I think it would be cool to start a company where you are hired by sports teams (college/nba/highschool/whatever) ... where you sell your strategies for beating specific teams. You focus on their play strategy, tendencies, things that give away what play they are going to run ...

Basically to be a source of substantial statistics based information about an upcoming opponent.

The one main concern I have is, how legal is this (in terms of rules/regulations for different sporting leagues)?

Do colleges/teams do this today already?

3/1/2010 1:40:22 PM

yes

they are called coaches

3/1/2010 1:44:29 PM

And for all those teams whose coaches suck at it, or simply dont have time to really really get to know each team and *statistically* document a teams tactics or habits ...

3/1/2010 1:47:17 PM

I hear Denver and Orlando are trying to hire the Bobcats scouts for tips on taking down the Lakers

3/1/2010 1:48:26 PM

Here's my portfolio for taking on NC State:

Just show up to the game.

How much $$ do I get?

[Edited on March 1, 2010 at 1:55 PM. Reason : -]

3/1/2010 1:54:44 PM

I wanted to keep it a secret til my dying day, but I was hired as a strategy consultant for Northwestern and UVa this season

3/1/2010 1:56:50 PM

awesome idea robster!!!

As an addition to your service, I think you could also offer consultants to evaluate talent. That way, a professional team would know who they should draft to help them achieve their goals and college teams would also know who could play in their system. I can't believe no one has thought of this until now!

Were you giddy with excitement when you thought you were really the first person to think of this?

3/1/2010 1:59:22 PM

Quote :

"yes they are called coaches"

fer real.

3/1/2010 2:00:14 PM

Wow.

3/1/2010 2:01:51 PM

best st thread ever?

3/1/2010 2:07:58 PM

Quote :

"Just show up to the game. How much $$ do I get?"

that's pretty lame. i guess coach k is a complete and total moron as a coach.

3/1/2010 2:10:43 PM

way to turn this into a serious thread....

3/1/2010 2:15:59 PM

what the fuck is a video coach

3/1/2010 2:18:51 PM

I always thought it would be interesting to let all of the football fans vote for what play to call next since so many people complain about coaching at every school. My guess is we would blitz every play and call a long pass play on every play.

[Edited on March 1, 2010 at 2:20 PM. Reason : .]

3/1/2010 2:19:44 PM

I was thinking of something like this the other day

What if they took all the sports played professionally and reassigned everyone to play for a team comprised entirely people from your own country. These teams would then compete against each other where we would crown countries champions of each said sport. Sounds like a neat idea.

Do teams do this today already?

3/1/2010 2:22:12 PM

it's called the all-star game

3/1/2010 2:23:58 PM

The robster!!!!!!

3/1/2010 2:27:38 PM

(i think he was going for "olympics")

3/1/2010 2:28:24 PM

holy shit!!!! WAR is back!!!11

used to be one of my favorite posters ever, back in the day

3/1/2010 2:29:19 PM

You know what would be great? A league for people who weren't good enough to go pro, but might be someday.

3/1/2010 2:34:12 PM

i'd really like to play hockey

it'd be cool if they started a hockey league for people who aren't even good enough to play semi-pro

we could probably even drink beer after the games if someone made a league like that

3/1/2010 2:35:14 PM

it would be totally rad if you and your buddies could each compile a group of your favorite players and then keep up with their stats, week by week

maybe even throw some money down on it. like whoever's players do the best throughout the season, wins a pot of money.

i should email espn or yahoo and see what they think of my idea

3/1/2010 2:42:33 PM

Im glad you all like my unique neverbefore thought of idea ...

So again the question ... outside of coaches ... Are there any companies who do this as a service?

3/1/2010 2:44:55 PM

I realize this thread is about those who want to be sports strategy consultants.... which I am not. Hear me out, maybe I can offer some insight.

