What’s next for The Blue Testament?

I have started writing this approximately 25 times since Friday morning. In case you have not seen the news, Vox media has made the decision to “pull back coverage in some areas”. Vox Media is cutting approximately seven percent of its workforce with MLS and NHL SBNation sites most impacted.

The Blue Testament and the other affected sites will become “unsupported”. We understand that we have through the end of February, but we will still need to see how it shakes out. It is possible that the site stays active. It is also possible that we will all move somewhere else.

We understand that the pod support will be cut so we are already looking for solutions.

We do know that the few people who received stipends will no longer receive any money past February. Nobody on The Blue Testament received any substantial compensation. I always referred to my “pay” as gas money, and it was barely covering that at times. While I did not rely heavily on pay it was a bit of a gut punch when I received the email. I felt we were safe because we made so little.

Thad Bell

Difficulty

Back when I was in the corporate world and had a desk, okay cubicle, I had a small rock-like object on my desk. I got it from some store in a mall that carried various objects with quotes and inspirational images. Think cat on a limb with the “hang in there” words but a little classier.

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. – Albert Einstein

The attribution is likely spurious, it was probably originally John Archibald Wheeler but that does not really matter now. Whichever scientist originated the quote, it rang true with me. I believe it and have many times found a better way when it looked like everything was going sour.

We cannot tell you what will happen or what it will look like, but I can guarantee that we will not go away. We will still cover soccer in Kansas City and maybe, just maybe, we find something better.

Community

The word community is often thrown around a little loosely, but The Blue Testament has become a community for soccer fans in Kansas City. We know and care about the writers and the readers. I’ve had a couple of family members pass away over the last few years and outside of family members, the only people I really told were other contributors to The Blue Testament.

Checking in on The Blue Testament readers and getting to know them is amazing. Reading their takes on the news, the jokes, the gifs (looking at you Ked), the recipes, and the vast knowledge and life experiences shared cannot be willingly surrendered.

When one of our readers was being harassed in the comments recently, the two of us with BAN authority raced each other to get rid of them. It is rare this happens, but we want our readers to feel safe to be here.

The site was constantly growing, adding writers, pods, and teams we covered. But as we grew, we also focused on growing the quality and the community.

This soccer community is too valuable, especially for me, to let it just go away.

Going forward

While I cannot speak for everyone on the site, I do believe that most of us will continue here until a better solution is found. We care about covering Sporting Kansas City, the Kansas City Current, the Kansas City Comets, SKC II, and anything Kansas City soccer. We have a World Cup coming here.

We want to cover those teams; we want to be an alternative voice with differing opinions than the team accounts or the Star.

And we will.

If the worst happens and we lose this before we have a new plan in place, rest assured we will have a new plan even if we have to start from scratch.

One of my favorite quotes from a Marvel movie.

Ultron : They’re doomed!

Vision : Yes... but a thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts. It is a privilege to be among them.

It has been my privilege to work with the writers and readers of this site.

Stay tuned to this space and our personal Twitter and other social media accounts.

Thad Bell