The Key Players Club surpassed 500 members — the halfway point of its sustained annual benefactors target — this offseason. Before Virginia Tech's football season gets underway, an update of how the club has grown over the last 19 months.
February 2016, August 2016, and December 2016 are the tallest "New to TKPC!" bars on the chart. That growth corresponds to the club opening, a strong membership push before the 2016 football season, and introduction of exclusive TKPC content, respectively. When I originally conceived TKPC, I hoped to avoid the latter as a means of attracting new members to the club. However, it has been very successful in terms of reaching the overall goal. Whenever a TKPC only article dropped, that day there was a significant bump in club size. The approach is currently the best way to communicate to non-TKPC members that TKPC exists as well as to convey the value it provides.
The 525 526 (cmitch15 joined while I was writing this and is not reflected in the chart above or analysis herein) membership total is more than double August 2016's headcount; quite encouraging. Moreover, only 16 members (2.96%) exited the club after a year. That's extremely low attrition. The majority of whom have emailed me to express they intend to re-join (which really meant a lot). With all that said, there is a very positive momentum behind TKPC right now.
I'm excited for the great coverage TKP is set to provide this football season. Join The Key Players Club to support that effort.
Comments
Avast ye scurvy dogs and join TKPC.
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Once again, ECU is really trying to take advantage of internet trends to stay "hip". Unfortunately, cat pictures are so 2012...
I'm encouraged by the absence of doom and gloom in the summary. I was worried that the low membership numbers relative to the goal might lead a negative impact on the site starting this season.
I still don't know the difference between Mike and Backer, but I've learned so much here. And all I have to do is ask, and someone has the answer...rather than bashing. It doesn't matter the sport or even the league, despite the VT revenue sport focus, we have an expert on everything. I'm happy to keep this site going.
My military service is always met with a "thank you" or a lively discussion with other service members who share similar backgrounds. Some of it has to do with the VT Corp tradition, some Virginia hospitality, but mainly the community taking care of itself with steady guidance from Joe and VTGM and others.
I am with many others who didn't attend VT (go Dukes!) but feel right at home in the TKP community. I couldn't recommend a better place to feed my passion for my adopted team.
I know Joe kept this post positive, but I understand the toll this takes on him and his family and any support we can give back to keep his passion fresh can only benefit VT and the TKP community.
Mike always plays to the wide side of the field. The backer is always to the boundary side of the field.
Case in point. Thanks!
backer...boundary...backer...boundary...
I thought Whip was Wide and Mike was Middle. But I guess that's changed now since Whip has taken on more nickel-type responsibilities...
Whip is always to "the passing strength." While most of the time that is the wide side of the field, if a defense goes two tight ends and a wide receiver to the boundary, the whip will be on the boundary.
The mike and free safety are ALWAYS to the wide side (field side A gap or wider for the mike.) The backer and the rover are ALWAYS to the boundary.
VT used to also flip the boundary and field corners. That way, the field corner is always with the free safety communicating, and the boundary corner was always with the rover. That changed last season.
Welcome to French's corner. With an undefeated 76-0 record, 25 by knockout, where everybody learns.
Thank you!
This place takes up so much of my time, and provides so much entertainment and valuable information, I almost feel obligated to create a 2nd username and join TKPC a second time. Thanks for everything that Joe and the staff do to make this place the best Hokies community around. Here's to hitting 1,000 and a bright future for the site and all those who enjoy it!!
Go Hokies!!
I've considered it as well.
Do it
BenStiller.gif
So...I gave away my bottle opener to another hokie alum in the hopes of getting him to sign up. He didn't but I don't feel like I can ask for it back. Since I just renewed, think you could send me another?
Tell that man to give that back. The bottle opener is for TKPC members ONLY!
image attribution: LikeTotally80s.com
Still have mine, along with my braves starter jacket from the South Korean factory.
I'll send you mine if you want.
My first comment! Thanks for the mention! Glad to finally be joining you all. Special season coming, figured it was time!
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To all the current members: thank you. To all the new members: welcome. To all the rest of you: what the hell are you waiting on?
