A Word on The State of Stars Thoughts

I launched Stars Thoughts back in April 2024 as a creative outlet for myself. I was working full-time in education back then, and I planned to keep doing so, at least for the next year or two. But in the meantime, covering a playoff run with all the depth I could muster in my spare time was exciting. The Stars didn’t get back to the Stanley Cup Final, but they did come close. Genuinely, this might be the best time to be a Stars fan in a generation, so getting to add even a little worthwhile reading to that larger conversation is something I was really grateful I got the chance to do.

Well, cut to last September, and things changed in the span of one crazy week. I found myself with more free time than I’d planned, with Stars’ training camp about to begin. So while I was still figuring out my career moves in the long term, the obvious thing to do right then was to put my Journalism pants back on (those all come with stretchy waistbands, by the way) and head to training camp, covering the Stars as closely as possible while figuring out how I was going to, like, pay rent and stuff in the long term.

After a week, I was hooked. That interim time included the chance to head to Finland, where I got to meet people like Jari Kurri, Jussi Jokinen, and even Valtteri Filppula. Back in the U.S., that time has included covering every Stars game as well, including most practices, morning skates, and even some charitable events (which are just as fascinating, in their own way). I’ve gotten to interview players, coaches, and general managers, and hopefully I’ve been able to take those interviews and make them into something worth your time to read.

Throughout all that time, I’ve kept the site free, because that was the concept: a place for me to write in my spare time with no barrier to reading. Except then it turned into a sorta full-time thing, and that’s been even more wonderful than I could have hoped, as I’ve gotten to write about everything from Oskar Bäck’s braces to violations of the Collective Bargaining Agreement—a story which we broke here at Stars Thoughts hours before The Athletic, by the way.

That’s the cool thing about having a dedicated local beat reporter writing about the team: fans gets to hear about what’s going on with local context, written by a reporter with the most understanding possible (given my limited intelligence) of how all the various narratives and individuals connect.

The industry has obviously shifted away from paying writers in many markets to do this—see The Athletic—but everything I’ve seen since last March tells me that Dallas Stars fans still want that sort of coverage. And I’ve been fortunate enough that readership here has clearly sent that message, too. There’s a reason thousands and thousands of people yesterday came here to read a piece about a small musical change during game presentation: Stars fans care about this team, and they want to know as much about it as they possible can.

I’ve looked at a couple of offers for new day jobs, but after deep consideration, I’ve declined them, because they would have meant cutting back on my coverage, essentially going back to just covering games from home like a blogger, relying on others to ask the questions and get the answers while I had to interpret through screens and guess motivations from afar.

And Stars fans deserve much more than that.

***

Hey, You know something really weird? I’ve had various readers reach out to me over the last couple of months to ask how they can support the site, because they can’t find a “Donate” button or anything. That shocked me! I often see people on social media griping about “paywall, didn’t read” any time someone shares a paywalled story. But the old media world is mostly gone, so most people nowadays expect to have to pay a few bucks to get the specific coverage they want. So to have people literally asking to pay for stuff that I was able to put up for free has been nothing short of touching, because it told me that readers saw this site as something worth supporting. And I knew that one day, I’d need that support. That day has come.

Because after covering the team full-time all season, the cold, financial reality is that I can’t afford to keep doing this for free anymore. Or at least, I can’t do it for free without cutting back in both time and labor. I tried, really. I even explained about Lian Bichsel’s big hit the other night to my landlord, but they didn’t think stories about Swiss defenders knocking people over exempt me from the terms of my lease. Bunch of Philistines, all of ’em.

Now we’re about to watch game 50 [late] tonight in Vegas, and I wanted to let you all know precisely what the plan is: I am going to keep doing this full-time this season, and I’m going to rely on reader support in order to do that. Unless a generous, Willy-Wonka-of-Hockey benefactor appears out of nowhere to pay a full-time beat reporter’s salary, this is the only way it can work. And you know what? I think it’ll make it even better.

So in a few days, I’ll be transitioning the site to a Substack model. You’ll still be able to view the site and its stories on the web, but some of them will be behind a paywall. I hope you’ll all consider supporting this work, or at least telling me that you refuse to support it until I write more reviews of your favorite flavors of Cheez Its. I am nothing if not a man of the people.

