Believe me everything you're talking about is correct, but you've just got the wrong angle on it.
Here's how it works in the world of internet sites: Traffic=advertising dollars. The more traffic you have, the more ad dollars you can get. NS is great at getting ad dollars from "endemic" (look it up on google) sponsors currently. We kill it, and have been recieving tonnes of support from them. In terms of that stuff, we'll just continue doing what we do and be fine with it.
What you're all wondering is where the influx of cash gets covered? Well here it is... yes NS is going to have a corporate ad or two from time to time now. Yes you may have to bear the site of a Toyota ad or maybe Gillette or something. I know it might be hard, but think about it this way:
Studio 411 (moreso Sportnet and Wasserman) owns a whole bunch of websites. Surf, Skate, Moto X, Snowboarding. They also have shitloads of video titles in all of these sports. What NS becomes is a small part of a larger ad package that can be sold to corporate sponsors. Its the same shit as when corporate sponsors put on most of the major ski contests in our sport. Corporate ad packages don't care about some small fry bullshit traffic like NS, they want big numbers. A company like WMG/411 recognizes what small factions of the sport needs to thrive and grow and provide that. THey ensure that each site keeps core to their sport, and does cool shit for them. Then, having those numbers they can sell it to corporate sponsors overall, alongside everything else they do as one massive package.
So they're not interested in who we're hating on as a community, they're interested in the fact that we're here, we're healthy and we're having fun. If people leave this website, it becomes useless! So yes we will be able to continue on as we have been.
Of course things will change, but things change every year with us! We'll grow, there will be punters, but we'll implement features and new cults that seek to give core members somewhere to hide from the masses. Features will improve, and we can use creative advertising methods to get mre money out of the industry instead of just doing stupid shit like popups. Popups would be the worst business move ever for us... I mean think about team/park updates! NS makes probably 70% of its revenue from those, and aren't they incredibly entertaining?
All we have to do is come up with cool ad spots. They don't care how we make the money as long as we make it, and the industry is looking to support us. That partnered with the fact that we can rock a couple of corporate ads and we're stoked!
The main idea behind not being able to make up the massive influx of resources, is that now we're able to roll the dice. Yeah we could have done this on our own, but we'd have had to take out a massive loan and hope for the best. This way they've even given us the leniancy to not make money the first year we're under them! (Though I'm not going to let that happen because that would mean I'm a bad sales guy!)
Things might change yes... but you know what? It was high time to make a move forwards. This was our opportunity and we jumped on it. I hate nothing more in this life than people who don't jump on opportunities just because they're worried that it will fail. Too many good ideas die for just that reason.
Trust me, trust our team, and trust our community that we can not only survive, but flourish through this.