Money Troubles! Need Help! :(

[atlbraves010]

So I got into OOTP but I never have enough money to re-sign players or to sign free-agents. Why is this? Thanks in advance.

[Flying Dutchmen]

What type of game are you playing - the 2009 real-life MLB game, a historical season, or a fictional world? This is a good place to start so we can start to narrow down the possibilities.

[kq76]

Posting a screenshot of your financials and salary reports would help.

One big issue I've found (well, FD more found it actually) is if you're trying to extend players who are in their last arbitration year then the game will count both their next year's arbitration amount, which they won't get, plus what you're offering them. If you're tight against the cap or your budget, you'll have to wait until after the season when it will no longer count the arbitration amount.

[The Chase Davis]

was it just me or did anyone else think this was a thread attempting to mooch a copy of the game?

[atlbraves010]

I'm playing a real 2009 MLB game...i also upload the finances from the start of the season to the end of the playoffs

[damientheomen3]

There are pkenty of factors for this. Giving out backloaded contracts, obviously, takes away money from extensions since it lowers the projected budget room. However, I think that in OOTP the game just isn't made to handle such big budgets, and thus they'll drop, even if the team is successful. Perhaps editing the media contract would help...

EDIT: never mind the media contract is already really big

[atlbraves010]

Albert Pujols just retired because no one could offer him a contract....wtf?

[jduteau]

The main problem is that your salaries in the previous season were too high. So you ended up with a *very* negative balance. And even though the balance got increased to -10M, since you're salaries are already over the owner's budget, you just don't have any monies for handing out new contracts. You do have $2.7M for extensions.

[Flying Dutchmen]

Your problem represents a few known issues with financials in the start-up MLB game in OOTP X:

1) It doesn't handle "super-team" financials well, as their budgets will invariably go down, not up. This is compounded by the inability to model the vast disparities of incomes that exist given the limited revenue streams the game models.

2) Real-life contracts generally have inflation built into salaries (i.e. paying a player $5M, $5.5M, $6M over three years knowing that the team's budget will go up over time. This works in historical leagues where the numbers go up over time due to the financial file included, but once you leave the historical range (i.e. the current year of game release - 2009 for OOTP X) budgets stop increasing from year to year. Budgets, in effect, stay constant with some variation around the current levels. This makes teams with lots of backloaded contracts, like the Yankees, face a future stuck with increasing payroll inflexibility until those contracts are cleared. The Yankees are the worst case of this with the Sabathia and Rodriguez deals. The Giants with Zito also is one that sticks in my mind.

3) In the first few years of the OOTP X MLB game, the financials "lurch" for lack of a better word. The first year or two nobody has any money for the reasons above and free agents sign for what appear to be very low totals. Then, as the longer contracts come off the books suddenly the league is deluged with money and big contracts are given until an equilibrium is eventually established similar to what you would see in a fictional game.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by jduteau

The main problem is that your salaries in the previous season were too high. So you ended up with a *very* negative balance. And even though the balance got increased to -10M, since you're salaries are already over the owner's budget, you just don't have any monies for handing out new contracts. You do have $2.7M for extensions.

If this were a fictional league, I'd agree with you, but I think damien is correct in that OOTP just doesn't emulate the Yankees finances very well. How many tens of millions do they pay in luxury tax every year in real life, on top of their 200+ payroll? Clearly, the Yankees in real life are making boatloads of money, probably more than they're paying out.

The first thing I was going to suggest is try another ticket price to maximize gate revenue, but I ran a test lg with the Yankees, presumably the same lg the OP was using, and while they're not selling out every game at 19$ a ticket, they come close by averaging just under 50K a game. How many seats does Yankee Stadium in real life have? Realistic or not, you could crank up seat capacity. Running test lgs with 18 or 20 ticket prices might also tell you that a 19$ ticket price still isn't best.

You could go in and crank up last year's merchandise revenue. The Yankees probably make more in merchandise than 40M. The manual says fan interest influences merchandise revenue, but I'm guessing last year's merchandise # might too.

Again, Damien could be right about media revenue. I wouldn't be surprised if the Yankees make more than 70M in media revenue, especially considering they own YES (well, not technically, but...).

Market size is already astronomical, but in the editor it shows as 13 out of a possible 20. If you're going to increase stadium capacity and still want to sell out at a high ticket price, you might also want to increase market size.

Anyway, there are lots of things you can do, especially from the editor in commish mode. That said, the Yankees probably do have a couple of greatly overpaid players you could get rid of.

Some manual links that might help:
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/docu...inancial_model
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/docu...?page=finances
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/docu...ge=team_editor

[s0ni42]

I tried to start a MLB 09 season with Boston and it took me a couple of years to get the finances in order (due to the budget inevitably decreasing) . I would start by dumping your 2 worst contracts and investing the 10million you will save into your scouting budget. That will gradually allow you to weed out your overpaid veterans that many big-markets seem to have.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by kq76

Market size is already astronomical, but in the editor it shows as 13 out of a possible 20. If you're going to increase stadium capacity and still want to sell out at a high ticket price, you might also want to increase market size.

The Yankees of the past fifteen years should have a market size of 20. Sad, but true.

[DanDiaz]

Just sacrafice some chickens, sign a middle reliver for 8 mil, a fifth starter for 12 mil, and win another series.



Sorry, everyone else already nailed the constructive comments.

[atlbraves010]

Thanks to all...I got my finances in order, just had to do some cleaning up with the contracts

Thanks again though