first, explain why you NEED pay to play on your server configuration.
an don't really want to talk about it.
second, this is a bad excuse. sorry, but if you want people to volunteer, you gotta give info. lots of info. like, did your team screw you over, or didn't you organize things well? did you give them enough information? why did they screw you over?
i dont want to force you into talking about traumatic things, but how traumatic can an abandoned project be?
edit: the point is, that we are objective. we dont know your situation. we just want to hear a good reason to join your project. we know nothing about you, or your ex-team. see? its kind of hard to judge you with this little information.