Defending Big D 2.0: Fundraising

Jan 28, 2023 - 6:00 PM

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It’s been two weeks since Vox said our funding is going to be gone as of the end of February and we’ll be on our own to continue this community (or not - but we don’t see that as a viable option.)

There are even more questions than answers at this point. But the one quick realization we’ve come to is that we’re going to need some help to make this transition happen. I don’t want to come up with a half-ass plan that doesn’t work for anyone. We’ll need time to examine our options and pick the one that makes sense for the key aspects of Defending Big D the community told us were important to them in our community survey last week. (And to all those that have responded, we thank you immensely - you’ve given us a lot to work with as we begin this planning process.)

So we’re coming to you, hat in hands, and asking for any help you can provide. We’ve setup a GoFundMe to help us raise some capital to make this transition happen. Every dollar is going to be spent in a conscious and deliberate way. Anything we raise will go towards things such as:

• Legal fees (so that we can ensure however we continue in the future, we’re not open to this chaos again)
• Website hosting and development
• Purchasing our brand and/or domain name, if possible (because I do not trust a company not to be greedy even with an asset they apparently see no value in)
• Paying our contributors a small sum to continue through this season and what we expect will be a nice, long playoff run
• And probably a whole host of other things we have yet to realize we need

The media landscape in Dallas is changing. The number of outlets covering the team was already limited, but it feels like it shrinks every day. The Dallas Morning News has yet to replace Matt DeFranks, and when they do, it’s not going to be a full-time beat reporter anymore - they’ll be limited travel on the road and splitting time as a baseball fill-in. The local media doesn’t pay attention to the team until the Dallas Cowboys are eliminated from the playoffs. The Athletic continues to pull back its financial resources since the sell to the New York Times and Saad Yousuf doesn’t travel for every road game anymore. More and more, the independent coverage of this team shrinks.

And the thing that sucks about all of this is that the biggest non-mainstream place one could go to get critical analysis of the Dallas Stars is going to disappear without some help.

We hope you’ll consider contributing. Our goal is to be able to use this to setup something that wouldn’t require a subscription model but allows people to donate to this endeavor in a philanthropic way. We’re by no means making money here. In fact, many of us will lose money on this. But this is a team that deserves to be covered, their stories to be told, their successes celebrated and their shortcomings examined.

Thank you to all that support us, whether it is through financial contributions or just by sharing with all the Stars fans you know.