Since 2003, TheCup.us has been covering the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup from the first qualifying game to the championship game. During that time, the site has done very little editorializing because I decided early on that we would stick to simply being a news outlet. However, now it seems like an appropriate time to share my thoughts on what could be an important, albeit minor, development in the tournament’s coverage.

On Tuesday, Jeff Crandall, best known for the time he spent as a writer for the Chicago Fire website, shared on the radio show Soccer Morning (LISTEN HERE) that he is now working for the United States Soccer Federation and will be leading an effort to expand the federation’s coverage for the US Open Cup, the tournament that they run. He announced that they have created a Twitter account (@opencup — not to be confused with our own @usopencup account which we launched in 2009) and will be writing stories for the USSF as they try to raise the profile of the competition that was launched back in 1913.

Many fans on social media expected some level of outrage from me, and other expressed their own frustration. The bottom line is I don’t understand the outrage. For more than a decade since we launched this site, fans have complained that the Federation doesn’t properly promote their own tournament. That’s a fair criticism. However, by hiring someone of Crandall’s quality (full disclosure: Jeff is a friend of mine, but he is a talented writer despite that) and trying to give the Open Cup more attention on social media, that clearly shows that some effort is being made. Sure, it’s taken a while for these steps to be taken, but rather than looking back at what hasn’t been done to this point, how about looking ahead at what they’re planning to do. Anyone familiar with Crandall’s past work and his passion for the Open Cup should feel no small measure of optimism about the sincerity of the effort that’s being made.

In other words, you can’t complain that the Federation doesn’t promote the tournament and then continue to complain when they listen to you and finally start doing it. While we appreciate the support, and appreciate even more the devotion and loyalty that spawned the somewhat negative visceral reaction to what looks at first glance like competition, we are all in this together.

I feel that we do a great job covering the tournament considering our limited time (my twin daughters are now 3 and my son is 7) and resources, but we can’t cover it all. If the goal is to create more awareness for the tournament, I’d much rather have two groups tackling it than just one.

I was laid off from my full-time job of managing newspaper websites in February (yes, even the digital side of the newspaper business isn’t safe), and I’ve recruited some very talented people who share my passion and my vision for this tournament. We are in the final stages of a new website design and we will soon have sponsors on board who are looking to reach die-hard soccer fans across the country (you, most likely). The goal is to see if we can make this into a profitable enterprise so that we can expand our coverage even further.

Neither Jeff nor I will get rich from all this. He and the Federation are not taking money out of my pocket or depriving me of a livelihood. We’re each doing this for the same main reason, to promote the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup to the best of our abilities.

Aside from the new site, nothing is going to change about the way TheCup.us operates, other than continuing to improve year-after-year as we always do. We have a lot of exciting things in the works for our coverage so don’t worry about that. We aren’t going anywhere.

The bottom line is, follow @opencup and follow @usopencup on Twitter, like us on Facebook, join the conversation on Reddit, use this year’s hashtag #USOC2015 and support the tournament no matter who is covering it. Attend games, share stories on social media, tell your friends, and support the companies who sponsor Open Cup coverage (we’ll have some coming soon!). Do what you can, just as you always have, to raise the profile of the tournament and hopefully it will eventually get the attention of the powers that be and give them the ammunition they need to convince a TV network of the vast potential of this competition. After all, there is nowhere to go but up from here.

Josh Hakala is the creator/senior editor of TheCup.us and a freelancer broadcaster who can be reached on his personal Twitter account @JoshHakala. Anyone interested in contributing to TheCup.us either as a writer, website designer or a graphics guru, email him here.