Digital Card Central

The release of 2016 Topps Bunt Physical is a big deal, even if you arent in the game of physical cards. Long have physical collectors chastised the digital arena for not having any tangible evidence of money spent, and now that has changed considerably. At the same time, the release was clouded with some major issues, and that hurt the potential I feel this had in a lot of ways. Here are some thoughts.

What Worked Well

First off, it should go without saying that seeing Bunt take on a physical form was really cool. The base design is awesome, and the inserts are even better. Building a product around the digital format is a great opportunity for digital collectors who havent opened real packs to do so. That in itself is a win, considering how the physical hobby has been shrinking in direct contradiction to the growth we have seen in digital for years.

The redeemable inserts and cards in the loot packs are going to be prized in the game, or at least they should be. They look great, they have great concepts, and the checklists are pretty good too, and if you walk away with 13 loot cards per box, these cards are worth redeeming them for.

Price point on the physical boxes is as good as the card design, with packs accessible to just about everyone under the sun. They could have gone another direction and price the boxes at 70-100 dollars with more physical content, but it wouldnt make it as digestible for the age groups that make digital successful.

What Didnt Work Well

I dont know what happened with the release of this product on the digital side. The sales sheet promised exclusive content to the physical product that seemed to be lost on the digital team. Packs of the insert cards from the product were released into mass circulation in the app, and it came within a hair of ruining the value around every part of the physical product.

Luckily, the cards were pulled after a few hours, but what seems to be the lack of communication between the two sides of the Topps business, really hurt what this product could have been. Instead of VERY low count cards from all aspects of the physical product, many of the parallels are now much higher in count.

In the same vein, it seems like the boost levels on the cards associated with the product dont really fit with the boost escalation patterns of the app. I was expecting the topaz and platinum cards to be a minimum of 3x, but seeing them at 1.5x and 2x is a huge bummer. It doesnt provide much reward for people who pull the cards.

Content in the product also leaves a lot to be desired. Autographs are 1:10000 or so packs, and there are no redeemable physical cards that are less than 1:1400 packs. Although more autograph content would have increased the product’s price per box, more physical redemption content should have been included. This was hugely disappointing in that respect.

I know that digital wants to protect their revenue, but they also cant look at this from a one product slate. There seemed to be huge opportunity to do something like a physical product more often if this was successful, but nerfing the content seemed to seal the deal that this could be one and done. More redemptions, more content designed for the loot packs, more exclusivity should be a focus, and give people a reason to engage BOTH parts of Topps’ offering. There should be a seamless partnership in place for a product like this, and I just dont think that happened based on the way the release went down.

I am someone that loves both parts of the hobby – physical and digital – and I want to see that both remain a part of the landscape. I dont think that the app loses much if some awesome stuff hits physical packs, and I think there is a possibility to gain users if they can showcase the fun of the digital arena in a way that makes sense on the physical product side. If content sucks, and release is botched, all that goes away.

Future Considerations

Personally, I dont see this release as the nail in the crossover coffin as some other users have flamboyantly claimed. There is still a big reason why stuff like this should be done frequently and with a focus on optimization.

We have a SWCT physical product on the horizon, and I think there should be lessons learned from this release too. Communication with the customers, communication between the teams, and follow through on content is all paramount. Without top notch representation of those elements, it will fall apart in a similar fashion to what we saw.

Next time around, I would even consider digital packs with physical redemptions to make it beneficial revenue wise for both sides. If you can get real stuff out of digital packs that arent available on the physical side, that is a huge attraction to bring physical collectors into digital to buy.

I would also toy with the idea of live signature content to be delivered in physical packs, with the first ever opportunity for Topps to showcase their new toy to a broader audience on the physical side.

Lastly, treat this like an event. It cant be just one article the day of release. It has to be marketing on both sides, especially to foster that crossover traffic that makes this product so big a deal.

I hope that Bunt takes the lead on this, because digital is looking more and more like a the horse to pick in the longevity race for sports cards. Products like this can do essential service to education of the hobby population, and my opinion is that this wasnt treated that way.

The day has finally come for the Bunt crossover product, and I could not be more excited. For those of you who arent aware, there is a physical card product that is being released in Hobby stores and retail tomorrow that will have connection to the digital app we all know and love.

