I seem to remember that Rob went through this once before and he didn't like it from a financial standpoint, at least that was my guess.
Remember when he went with Pat Harty on hawkfanatic several years ago. It must have been a slower go than he wanted, and he jumped ship and went back to hawkeyenation, probably for a steadier income stream.
I remember when he took that big pay cut he mentioned in the podcast. He mentioned he was posting some stuff that was out there that he knew might come back and bite him, which it evidently did. I don't remember what it was he was posting.
Bottom line, IMO, is that Rob has a healthy respect for what it takes to build a Hawkeye website.
Personally, I hope HN doesn't go away, but it might. There are , though, other Hawk message boards out there.