Start your own sports site?

I'll admit I'm not an expert on starting up a site, but $1 million seems like an extraordinary high cost for such a site.

 

Writers are expensive, as it turns out. As are stringers, travel and hosting costs.

I want something that is legitimate competition for the local newspaper -- which means I need quality reporters, photographers and editors, full-time professionals. And I'll still have fewer than said local newspaper.

And my assumption was that I would pay my staff an actual living wage, although by no means will they be what I would consider well-paid.

Here was the business plan: Assume I'm in a Midwestern market with a population of about 300,000. One Division I school, one Division II schools, three NAIA schools. Approximately 30 high schools. Travel to cover the D-I school, high school playoffs in various sports, and cover as many games in the area as possible.

Straight from my spreadsheet, I figured I'd need:

-- A senior writer (salary + benefits: $80,000)
-- Three reporters (s + b: $50,000 each)
-- Two web developers (s + b = $80,000 each, and that's pretty cheap)
-- Technical support (s + b = $160,000 total, probably spread among two full-timers and a part timer; needs to be staffed 24x7)
-- A two-person copy desk (s + b = $70,000 each)
-- Two staff photographers (s + b = $50,000 each)

Salary + benefits is figured by salary times 1.5 (which means I'm getting a helluva deal from some insurance company; good luck with that.)

-- Non-mileage travel budget (airfare and hotels for covering D-I football and basketball): $20,000
-- Mileage budget: $10,000
-- Hosting and infrastructure costs: $50,000 (this assumes my servers and bandwidth)
-- Stringer budget: $40,000 ($75 a story x 10 stories a week x 52)
-- Photo stringer budget: $40,000
-- Agate clerks and phone people ($60,000: 160 person-hours a week x $7 an hour x 52, no benefits)
-- An ad salesperson (s + b = $30,000; commission is the rest; I want a hungry salesperson)

Total first-year costs for bare-bones staff, infrastructure and travel: $1,040,000.

And I'm not paying myself anything (I'll keep whatever I don't give the ad salesperson, I guess).

I'm also not subscribing to any wire services, and I think the argument can be made that I don't have enough reporters (because yeah, they're going to have to write mainbars, sidebars, keep stats, blog, break news -- and break news 24x7, not just on cycle).

 

yeah, but that's including my $341,000 annual salary

 

It isn't just the start-up cost of the site; it's the several hundred thousand per year that you lose while you gradually build up an audience and an advertiser base.

It definitely can be done, but it takes money, a patient investor or investor group, time and the willingness to stick to a plan and see it through. No way can you do it and six months later be supporting yourself.

 

I don't dispute that, either. When a league is trying to get off the ground, and in MLS's case, try to improve its worldwide and domestic standing, it will take all the help it can get.

They seem to have done a good job of that, but I think they might have folded by now if Doug Logan were still commissioner. Thankfully, Don Garber is the anti-Gary Bettman.

 

I wouldn't worry so much about the hard work as I would putting all my time, effort and money into a product that just might never take off. For the money and stress it would cost, I might as well open up my own business selling "jump to conclusion mats."

Seriously though, for $1 million there has got to be some successful company I could run. An ice cream store, a real-state agency, or something.

 

Barely any sites seem to get famous enough to make money

There are a select 2-4 independent websites in each major sport that seem famous and possibly successful, the rest are lost in the wind

Edit: Actually, maybe just 2-3. And of those, the ones I know of all started 8+ years ago

 

And let's not forget that a college/high school site will be hurting for material from mid-June to early September, give or take two weeks in either direction.

That's the very issue that limited the proliferation of print pubs over the years. At my old gig, I was drafted from the online department twice to help write business plans for a combination print/online H.S. sports product. The idea was to print weekly or every other week and to update online daily.

My first question both times was, "What do you intend to do with your staff (six full-time, four part-time) from June 15 to Sept. 1?" Even if you opt to try covering summer youth sports to fill the void, distribution (print) and acquiring audience (online) become substantial issues.

 

My theoretical site would count on there being a lot of fans of the local minor-league baseball team, youth sports and local auto racing. Which, as you point out, would not likely be enough to sustain it in terms of traffic that is important to advertisers.

 

Scout.com beat you to the minor league baseball thing. And MLB won't even offer them credentials.

 

It can be done. You just have to be patient and have a specific focus. Don't try to do too much and keep it local.
That's just my take, tho.

 

I run an Online that's been around for four years (this upcoming prep season will be year No. 5).

Illinois's prep off-season runs from the second weekend in June (end of large class hardball) to the second week of August (beginning of football practices). Although I have never really executed with this plan, I'd consider wrap-ups after the end and previews before the beginning. Then there's that juicy part in the middle. In the past I have pieced together:

Summer hoops
Conference changes
Coaching changes
Upcoming milestones
Descriptions of rule changes
Historical anniversaries
A series on class changes (Illinois went from 2 to 4 in team sports this year)
"Where are they now's"
College bounders
New facilities

Stuff you wouldn't normally write due to time/space constraints during the prep season. The list of possibilities are endless. It's just a matter of wanting to write about it.