Big News: New Membership Tiers at Blueshirt Banter

Good morning, Banter faithful,

We’ve got some exciting updates to share about Blueshirt Banter. Over the years, this community has grown into the go-to home for passionate New York Rangers fans. And that's all thanks to you. To keep pace with that growth, and to continue delivering the best Rangers coverage and community experience, we’re introducing a new membership structure with three tiers.

One note to add here: We'll go into this in more detail below, but I want to make sure that all current Full Access members know they are NOT impacted by this change. We explain it below, but wanted this at the top.

The New Tiers

Here’s how things break down starting today:

Free Tier (Free)

• Bantering Points (our daily news and links newsletter in your inbox every morning)
• Rangers News
• Game Recaps
• Game Threads

Community Tier ($40/year or $5/month)

• Everything in the Free Tier
• Access to the Blueshirt Banter Discord, where you can connect directly with other Rangers fans and writers (more detail on the timing for this below)
• Access to select paywalled feature content

Premium Access Tier ($85/year or $10/month)

• Everything in the Free and Community Tiers
• Access to our full Rangers analysis and all articles
• Game Notes
• All feature newsletters from Joe, Eric, and the rest of our writers
• Bonus podcast content from Blueshirt Bandwidth

Why the Change?

Running a site like Blueshirt Banter isn’t free. Our biggest costs come from:

• Professional photos and licensing
• Rising hosting and vendor fees (commenting platforms, newsletters, etc.)
• Investments in podcast equipment and software
• Tools to get stories to you faster and more effectively

On top of that, we’re committed to paying our writers more fairly and growing our coverage. This includes new weekly columns, expanded Hartford Wolf Pack coverage from our Wolf Park correspondent Keegan Jarvis, and a few surprises we’ll be rolling out soon.

The truth: We’ve been running lean for a long time. Neither Eric, Mike, nor I take a stipend for our work running the site. This change helps us stay sustainable and keep building the site you love.

We're also committed to Blueshirt Banter being an ad-free experience on the website, so your user experience is not disrupted by annoying pop up ads, home screen takeovers, auto-playing videos, and other interruptions that make reading other publications a nightmare.

Founding Members, You’re Locked In

If you’re already joined at the old $65/year or $7/month Full Access Tier as of Oct. 1, nothing changes for you—as long as you keep your membership active. You’re considered a “Founding Member,” and your rate will never increase.

If your membership lapses for any reason (cancellation, expired credit card, etc.), you’d need to rejoin at the new rate. Unfortunately, there’s no way around this—it’s just how Stripe, our payment system, works—so please make a note of this.

If you want to support us further, you’re welcome (but certainly not required!) to switch into the higher priced premium tier. Stripe will prorate the difference on your current plan.

A Limited-Time Offer

For anyone new signing up on an annual plan between now and Opening Night (10/7):

• Use code “BlueshirtBanter” at checkout (or click this link), and your first year will be locked in at the old $65 price.
• After that first year, renewals will occur at the new $85 price.

Members on the monthly plan will start at the new $10/month rate immediately.

Discord Timeline

As of right now we expect all paid members to get invited over to the Discord in a week or so. The backend is already all set up and ready to go, but we're using a third-party software to grab everyone who is a paid member and push them invites into Discord, which is part of the delay. This will make it seamless to integrate everyone into it. If you have no interest in Discord you can obviously just ignore the invite.

Roberto is going to be running the point on the discord, and Eric and I have already brainstormed some really good ideas for what we can do in there—aside from having a place you all can interact with one another and form another community. We have some interactive ideas we think make sense and will be fun, but we also want to hear from you guys about what you want to see there as well!

What’s Next

We’re always listening to feedback and testing ideas. Expect more community-driven features, expanded coverage, and—yes—even more ways to get involved with Blueshirt Banter as the season rolls on.

This site exists because of you. Your support—whether you’re a free reader, a Community Tier member, or Premium Access member—makes Blueshirt Banter what it is. We’re excited to take this next step together.

Let’s go Rangers.