Interview with Jeremy

Jeremy has agreed to an interview with me. What (serious) questions would you like me to ask?

What are the major areas of upgrade after the site and mobile revamp that he wishes to focus on?
How does he believe he can grow and retain members with the upcoming WC?

Given the relative stagnation in terms of growth of users what plans do you have to make it more achievable for newer teams to progress beyond Div IV within an achievable timescale?

How can the transfer market be better regulated to ensure that fees paid are representative, especially for older lower ability players?

Has introducing affiliates actually achieved anything other than causing hyperinflation in the transfer market and drastically increasing the level at which players become international candidates?

and another couple .....

Do you have any plans to make the youth academy a more integral part of the game rather than a relatively expensive lottery?

As an observation it seems as time has progressed that the value of Youth prospects has reduced, with the exception of those at the extremes of height and weight which have drastically increased. Do you see that as sustainable?

I'd actually disagree that the youth academy is a lottery or less valuable these days for top end players. I've started working on an article on the youth academy that I'll publish soon. If you've got level 3 academy with level 3 coach, then you can make good money.

Money I've made from selling players recently:
Season 23 - $1,011,020 (current season)
Season 22 - $605,144
Season 21 - $885,983
Season 20 - $689,365
Average - $797,878

Season 23 doesn't include three that I currenly have listed, who will fetch me at least another million (one's going for $720k ATM), plus one more I will promote in a couple of weeks and sell. All players were about 30 stars each.

Nor do the totals include the 7 that I've kept for the first team.

I was being slightly tongue in cheek with that question to be honest.  I have had a level 3 academy with a level 3 coach for at least 10 seasons & have made no where near that much in sales.

Historically there used to be some value in selling average players from my perspective who would make good prospects for Div IV/V players.  e.g. (i.e. 10/11/12 in the appropriate skills but not at the extremes of skills or height/weight).  If you look at the transfer market now it is flooded with these sorts of players @ <$1000k.  

As an example I have one on the market right now, not going to set the world on fire but could be trained to a reasonable level.  As a 60 star pull it should be reasonable to expect some sort of a return.

http://www.blackoutrugby.com/game/club.squad.php#player=13798095

Clearly the >200cm / >120kg players will always attract a premium & rightly so.  But my point was more so that it is a lottery if you pull one of these type players & if you don't there isn't really an alternate profitable strategy given the entry costs & the maintenance costs to get to level 3.

Where I think this links is that the focus should have been on improving the YA system rather than artificially increasing the number of players in the game by introducing affiliates & by perpetuating the "farm" approach to player development.