Misery loves company: How LI's Justin Silberlust launched a fan community through Forever Next Year NY
Justin Silberlust is just like many other suffering New York sports fans.
But the 27-year-old Dix Hills native has turned his misery into opportunity, which he hopes provides a source of optimism and togetherness for those same fans.
In September, Silberlust launched “Forever Next Year NY,’’ a community for New York sports fans that lives by the message of “Hey, there’s always next year.”
It started with Silberlust’s three favorite teams — the Jets, Mets and Knicks — and has expanded to include all eight of New York’s teams from the traditional “Big 4” leagues.
“We’re all kind of going through something,” Silberlust told Newsday. “I think Mets, Jets and Knicks fans have it a little harder than others, I’d say. But that phrase [Forever Next Year] to me is a symbol of loyalty and resilience, that no matter what happens at the beginning of the season, we start with zero wins and zero losses, and we’re always going to have that hope.
“We’re always going to have that blind faith that maybe this could be the year, and that’s really what Forever Next Year kind of means to me.”
Silberlust, who works full-time in finance, started the website ForeverNextYearNY.com with the help of his older brother, Jared. His original idea included deleting the site if one of his three favorite teams won a championship; the site’s main page says, “Once the Mets, Jets, and Knicks Win . . . We’re Outta Here!” and includes digital clocks counting the time since each team won its last title.
While Silberlust happily would shut down operations if Forever Next Year “reverses the curse,” in his words, his vision has turned into something bigger.
Silberlust first posted on the Forever Next Year Instagram account on Sept. 7, the day of the Jets’ season-opening 34-32 home loss to the Steelers and amid the Mets’ late-season collapse. The account, which has just over 1,000 followers, features content collaborations with Silberlust’s friend, D’Andre McKenzie.
They filmed one of the most viral moments of the season after the Jets’ loss to the Panthers on Oct. 19, when Winston Sullivan, a young fan from New Jersey, somberly said, “I hate this team. I was born into this . . . I’m always a Jets fan, but I hate this team.”
The clip earned 1.3 million likes on McKenzie’s Instagram account, and they filmed a follow-up interview at Sullivan’s house.
The Forever Next Year website also has a shop where fans can buy merchandise — including T-shirts, hats and sweatshirts — in the color scheme of all eight teams.
“I look at it as a tool to help build the community,” Silberlust said. “Forever Next Year is not a clothing company. It’s not a fashion statement. I’m using the merch as a tool to say, ‘Wow, I can resonate with that.’
“The most rewarding part of this has been walking around wearing this shirt and somebody stopping me and saying, ‘That’s a funny shirt you got on. That’s a funny hoodie.’
“And we could just smile in that moment and say, ‘Our teams kind of let us down, but we’re sticking through it.’ ”
There are other aspects of the community, too. Fans can join the Forever Next Year group chat on Discord, an instant messaging platform, to vent about their teams.
Silberlust also has planned in-person meetups. He set up a table at an event held by Gotham City Crew, a Jets fan club. He brought a whiteboard prompting fans to write one word to describe being a Jets fan, with responses ranging from “loyal” to “heartbreaking” to “hopeless.”
A Jets fan anonymous meetup is scheduled for Dec. 14, when the Jets play the Jaguars, at Blue Haven South in Manhattan’s Financial District. They were supposed to have an event for the Mets’ Wild Card Series, which of course never happened because the team missed the playoffs.
Does this haven for suffering fans fill a missing hole in the landscape?
“I think it is a missing [part],” said Scott Silberlust, Justin’s father. “There’s so much negativity out there, but this belief and this forever, you get to share and listen to how other people feel about it. I think it’s a bonding experience about loyalty, about being true to your team, and it should be more of that.”
Justin Silberlust hopes to bring Forever Next Year beyond New York into colleges, other states and even other countries. He also plans to create chapters across the state, with the goal of bringing people together to watch games and plan events.
“I really want to create a group where these fans that have been through so much, that have been through so many letdowns, can say, ‘I have a voice,’ ” Silberlust said. “We might not be able to hold up a championship at the end of the year. We might not be able to get a ring or be able to say we’re the best team in the whole world, but we can have a voice, too.”
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
