The Metro Sports Report is thinking about two new projects, but we need your help.

We'd like to launch a second website that would cover high school sports in Iowa City and nearby communities, just like we've been covering the teams in Cedar Rapids and Marion the past four years.

We'd also like to begin live audio broadcasts of local events through the Metro Sports Report website.

We are ready, willing and able to undertake both ventures right now, but here's the hitch: We need support from advertisers in order to create products that will stand the test of time.

People who live in Johnson County tell us they would welcome the Metro Sports Report into their community to cover Iowa City West, City High and Regina. They say the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the local newspaper, is not providing the coverage readers want due to severe cutbacks in the Press-Citizen's sports department the past 18 months.

We'd also like to cover Solon, West Branch, Clear Creek-Amana and Williamsburg as part of our new "Metro Sports Report South" website, which would be separate and apart from our current website.

People also tell us they would like to see the MSR begin audio broadcasts of teams in Cedar Rapids and Marion. Officials with Kirkwood Community College and the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders would welcome us at their events, providing live broadcasts for their fans. None of the local radio stations are currently covering Kirkwood or the RoughRiders.

Other people tell us they'd like to see us begin live audio broadcasts of the Metro high schools, now that WMT has stopped broadcasting prep games for the first time in about 25 years. Our friends at KGYM do a terrific job with their prep coverage and KMRY covers Xavier (especially football), but there appears to be room in the market for more.

We have lined up a team of experienced sportswriters, sports photographers and website administrators who would be ready to help us with the Metro Sports Report South website. We also have lined up a "Who's Who" of experienced broadcasters who are interested in helping with our live audio broadcasts. If and when we pull this off, I'm confident you'll be impressed with the people who want to help.

The technology exists right now to provide audio broadcasts through the website. It would sound exactly like a radio broadcast, but it would be coming through your computer or mobile device instead.

Here's a question you might be wondering: Why doesn't the Metro Sports Report simply begin both ventures and welcome advertisers after both ventures are up and running?

It's a good question and here's the answer: It's too risky. The Metro Sports Report is a small company with limited resources. And although we are confident both new ventures would succeed, it is simply too risky to proceed without a financial commitment from advertisers.

We would not expect anyone to give us money in advance of either project being launched. Rather, we would like to get signed contracts where an advertiser would promise to make a payment within 15 or 30 days after the new project has begun.

If we don't launch, we'd rip up the contract and nobody has lost a dime. But if we do launch, we know we'll have the financial support to proceed and offer a quality product for a long time to come.

You'll find our advertising prices to be fair and reasonable. Many of the ads on our website cost only a few dollars per day, depending on the size, location and duration of the ad.

You cannot purchase an ad for only one day, of course, but you can purchase a box ad for $1,500 or a tower ad for $2,500 on our main home page for a year. That comes to $4.11 per day for a box ad and $6.85 per day for a tower ad.

How many new customers would you need to get your money back and turn a profit at that rate? Not many, I wouldn't think. We also have website ads that cost as little as $300 for four months. That computes to $2.50 per day.

Regarding the live audio broadcasts, we would offer different packages of live commercials that would be read by announcers during the games. We are planning a comprehensive package of 200 broadcasts per year for Kirkwood, the RoughRiders, the high schools and possibly others. That's an average of four broadcasts per week, so it would be an ambitious schedule.

We would charge an advertiser $50 per event, although you would not be able to pick just one event. You could pick different packages to fit your needs and interests.

You might want all 50 Kirkwood events for $2,500. You might want all 30 RoughRiders home games for $1,500. You might want all 120 high school events for $6,000. Or you might want all 200 events for $10,000. In addition, we plan to offer discounts for advertisers who might want to combine website ads with commercials.

Each company's commercial on the audio broadcasts would be read at least four times during the course of the broadcast for maximum effect.

If you read the Metro Sports Report on a regular basis, you probably know we've had more than 4 million page views since we launched our company in January of 2011 and that we're averaging more than one million page views per year.

We have been well-received in the community and feel like we're delivering an attractive product of game stories, breaking news, features, statistics, standings, schedules and pictures. We greatly appreciate the "thank-you" notes you've sent, especially the ones we get from grandparents who tell us it's one of the best ways of following what their grand-kids are doing.

We are ready to roll with Metro Sports Report South. And we are ready to roll with the live audio broadcasts. All we need is your help.

My name is Jim Ecker and I'm the president of the Metro Sports Report. Please give me a call at (319) 390-4236 or send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Let's talk and get this done.