On April 1, 2025, TheCup.us will turn 22 years old. Back in 2003, the site was launched to fill a large void. That year, there was virtually no online information about the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. If you wanted to follow the United States’ soccer national championship or to learn about its rich history, you had to piece it together through online message boards. The internet needed an online media outlet and a historical resource for the country’s oldest cup competition and this website was born.
For more than two decades, in order to cover this hidden gem of American sports, we have relied on hundreds of volunteer reporters from around the country. Everything from award-winning veteran journalists to up-and-coming student sportswriters, all of them willing to contribute for the good of the game and because they believe in the site’s mission.
In recent years, a lack of pay has made it more difficult to recruit talented reporters. Since TheCup.us founders, Josh Hakala and Chuck Nolan, Jr., have no ad sales or marketing experience (if you do, and want to help us, email us HERE), we have turned to Patreon to raise money to pay our reporters.
As we get ready to cover the 2025 US Open Cup (our 21st tournament), we need help from our readers to help pay our reporters for their time and travel costs. Our minimum goal is to be able to pay each reporter $25 per game. Ideally, we would like to pay them $50 per game, but let’s crawl before we walk.
With 95 games on the schedule for #USOC2025, it would take $2,375 to pay each reporter $25 per game and $4,750 to pay $50 per game. We had more than 61,000 unique users on the site in 2024 and more than 134,000 page views. If just 500 readers gave $5 each, we could meet our minimal goal. Or if just 40 people pledged to donate $5 per month.
The way Patreon works is that you have the ability to commit to support the site on a monthly basis. You can chip in as little as $5 per month or $10 per month (or more, it’s up to you) or, you can just make a one-time donation. While a one-time donation is much appreciated, becoming a monthly contributor allows us to plan ahead and budget for additional coverage like feature stories or to launch an Open Cup-focused podcast (the site was born out of a live soccer radio show).
Also, those who commit to a monthly contribution, there are rewards. A $10/month contribution will get you a vote in the site’s Player of the Round and Player of the Tournament awards. With $20/month, you receive a shirt of your choice from our TheCup.us store. With $50/month, you will receive tickets to the US Open Cup Final every year that you are a member.
In the interest of full transparency, at the start of March of 2025, we have just 15 members of our Patreon team. To be honest, this was mostly due to our team not feeling comfortable asking for money. But now we feel like making this push is necessary for us to improve our coverage. We know that we can do so much better than that.
Anyone who has ever run an independent soccer website can tell you, no one gets in this to get rich. However, the entire team at TheCup.us stands by the work that we’ve done over the last two decades plus and feels strongly that there are enough people who appreciate the US Open Cup and the countless hours that it takes to cover it and would be willing to support it.
If you are able to help, please show your support by joining our Patreon team HERE. If you have any additional questions, don’t hesitate to reach out HERE.