I am in outside sales, which is currently salary+commission, but will move into straight commission starting at the beginning of July 2010. I have been in this position since July 2009. I have competition from several direct manufacturing sales reps, large distributors, and local distributors. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Direct Advantages: Immediate knowledge of new technology, no middle man mark up, one shipping bill (paid by manufacturer or buyer of goods), access to larger range of non-commodity items, control inventory, have access to many distributors that can effectively sell their goods which increases market share, and set prices of commodity they manufacture.

Direct disadvantages: Typically have 1-3 sales reps per region (i.e. southeast, mid-atlantic, northeast, etc.) limiting the number of accounts they can successfully manage/cold-call, lack physical customer service or physical technical service available to or affordable for smaller users or altogether, are sometimes not trustworthy because they will go in behind their distributors that sell their commodity to one account in large quantities (i.e. they missed a big account, and have found out about it through a distributor selling their particular product) which leads to the distributor not selling their product anymore, have too many distributors selling the product ultimately driving the set price down through deviations, possibly rely on distributors to actually sell the product, and competition from other direct sources.

Large distributor advantages: have access to other commodities that go hand in hand with other manufacturers (poor example- grocery stores sell milk as well as cereal), get direct pricing, many locations regionally or nationally easing the shipping burden of buyers with multiple locations, personal service either customer or technical, many sales reps that are able to cover a broader territory, access to multiple manufacturers of the same commodity allowing to keep prices in check, service programs that smaller companies can't offer and direct providers can't match in price or value, and experts of many many commodities as opposed to one or a few.

Large distributor disadvantages: smaller local distributors creating price wars (think Michael Scott Paper Co vs Dunder-Mifflin), direct mfg's going in behind and stealing business, limited access to all of the mfg's (you won't find Harris Teeter name brands in Food Lion and visa versa), can't truly set prices because it's based on both supply and demand, territory management, and tough growth prospects in slower economies (this is true for direct as well really)

Local distributor advantages: Typically a good ol' boy setting where the seller and the buyer know each other for years (this does happen at all levels, but mostly at the local level), local folks are right down the street and can be used in emergencies, if the local guy buys at high enough volumes then there is no shipping charge to the end user, and access to both direct mfg's and large distributors.

Local distributor disadvantages: easily beaten in price, array of commodities, array of technology, lack of trained staff, low cash flow, etc etc etc.

This is what I have noticed in my six months, I am sure there are plenty more that need mentioning. The way I am setting myself apart as a sales person is this: I go after the big accounts right now while I am new. The big accounts, if I land them, will take care of me while I am new and building a customer base. The money made off of those allows me to focus free time on smaller accounts that get me higher margins. I build up big accounts, I would like to have 5-10 of these, then get 20-30 medium accounts. If I lose 1 or 2 big accounts, the 20-30 medium accounts keep me afloat while I go after new big accounts. I don't really waste time on small accounts simply because they basically pay for breakfast or something really small.

I will say this, if you can't get a big account in the first 6-8 months (assuming you have cash flow that you can ride this long) you could be in a world of trouble. If you can get one, it will really make going after the others a lot more enjoyable and less stressful. It's simply just very exhausting wasting any time on anything other than big accounts in the very beginning. You work just as hard on the medium sized accounts and see 1/3 to 1/36 of the money in my situation.

If you have any other questions, you can PM me. I hope this helps in the slightest!

Needed to be posted ITT.

3/1/2010 2:46:30 PM

There are lots of statistical consultants, if that's what you're asking. Set your time machine for 1980 and you might beat Bill James to the punch.

3/1/2010 2:47:31 PM

^^^
I've got a guy, pm incoming.



[Edited on March 1, 2010 at 2:48 PM. Reason : fa]

3/1/2010 2:47:35 PM

exactly .. like I said in the first post ... statistical consultants ... specifically applied to evaluating opponents. thanks for finally answering the question

Any idea about specific company names?

3/1/2010 2:50:37 PM

the video coach and staff interns for every professional and college sports team, inc.