Setup

Not only are there physical versions of the cards from the app, but there are exclusive base cards, as well as loot cards that function as digital redemptions for in game packs. Worth adding that Topps has a checklist of autograph content that adds real signatures to the digital designs.

In all honesty, what makes this product so attractive is the price combined with the digital redemption aspect, in combination with the potential to get some autograph content at a higher odds ratio.

Impact on Physical

Honestly, this product is more of a win for the physical side than the digital side for a number of reasons. I dont really see a huge clip of physical collectors opening this box and being turned onto digital in a way they havent already seen. In my mind, this is basically a way to entice the larger population of digital collectors to rip some physical packs for the first time.

Impact on Digital

This is where things get interesting. Loot cards are hitting at 1:3 physical packs, and these are where the real gems are. Topaz base that are boosted, plus some opportunity to pull even more inserts. The checklist is pretty stacked, and that means that the cards will be that much more valuable in the game.

There are also digital redemptions for inserts in the physical packs, from what it looks like, which might mean even more of a reason to rip this in mass.

Group Breaks

There are a lot of people who will see that group breaks of the product are online with some of the main players in the GB game. These group breaks might be a way to get in on some of the cards if you arent near a hobby shop.  The different formats are random team or pick your team, where you will have the chance to get a lot of different cards from a team you pick or a team that is decided by draw. Word to the wise: read into how the loot cards are being distributed, because these are where things will make or break your participation.

Checklist

If you want to get an idea of who is included on the checklist, here is the link to Topps’ website.

Topps Bunt 2016 Checklist – Topps.com

Words of Warning

Redemption cards and autographs are TOUGH pulls. This set should not be purchased for people that want to hit the big cards. This is cheap fun with collecting the set and maybe getting lucky along the way. Autographs fall something like 1:10000 packs. If you are a Bunt player and want to get the loot cards, plus some fun other inserts, this will be a blast.

Overall – dont hesitate to shoot me a question on Twitter, im going to be ripping quite a bit of this and will be posting the goods online.

This is a time that some have been eagerly awaiting, the addition of new Force Awakens main characters to the signature side of the app. With new deals on the physical side getting signed, the app team now has more and more actors they can play with, including two of the four best names you can have. Although we are still waiting on Harrison Ford and Mark Hammill to be added, we now have John Boyega (Finn), and Daisy Ridley (Rey) on board. The cards are pretty awesome to boot.

The first batch of cards rehashed the signature design we have seen now for almost a year, which was a bit disappointing. Although I think the design was good at first, I think it has gotten a bit tired. Adding so many variants to the original batch has diluted the way the signatures are valued, and I was actually curious why they didnt use the design from the pack art instead of the one they chose.

As the moved onto the movie vision, dual signature and signature relic cards, thats when I jumped in head first. Not only was it a fresh design, but the cards reflected a lot of what I was hoping to see. Although the variant count is already starting to increase for the cards, im still loving the direction of the design work for these examples.

The signature relic is turning out to be an EXTREMELY tough pull, which is unfortunate based on how awesome the card looks. If you are a physical collector, it represents a very similar approach to what Topps has done in their high end sports sets. I have a feeling we are going to see a lot more usage of this type of approach, especially as more and more physical sets utilize these signers. Seeing that they are also working on a SWCT physical set, I can see a sig relic level of design taking hold.

Bottom line, having Rey signatures in the app is a very good thing. People loved Force Awakens, they love the new story, and Rey is central to that. There are a few creepier reasons why people like her, but it all goes to the same place in the app. People want more cards that use her character in cool ways. Of course, if they try to milk the ideas dry with variants of existing cards, instead of developing new sets, its going to be as stale as we saw the original signatures get. Rey or no Rey, fresh content reigns supreme. These signatures are definitely in that vein.

If you are following along on the physical side, Topps has just published the first look at the flaghsip design for their base baseball products. This design, much like 2016, will likely fund the look for 2017 Bunt as well, and I wanted to go through some initial thoughts.

First off, I think the design definitely goes down a path that has a retro looking feel to it. Funny enough, retro being 1998, still looks pretty modern, so it looks really cool. I like the metal framework nameplate, although Im not a huge fan of the tilted team logo.

The full bleed photos are back for the most part, and that remains one of the best features of this card. I like they have decided to go borderless for two years running now, and its going to be interesting if the name plate is used to show color in parallels.

