The business side

[Foppa21]

Originally Posted by Nino33

I feel the same way...



Things like "The GM gets more opportunities to negotiate TV or internet contracts, merchandising offers, side fence advertising etc" & "The GM could fix the price of games and food and drinks or merchandising articles during game days" make no sense to me.....these are not things that I think a GM (or any person related to the actual hockey playing really) would spend any time on at all


Has anyone ever heard of a GM negotiating TV contracts? Or determining the price of food and drink? It's certainly not something I've ever heard of a NA GM doing

The idea is that lots of the new functionalities should be optional. Of course, in the foreground should be also farther the core of the game, negotiating player contracts, creating the lines, making trades and so on. Crosby, Malkin, McDavid, Stamkos, Ovechkin, Matthews and Co are the reason why we all are fallen in love with the game. I think that makes the identity of the game and of course also of FHM. But to manage a franchise is basically so much more. However, in real life the GM acts more like a CEO, means he makes the baselines, but rarely details. For the details there are many assistants for contractual or communicational matters like Assistant General Manager, Director of Media Services or Website Coordinator and so on. As I said everybody should be able to choose which aspect of the game everyone wants to deepen. As already now there is only GM or GM + Trainer. Maybe it is possible in the future that there are more modes like GM + taking over of several assistants to control a few more details. Maybe there is also a commissioner only mode in the future, so that you are exclusively concentrated to growing the game in general, further development of the league such as a more active control of the expansion process and so on. It is just as conceivable that at the beginning some functionalities can also be turned off like the possibility which leagues should simulate and which not. In my opinion the business side is a main factor in professional sports. You can like that or not, often the sport also suffers or fans will be disappointed (relocation) but it is also fascinating what is all done around the actual event to increase the interest and finally the revenues. Even junior or college hockey is becoming more and more a good source of income for lots of people. I imagine that an aspect like relocation shouldn’t as easy as take a button in the commissioner mode. It could be rather the result of mismanaging, shrinking of the fan base and so on. That means these aspects could be more a subject to certain (controllable) influences. Also the specifications by the owner are influenced by its character or his deep pockets. Some spend a lot of money to make childhood dreams come true, others see it more like a normal business and just want to make a lot of (more) money. Of course there are many shades in between. All this has a big influence on the final product. To take control of the GM position means to me that you have to develop a fine sense to unite all the (different) interests of the fans, the owner, the staff, the community, the player around with the given or self-generated resources, so that in the end the best possible result comes out. For this the GM should look for fellow contestants, means to hire assistants with promising skills. Next to the financial aspects like merchandising or TV contracts there are many more aspect which do not always have to be purely financial, promoting young talents, new types of analysis or camps and summer training for example.

[Foppa21]

Originally Posted by Nino33

IMO as someone from NA who's been following hockey for decades, the idea that "North American players and fans probably mostly the World Cup of Hockey is more important" is completely untrue


NA fans/players as a whole I think care about "best-on-best" regardless of what you name it.....so an Olympics with access to all players (and thus best-on-best) would be just fine for those in NA, it's the Olympics with 2nd/3rd tier players or lower that NA wouldn't care about




Last year's World Cup was not massively popular in NA. The format/fake teams turned people off and so it wasn't considered a true best-on-best.....I think it was paid attention to as just a fun tournament to watch. The Olympic hockey next February, with lower quality players, only diehard Olympic fans will care in NA (it won't even be considered a fun tournament to watch)

Thanks for this. Team Europe or NA really was not the best idea. Rather less teams but as you said best-on-best at the World Cup of Hockey. Why not even again a more games series between Canada and Russia? Olympics without the NHLers are less interesting, of course. Yet it is less an invitation tournament as the World Cup and therefore for many smaller Nations more important to put the game in the focus of the public. To grow the game worldwide it isn't enough to align two NHL games in Stockholm or another city once a year. In this context the Olympics and even the World Championship in May probably means much more outside NA. The NHL is for example as good as no topic in the main media in Germany, unfortunately also the top German league don’t get much main media attention. Internet and streaming has improved a lot in the past years. But that's only for those already interested. That does not improve the position of hockey towards the almighty football (soccer). But there are several hours of media reports about hockey, live broadcasts with millions of viewers at the best time when Olympics occur. The most viewers don't mention if these are really the best players or the best of the rest. But they get an impression what hockey could be. Hopefully some are sustainably infected. More stars, more stories, a faster game, more action and maybe that effect more people or is more sustainable. It’s a pity that it does not come this time. The NHL is the best league in the world with distance, but I also wish that the game in such a big market as Germany at least grow a bit more in the future. And for that the Olympics are decisive, even if it means that Draisaitl, Seidenberg, Rieder, Grubauer and so on are not there.

[Nino33]

Originally Posted by Foppa21

The idea is that lots of the new functionalities should be optional.

Fair enough; FHM's first years had to much "optional stuff" IMO, and there's still a need to really focus on "core stuff" IMO

Originally Posted by Foppa21

However, in real life the GM acts more like a CEO, means he makes the baselines, but rarely details.

In regards to the NHL/major professional hockey, I disagree

I took a look at Anaheim's Media Guide (here's a link that has a bunch of the current Media Guides http://hfboards.mandatory.com/thread...uides.2394477/ I just used Anaheim as they were first in the list) - Anaheim has 350 names listed on their Club Directory (list of staff). There are 33 different divisions/groupings


What you're saying might be the case with the smallest leagues, where the staff team is very small & even if it's not it still sounds like cool optional stuff to me...

Originally Posted by Foppa21

Why not even again a more games series between Canada and Russia?

