Photo: Paul Rudderow
Last year brought more change to the Philly Soccer Page than any in its history.
Ed Farnsworth, our managing editor, left the site after years of great work. No one could ever fill Ed’s shoes.
To keep the site flourishing we brought on new writers, editors, and photographers.
One year later, we’re seeing the fruits of that infusion of new talent and ideas.
This year, the seat next to Mike Servedio in the Union press box will be filled by a three-man rotation of Nick Fishman, Ryan Rose, and Steve Whisler — all three of whom joined the publication last year. Games will be shot by our usual squad of great photographers, joined by talented new videographer Ryan Griffith. And you’ll continue to see quality analysis and commentary from a variety of writers, led by Pete Andrews. Adam Cann will continue to provide the best tactical analysis in American soccer — period.
For more than eight years, this site has provided some of the best coverage of Philadelphia soccer and the Philadelphia Union available anywhere. We’re proud to keep that going as we enter our ninth full season of Union coverage.
To keep flourishing, the site needs to be self-sustaining. Last year, we began accepting donations through Patreon to cover server costs and other site expenses.
We had no idea whether this would work.
We’re so happy that it did.
Thank you for your support
Over the last year, your support of PSP totaled over $1,500.
Thank you. Seriously, thank you.
Your support confirmed what we already knew: that the Philadelphia soccer community craves local, independent, high-quality soccer journalism. It showed us that this community is willing to support that journalism financially.
What are we doing with that money?
Mostly, we’ve covered outstanding hosting costs for the website. As longtime readers probably know, PSP doesn’t chase advertising. We’re open to it and have run ads in the past, but nobody on staff has the time or inclination to focus on it. So Ed Farnsworth and Dan Walsh have been paying the bills out of their own pockets pretty much since PSP started. With community support, that doesn’t have to happen anymore.
PSP’s short-term financial future is stable, and we’re happy about that.
The future of PSP
The question we face today is an optimistic one: Where can we go from here?
Our primary goal will be to support our contributors so that creating great journalism doesn’t cost anything out of pocket. We’d like to get to the point where contributors aren’t incurring any personal financial loss to cover the team, whether that’s helping to maintain equipment or paying for travel.
What we don’t intend is to collect money just to collect money.
We’re eager for your feedback as to what you’d like to see from the website. We’ve talked about organizing various soccer-related events — and have done a bit in the past — so that’s one option, and various types of upgrades to the publication are another. What else is possible? What would you like to see? What do you think?
Post a comment below or contact Dan directly at dwalsh@phillysoccerpage.com.
With the season starting, we’re beginning our week-long pledge drive here at the Philly Soccer Page. You can become a patron of the site — donating as little as $1 per month — by pledging at our Patreon page.
We continue to believe in local, independent, high-quality soccer journalism.
That’s been our goal since we started PSP in 2009, and that’s our goal as we near a decade of publishing.
We hope you’ll continue to support us in fulfilling that mission. Thanks for reading and supporting us.
Proud supporter of this site. I love everything you guys do. Even the disagreements on this page are more civil than just about anywhere else on the whole of the internet.
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A particular mention to Peter, Adam, and Dan. The fact that you guys aren’t doing this full time at a national level is a crime. (I know, I know, Peter wants to be a lawyer, blah, blah.) 😉 And there are others on this site that are approaching that level of expertise, as well.
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As you mentioned, there have been discussions about events. I wish I had the time (or the ability) to help out. I’d love to see a PSP-sponsored 3-on-3 tourney somewhere. A day-long tourney for all age and skill levels. I have played in a ton of volleyball tournaments in the area (2-man mainly), and it would be cool to see the same with soccer.
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Would it be possible to team up with the Union and local youth clubs to host something like this? Split the proceeds: clubs get money for scholarships, the Union gets money for the Academy, and PSP gets sustaining money.
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Of course, it becomes a question of who has the time, energy, and experience to do all this. But I figured I’d spitball a bit…
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Once more, thank you. This is easily my most-visited page on the web! Keep doing what you’re doing, we all love it!
A tournament would be great especially to benefit local soccer clubs, PSP and perhaps another charity like Starfinder. I wouldn’t make a donation to the Union or their Academy as part of this until training and solidarity payments are mandatory.
It would be possible. We’d need the help in organizing it. That’s usually the case for us. Our contributors spend so much time on PSP itself that it’s tough to get out beyond it to run those sorts of things.
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(It also doesn’t help that a few of us moved out of Philly after PSP started.)
Is there a way to donate without a monthly payment?
The simplest way is to go into Patreon, make a monthly pledge of however much you want to donate, and then cancel the pledge after the first of the month (which is when Patreon processes pledges).
I’ve done it this. It works fine.
Thanks for the update! One way to collect money is to have a viewing party (at Ed’s pub…) and collect some money there.
My apologies for not donating in the past but that is rectified now. I finally signed up to make sure you continue giving us this great content!
Thanks, PSP. I’m happy to be a monthly sponsor, it’s the very least that I could do given how much work you all put into running this site. Thank you so much.
Guys, I will absolutely sponsor this site. I come here to read every week and I love what you all do.
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However, I do not want to make standing monthly donations. the way I do things is to make larger donations on an ad hoc basis. Then, when you guys have the next pledge drive (in 6 months or 12 months or whenever) I’ll toss some more paper your way. I really prefer it that way.
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This Patreon thing doesn’t work for someone who prefers this style. Could you please consider just opening up a PayPal account for PSP? Or something similar? I’ll be the first one to donate if you do.
See NJUnionFan above as to how to make a one-time contribution.
Done and done. Add Patreon, one.
I don’t know how much $ your shop has generated, but I’d expand it. I’m a sucker for a cool t-shirt, though I didn’t like any of what you first put out. Keep going retro, your logo is cool, and there are partners that will slap it onto whatever you want. Think beer mugs, cozzies, soft coolers, basically anything at a tailgate. I’d take a coffee mug. Speaking of tailgates, a meet and greet in Lot A with a $10 cover with some dogs and beer could net you a some $ quick.
Along these lines, if you guys ran a campaign thru Bonfire (online t-shirt company), you can set prices and not worry about any overhead. Basically, anything you sell would be profit that could go towards the site and you wouldn’t have upfront cost. The downside is that the campaign needs to have a set period of time. Just something to consider.
Interesting. I wasn’t familiar with Bonfire. We’ll talk that over.
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More t-shirts/merchandise is something we’ve talked about the most. The trick is setting it up so that we don’t have to dump in significant investment up front and then get stuck holding the bag if it doesn’t sell. Sounds like you’ve suggested a good potential alternative. Thanks!
like the tailgate idea in lot A
Tailgating …
Hmmmm … 🙂
Please add a PayPal account.
Love you guys and would buy more merch if available. I’ve no qualms with reppin’ the best blog in sports. Let me buy a $50 sweatshirt or something. Or beanies! Everybody needs another beanie.
I would buy a shirt for sure
PSP is, WITHOUT A DOUBT, the best sports blog in all of Philly sports, let alone Union coverage. And our town definitely has a lot of great ones. I don’t know what I’d do if PSP were to shutter.
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I’m thrilled to support PSP, and thanks for reminding all of us. To me, news isn’t true until PSP covers it, and the analysis is absolutely outstanding. And I definitely agree that the camaraderie and civility of the commenters is a true breath of fresh air and one of the many reasons I love this site!
Became a supporter when you kicked it off last year and will continue to do so. This is the best soccer site, period. I’m proud and happy to support it. If I can do more this coming year I will. I urge anyone who read a to donate if they can. Keep up the good work all!! Go Union!