Advantage Played: Thank You du Nord

Music Bruce Likes

And on the Seventh Day He Rested
I’m sure you’ve all seen the news by now if you are like thousands of other Major League Soccer fans and make du Nord part of your daily stop. Bruce is officially going on hiatus, and it could be a permanent break. In his own words:

"I am definitely going to take a break from du Nord.
I have no idea if it will be for days, weeks, months or forever.
But I do know that I am burnt out, and need to step away.
As soon as I know more, so will you.
Thanks for all the great patronage."

With those words Bruce stepped away from his massive undertaking. Bruce, you rock. Thanks for bringing MLS news to all of us starved fans. We had a place to go that focused solely on the spreading of information that was pertinent and important to us. You celebrated all of soccer, but you celebrated the players, teams, coaches, and fans of MLS and American soccer the most.

Without you I would have never grown to love MLS like I do today. I would not know the inner workings of MLS that are discussed on the internet but not put into a comprehensive information package. You took the world of MLS and bound it together with impeccable organization and formatting. Thousands of people from all walks of life learned from your work. You spread the love of MLS like no other blogger.

You also were actively involved in the soccer community. Thanks for organizing bus trips, ticket packages, and watch parties.

And on the Sixth Day He Created Advantage Played
I am sure I am just one of many bloggers who was inspired to start their own project because of Bruce, but without the opening Wizards game last year and a quick meeting with Bruce there would be no Advantage Played.

I met the big man while hanging out at the cauldron tailgate. I recognized his great big bushy beard and chatted with him for 10 minutes. While we talked, I mentioned I was doing professional writing for a web company. Later I emailed Bruce and told him anytime he needed help, I was willing.

And Bruce gave me a chance. Without ever reading my writing, he let me fill in for him while he was gone several times, the first times I had ever written about soccer. With each article I published my confidence grew, so when Bruce encouraged me to start a blog, Advantage Played was born.

Of course, he linked me as one of his main stories of the day and put me in his Starting 11. Thanks Bruce, without you I doubt anyone would be reading this right now.

And on the Other Five Days He Worked His Ass Off
How much did he work? Let’s take a gander:

1,296 posts
Four years of updates
Five posts a week
Around 1000 words per update
Around 15-30 links per update
Constant tracking of all major tournaments
Constant tracking of major match ups
A sweet schedule that puts mine to shame
A generous list of soccer blogs

Let’s put some all time numbers together

Links to over 16,500 different articles
Over a million words written

Those are fucking big numbers. How about the time he put in? I have no idea how long each update took but I imagine from start to end they probably averaged 3-5 hours a piece. For my calculation below I’m going with the low 3.

That’s a minimum of 3888 hours just on posts alone
Or 162 days
Or 23 weeks
Or 5.7 months

And on the Eighth Day He Didn’t Get Paid
Oh ya and you did it all for free. You’re work is quality, and there are many information professionals who package information for a living. They command anywhere from 25-75 dollars an hour. Let’s put you at the 75 dollar range.