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Its realistic too. Most semi pro and D1 universities have graduate students working in all kinds of roles from Strength and Conditioning coach to even as high up the ladder as Assistant head coaches. Its not everywhere but prevalent enough. Places like Mid American Conference universities and again semi pro teams generally but even in certain pro leagues that just dont generate much revenue like the National Womens Soccer League. Granted were jumping sports here but the world of sports does love its free workers wherever they feel they can plug them in without hurting their organization. Minimal staff members come across as a level of talent that could be translated to Intern level.

"Whats the point" is the same question that could be asked of being forced to pay for staff members that arguably have no effect on your team worth anything let alone steady pay raises that someone else already mentioned in regards to remembering to fire them just to reset them back to the absolute minimum again so your wasting less money then you literally have to. Plus it really does make it more realistic. Iv already touched on that though with my previous post.

I work in the sports industry in real life on the D1 university level and between, as i mentioned before, many D1 schools AND semi as well as full on pro level teams utilize interns in just that fashion. NBA, NFL and such? No. But Major League Rugby, NWSL, and other Pro level leagues in the US do in fact do that. And on buzzer beater, id say everyone below the BBA levels for their respective countries especially Division 3, 4, and further back are semi pro teams.

Also I wasnt saying that the interns would be less then the minimals in regards to ability. They would be one in the same as originally presented by the first person that posted here. They would just be unpaid interns which is common.

Last thing is that keep in mind many interns are grad students so its not as if theyre completely clueless on what theyre doing. In fact, if they got the education up to that point from a half respectable school, theyll actually be very good already albeit not as experienced as someone whos done the job for years already. The University i work for for example requires you to do basically small in house internships around the campus before even approving you doing a larger internship with an outside organization since theyre name is attached to you and what success OR failure you have in the outside world.

Last edited by Naeem at 11/26/2019 8:19:42 PM

Hey im just trying to support the initial idea that was presented But no really i do see where your coming from. Granted on the D1 level, and this doesnt go for every school especially the larger ones like Big Ten or SEC, but for smaller D1 they might have a partnership with a local hospital like Wood County hospital here and God forbid something goes wrong, the liability will be assumed by the partnered hospital rather than the intern whos actually always on site unlike the medical professionals of the hospital. The intern will be the one actually at the games and practices and somehow legally it works out fine because its done at multiple places.

I cant speak on the schools with no football programs to much but i do know that most D1 schools are honestly operating in the negatives when you exclude money donated to the programs from Alumni each year. That may sound crazy when you look at how expensive college even is but its a weird reality. Ohio State, Alabama, Michigan and such are doing fine but those much larger schools like that are different from say Bowling Green State University or Kent State. BGSU and KS are D1 but due to a severe lack of funding to support their programs, they really rely on those unpaid interns to keep operations flowing smoothly and they are everywhere from trainers, to sub directors. Theres a few legit professionals and an army of unpaid interns.

The League 1 and 2s of England operate on low budgets especially League 2. The vast majority share the exact same fields even rather than having their own fields because many of them wouldnt be able to compete if it was mandatory for them to have their own stadium. League 2 utilizes interns much like D1 here in the States. League 1 id imagine would be more like your minimal but still paid level staff that we currently have to have.

I know i typed a lot up there so sorry about that, hopefully this helps me get the point across but i do see what your saying as well.
Something iv come to realize personally about sports is that in many cases theres either tremendous money involved or barely any involved but with high potential to eventually be tremendous but unpaid workers, typically grad students or seniors, is how the have nots pull it off until they do have it in some way or another.



Last edited by Naeem at 11/26/2019 9:05:12 PM

I was mistaken on what i said about English football. As Perpete mentioned, they are fully professional and simply supplement their staff with interns. I talked with some of my English co workers and their Football system has a lot more levels to it then i realized and its more so their level 6 league thats like that but thats a can of worms im not even opening.

So yes disregard my previous comments on Leagues 1 and 2

The title of intern may be to specific. Unpaid interns in relatively high positions is a thing in many American organizations, that i know first hand. But often times even the Professionals above them are working in a voluntary capacity because newly founded pro leagues or struggling leagues have many teams involved cant that afford an entire staff yet. Those volunteers and interns boost there resumes with those positions for a season or two and then sometimes get hired by organizations that can pay them decent to good money for what they do.

The point of this Suggestion is just as you pointed out, to spare a few thousand per week. The minimal staff you are required to have have no skills. I don't think anyone is talking about the Basic level staff, just the minimal staff. Whether anything changes is another case, but the Basic level staff or level 1 with a skill is probably worth it. With there being a limited number of them on the market at any given point, players like those in this thread simply don't want to pay for a minimal or have the slight annoyance of remembering to fire one once their pay has risen so much when they aren't even as useful as the level 1 staff. I might be confused as to them being level 1 or the Basic truly being the level 1.

"A Doctor with minimal skill might tell your player with a broken leg to take two aspirin" straight from the game manual. That's what people waste 2 grand and rising on until they can hire one of the sparse staff members with a skill? Even Voluntary professionals and Unpaid Interns bring more value to an organization than that and thats facts even if everything else iv said is somehow dead wrong.