I don't think there'd be much interest (I think it's been decades since there's been significant interest)

Russia hasn't won a best-on-best since 1981 (the only time they've won). If you look at the medal results for the Olympics since 1998, among the 6 "hockey powers" Russia's the worst performing

I think the specialness of Canada/Russia was from back when they were considered the two best at hockey (though I thought the Czechs were pretty good in the 70s)

[Foppa21]

Originally Posted by Nino33

Fair enough; FHM's first years had to much "optional stuff" IMO, and there's still a need to really focus on "core stuff" IMO



In regards to the NHL/major professional hockey, I disagree

I took a look at Anaheim's Media Guide (here's a link that has a bunch of the current Media Guides http://hfboards.mandatory.com/thread...uides.2394477/ I just used Anaheim as they were first in the list) - Anaheim has 350 names listed on their Club Directory (list of staff). There are 33 different divisions/groupings


What you're saying might be the case with the smallest leagues, where the staff team is very small & even if it's not it still sounds like cool optional stuff to me...



I don't think there'd be much interest (I think it's been decades since there's been significant interest)

Russia hasn't won a best-on-best since 1981 (the only time they've won). If you look at the medal results for the Olympics since 1998, among the 6 "hockey powers" Russia's the worst performing

I think the specialness of Canada/Russia was from back when they were considered the two best at hockey (though I thought the Czechs were pretty good in the 70s)

I think we are not far apart in some things. I agree that GMs in small leagues do all the little things. The staff is just too small, everyone is more a generalist. In the major leagues there are a large number of specialists as you mentioned. My point is that the GM in general is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements. GMs oversees most or all of the marketing and sales functions as well as the day-to-day operations of the business. That means GMs are responsible for effective planning, delegating, coordinating, staffing, organizing and decision making. For example that means not that GMs set the entrance fees in detail. But they formulate an expectation what a game brings to revenue and how that fits the long-term strategy. The details are done by assistants. And that’s my point. I doubt that GMs in the NHL send or recall the players to or from the farmteam. There are conversations between management, training and medicine staff and so on. The concrete doing incumbent some employee which most fans do not know. In spite of all this process is carried out by the GM in FHM. That’s ok. From the starting point the complexity must clearly be taken from real processes otherwise the game is not programmable or playable. But everything continues to evolve. Time by time there are new frameworks for programming, more powerful computer and so on. Therefore, I can well imagine that the game can map a more complex environment step by step. Of course it depends also massive on the programming resources but I do not want to go beyond that. Who considers some functions to be of little use turn it off. Some wants to be the trainer, one the scout, one the commissioner and one all of the three. Everyone has a different view on the game, one like the high skilled offensive part of the game; others prefer body checks and the defense part or goaltending. It would be nice to unite a lot in FHM and give everyone a little more freedom to customize some aspects. I don’t know earlier versions of FHM, but if that did not work earlier this shouldn’t extend linearly into the future. But also the core stuff will become better. I totally trust the development team. This is all about a more long-term perspective. I realize that the suggestions are not always easy to implement. To stay with the wording Franchise Hockey Manager that means to me more than trades, draft or create lines. For me it means to take care of the whole franchise (or from a different perspective for the whole league). The 60 minutes plus overtime are certainly the most important part, but that's exactly why so much more is still going on. Maybe some of the suggestions give an excitement which aspects in further versions could be implemented. Or they even tried once in a beta version and the feedback will be evaluated. Not everything will work or will meet with approval. Trial and error and this creates something new. Why not?

[George_Bell]

NHL general managers are responsible for the on ice product. They aren't involved in marketing, or day to day business functions of the teams.

NHL GM's do send players down and recall players. That's their job. They shape the team. Sure, they take advice from staff but it's their decision.

[Foppa21]

Originally Posted by George_Bell

NHL general managers are responsible for the on ice product. They aren't involved in marketing, or day to day business functions of the teams.

NHL GM's do send players down and recall players. That's their job. They shape the team. Sure, they take advice from staff but it's their decision.

I had more a picture of certain people in mind at my explanations. Some NHL GMs are listed only at the direction hockey operations and focuses only on the on ice product as you mentioned, maybe it's the most I did not check it all :-) But some others are also listed at the executive staff. It depends seemingly on the individual organizational structure of each NHL franchise. It seems like some are only GMs, others have more roles as Executive VP or Alternate Governor and so on. I don’t know if this is something NHL specific or not. But I see what GMs in European hockey leagues and also in other sports do and a big part is to increase the revenues. It is not only putting a winning team with good players together. It is also focus on resources to provide a fun fan experience, whatever that means around the game in particular. If a team wins, it is much easier to attract fans willing to buy tickets. We all know that. If the GM's fails to attempt to assemble a winning team he may instead focus on resources to provide a fun fan experience in other ways. The GM can work with promoters to arrange for entertaining acts to perform during breaks and so on. Players will be also called upon to take part in some marketing outreach. But I'm not really interested in the definition of the GM. If it isn’t the GM which have to look after many of the tasks, why not creating other roles like President, VP, (Alternate) Governor, whatever, to increase the all-around experience of FHM?

[George_Bell]

Originally Posted by Foppa21

why not creating other roles like President, VP, (Alternate) Governor, whatever, to increase the all-around experience of FHM?

Really, the reason at least to me is there is alot of other stuff that needs be done before these "bells and whistles"

OOTP has things like ticket prices and owner goals, stuff like that. It's part of the game, but it's a simple part of the game. Will FHM get there? Ya, hopefully, one day.

Right now though, lets work on the core of the product. Lets fix the UI. Lets make the user experience easy and fun. Lets make the game stable, playable(not that it isn't), without some of the game altering bugs we read about in the other forums.

With that said, there's nothing wrong with making suggestions. I'm sure they will get added to the list.