Salaries in the pre-Free Agency era

[CharlesC]

I have run leagues with free agency and arbitration in the past, and found the salaries to be a bit high but fairly reasonable. Now I am running a historical league that began in 1960, so I do not have free agency and therefore cannot have arbitration. The trouble is, the salaries for second through sixth-year players are absolutely astronomical, MUCH higher than even if they were arbitrated, MUCH higher than the revenues can support. Is there any way to actual negotiate a salary in the pre-free agency era? Or is there any way to lower the salaries to a level more suitable for the revenue streams of that era? As a note, my revenues are set to the 1960 level, but every team is in the red due to the salaries. This seems to be because well over half the players are rated as "above average" by the AI and several mediocre players are given star-level salaries. One would think that in the pre-free agency era, when the owners had far more negotiating power than they do presently, they would use that power to keep slaries lower, rather then making them higher than they are with free agency.

Thank you for any suggestions.

[ejbucs]

In the game setup, you can change the average salary of each level of player (Super Star, Above Average, etc...), which, in theory, should lower the payrolls of the teams in your league.

[PhillieFever]

Originally Posted by CharlesC

I have run leagues with free agency and arbitration in the past, and found the salaries to be a bit high but fairly reasonable. Now I am running a historical league that began in 1960, so I do not have free agency and therefore cannot have arbitration. The trouble is, the salaries for second through sixth-year players are absolutely astronomical, MUCH higher than even if they were arbitrated, MUCH higher than the revenues can support. Is there any way to actual negotiate a salary in the pre-free agency era? Or is there any way to lower the salaries to a level more suitable for the revenue streams of that era? As a note, my revenues are set to the 1960 level, but every team is in the red due to the salaries. This seems to be because well over half the players are rated as "above average" by the AI and several mediocre players are given star-level salaries. One would think that in the pre-free agency era, when the owners had far more negotiating power than they do presently, they would use that power to keep slaries lower, rather then making them higher than they are with free agency.

Thank you for any suggestions.

I think the problems stem from the attendance levels,they're way too low.At least thats what I've experienced.The average attendance for a game in 1960 was 16,110 what do you have it set an in the game?

[CharlesC]

Average attendance is set for 10,283.

[rwd59]

Originally Posted by CharlesC

I have run leagues with free agency and arbitration in the past, and found the salaries to be a bit high but fairly reasonable. Now I am running a historical league that began in 1960, so I do not have free agency and therefore cannot have arbitration. The trouble is, the salaries for second through sixth-year players are absolutely astronomical, MUCH higher than even if they were arbitrated, MUCH higher than the revenues can support. Is there any way to actual negotiate a salary in the pre-free agency era? Or is there any way to lower the salaries to a level more suitable for the revenue streams of that era? As a note, my revenues are set to the 1960 level, but every team is in the red due to the salaries. This seems to be because well over half the players are rated as "above average" by the AI and several mediocre players are given star-level salaries. One would think that in the pre-free agency era, when the owners had far more negotiating power than they do presently, they would use that power to keep slaries lower, rather then making them higher than they are with free agency.

Thank you for any suggestions.

This has been a problem for a number of versions.

[PhillieFever]

Originally Posted by CharlesC

Average attendance is set for 10,283.

Which is roughly 6,000 fans per game for 81 games which is 486,000 fans times whatever a ticket costs.I'm sure this would help your teams financial situation

[CharlesC]

Thank you, I'll try it.

[PhillieFever]

Originally Posted by CharlesC

Thank you, I'll try it.

I corresponded with Markus about this issue and he stated that the game does that(lowers attendance figures) for competitiveness reasons but when free agency is turned off like we have it,that backfires and causes solvency problems throughout the league.Anyway,at least its an easy fix.

[Bigdummie]

If I'm starting a new historical league say 1957, where can I get what salaries were back then, and are there any other settings I should do before I start? I would like it to be somewhat accurate,if possible. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Bigdummie

If I'm starting a new historical league say 1957, where can I get what salaries were back then...

Baseball financial data is zealously guarded by MLB, and there are only small amounts of it publically available (and to find it, you have to search around quite a bit).

From what I've come across, the average player salary in the NL in 1957 was $15,083. Note that translating that into financial settings for OOTP is something of a challenge under the current game system.

[Bigdummie]

Thanks for the info. I can only hope in V10, making the salaries more realastic will be done. BTW, if your the "Rusty" I remember the choked up Tiger Stadium stroke hitting in the # 3 slot. Ah, memories--