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>The evaluation fee is US$185,000. Applicants will be required to pay a US$5,000 deposit fee per requested application slot when registering. The deposit will be credited against the evaluation fee. Other fees may apply depending on the specific application path. See the section 1.5 of the Applicant Guidebook for details about the methods of payment, additional fees and refund schedules.

Section 2.2 https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/global-support/faqs...

There's a nonzero chance that the investment could be a dud if people simply don't like the TLD, the same way how no one (except a few people [1]) like the .bike TLD.

[1] http://poop.bike

It costs USD$185,000 to submit a TLD application, and there are probably additional costs beyond that.

Yes, you do need to hire a good domain attorney that is well versed in tld applications.

Last time I considered a new tld you are looking at about $500k in total costs, such as application, atty fees, and marketing fees.

That’s if it doesn’t end up in auction. Google paid $25m for .app, I believe.

I'm surprised there is no site to crowdfund TLDs by taking a deposit from people in order to reserve a name

I guess the usual ~$200k.