More questions. :)

[maddog00]

I'm full of them, really. That's what happens when you find so many helpful people. :) I appreciate it, all. Maybe one day I'll be helping the n00bs. :)

What's a clown? Someone with high leadership, right? I had heard that term before, but I can't recall where.

I can't manage to get a consistent profit every week. Only my home games, but its not much (about 10k). What could help? I figure increasing arena size, it holds about 8000 peeps with a fan base of just under 1000. (I've used the arena sizer and it says I should double the size of my arena, which I cannot afford). Is there another way to get money?

My coaching staff consists of 5 asst. and 3 goalie coaches. I hear I should get 10 coaches total. Is that true?

How many players should I have in my squad. I'm thinking 24. 11 starters, 11 backups (for friendlies), and a couple more just in case. That sound right?

I'll have more, I'm sure. Save it for later. :)

[The_herd]

Your gonna want a much larger stadium. I would suggest going up to at least 20k. Unfortunately, stadium profits and youth squad are the main sources of money for most people. Personally, I would make that my top priority, its hard to get a team going without the big profits from home matches.

If your not making money, then I would hold off a bit on expanding your coaching staff, thats just me, some people may disaggree.

I keep my squad at 22-24 players. Mostly so I can have 2 squads and there might be a couple that I'm trying to sell.

[cheetum]

1. A clown AKA a team-leader is a very sympathetic guy with high leadership abilities. he helps keeping the team spirit up.
the player (never the coach) with the highest leadership factor will become team-leader (has nothing to do with the team-captain as assigned for matches). If he's for example controversial he'll make your team spirit drop faster, if he's popular he'll help keeping the team spirit up longer. A good teamleader will never make the team-spirit go up!
if you got more than one player with the highest leadership in team you cant know who of these is taken as the teamleader so:

you should have one team member who has as the only one the highest leadership in your squad and is sympathetic or popular.
(if more than one are highest in leadership and all these have the same good agreeability its ok aswell of course.)

-the team leader doesn't have to play matches at all and therefore is sometimes called 'the clown' of a team.
-the coach is never considered to be the team leader, it is always the player with the highest leadership that is the team leader.
-a coach with high leadership would counteract a disagreeable team leader.
-agreeability denominations: nasty, controversial, pleasant, sympathetic, popular


2. profits - its normal to not make a profit when you dont have a home game but yes your stadium is too small. managing economy in hattrick is the same as in real life. if you arent making enough money to build a bigger stadium then you need to cut down on expenses (ie. sell expensive player(s), fire staff, etc). the best way to really make good money (other then day trading which is very time consuming and some consider it unethical...) is with a good training program. (edit: see the training guide link posted in my next post)

3. yep, 10 coaches. i have 1 goalie coach and 9 assistants. some managers go with 8/2. i dont train goalies but keeping one or two helps keep their form up. if you train goalies then flip-flop it. also its good to hire spokesmen (i have 10) to boost sponsor dollars and supporter club growth, and physiotherapists (I have 10 here too, 5 or 6 for a younger team is fine) to keep your players from getting injured.

4. you should have as many players as you need :P there is no set amount. I just suggest dont keep anything more then you need. if you keep around a little cash instead, and injuries cause you to run a bit low on players you can always get a replacement or two from the transfer lists.

[cheetum]

oh, i forgot i wanted to mention a couple sites too

HattriX-Files (http://www.databased.at/hattrick/) - A reference site to everything Hattrick. you would have found answers to a couple of those questions there :)

Hottrick (http://www.hottrick.org/) - This site has an excellent training guide. a good training program is how the good teams make most of their money. it will take some time for your training program to start really paying off but this site's guide will help you get started

[Masked]

When you are just starting out, you should not have 10 coaches as their weekly salary is too much. If you are training an outfield position I suggest 4 assistants and 1 keeper coach. At this point the marginal utilility of the extra 5 coaches is neglible, as each additional coach is less effective.

Your first goal when starting out should be to get your team finances under control. You must expand your stadium to 14-16K seats; however, you must also avoid debt. It is very hard to get out of debt before you have a steady income. You may have to sell off a few of your better players to pay for the expansion, but you should be able to buy similar players within a few weeks. I sold off my best player (a solid def, pass PM, pass wing) for 300K to finance my first expansion. You also need to get a training program started for long term financial success.

