What I'm about to write about won't be news to those of you who attended the MIT conference, but I'll formally announce it on this site.  I have started a sole proprietorship to conduct research and consulting related to soccer analytics.  Its name is Soccermetrics Research and Consulting. 

The idea is to perform commissioned research for either clubs, businesses, or league organizations on a variety of topics related to soccer, such as player and team performance, player valuation, and tournament evaluation, as well as development of a suite of software tools for soccer analytics.  My belief is that the field of soccer analytics is wide open and there do exist a wide range of topics that need to be addressed and a wide range of tools that need to be developed and perfected.  At the present time I have been able to attract some interest from a number of people who will remain nameless, some of whom would be instantly recognizable if I mentioned them.  I don't have any firm clients at this time, but I hope that changes in the coming months.  

So what does that mean for this site?  For the moment, not much.  I'm going to make a separate website for SRC in a few months — perhaps by mid-summer — but I'll keep writing posts here.  I might be a little more circumspect about certain topics and discuss them at the margins, but I do want to look at the current art in academic research or the soccer industry and discuss their implications for improved analytics.  There is so much to think about on the business end of things, and I am still formulating strategies on dealing with certain issues, not to mention wondering if this idea is truly financially viable.

Who knows — maybe this business will prove successful enough that I can quit my current job and live wherever I want.  But for now, I just taking my hobby to the next level.  Again, thanks to all of those who have read this site and continue to read it and refer others to it.  This is an exciting field and I'm eager to find out just how big it can become.