Putting out the Hat

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Published: March 11, 2011

Wednesday the Hornets won their 38th game of the season, topping last season’s win total with fifteen more games to play.  They are improving, having brought in, and in some cases, shipped back out, 14 new players this season.  Their goal?  To keep getting better.

Well, Hornets247 feels the same way.  We want to keep getting better.  We want to provide you video in a timely fashion after games, record live post-game interviews, and get media and images to make the site chock-full of eye-candy.  We want to cover the All-Star game, Summer League, and training camp in person for you.  We want to provide more give-aways, raffles, and tickets to games for our readers, and we’d also love to take advantage of various means of advertising to make the Hornets247 community grow and become even more fun to be a part of.

Now, of course, comes the rub.  To do most of those things, we need cash.  We’ve toyed with the idea of adding advertisements to the site.  Inserting ads into the forum and navbar.  Acquiring partners that would require us to embed advertisements mid-post.  Parters to sponsor the podcast . . . I’m sure you get the idea.

However – no one on the Hornets247 team really want to do that.  We like a clean site without all the distractions.  So we decided that rather than go that route, we’d give something else a try:  Asking you for your help.  We know times are pretty hard.  We know many of you gave to Save Our Hornets already to help hit the ticket requirements needed to keep the team in New Orleans.

Still, we’ve decided to hit you with an NPR-Style week-long donation drive.  Once it’s over, you won’t hear it again for a year.  However!  We are also taking a page out of NPR’s book, and will be running give aways for those who donate at the end of the drive.(March 17th)  If you comment on this post as a registered user, you get one entry to win a prize.  If you  donate anything, you get two entries, if you donate $10, you get three entries.  For every $10 after that, you get another entry.  If you donate at least $25, you will also be entered to win one of our two Grand Prizes. (We’ll contact you before we draw to see which one you want to go for.)

Rest assured that every penny donated to us will go into working on improving the site and its features, community and content.  The small amount of money ESPN now gives us already goes to that purpose, and this will be used to supplement that.

Though, I will state right now that if the Hornets ever wins a championship, the Hornets247 team is going to buy a round of drinks using Hornets247 money.  Maybe even two . . .

Here’s the prizes:

Grand Prizes

Complete Set of Hornets Athletic Gear

  • 1 Hornets Hat
  • 1 Jersey (D-West or Paul, your choice)
  • 1 Pair of Adidas Hornets Warm-up Pants

I am Hornets247

Win yourself an opportunity to do any or all of these:(you pick which ones you’d want)

  1. Get a picture of yourself in a Gameday Banner
  2. Post a Full Game Preview/Game On
  3. Post a Full Game Recap
  4. Be a guest on the Podcast
  5. Have a featured Article on the site.

And, of course, I’ll offer my expert services as Editor for any pieces you want to post. (We do reserve the right to refuse to post something that might be construed as offensive, though if you want to write about your toes, you can do that.  Unless you have offensive toes.)

Standard Prizes

  • 9 Hats
  • 5 Jerseys(West and Paul)
  • 1 Charlotte Hornets Retro T-Shirt

Hopefully, you’ll find one of the above prizes intriguing, and give it a go.  Or you could think of this as an opportunity to atone for anything really, really wrong you did during Mardi Gras!

Thanks for all of you who contribute!


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