x

Already member? Login first!

Comments / New

Time For Us To Ramble On

Some big news around here was teased a week and a half ago, and many of you may have seen things from other outlets regarding it, and we’re now finally able to let you know what’s going on. After much careful consideration and deliberation, Sam, Killion, and myself have decided leave from under the protective wing of SB Nation and try this thing on our own.

Before we get into the why’s and how’s, we’d like to say how appreciative we are of what SB Nation has done for us and the platform they’ve given us. We really didn’t have much of a resume four years ago when James Mirtle asked us to take over here, and we wouldn’t have been able to create something we feel we can now turn into something special without the advantages and encouragement SB Nation gave us. Thanks so much to them.

The reasons for doing this are manifold. First and foremost, the new site, TheCommittedIndian.com, will have an obvious synergy with Sam’s print publication. In the past the difference in name between the site and the program has caused some confusion, and it’s something that we’re looking forward to presenting under a unified banner. Having a consistent name will also allow us to expand our reach by way of other products we can provide to you, such as tshirts, stickers, and any other type of merchandise there might be a desire for.

Secondly, after 10 million page views and back-to-back titles as The Reader’s Best Chicago Sports Blog in their annual readers poll, the standard to which we are being held by both you the reader and ourselves has now become such that maintaining that level of quality becomes difficult in the face of the duties of a full-time job aside from running Second City Hockey. We take a tremendous amount of pride in what we produce, and we feel that we can truly stretch our legs under a new site. You’ve come to expect a certain level of analysis, knowledge, humor, bite, and attitude from us. We think the pressure of having our own place and in charge of every aspect will force us to provide an even better site and content than we ever have. And we’ll be able to swear in the titles!

So it is with that said that Friday, September 14th will be our last day at the helm here. SB Nation is currently searching for who will take over then, and we’ve been in those discussions. We can assure you that whoever takes over will do an excellent job, and make this site their own. For his part, Hack will not be joining us on this new venture, as other real-life responsibilities are taking precedent, and his posting frequency would have been greatly diminished even if were we remaining here. Our new site, TheCommittedIndian.com, will launch the following Monday, Sept. 17th. Additionally, we will be switching over the Twitter handle to @RealFansProgram shortly after this posts, so we hope you continue to follow us there.

We cannot express how thankful we are to have had you as readers here at Second City Hockey and to have had SB Nation supporting us all the way. We hope that you will find time in your day to add another site in your daily click-around the web in search of hockey knowledge, and we know whoever takes over will do a great job here as well come September. We are tremendously excited to get this off the ground for you, and will post updates throughout the process in our remaining month here. We know you’ve created user names and passwords and bookmarked this page, and we’ll have to do so again at the new one. We promise you it’ll be well worth it.

Speaking of which, we’re currently in the middle of a fundraising drive to help get our new site developed and published. The drive started last week, and we’ve already nearly reached our goal to cover the construction of the site, which will be built by the talented nerds at Coulee Creative. We’re incredibly humbled and grateful for all the support shown so far, and any little bit helps. Even if we surpass the stated goal, anything in excess of that amount will go towards other incidental costs that have come up of the construction of the new site, such as the pretty pretty official press wire photos that we’ve all come to know and love. For transparency’s sake at the completion of the drive, we will post our invoices for the various costs incurred, and anything left over will go toward a site kick-off party, at a date and location to be determined. So once again, if you’re feeling generous, please head over to our site at GoGetFunding.com, and thank you so very much in advance.

Signed,

Sam Fels, Matthew Killion, and Matt McClure

Talking Points