For Bunt, they still have a lot of options when building out the design to show boost levels and other variations. This will work better for them than 2016, even though I think that the 2016 design is better as a whole.

EDIT: As was being discussed on Twitter, there might be a reason that Bunt has the desire to develop its own design, especially with the pending release of its own physical product. Curious to see how this shakes out.

Curious to see what people think on their end – comments welcome!

I was really happy to see that the team had taken feedback from the community and started to move on it. Contest feedback on twitter has been less than positive, and my own feedback has been similarly hardened in the way that the team has approached contests this year. As mentioned, it stems from prizes, lack of series 2, competition type and variety – all of which seem have been taken into consideration in new contests announced yesterday.

Breakdown

First, the new contests are broken up into two types of setup. They mirror the original setup of DFS and traditional Bunt, and both have some pretty nice cards attached to them. Both setups will be running for 7 days instead of the traditional 1 day, and it gives people an opportunity to really dial it in for some nice prizes. Some of the contests are going to be very difficult to win, but at the same time, that’s a good thing.

Fantasy – Pick your best 9 cards and 3 mulligans to test your prognosticating abilities against others.

Traditional – Unlimited switch contest similar to the old weekly challenges that we loved so much. This is the grind, so be ready.

Pros of the New Setup

Bottom line, this will bring the fire back to the contests for a lot of the top players who were loving the playoff run last year. Not only is this a great way to use all those boosts that were built up over the course of the year, but there is FINALLY a competition worth fighting for.

Not only are the new contests more competitive, but the contest cards are nice too. I think the color schemes shouldnt be layered over the players, but maybe they can adjust so that the players are still full color against a shaded background. The 1/1s should be very coveted.

The desire to open base packs and collect series 2 is now a bigger deal, especially when needing more cards to be able to be competitive. This should get more people to open packs, and make the boosts a bit more valuable.

Cons of the New Setup

Most importantly, this needs to be step one of many. This cant be the final solution. There is limited time to take advantage of regular season play, and I hope that changes to daily contests are coming too. This means different prizes, more variety in setup, and an overall attention to the way the contests deliver versus how much effort is required to win.

There are no free entries, and that could be an issue for F2P players. Obviously, they arent the target market, but a nice opportunity for them could go a longer way than Topps might think. Maybe the prizes dont include actual contest cards, but some packs for the victors might be a good incentive.

Outside of the above mentioned items, I hope the desire to continue building around the contest system for all the apps will be a big thing, maybe even a position that Topps could create within their team so that someone could ensure this part has merit for the whole season. Right now, contests still seem like an afterthought because they dont bring direct revenue that can be pointed to. I think this is a short sighted approach and really limits the playability for the users and the profitability for Topps. In case you are counting, thats a lose/lose.

Better contests and more variety in delivery means a ton more people get engaged and stay engaged with the app. That means more buys and more fun for us. If executed in the direction we seem to be headed, that is a big win for everyone.

Training camp is underway! We are finally ready to get back to business on the NFL front, and I literally could not be more pumped up. Football is life for me, and with a new NFL season comes a new quest in Huddle. When the new build eventually hits, there are a few things I would love to see.

Establishment of a Brand

Im not sure if you are all aware, but this is the first year that Huddle will be operating without a brand on the physical side to mirror. I dont actually say that as a bad thing, because its clear that digital has created enough of a fan base that they dont need the support of brand continuity anymore. They can do this on their own and people will flock to the app per usual. That being said, this is also a real opportunity to establish Huddle as Topps’ brand for football above and beyond anything we could imagine. Create products, continue the ones we love, and make them a digital party. For lack of a better term, this is a make or break year for Huddle, and they need to knock it out of the park. I am confident they will.

Continued Excellence in Design

Before we go any further, the design work done over the course of the offseason needs a round of applause. TOPPSCOREY has shown that he is worth his weight in digital gold for this app, and his work is nothing short of incredible. Each new set is better than the last, and now that we are a few months (years in digital time) into his tenure, he has settled in and created some stunning work. As mentioned above, this year is about pushing digital past the limits of the original Topps football physical sets, and showing that Huddle can be a player in the look and feel of cards across the entire hobby. Of any of the things on this list, I think this one is on lockdown, so really no worry needed. I cant wait to see what Corey’s take on the base design will be.

