[Discussion] Integration of Preseason Tours and Camps with Commercial Opportunities

[halfmanhalfgull]

For the last 20 years of FM, we've been able to basically set a preseason tour to any country and take the players there and play a friendly. Back in 2001 it was fun to go to play Hearts of Oak not because it was especially meaningful but just because we could do it.

However, football has really moved on, and managers and boards collaborate every year - especially at the top level - when it comes to preseason (and even midseason) training camps, and especially fitting the money spinning preseason tour into the crowded calendar.

Certainly, these tours should have more of a knock on effect on club finances (and fatigue/fitness) than they do now, which is limited to "you can play this game and get this much money from the match." It would be good for the club to present a number of preseason tour options to maximise sponsors in various parts of the world, which the manager can then accept or decline to various consequences in terms of the board relationship. Maybe choices increase as the relationship improves with the board, or as more global sponsors are attracted to the club. Maybe depending on the fitness coaches you have hired (and their background/ability) or your coaching staff, you'll have to make a give/take decision as to what's best for the club.

The game already requires you to do certain things like raising the commercial revenue (which is at the limits of what a manager would typically control as it is), but this is limited to signing bigger name players who will sell more shirts. Realistically, involvement in things which actually do happen in real life and are frequently much more impactful would be a meaningful addition to the game (managers outside all but the biggest clubs aren't signing players for commercial reasons and even there, commercial reasons are the FFP justification rather than the reason the player is actually signed).

Additionally, places where clubs invest in tours or have long term playing and corporate responsibilities typically come with deeper community engagement. For example, Leicester has close links with Thailand, and many teams have played tours in that part of the world or participated in the opening of local academies that have seen pre-season friendlies played. Maybe if you're owned by Thai or Qatari owners, they require you to play matches there in preseason every few years, and you have to manage that with the requirements of other affiliates who may require friendlies as part of their deals. These friendlies in hot weather countries may come with huge sums of sponsor revenue, and could be good for fitness in the long run, but could be taxing and bring on more muscle injuries. Managers may need to make team selections accordingly. Many other clubs do warm weather camps or in Liverpool's case, frequently have the start of pre-season in the Alps for fitness training at altitude, before going off later on a tour somewhere else. 

The preseason experience right now generally is just a hodgepodge of random matches, tours, or friendly cups, but there is a lot of depth that could be added here to make it extremely impactful for the full season experience when taking finance, fitness, etc all into account.

Edited September 29, 2021 by graemeshinniehasthepowerofaseagullyeah

[FrazT]

6 minutes ago, graemeshinniehasthepowerofaseagullyeah said:

For the last 20 years of FM, we've been able to basically set a preseason tour to any country and take the players there and play a friendly. Back in 2001 it was fun to go to play Hearts of Oak not because it was especially meaningful but just because we could do it.

However, football has really moved on, and managers and boards collaborate every year - especially at the top level - when it comes to preseason (and even midseason) training camps, and especially fitting the money spinning preseason tour into the crowded calendar.

Certainly, these tours should have more of a knock on effect on club finances (and fatigue/fitness) than they do now, which is limited to "you can play this game and get this much money from the match." It would be good for the club to present a number of preseason tour options to maximise sponsors in various parts of the world, which the manager can then accept or decline to various consequences in terms of the board relationship. Maybe choices increase as the relationship improves with the board, or as more global sponsors are attracted to the club. Maybe depending on the fitness coaches you have hired (and their background/ability) or your coaching staff, you'll have to make a give/take decision as to what's best for the club.

The game already requires you to do certain things like raising the commercial revenue (which is at the limits of what a manager would typically control as it is), but this is limited to signing bigger name players who will sell more shirts. Realistically, involvement in things which actually do happen in real life and are frequently much more impactful would be a meaningful addition to the game (managers outside all but the biggest clubs aren't signing players for commercial reasons and even there, commercial reasons are the FFP justification rather than the reason the player is actually signed).

Additionally, places where clubs invest in tours or have long term playing and corporate responsibilities typically come with deeper community engagement. For example, Leicester has close links with Thailand, and many teams have played tours in that part of the world or participated in the opening of local academies that have seen pre-season friendlies played. Maybe if you're owned by Thai or Qatari owners, they require you to play matches there in preseason every few years, and you have to manage that with the requirements of other affiliates who may require friendlies as part of their deals. These friendlies in hot weather countries may come with huge sums of sponsor revenue, and could be good for fitness in the long run, but could be taxing and bring on more muscle injuries. Managers may need to make team selections accordingly. Many other clubs do warm weather camps or in Liverpool's case, frequently have the start of pre-season in the Alps for fitness training at altitude, before going off later on a tour somewhere else. 

The preseason experience right now generally is just a hodgepodge of random matches, tours, or friendly cups, but there is a lot of depth that could be added here to make it extremely impactful for the full season experience when taking finance, fitness, etc all into account.

Welcome to the forums- unfortunately, your user name has seriously messed up the forum formatting, so can I please ask that you choose a user name which is considerably shorter and i will get the forum admin to merge your posts with the new name.  Please message me with your choice. 

[Zachary Whyte]

Thanks for the suggestion and the detailed feedback. We really appreciate it, your idea may yet be rejected or it may end up in a future FM.