I’m going to keep writing for D Magazine every week or two, and those pieces will all be free to read. I’m planning to keep doing podcast appearances with Gavin on Spits and Suds, too (including one after the Vegas game tonight). So if you’re someone who categorically refuses to financially support writers because you think ESPN or whoever should still be footing that bill, that’s fine. You’ll still have some free stuff out there.

In fact, I’m traveling to California next week to cover the Anaheim and Los Angeles games in person. I have another couple of road games on the docket after that. And the more support there is, the more games I’ll be able to cover.

I can tell you firsthand, most teams do not have traveling beat reporters flying to Dallas anymore, because their publications aren’t paying for them. That landscape has shifted forever. There have been so-called Original Six teams who have come to Dallas this season without a single reporter following them. That would have been unheard-of even 15 years ago, but it’s reality now.

To be honest, there’s an element of fear in making this chance. When this site was just a side thing last spring I could convince myself that it was no big deal if people didn’t really read it, because it’s not like it was something I was really doing that seriously, after all. It was just a creative outlet for myself, and I was willing to pay the few hundred bucks to get it up and running, and to write when I had time. There was no further risk than that.

But now, I’m going to take that risk. Because I’ve been taking this seriously since September, and it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life to trot out my old journalism chops and try to do this thing properly. Sports are fun, and I love talking with fans about them, both as a writer and in casual conversation. But I’ve also enjoyed putting the time in to write hard stories, to look at what I was wrong about, and to try to hold myself and others accountable. The fourth estate is still a vital one, whether in politics or sports. Accountability is good for everybody.

***

One other thing: I hate ads with a passion. Hate ’em. This site isn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but I will never, ever puts ads on it. And even if I did, the meager revenue I would get from ads wouldn’t be nearly enough to support me anyway, even if I rented out every sidebar and pop-up space to all of the horrible companies you see on Twitter now. We get bombarded with ads everywhere else; the least I can do is keep (hopefully) good writing unblemished with unwanted marketing just to recoup pennies on the dollar.

A few stories on Stars Thoughts will still be unlocked, because it’s in my best interest to show people what they would get more of by supporting me. But paying supporters will get access to everything right away, including those insufferable 3,000-word AfterThoughts after every single game. I still want people to be able to share lots of stories from StarsThoughts.com with other fans as easily as possible. We writers all just want people to read our work and tell us what they think about it, because that’s the only way we get better, by ignori- sorry, by listening to the readers. Yes, of course.

I’m not super stingy with this stuff, either. If you’re supporting me, and you want to clip a paid piece and send it to friends, then go nuts. Hopefully, if they like it on the regular, they’ll want to support me, too. I’m not here to guilt anyone into paying for anything. It’s my job to show why my work is worth supporting. Hopefully the last nine months (and especially the last four) have been a sufficient marketing pitch for that, but if not, hopefully the next few months will be.

As far as perks for being a paid subscriber beyond helping the site to exist, I’ll have the standard mailbags and comments and such that you all get to access. I’ll also be doing a paid subscriber meetup later in the year, too. But the best reason of all to support me is that when you decide to give me a few bucks a month, it will make me very happy! And that is a great reason free of any bias, probably.

In summary: this site isn’t going away. I’m asking a bunch of y’all who can afford it to pay a little bit in order to make the site grow and become more fantastic, because the companies that used to pay people to do this aren’t doing it anymore. Even the few that are doing that are cutting back, too. So the beauty of paying me a few bucks a month is, I can’t lay off myself. At least, I don’t think I can, unless I get busted for something like, ahem, unprofessional conduct, in which case I’d have to talk to my HR department, which I think is my neighbor who watches television really loudly at midnight. But we don’t tolerate snitches around these parts, so they probably won’t find out.

Actually, maybe the readers are HR, and you can very easily fire me, as a group. If nothing else, that fact should keep me on my toes.

I’ll make the announcement official in a couple days here, but I just wanted to let you know what’s coming so you wouldn’t be blindsided. I am genuinely excited to take this thing to the next level. As always, thank you all for reading Stars Thoughts.