From the Tap

[Andrew]

With Robby leaving, I'm going to take over his blog idea and start posting some entries here.

It's going to be a weekly (or so) blog on various things OOTP. Sometimes it will be general strategy thoughts. Other times it will be explanations on how certain facets of the game work. Often times it will be complaints about how certain facets of the game don't work correctly.

News items and basic questions will still be posted to the front page and forums respectively.

However, if you have more complicated questions or if you'd like to see something written in this space, PM me and let me know.

There is a link to it under 'More+' or you can click here:

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/forums/blog.php?u=3

[Lintyfresh85]

Andrew, I don't have permission to access the article...

[Andrew]

Andrew, I don't have permission to access the article...

Fixed!

[Lintyfresh85]

It's because I'm an Indians fan I was locked out right?

[Andrew]

FYI I posted a blog on Scouting today. It provides some advice on how to set up scouting task lists.

[Andrew]

New blog!

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/forums/blog.php?b=8

[Andrew]

New blog on financials and how to project your budget for next year.

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/forums/blog.php?b=9

[Lintyfresh85]

awesome article Andrew! I finally understand how my finances work. But, (isn't there always a but?) The one thing I don't understand is the cash given to us each year. Last year it was 6 million, this year 15. Are we supposed to spend that on stadium upgrades or what? It seems it has no affect on your budget... so is it just a random number that means nothing, or is it in play to spend on contracts and stadiums, etc.?

[Andrew]

awesome article Andrew! I finally understand how my finances work. But, (isn't there always a but?) The one thing I don't understand is the cash given to us each year. Last year it was 6 million, this year 15. Are we supposed to spend that on stadium upgrades or what? It seems it has no affect on your budget... so is it just a random number that means nothing, or is it in play to spend on contracts and stadiums, etc.?

The cash isn't given to you, it's money you make. There is a cash maximum of $20,000,000. So at the end of the year the $21,000,000 balance you had gets cut down to $20m. You then transferred $5,000,000 to your Stadium fund.

Post:
http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/foru...0&postcount=11

Stadium Fund Sheet:
http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/blb/...s/bonuses.html

This is how you ended up with $15,000,000 in cash. The end of year cash will change based on bonuses, stadium fund transfer, luxury tax, etc.

You can use the cash however you want. You can use it to upgrade your stadium, include it in trades if you're shipping out a high salaried player, or you can use it to spend over your budget. However, I encourage people to be very careful when outspending their budget since you can get into the red very quickly this way.

[Riverman]

New blog on financials and how to project your budget for next year.

Thanks for the article; it clarified a couple of things I didn't understand.

I noted that at the end of the article you mentioned that you are planning to reduce average attendance in the league in order to limit free agent salaries. It seems to me that a reduction in average attendance large enough to significantly reduce money available for free agent signings will have important ramifications in other aspects of the game that may not be in the best interests of the league.

People are making decisions (I think) under the assumption that their budgets will remain more or less constant over the next several year. About half the teams have payrolls that are now at or very near their budgets and many have made long-term commitments. If you make the change in average attendance as suggested in your article, you are going to drive some of these teams into insolvency or at least force many of them into trades in what will certainly be a buyer's market. I don't think this result will be fair to the teams involved (I am not one of them by the way) unless they understood at the time they made some of their long-term decisions that their budget was going to take a significant hit.

If I understand correctly how the game works, the teams that will actually undergo the significant reduction in attendance will be the ones that are not doing particularly well. The teams that are winning will continue to sell out or come close to it while most of the attendance reduction will go to the teams that are losing. While this result may be realistic, I am not sure that further reducing competitive balance is in the best interest of the league.

Most of you were probably too young to remember what took place in baseball during the late 1970's and early 80's when free agency came into its own. Free agents got contracts that were way out of line with what other players in the league with similar skills were getting - just like we are obsering in our league. I think I read that players in the game adjust their salary demands to correspond to the salary structure in the league and I see evidence that that is happening in the BLB. If so, the salaries of players who resign with their teams will rise over time thus limiting money available for FA signings and these salaries will eventually come into line with what free agents receive just as we have observed in major league baseball over the last several decades.

[Andrew]

I think for now I'm putting the changes to attendance, etc on the back burner until we get more info about OOTP 9. I wouldn't be surprised if the next version of OOTP brought more changes to the financial model making anything we do now obsolete.

[mahoney2]

What is the timeline for OOTP 9 to be released?

[Andrew]

What is the timeline for OOTP 9 to be released?

I assume the target is opening day.

[Carlos]

I believe it'll be released when it's fully tested. ;)