Thank you for still checking this site, even though the stories have come out so rarely over the last years. You may have noticed that all the pieces are gone.

Providing that you like this page, there is good news and bad news.

The bad news is that this site will cease to exist. After the initial run of twelve articles in the calendar year of 2015, the stories became less and less frequent. They were fun to write but, as other (paid) assignments came up, it became increasingly hard to justify spending so much time and effort on work that paid nothing. What kept me going were messages from you readers telling me to keep writing, or asking when the next one would come out, or saying you were still checking the site in the hope of finding something new.

Yet even so I have hardly written anything here over the last few years. So this summer I settled on a solution that would keep the pieces coming out just like the good old days. Or almost.

I have set up a new site over on Substack. It looks almost the same, and the Time on the Ball archive is there. The new thing is that you will have to pay $5 a month or $42 a year ($3.5 a month) to access everything. 

This is bad news if you like free stuff, but to me it comes down to charging a few bucks or not doing it at all. The good news is that these stories will continue, and that those of you who wish to read them will be able to do so. The plan is to do one new piece per month. If you really like these pieces, and if you compare the fee to other costs in your life, I don’t think that’s a lot. 

Beyond this there will be a newsletter on Fridays for all subscribers free and paid. This will offer a mix of hot takes, stats, analysis, and news on the stories coming up. I’ll also use it to reply to any questions or story requests, as I hope to become more available to my readers.

The new page is thorehaugstad.substack.com

The next story will be on the Joan Laporta board that revolutionised Barcelona from 2003 to 2008. It’s at about 8,000 words and it will be out soon. It will be free in order to kick-start the launch of the new site, but after that every piece will require a paid subscription. 

Please do feel free to subscribe—free or paid—to get the stories and the newsletters. If you are not interested, let me thank you for having read Time on the Ball. 

If you are interested, I’ll see you on the other side.

– Thore