Adjustments to the Marathon Structure

One piece of the pie last year that really struggled was the way the marathons were built, as too many copies per card were released at once.  With the new season comes a new opportunity to take a different road, and I dont think veering off the path from the way things were done this offseason is a good idea. Keep with what has worked, as people really seem to like the structure of the marathons during the summer. The only thing i would consider is adding some rigor around the first few weeks of the app, so that on day one of the release, Huddle is ready to go with the first program, and start the year right. We had a big gap in that last year, and nothing pisses people off more than having to wait for inserts. The season is so short, the team literally has no time to waste. Get it going fast.

Avoid Huge Set Hangovers

Im not going to get on here and say that Museum isnt awesome. Im not going to say that Fire wasnt fun and cool. I am saying that the size of these releases has given people quite the hangover, as set after set after set hits the sheet. Doing a box based format is awesome, but doing it in ten waves is not going to work in keeping the community engaged. If Huddle wants to release sets like this, I would support it, but do it in less time with fewer waves. We want to see fast and furious, not a slow, plodding approach to a set. When the season starts, its go time.

Where we see Bunt having major issues, Huddle has really seen a lot of success. The contest scene on Huddle is hot, and the boost culture in the app has a lot to do with it. Last year’s structure through the season was fun and kept me interested through the Super Bowl. At the same time, releasing boost after boost will only keep people in the game if there is something that can be done to keep things fresh. That means new checklists, new photos, anything to avoid the idea that the team is just slapping a new colored border on an existing card and calling it a day. Approvals may take forever with all of the apps, but spending the time to refine the approach will pay enormous dividends.

Similarly, the contests need to be built around what makes Huddle awesome. As long as the setup and prizes reflect the effort it takes for a user to place high, you will see people want to join in regardless of cost. This CAN be a major money maker for Topps if done right, and the ripple effects can be huge for a successful approach. Bunt has seemingly botched the contests over a long season, and Huddle doesnt really have that same issue. There are 16 weeks of regular season and another 4-5 weeks of playoffs. It should be easy to sit around a conference table and map out a winning contest journey for 2016. Hell, crowd sourcing the ideas might not be a bad way to do it either!

Overall, Huddle has been a blast over the last few years, and I wholeheartedly believe it will continue to be. All bets are off with the physical sets in the can, and this is their time to shine. If the team can do some great things on the points above, this will end up being a banner year.

The time is upon us where many users are getting restless waiting for the launch of Topps Series 2 in Bunt. Although the grouping of players is important to add to the game for the sake of sagging contests, there are so many team collectors that want new cards for their favorite club that this is becoming a huge missed opportunity for Topps. I am guessing there is some sort of delay with getting all the cards built and into the game, but at this point, im not sure.

On the physical side, Series 2 hit quite a while ago. Enough time that many users are aware that something is missing. When it launches, and hopefully its soon, here is what I would be looking for.

New Base Sets

This is the main draw of Series 2, as mentioned above. Not only does it add a new chase for collectors to complete, but it adds a ton of new names to the game that can be used all over the place. Some of the rookies and some of the players that will be featured are hugely important to the successes of their team, and many collectors want to have them available as the season continues.

New Contest Prizes

Right now, the daily contests in Bunt are nothing short of a disaster, and there is no way to soften any words around that. I hope that when Series 2 is released, some of that missing fire will be reignited, as its clear that the user base is fed up with paying 10k coins for a daily grind that nets them a card that has absolutely no value any more. I also hope they dedicate a significant amount of time every day to figuring out how to keep the formats as fresh as the content. Contests are win-win for Topps and the community when planned well, but so far, that hasnt happened.

Think about it – new base, new competition, new desire to chase, means many more packs opened than normal. If the contests are great, more people are going to be looking for ways to win them. The long term play potential is huge here, but for whatever reason, it just hasnt come to be over the last few years. Contests are the big picture thing in both Bunt and Huddle, and I would be interested to see what happens if Series 2 has as big an impact as I think it will. Putting some big effort into the contests will not only engage the user base to participate more, but will likely be a nice bump for Topps as people open packs to be more competitive.

