Farewell Readers!
The time has come for me to say goodbye. Sadly, the costs to operate and even more so, the time to produce content have just become too much for me. So this will be the final month for FullTilt Rangers.
I will continue to operate my Twitter account and Facebook page for the remainder of the year. It wouldn’t be fair to simply disappear entirely. Plus, I can’t wait to see Dan Girardi score the Cup winning goal this season and watch the fanbase implode.
When I started this, the hope was to create an engaging site for fans to get honest opinions of our favorite team. Through the years I’ve worked with some talented writers and had the pleasure of doing several podcasts and radio shows. A special thank you to you all – you know who you are.
FullTilt’s credibility grew with the support and participation of folks like Rick Carpiniello, Seth Rothman, John Giannone, Sean Hartnett, the gents at Pizza Beer Revolution and especially Steve Valiquette. I can’t thank them enough for what they added here over the years.
Looking back, it’s amazing how much I learned about running a website, blogging and building a following. To see your work referenced on sites like TSN, Sportsnet, Yahoo! Puck Daddy, and The Hockey Writers was a thrill. Especially since it was done out of love for the game and not profit (sadly there is none to be made blogging – just expense).
All of this shows that a fan like myself, who didn’t go to journalism school or spent hours in writing classes (I sure could’ve used some) could make an impact on the hockey community. For a brief time, FullTilt Hockey Network was also pulling in some serious visits covering the NHL and I was managing up to 16 writers. It was a lot of work but I loved the creative process developing loads of content for over a year. Unfortunately, keeping writers and getting consistent content isn’t easy when no one is getting paid.
Still, even through the tough times it’s been an amazing experience.
Now it’s time to just be a fan again. My love for hockey and the Rangers will never go away. Who knows if I’m really done in the world of hockey writing? The only thing I know is that I need to focus on what actually pays my bills and the most important thing in the world…my family.
Finally, I want to thank from the bottom of my heart the over 700,000 people that read this site since 2013! It was a pleasure to engage with you all. All the best!
LET’S GO RANGERS!
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