For young teams you really just need 11 starters and probably one backup for each position group and then your trainees. Eventually (when your players can't easily be replaced when injured) you will want to have a full A and B squad (22 players) to reduce the risk of injuries to your very expensive starters.

[Raven Hawk]

The general rule for team size I use is 22-24. You should be able to field a full A squad (11) and a full B squad (11). That brings us to 22. The last two spots are for a coach and a clown. If your coach or clown can actually fill one of the spots on your A or B squads, then you don't need to have as many players.

Occassionally, I will keep a "reserve trainee" as well, just in case one of my trainees gets injured. I rarely do this anymore as my trainees are usually under the age of 20 and heal quickly, especially when I can afford to bump my medical staff up to 10 doctors if I get a rash of injuries. So my reserve trainee position is usually a 19 or 20 year old that has come off of my youth squad that I am only trying to bump one level before I sell them.

Cheetum described both the function of the clown and the economy very well. No need to beat a dead horse.

I would agree more with Masked as far as coaches go. You want to have a good training program, however, you don't want to go broke doing it when you first start. I would keep your assistants to around 4 and keeper coaches to 1. Definitly hire a spokesperson or 2 to get your sponsor income up. This is a very important source of income. Physiotherapists - general rule of thumb is to have 1 per % point in training that you are above 90. Therefore if you train at 95% you should have 5 physios, at 98% you should have 8 physios. Nothing saying that you need to follow this rule, but remember that your risk of injury will increase the higher your training percentage is, if you don't match the proper amount of physios to them. Don't hire any doctors unless you have an injured player you can't compete without. As your team matures, you can hire doctors to be "staff doctors," but stay away from them in the beginning. Don't hire an economist unless you are -400k or + 1M.

[cheetum]

yeah i was mainly pointing out what is "ideal" for staff and coaches, not what is "economical" heh. i thought the question was regarding the max number you can have...which is 10 for all staff except goalie and assistant coaches which is 10 combined. what combination you choose depends on what you are training and how many you can afford.

hire one or two staff coaches for the position you are NOT training, to keep form in high. unless you are training goaltending, having "form" coaches is really not that important. One is plenty in my opinion though some ppl who have 10 total may have a second. If you train goalie however, keeping form high on the other 10 players becomes a bit more important i say in this case its good to have 2.

[Mr. Wednesday]

Originally posted by maddog00
What's a clown? Someone with high leadership, right? I had heard that term before, but I can't recall where.The way the term is used in the rules, it refers to a player with good leadership who doesn't have any real skills and doesn't see the pitch. The "official" definition in the conferences is a popular player with solid leadership. Popular/passable and sympathetic/solid are called "semi-clowns".

I can't manage to get a consistent profit every week. Only my home games, but its not much (about 10k). What could help? I figure increasing arena size, it holds about 8000 peeps with a fan base of just under 1000. (I've used the arena sizer and it says I should double the size of my arena, which I cannot afford). Is there another way to get money?There's the youth squad, but a) that's a crapshoot, and b) if you're in money troubles, I don't think you should be spending more than $10k / week on it and possibly less. Other than that, 8000 is too small (and worse, a 1000 expansion cost you a lot per seat because you didn't have very many seats to diffuse the fixed cost). In general, I wouldn't want to upgrade less than 6000 or so seats at a time.

With near 1000 supporters, if you will do well in your series, you should be able to support ~30 000 seat stadium, although you might go mid-20's if you're worried about upkeep.

Making a weekly profit isn't a big deal -- many squads will lose money in a week where they don't have a home game. Making a biweekly profit in a pair of weeks where you have a home game and an away game is critical, if you can't do that you will slide into bankruptcy and must look to cut costs immediately.

My coaching staff consists of 5 asst. and 3 goalie coaches. I hear I should get 10 coaches total. Is that true?When you can afford it, which doesn't look like it's now. When I started out, I only had five total assistants (four and one). I gradually increased it as my income went up.

How many players should I have in my squad. I'm thinking 24. 11 starters, 11 backups (for friendlies), and a couple more just in case. That sound right?Definitely enough for a sub at every position, with maybe one or two more for injury cover (or more if you don't have versatile players) (that makes about 18 plus a coach). When your finances are in order, you may want to go all the way to a full "A" and "B" squad, but that's not absolutely essential.