New Awards

There was an uproar when the series 1 awards hit the sheet, delivering 10 and 25 coins for collecting the sets that were part of the original release. People were so upset that they had put in so much work and gotten so little in return compared to the other apps. It was a valid complaint. The team was worried about impact to the coin economy when the awards hit, but that just cant be part of the thinking at this point. Awards need to be great, maybe looking at offering cards instead of coins. The managers for the complete team set is great for the massive amount of cards needed in Series 1, but I would be hoping that something more than 10 coins will be given for Series 2.

Overall Interest

The sports apps are all about two things – collecting and contests. Series 2 will play into both, and hopefully charge up the app after a great all star program and a fun chase around the HOF induction. However, a big series 2 release with no changes to the contests will fall flatter than ever. With glitches impacting circulation of the existing prizes, the effort to win far outweighs the prizes that are available. That needs to change.

I hope that this gets done sooner rather than later, especially as the pennant chase ramps up. This has to be priority number one and I hope the Topps team is on board with bringing this forward as we journey through the last half of the season.

There are a few beloved names in SWCT that everyone will chase, including a few that have a big enough following to crash the app. Nightbrothers, Reflections, and a handful of other sets are held with such regard, that they have the ability to mobilize the community to chase without question. When the first series of Vintage was in the midst of wave 1, leg 1, it was a similar situation. The app crashed on a few occasions because of the demand for the cards. Since that time, its been tough to figure out a marathon chase that has a similar impact to the sets mentioned above.

When the first card for Prime hit, I think there were a lot of people who saw the potential in what it was about. Retro design, tough odds, great subject matter. Since then, so many people have tried to get their piece of the pie that it becomes difficult to open packs when Prime goes live. This isnt a bad thing outside of functionality – it shows the community can still move the needle when something cool hits packs. Seeing that the big thing is a 30 week marathon remains extremely promising.

I have said a number of times that SWCT needs to find a new wheelhouse, as people were getting seemingly restless with the way things were going. Prime might be a good indicator that some of the old dogs still have new tricks. I dont think it puts the conversation of rerouting things to bed, but it shows the importance that good design and format have to a card’s popularity.

My personal list of contributing factors to card value tends to focus on a few major things, and even then nothing is definite. First is card count. when a lower card count set is released, its easier to make the release stick with the community. Second is variants. The fewer the variants, the lower the supply, the more easy it becomes to instill demand. Third is design. With a good looking card and the other pieces in place, a juggernaut can be expected. Last is subject/theme. With good characters and good themes in place, the cherry can be placed atop the sundae. Delivery method can also be a factor, but people want cool cards regardless of how they come packaged.

Prime seems to hit on all these different things and does so in a way that we havent seen for a long time. No variants, low count, great design, great subject matter and a simple delivery method. I hope this means more to come, as it would definitely be welcome.

If you havent started playing Pokemon, im not sure what you are waiting for. It has taken the nation by storm, and quickly become the most popular game in the history of the app store. With that, I am going to try to compare apples and oranges, so please entertain my line of thought here.

The success of the app isnt necessarily unexpected, but its exponential growth in the market is nothing short of astonishing. No one thought Pokemon Go would ever be a failure, but no one really expected it to explode like this either. I think the same could be said, on a smaller scale for Topps Digital, or digital cards in general. This leads me to question whether or not the full scale adoption of digital gaming could have a positive impact on the card trading apps we love.

Bottom line, it would take a fluke of unimaginable luck for any Topps apps to reach the level that Pokemon has reached. But, as more and more people are willing to spend money on digital goods, like micro purchases in both the Topps apps and Pokemon go, will there be a more stable approach for the way the market sees apps of this nature? I have to say yes, as there is a fervent fear that some day the apps will go *poof!* and be gone for good. I dont think that is a reasonable concept at this point to entertain, but the success here might spell a new era of smartphone market growth.

With SWCT, there is going to be overlap of geek culture and Pokemon culture, as the target market happens to of a similar ilk. If you remember back, no one really expected SWCT to explode either, and yet, it got more coverage in a few months than Topps did all year prior. National news organizations are still looking to cover the rise of that app, more than a year after its initial success, and I have a feeling the attention on digital is only going to get more intense.

Of course, this leads to a genuine sense of curiosity surrounding how much revenue results from that type of coverage, and as we have seen with Pokemon, it can be white hot. As more and more Topps licenses continue to mature, either with new movies or new seasons, or enhancements to the brand, we will get a better picture of how well the company can handle growth. We have seen hiccups in new app development, when its clear the team is spread thin, and errors take place. Hopefully Topps has a plan to bring more resources on board so the eventual market evolution doesnt hurt as much.

