Here’s my soapbox post for the day. I’ve been a member of Sandbox for a long time (close to 10 years). Today I decided to call it quits (just 2 days after winning one of my football leagues). Here’s what I wrote them.

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After many years I have decided to end my alliance with Sandbox. Although I have had fun almost every season I’ve played, I feel that the value I receive is no longer equal to the fees I pay.

I started playing back when Sandbox was a free site. In those days there were problems with people quitting because their team hit a bad spot. Some leagues only had about 50% of the owners actually play until the end of the season. Because of this I was open for Sandbox to change to a pay site.

When Sandbox changed to a pay site, I was told that I was a valuable member who would never have to pay more than $3.99. In order to honor my support over the years, I was going to be grandfathered if there were any price increases. Of course, this was a lie.

When Sandbox became a pay site I was told that there would no longer be problems when it came to drafting. Faster servers with more space were going to come online to make my experience better. This also was a lie.

And the kicker? My rates were raised but there’s still ads all over the place. I’m paying so you can make money off advertisements? If I wasn’t using Firefox as a browser I’d have quit in disgust quite a while ago.

I have tried to be faithful. I kept telling myself that Sandbox was worth it. It’s only $4.99 per month. That’s cheap entertainment. Well, I was deluding myself.

Yahoo Sports has a better service than Sandbox. It has almost all of the same games as Sandbox, none of the server problems and the draft works flawlessly. Oh, and it’s free.

This isn’t just sour grapes. I’m not quitting because I didn’t win anything. I’ve actually been pretty successful. My problem is that because of the lies and the lack of playability I just don’t feel like I’m wanted.

I’ll keep track of Sandbox and if I hear of improvements in the future I may consider coming back.

Good bye, Sanbox.

John Johnson