Welcome to The I-5 Corridor 2.0

A little announcement regarding the future of your friendly neighborhood Oregon sports Substack.

PORTLAND — Coach speak blends together a bit after you’ve done this job long enough.

Every coach talks about culture, how every signing class is about identifying the right guys and every season comes down to attacking each rep the same way as the last. It feels cyclical — cliche even — especially as the opportunity for genuine conversations has dwindled with access over the years.

A lot of times this all feels for show.  

That being said, that Dan Lanning video hit me right in the feels last week. 

First, a little background for some of the new folks around here: 

I left my job at The Athletic in July of 2021. I wasn’t in a good place mentally coming out of the pandemic, I didn’t have a great relationship with my editor and I was beginning to see some of the writing on the wall when subscription goals tightened and the company prepped itself for sale. I also really didn’t want to spend my Fourth of July covering the commitment of a dude who wasn’t going to end up in Eugene. 

So I quit. 

I don’t regret it, though in retrospect waiting for the severance money of a layoff could have gone a long way in those first few months as the Corridor got off the ground. Since launching back in August of 2021, I’ve worked a few freelance jobs here and there — hello, best Oregonian stories of 2023  — to make ends meet, including 20 hours a week writing a newsletter for a company out of Los Angeles. It was a great gig with fun people that was crucial in paying the bills as the Corridor began with an email list of 0. But it’s also why I’ve seen a few reviews of this site similar to this one:

“I took the I-5 Corridor for a year, great writing and interesting content, but it felt like a hobby for Tyson. I felt the content was skimpy.”

I can’t really argue with the back half of that otherwise brilliant review. But I can say that it’s not because it’s been a hobby to me. It’s just been a lot to juggle at times — especially as the Ducks got really good this year and that paid subscriber count climbed toward 1000. This little paywalled site did 100,000 page views and gained 60 subscriptions in November alone, numbers good enough that I started to think that if Oregon knocked off Washington in the Pac-12 Championship and could net me a month of playoff coverage, I might be able to quit the part-time stuff and take this thing head on.

Then Washington won. And two weeks later, like a Penix-to-Odunze connection in the fourth quarter, the money ran out for my newsletter gig. Talk about a gut-punch right before Christmas — I kept waiting for Cousin Eddie to show up in the RV.

I’m not going to lie, I spent a few days there looking at LinkedIn. Heck, you would too if you just lost half your income over night.

Maybe this was the writing on the wall again.

It’s really easy in this profession to compare yourself to others. I’m very aware that John Canzano has the No. 2 sports site on this Substack platform. I know that Christian Caple up in Seattle has lapped me and he’s only been open since the spring. And us writers spend more than enough time in our own heads to let things like that marinate.

Why isn’t this working? Am I just not good enough? Why not me?

It’s also important for us writers to know when to get out of our own heads and start reading the room. Because pound-for-pound, The I-5 Corridor has provided some of the state’s best sports writing the last two years. Nobody covered Bo Nix’s Oregon career better than us. Nobody strives to cover big events from different angles like us. There’s been excellent sports writing up and down the I-5 Corridor for a century, from Dick Strite to Bud Withers to Ron Bellamy to Paul Buker to John Canzano to Chuck Culpepper to Andrew Greif and so many more. And I’d argue few current writers in the state understand what a privilege it is to have a platform to tell stories like those guys did in this state.

Being a sportswriter in Oregon is awesome. Don’t let anyone else try and tell you otherwise. And it was just a little bit after Christmas that I realized all I wanted to do was double down on the Corridor and make this thing happen.

That somewhat brings us back to Lanning, who dropped his response to the Alabama vacancy rumors in the form of a video on Twitter.

“Everybody has goals and aspirations,” Lanning said in audio captured from a team meeting. “You know how you get those? You be the best where you’re at. That’s how you reach goals and aspirations, that’s how great things happen. It’s not worrying about the next thing, it’s about worrying what’s six inches right in front of your face. Everybody makes commitments and says things they’re going to do, there’s a lot of starters but the world doesn’t have a lot of what? Finishers.”

Damn did I need that one. And you know what? We’re going to finish this thing here at the Corridor. Starting this week I’m putting the time I’ve spent at the part-time gig back into telling more stories like this one, this one, this one and this one. We’re going to cover the heck out of an Oregon football program that’s making its biggest shift in program history with its move to the Big Ten. We’re going to cover Oregon State’s journey into the wild west. We’re going to cover basketball hard, highlight those off-beat stories major outlets skim over and continue to make every email worth sending out.

As that review earlier said, The I-5 Corridor is interesting. The writing is great. And now I’m out to prove to you all that this is not just a hobby of mine.

Your subscription just got better.

But I also need your help.

If you like stories, please share them. If you’re looking to buy someone a gift, consider gifting them a subscription. And, if you’ve been one of the few users who have told me over the years that I’m not charging enough for a subscription, this is your time to help.

I’ve raised prices for new subscribers to $65 annually or $8 a month. This doesn’t change anything for current subscribers — you’ll continue to renew at your current rate — but if you have the means and are willing to support, it would really mean a lot if you’d consider re-upping at the new rate.

Also, if you own a business and are interested in potentially working together, I’m looking for presenting sponsors for “free weeks,” along with the podcast. Shoot me an email for more info.

My biggest goal as we move forward here with the Corridor isn’t just to be more thorough, but I also want to be more open and approachable with all of you who have given me the opportunity to work the best job in the world.

As Lanning said, the grass is pretty green here in Oregon.

Thanks for reading. It’s been my pleasure.

Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor