Announcing the FanGraphs Spring Membership Drive!

With Opening Day around the corner, I wanted to update our readers on the current state of the site and make a few Membership announcements. This time last year, we weren’t sure if FanGraphs was going to last another two months, let alone survive long enough to see the start of the 2021 season. The pandemic fast-tracked what was supposed to be a much slower shift in our business model from advertising to Membership, and because of this, we are more reliant on your support than ever. So first things first: thank you! I can say with complete certainty that we would not be here without you; our readers and members literally make FanGraphs possible.

And your support hasn’t just kept us afloat; it’s helped us build a better FanGraphs. Over the past year, we’ve added a lot of new content and features to the site. We’ve incorporated Statcast stats into our player pages and leaderboards and new game and season stat aggregation capabilities to our player page dashboards. We now have KBO stats on the site, an offering we plan to expand this season. We’ve updated our auction calculator and implemented new RosterResource features. We’ve invested in behind-the-scenes improvements to make site features better and easier to use. Today, we announced a number of new contributor voices at FanGraphs and will do so at RotoGraphs soon. And as an exclusive benefit for our Members, you can now view the site in Dark mode and Classic mode.

Tuesday is the start of what is now a very important month for the site. On March 30, 2020, we asked for your help in weathering the pandemic. As such, a significant portion of our Membership base is up for renewal in the coming weeks. If you’re an existing Member and have stuck with us through the last year, we hope that you will continue to support what we do here at FanGraphs. If you’re not a Member, we hope you’ll become one. It’s the best way to support all of the content and tools you rely on to help you enjoy the baseball season, and ensure we can keep improving the site.

To that end, we have two big announcements ahead of that anniversary. The first is that we’re launching a spring Membership drive with the goal of adding 2,000 new Members by the end of April. That might sound like a lot, but I’m optimistic we can meet that goal. Google Analytics shows that we had 1.3 million unique users in April 2019; 2,000 Members would be just 0.15% of our in-season user base. Already a Member but want to help us reach that goal? You can gift a Membership to anyone you’d like, or make a $30 donation to the site, which will count as a new Membership; more on that below.

The second bit of news is about our pricing. Starting June 1, we’re going to raise our prices from $50 to $60 for Ad Free Membership, from $20 to $25 for yearly Membership, and from $3 to $5 for monthly Membership. Please note: If you are an existing Member and maintain your Membership, your pricing will not change until at least 2023. Likewise, if you subscribe between now and June 1, you’ll be grandfathered in until at least 2023, just like our existing Members. This change will only go into effect starting on June 1 for new Members.

We wanted to give everyone plenty of notice before we raise prices so that people have the opportunity to subscribe at our current rates. We launched FanGraphs Membership in 2016, providing an ad-free option the year after. Until now, we haven’t raised the price for either option, but this is what we need to do to sustain and grow the site, and these are prices we believe are fair.

As always, you can support our site in the following ways:

Become a Member
You can become a Member or an Ad-Free Member. You’ll see all the same great content and have access to all of our tools. You’ll also have access to Dark mode and Classic mode. Ad-Free Members enjoy the site with faster loading times and no ads — the best way to experience FanGraphs.

Gift a Membership
You can send a coupon code for a one-year Ad-Free Membership to anyone you like. The code never expires, and no credit card or other form of payment is required when the recipient signs up. Their Membership begins when they use the coupon code.

Buy some Merch!
In addition to hoodies, t-shirts, and hats, our new FanGraphs Mugs are still available for pre-order. They begin shipping next Friday.

Donate to FanGraphs
We have a simple donation form you can use to donate to FanGraphs. Please note that donations to FanGraphs are not tax-deductible. For the purposes of this year’s Membership goal, we will treat every $30 donated as one new Membership towards our goal.

Thank you again for all your support over the last year and going forward! We can’t wait to watch baseball with you.