal again, to the dream total we discussed on our initial staff Zoom chat and you met that by that first weekend.

Stunned. Humbled. Amazed. Touched. All of these words apply to how that made us feel, but they don’t quite cover it. I think we all felt an enormous responsibility, as well. We felt a mandate to provide you the best site and the best coverage we can.

We got everything we needed to run the site for two years, even if we don’t earn a penny after our launch — and we plan to try, via advertising, a Patreon (or similar) program, an online shop, affiliate links, and anything else we can think of. But we decided to leave the GoFundMe open through the end of March, just in case there were folks who wanted to contribute but needed to wait for payday, or if more people wanted to become founding members of this new site.

Now, here we are. You guys did this. We’re here because of you. And this site isn’t quite what it will become. I’m still learning my way around WordPress, after being away from it for years. There’s more to build, and some of the things you’re seeing on this site now will be improved in the future. We’ll continue to tweak it, add things, and upgrade as we go.

For now, I just want to welcome you to your new online home. On behalf of our entire staff, I thank our founding members, who are now immortalized on this site in our founders section. If you weren’t able to contribute to our transition from SBNation’s network to an autonomous and independent, new version of The Mane Land, you can thank the folks on our founders page, because without them, we wouldn’t be here. And if you still want to help out, we’ve got more things on the way.

Vamos.

Michael Citro
Managing Editor

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