Pokemon is life, trust me on that, as it is only one step of many to bring alternate reality to smartphones in the future. I am confident in Topps’ ability to jump on that hype train, and I am also excited to see how the next few months shake out. WWE, as posted earlier, is a huge win. It goes without saying that new attention to the marketplace in which they reside is going to get them more eyes on their product. Now its up to Topps to figure out what to do with those eyes, so that the ventures can reach the potential they have.

When the team made the announcement of a forthcoming app – an announcement that eventually became Walking Dead, a question was asked to the twitter crowd of what the next app they wanted should focus on. For close to two hours, twitter followers lobbed suggestions at the team, overwhelmingly in favor of a WWE app. Topps already had a physical card license and had been producing cards for years under the WWE banner, so it made sense.

Now that we have what we wanted, along side two very good other apps, I cant help but be convinced that this app could end up being the one that Topps Digital sees is the next flagship type of addition to their portfolio. Im not saying UFC and TWD arent going to have a huge following, but I am saying that if done right, WWE could be amazing beyond anyone’s expectation. Here are some thoughts as to why.

Nostalgia

First off, if you are an American male, you likely know what the WWF was back when you were a kid. You know about Wrestlemania, and you likely hurt or were hurt by your siblings re-enacting what you saw done by the Ultimate Warrior or Stone Cold Steve Austin. Those memories, painful or not, resonate within the cards of this subject matter. The nostalgia is a reason why  so many of us keep up with this sports version of a soap opera. Nostalgia is a powerful emotion for many collectors, and its going to be a big reason why the cross traffic from other apps will gravitate towards Slam, and why new users will see it in the app store and hit the download button.

Fan Base

Wrestling, despite all the changes and shifts in the way the show is produced and run, still draws a huge crowd. Although it might not be the crazy M rated TV show it used to be, they still have a large viewership that tunes in every week. This fan base means that there will be a big target market, similar to UFC that will support the different programs the app wants to run. Fan base is relative, as we see that both UFC and TWD has huge fan bases, but UFC would clearly have the larger base of fans that ALSO collects UFC cards. I feel thats were Slam will have a similar advantage.

Year Round Scheduling

This is where WWE has an absolutely enormous advantage. Every week, every month, there are events, and there is no offseason. Unlike Bunt and Huddle, the app can run all year and have new angles and storylines through the whole calendar. The big events happen monthly, and though UFC has year round scheduling too, its not as important week to week as it is with WWE. With RAW and Smackdown, plus NXT in recent years, the biggest stars are on display at every single event. I cant even put into words how important this is.

Breadth of Content

The great thing about Wrestling is that you not only have a huge amount of main players that you can build around, but the range of content and history is absolutely enormous. Even better, most of the content can be dynamic and compelling with the right approach. Whether its insert sets build around Finishers or Wrestlemania history, or a NXT set built around the best up and coming superstars, its all here. I feel like TWD suffers a bit because of the limits of the character roster, where WWE can go for years.

Existing Physical Products

Like UFC, Huddle, Bunt and Kick, the amount of WWE physical products created each year provides a great digitization background to bring pre-developed content to the app. This is critical generating traffic from the physical side, and also gives a secondary approach to the app’s team. That variety is not only quite fun, but keeps things fresh too.

Licensed Roster 

I was absolutely shocked to see how many superstars and Divas the team was able to bring to digital, and it will do them a ton of favors in creating content. As mentioned above, the history of the WWE is a big part of that nostalgic emotion, and its important to have a roster available that can showcase that. With guys like The Rock, Triple H, Stone Cold, and Flair in packs next to newer superstars like Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler, it provides a reason to keep going on the collector side.

Kitsch Factor

This is where things can get really fun, and I hope they do. Wrestling isnt wrestling without the kitch factor at a minimum of 60% each week. You need to have those fun moments that make the app fit that same mold, and I really hope they dont go all serious with every release. There is a need for that stuff too, but without the wink wink at the camera, things just get too heavy.

When seeing all these factors lined up, coupled with a bunch of others I didnt mention, its clear that Topps Digital has a winner on their hands. Im actually knd of curious why it took so long for Slam to happen. I think they will be very pleased, as long as the right decisions are made.