[sterlingice]

Only 3 weeks left to go in the season. An unusually large number of press announcements for the team the second half of this season so they'll be posted at the conclusion.

Also, I should post the entire contents of the Hippo Hall of Heroes. There are 13 members now and a couple more that I have "honorarily" retired with press announcements. I have to think I have one of the largest in the game as I have done one every year since they came up with the concept. I love the idea since it allows me to "immortalize" those players who keep the story fresh and interesting. I posted the following to the HT USA Forum. We'll see if I get any takers

Originally Posted by HT

Personally, I love the Hall of Fame. It's caused me to hang on to players so I can retire them and regret that I couldn't buy a few of my players back before teams went defunct. But it seems like a feature so few teams use. I'll see one or two players in there just for the achievement point but no writeups, no nothing. The most I've seen from another team is 5 and even then it's a couple of line writeup unless it's the favorite player of the manager.

Conceptually, I get that maybe you don't retire a player every year. I've planned my team out so that I can and I think I've maxed out with 13 in 13 seasons since it's been instituted (HT: it'd be nice if you could put up a calendar on the HOF with the "next time you can retire a player" just like with adding a supporter or federation). Satyanarayana and Brik are the only two of my players who are "stretches" in that they more like career men and not necessarily stars on the team.

Personally, I like to do the following:
* "Retire the number" so no player can use it again- that's part of the writeup and then fill up the 500 characters about him
* Write a PA announcing the game the player will be "retired" at. This gives me another 1000 characters to talk about the player and tell his story. If I can't buy back a player (defunct team), I'll "honorarily" retire a player/coach and that PA will serve as their HOF entry.
* Go through my records (I have a big team spreadsheet that's almost 10 years old now) and find a great game for that player. Bonus points if I can tie it into the team's history
* Try to mix and match "Current Career" so that my players aren't all the same current career but also give a look that's unique to the player and also "Hall of Fame" category so that I don't have too many of one type but a good mix.
* Finally, every couple of seasons, try to do a quick little writeup on the HHH (I've just taken to calling my HOF the Hippo Hall of Heroes) and put every number and player in that's been retired.

I dunno- for me, it helps breathe life into the later stages of playing HT and "immortalize" those players who can no longer play but contributed greatly to the franchise.

Anyone have some good examples of HOFs that are out there- ones with lots of players and good writeups?

Hm... maybe if there's enough interest and material, I'll turn this into a Hattrick Press submission.

Talking a bit more about it:

Originally Posted by HT

In my mind, for starting players on your team, there are basically 3 different acquisition career paths:

1) Youth pull from academy or really young (19 or younger) purchase. You train or buy the player young and train them up because it's in what you're training. You have to put in the effort to train them but they also come the cheapest.

2) Buy early in starting career: 20-23yo near max skills where you plan to get their prime 5~7 seasons out of a player. Sure, they cost the most by a wide margin but you get them in prime years.

3) Buy a veteran: 26+ yo who you get on the cheap because he's getting older and going to start to decline soon. It saves a buck but you don't get the longevity.

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And 3 different selling career paths (provided you don't up and change your training or tactics completely mid-training cycle):

1) Sell a trainee once they are at their top market value vs training cost. Yeah, you trained them but this player is just money-churning fodder for your team

2) Sell right before the decline around 25 or 26. I used to do this quite a bit until they made older players more valuable. You buy high or invest a lot of training time, but selling at 25 or 26 still nets you a pretty good return so for a 20~30% premium, you can replace the player with someone younger.

3) Retires or fired when old. When the player hits 30, there's very little sales value left- even ex-superstars are worth under $1M so keep them around as low wage, high skill backups

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Ultimately, the HOF is all about the selling career paths more than the buying. Trainees, you couldn't care less about- they're all about money. That second group, unless they did something spectacular in their time with your team (4 scoring titles, original team member, or something like that)- they probably aren't worth re-acquiring when old- Ovesson, Phelan, and Benito fit that for my team. However, the market just isn't what it was 20 seasons ago. There is a huge premium placed on super-elite and rare players but every other market is compressed. I don't even see much of a point to selling back my 26 or 27yos and I certainly don't make enough cash on my trainees to frequently buy up players in their prime.

So that brings us to group 3. The way I plan it, I just ease my old starters into becoming new backups. My guys get hurt enough that spending the small wages that older players command for good backups who can step in is a good idea. That way I have a competent player who can play and not cost me a game and I don't have to scramble and pay through the nose on the transfer market for a week or two injury. Heck, right now, I'm cobbling together a 3rd midfielder from a combo of King and Thacker who are both 35 and, when in good form (King has been in a form slump for about a month), each put up 8-8.5 stars for $20K in wages.

Those guys you ease out of the starting lineup are perfect for retiring to your Hall of Fame. They've played with you for a long time, probably have a lot of goals and games player, and are the type of players who have defined your franchise for 10+ seasons.

Coaches are another great example as they probably were on A) your team for a while, B) have crappy playing skills, or C) both. At that point, you can retire them and talk about the team's performance during their tenure.

SI