3/1/2010 2:52:39 PM

they are called scouts

3/1/2010 2:55:32 PM

STATS, Inc.

3/1/2010 2:55:49 PM

^ so I realize that these types of positions exist on the team, duuhhhrr. But, is the "video coach" position something that typically is just a stepping stone to some other coaching position, or is there a market for someone to be really really outstanding at this job? Just cant see teams paying for a full time person when they could hire a firm who does this all the time ... ie, more efficiently.

Think, final four, you have 2 days to prepare for your next opponent, after finding out who it will be ...
You have to have your strategy in place from day one so that you can, as a coaching staff, maximize your time teaching your strategy to your players. I just cant see any single "coaching type" being all that great at these types of analysis, compared to what could be done by an outside company that has been evaluating these teams all year long and preparing/testing/evaluating their simulations against that team.

[Edited on March 1, 2010 at 3:04 PM. Reason : .]

3/1/2010 3:00:16 PM

I've thought of this concept called "bracketology". I'm using to predict who wins tournaments.

3/1/2010 3:04:06 PM

i think you severely underestimate the level of preparation done by coaches at the college and pro levels

3/1/2010 3:12:40 PM

this idea


it is terrible

3/1/2010 3:13:31 PM

^^ yeah maybe so ...

3/1/2010 3:19:14 PM

I'm going to be a freelance third base coach when I grow up.

3/1/2010 3:25:59 PM

lol, this thread took the exact direction i was thinking it would take. bravo, t-dub.

3/1/2010 4:00:52 PM

iamges.google.com

yes the typo is correct

i bet if you bought this domain you would get lots and lots of hits

or maybe gogole.com?

i remember linux bought the domain 'microsfot.com' which seems pretty clever

any other similiar circumstances you guys know of?

3/1/2010 4:57:03 PM

you can't buy iamges.google.com

you serious?

[Edited on March 1, 2010 at 4:58 PM. Reason : or is this some tww joke ive missed, in which case im sorry]

3/1/2010 4:58:10 PM

espm.com

used to be a pornsite

Used to 'accidentally' go to it at school and beat to the intro page

3/1/2010 4:58:17 PM

i type goggle a lot

3/1/2010 4:58:24 PM

try to keep up, Genghis. we've got a lot of wolfweb to cover today.

[Edited on March 1, 2010 at 4:59 PM. Reason : heh, yeah, tech talk has funny threads every now and again]

3/1/2010 4:59:00 PM

yeah, sorry, i need to pay more attention

[Edited on March 1, 2010 at 5:16 PM. Reason : its just all this shitty ST trolling going around lately has me focused on it]

[Edited on March 1, 2010 at 5:21 PM. Reason : alright, twista stuff, got it. cant believe i missed some essential tww knowledge]

3/1/2010 5:16:16 PM

we should collaborate to come up with a contraption that magicallly displays any game that has already happened on a screen. then when a coach gets matched vs an odd team he wasn;t able to watch all season, he can watch all of thier games to see tendencies.

3/1/2010 6:30:36 PM

i coulda swore this was a lafta thread

3/1/2010 9:21:30 PM

I think it would be cool if there were a group of people that were paid to enforce the rules of the game and keep it fair. This group could actually be on the field or court with the players so that they could see the action better. Of course, they would have to wear something that stood out from the player's uniforms....maybe black and white stripes?

3/1/2010 9:23:09 PM

I think it would be cool to have a machine that you can put the score on so that everyone in the building can look at it and doesn't have to count it themselves.

3/1/2010 9:24:33 PM

I think it would be cool if there were places we could connect to with our computers to talk with other people about sports and other subjects.

3/1/2010 9:26:00 PM

i wish there was a forum where someone could post a thread with a ridiculous idea where he is ridiculed by people posting similarly ridiculous ideas over and over until one guy tries to go meta with some stupid joke and kills the whole thing

3/1/2010 9:50:39 PM

set em up

3/1/2010 9:57:42 PM