With No VC Backing, The Biz of Baseball Turns Crowdfunds On Indiegogo

The Biz of Sports network has had to shutter three of their four core products. Verticals centered on basketball and football have already been archived, and the team says that the Biz of Hockey website will soon suffer the same fate.

In an effort to save their largest product – The Biz of Baseball – Portland, Oregon-based Transmedia has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo seeking $6,000 from their fans and readers.

The money would be used to redesign the site, upgrade their web hosting platform and archive content from their three other properties, centralizing the content under one “roof” and improving their situation going forward. The team also conveys the desire to create a robust network of contributors.

In a plea on their web site, the team explains that a lack of meaningful movement with venture capitalists has forced them to turn to crowdfunding as an alternative means of funding continuing operations…

As advertisement models have shifted, revenues have declined. While we retain the domain names, we have had to archive The Biz of Basketball, The Biz of Football, and soon, The Biz of Hockey.

Now, our most popular site, The Biz of Baseball, is in danger of the same fate. While overtures of venture capital and other investment has been discussed, to date they have fallen through.

In an effort to not only save The Biz of Baseball, but also create a single portal that would allow all aspects of sports business to be covered, we are reaching out to the community through an Indiegogo investment campaign. Our target is $6,000. When accounting for commission from Indiegogo, if the campaign runs to its goal, a total of $5,400 will be garnered to allow porting of all data across the various Biz sites into one repository, a new hosting service and redesign.

Crowdfunding is often viewed as a vital alternative to more traditional forms of finance, although some critics argue that companies rejected by investors deemed to be more “sophisticated” often have meritless ideas or business models in the first place.

To date, seven funders have ponied up over $1,000 toward a goal of $6,000 for the site. The campaign has almost two months left.

Contributions are largely considered a donation, but a single reward is being offered. At a pledge level of $100, the campaign creators promise a database of MLB player salaries over the past five years that includes 2014.


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