Today was supposed to be the day that Aunt Annie and I were going to pack up the car, pack up the aunt, and make the 250-mile journey to Traverse City to cover the Red Wings’ “Prospect Games” and training camp.
Instead, I’ve gone to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, and now I’m back home for the weekend.
I guess I’m sort of grieving the trip after realizing that we weren’t going to raise enough funds to go to Traverse City this year.
There are definitely times that I’m angry, wondering whether my readers are sending a message that I’m simply unnecessary at this point, or unworthy of their support–which pisses me off–but I’m mostly in denial right now.
Real frustration and sadness will probably going to hit home on Saturday, when the Red Wings’ Prospect Games team takes to the ice for their morning skate at Centre ICE Arena, ahead of a pair of games against Dallas Stars prospects on Saturday and Sunday, and I’m not in the cold, crisp atmosphere of the rink.
The Red Wings will stream the Prospect Games’ pair of tilts between Detroit and Dallas, but it’s not the same when you’re not at the rink.
A week from tomorrow, the Red Wings may stream some of training camp, but again, it’s not the same when you’re not at the rink, soaking up observations for six hours before asking questions in the Zoom interviews with Wings personnel.
Instead, we’ll all be waiting for the quotes from the “diggers,” and some cogent observations from the Bultmans and Shapiros of the world.
You’re not going to get the same kind of coverage that you’ve been paying for over the course of the Prospect Games and training camp, because I’m not going to be up there.
We’ll see whether we continue this relationship over the long haul. This fundraising failure has caused me to reevaluate whether working so hard for so few reader contributions and fewer reader engagements.
This format used to work, and it used to work very well, my health handicaps included. It doesn’t work so well now.
It feels like it’s becoming a one-way street in terms of give-and-take.
I certainly receive significant meaning out of having a secondary role other than simply being a caregiver…
And some of you are incredibly, incredibly supportive of this endeavor, regardless of whether you contribute to the cause. You’re the ones who motivate me to keep going when times are rough…
But Aunt Annie is suggesting that I’m in a legacy media form, and that I need to shift over to podcasting, even if it’s a small podcast. She doesn’t think I get enough respect for all that I do, mostly for free, for you.
I try to be more charitable than AA in terms of my perspective, but we may be at a crossroads here. When people say, “We don’t want you there, we don’t need you there,” you’d better listen and you’d better think.
So I’m grieving the loss of a trip that defined my hockey seasons for over a decade-and-a-half now, at least for the present moment. But there are hard questions that need to be asked, and hard decisions made.
We’ll see what happens.
If you’re willing to lend a hand with our regular expenses, have a GoFundMe fundraiser page; we have a PayPal option at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport; there’s Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2; if you’re into the, “I don’t want to use any of those pages” option, here’s always the Giftly option by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com…
And in the banking options, you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check, or “Zelle” me via my email, rtxg@yahoo.com. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”
George, much respect, your readers supported you and Aunt Annie as best we could. You basically took a year off and posted no content. So readers found other Red Wings content.
Put ads on if you have to, but literally begging for money after that big hiatus, to much
My thoughts exactly.
I also think most people have moved on to social media (your game tweeting is also proof of that) or YouTube and no longer visit blog/news sites for Wings stories as much. People’s attention span is not what it used to be so they’d rather watch highlights of the prospect game on YT and follow it on their phones. Podcast is definitely a good idea and I would recommend having a niche since WWP is unbeatable when it comes to all around Wings podcast.
As far as the fund raiser, I think the amount was a steep hill to climb and in this inflation economy it was gonna be hard to raise that kind of money without a mystery whale helping out. I donated and wish I had the type of money to help more since I know how much this trip means to you. But I’ve been following you since the Mlive days and will continue to do so no matter what you decide to do.
When you’re good, you’re good. But, frankly, you lost our trust when you didn’t post for essentially a year. No offense intended. Your posting has been off for at least two years with extended absences, and if we are being asked to help pay the bills ostensibly to keep the site up and running, your side of the agreement is to post. Like I said, when you’re good, you’re good. I value the work that you do, but, it seemed like a bridge too far to again ask to have a trip up to TC paid for. I do suggest you put up a patreon link if you are opposed to ads. I think that asking for a little over the course of time might work better than asking for a large amount all at once. I wish you and your Aunt all the best in returning to health, and look forward to your coverage.
I Hate to hear how hard this is on you. I gotta ask because you contradicted yourself, Is this blog to have purpose and an outlet from being AAs caregiver or a career? Im sure the ups and downs the last few years for you have been hard, but you can’t expect people to constantly donate when you are down for the count so often. We live in a world where we want info and now, and though your write ups are nice, they are just your opinion. There are lots of others out there who are down at the arena most days gathering information more consistently that makes them more appealing to go to. I’m not sure a podcast at this point would work with the market being dominated by wwp. I know the wings community is close, could you reach out to them to have a guest spot on one of their shows to showcase your skill set and start to grow your following? Wish you all the best and hope things get better.
george, this isn’t a great look. i know you’ve been through hell for the last few years, but you’ve been inactive for great lengths of time. somehow you’ve been able to source the funds to get to camp year after year (imo raising a generous sum compared to what it takes to get up there), and this feels like an entitled pity party and ungrateful for what this community has afforded you.
i’m a lurker but have left a few comments of late. all i’m trying to do is be helpful. you continually say things like “the community doesn’t want ads” and “my aunt wants me to start a podcast.” i truly don’t understand the purpose of this stuff. if things are this dire — you can’t attend the events you want, you have household repairs that you have to fundraise for, you need a better laptop or phone, then really: who cares what the community is telling you (and i’m certainly not seeing it anywhere)
no one is asking you to work yourself into sickness, anyone’s aversion to ads (and seriously, it’s 2024; i haven’t seen an ad in years) is not worth it. this is your livelihood. do what you need to do to make this financially worth it to you. the npr model worked for a while but you when you post 20x a day, you bury the fundraiser posts quickly and a reader’s attention span is shorter and shorter. frankly, i’d just go behind a paywall if i were you, but i don’t know your traffic. there are certainly worse writers making more money under that model. maybe readership is down, idk. but it’s hard to feel too sorry for you when you have other options that you ignore year after year. sorry, george, but the hostility to the readers is not well-received.