And since it wouldn't be a TKP comment section without an Emma Watson gif, allow me to deliver:
I'm gonna go ahead and just copypasta my TKPC post from the last time we discussed it, in case there's a single soul out there that I can appeal to (and because I'm too lazy to write another original piece):
To all the lurkers out there who never/almost never post and therefore don't feel as compelled to join, I was once one of you. But I realized that, despite the fact that I don't engage in the community discussions as much as many, this website is still my escape when I need it. I easily spend more time here than anywhere else on the interwebs (with sites #2 - #7 being unmentionable on a SFW site), and I look forward to the great articles and funny banter on pretty much an hourly basis.
If you find yourself on the fence like I was, please help support this site for many great years of Hokie football to come. I know not everyone is in the financial position to do so, which is understandable, but you can't make a much better $7/month commitment than this. Hell, I pay $9 a month for Netflix and I definitely log more time on here than that.
Well said! Great having you on the boards magorm
I thought you were about "...to speak the $%#! truth..." for a second.
So.... Is there going to be some kind of celebration or reward for the site when we hit 1k TKPC members? I feel like this will be a massive milestone for Joe, and it should be recognized as such.
Second Life party!
24 hours after hitting 1000 TKPCers, all members will open TKP, raise their hand and place it on their screens, enabling the largest simultaneous Hokie High-Five in history. Upon doing so, the ground will open up under Charlottesville and
Scott StadiumLane Stadium North will be consumed by the earth, never to be seen again.Wait, come to think of it, a volcanic pit of despair is an upgrade for them. OK, we won't invoke the magic of the Children of the Forest (cross-post with the GoT thread) and we'll let them stay but still do the high-five solidarity move.
And I'll mail a case of PBR to Joe's house.
oooh I got it.
Joe chugs a Zima on Periscope while listening to Auld Lang Syne when we reach 1k members.
I can't support a clear human rights violation like this.
Having full time staff devoted to even more great content is a good enough reward for me.
I'm also sure we could throw a better celebration than that.
Thanks you everyone for your patronage.
Man, if only I had waited a few extra hours maybe I could have been mentioned too! (I was #525).
I am finally starting to get settled after a year of moving to a new area (first rented but now just recently own), finding a new job, and starting grad school, and with the start of the season and all the hype I couldn't wait any longer to support this awesome community! Thanks to the staff and columnists for all the amazing info and analysis, and to everyone else for the great discussion and #sauces (and the strong gif game that wrecks my mobile browser).
I'm a lurker by nature like magorm above, but I will be looking to be more active this season!
welcome
I can't say enough about TKPC. I drunkenly came to TKP for Hokies football news, and stayed for Emma gifs, Hoops coverage, the occasional recruiting thread overload, this great community, and Lot 18. To me, all that's worth the price of a yearly subscription. Honestly, there's no better site out there for VT hoops coverage and discussion. So if that's your thing, you're already home. Join TKPC, get a keychain bottle opener, and enjoy everything this community has to offer.
Would it be worth adding another row to the member tracker that accounts for dollars raised versus total goal? It occurs to me that some people might donate more than the minimum which would help reach the goal faster and show progress along the way. Waiting for another 472 members may be untenable.
First post and number five thirty eighttttttt!
Welcome to the club!
TKPC number 540 should go for a premium. Just saying!
Wait so who were the quitters
It's September, a year after the last big bump, maybe some didn't auto renew for various reasons.
#540. Glad to support a site I frequent as much as I do.
I was 540 when it was 703.
I was 757 when it was 804.
I'm ancient.
Welcome!
Will we reach 600 members in TKPC today?
Bumping this to the top, so we can get the 3 new members to push TKP Club membership over the 600 mark.
NPR had its fund drive this past two weeks. I have no problem bumming off them, but TKP is a totally different deal. Way more entertainment value. I haven't regretted my membership even once over the past two years.
I am getting very sad waking up every day seeing TKPlayers club numbers lower. 😭
We are so close to 600, yall. Make it happen!