Did you guys just suck us in and now are going to put all your content behind the premium veil?
Absolutely not. We have added to our journalistic mission, a mission to help girl's basketball grow through the increased exchange of information. We hardly can accomplish that by saving most or all of our content for subscribers. We already have increased the amount of free content since we went independent, and our plan is to maintain and grow that part of our website. We are doing a whole new sub-set of content for the Platinum Members.

Then what will a subscriber be paying for?
Mostly, evaluations and evaluation-type material. Starting the week of May 27-June 2, the Evaluation tab on Player Profile Pages will be accessible to Platinum Members only. We have the capability of posting multiple evaluations, all dated, to players, so people can get a sense of development. It also can help prevent the misconceptions that may be prevented during an "off" game. We also will invite others to submit evaluations so there can be more-diverse opinions. We also will make the post-event, player-by-player listings and evals accessible only to Platinum Members. We also will continue to seek out more benefits for our Platinum Members, such as priority on Player Profile creations and perhaps discounts on items such as game videos.

Game videos?
Yes, we are in the process of adding access to full-game videos, starting with a collection from the Nike Midwest Showdown. Our provider will be www.nwgamefilms.com [1], which does excellent work. Their motto is, "Leave your camera at home and enjoy the game." I wish they were around when my daughter was playing!

What about rankings?
Though rankings and star ratings are an aspect of the evaluation arena, we will continue to maintain everyone's access to those.

What did you just say???
The rankings and ratings will continue to be free!

What about the Podcasts? We like those.
Free! We want you to get to know us and the players and coaches we cover. It would be nice if we could have a sponsor that we'd plug on air and in the presenting story and pages. Let us know if you have any leads!

How much is a Platinum Membership?
They will be $49.95 per year, and you will be able to purchase them

Why are you selling subscriptions? Some people consider this selling out.
We haven't taken this move lightly. As most of our early users know, we have been pumping out free, national content for more than a year. I think we all have seen some of the benefits to the sport we love - growth, more exposure of players who may in the past have slipped through the cracks, more leads for colleges, more exchange of information between fans, parents and coaches. We believe our see-it-for-ourselves philosophy has been critical to the objectivity, authenticity and reliability of our content - and that, plus the depth of our content, comes at a price because we have to travel a lot. The sites who advocate keeping everything 100 percent free are not doing nearly the same amount of original content that we produce. We are hoping selling memberships will help us keep up and expand our coverage. That's it. Believe us, we are not going to get rich selling $50 memberships and traveling more and more to produce the best - often, only - content on girl's basketball anywhere.