Need advice on scaling financials between major leagues

[Corsairs]

I've just completed my first off-season in a new fictional league that contains two separate major leagues. League #1 is set up to be a big-money powerhouse similar to modern-day MLB. League #2 is set up as a successful yet smaller league that shouldn't be able to financially compete with League #1 for top free agents.

At least that's the intention. In practice it's working exactly the opposite. And not only are the big free agents signing with League #2, they're signing for considerably less than their demands from League #1 teams. Let me give you the example of SS Nathan Powers. Here's what he's demanding from a team in League #1:


And here's what he's demanding from a team in League #2:


Obviously I've botched things in the financial setup of my two leagues. What I was trying to achieve was a situation where both leagues paid the same for free agent players but League #1 had greater financial resources that league #2. I want League #2 to be competitive with League #1, but not dominate as it is right now.

I'm guessing the problem is in the "typical salary" section of the league financial rules. League #2 has lower "typical salaries" than League #1. I didn't think these settings affected what free agents would sign for but it seems like they do. Can anyone confirm this?

For the record, here are the financial rules for each league. First, League #1:


And now League #2:


Again, the goals are to have free agents cost the same for both leagues, for League #1 to have greater spending power than League #2, and for League #2 to remain relatively competitive (i.e. League #2 teams can still sign decent players and doesn't end up as a "junk league"). If anyone can offer suggestions to help me achieve these goals I would be immensely grateful. This has been hounding me for too long now!

[conception]

I would drop financials in the second league much lower than even what you have now. This won't prevent guys from jumping to the other league, but most of the guys that go will be second tier players. I once had a secondary league in my personal fantasy league setup, but I eventually disbanded it for several reasons, one being that I was very frustrated that too many quality guys were still jumping ship.

[Captain Walrus]

Shouldn't the typical salaries be the same in both leagues? I think that's why big players will sign for less in the second league.

[Corsairs]

Originally Posted by conception

I would drop financials in the second league much lower than even what you have now. This won't prevent guys from jumping to the other league, but most of the guys that go will be second tier players. I once had a secondary league in my personal fantasy league setup, but I eventually disbanded it for several reasons, one being that I was very frustrated that too many quality guys were still jumping ship.

When you say drop the financials, which settings are you referring to in particular? You're talking about attendance, ticket price, media contract and cash maximum, right? I'm guessing you're not talking about lowering the typical salaries any further, which dovetails into what Captain Walrus wrote...

Originally Posted by Captain Walrus

Shouldn't the typical salaries be the same in both leagues? I think that's why big players will sign for less in the second league.

What I was trying to achieve there was making the stars of League #1 earn a lot more than the "stars" of League #2. The Player Creation Modifiers of League #2 are set lower, so their best players aren't as good. I wanted a situation where the best League #2 players were paid less than their counterparts in League #1, and when they made the jump over they would get a bump in salary. They wouldn't get paid like superstars since they're not as good as players created in League #1, but they'd get more money since League #1 has more to throw around.

The problem is that it looks like you're right: the "typical salaries" settings are affecting the demands of free agents. It doesn't seem like it should work that way, does it? Shouldn't the players demands be the same across multiple leagues, with the typical salaries simply affecting the relative maximums each league can afford to spend on a player?

[No Pepper]

I remember someone once said it was the amount of available cash in the league that directed how much players asked for, and that was either for contract extensions or new free agent contracts, cannot remember. I also can't remember if this was related to a bug or not. At any rate, you might want to check how much money each team has.

In my current historical universe, I have a similar setup but have kept salary structure the same but reduced at least the attendence and media contracts. Your numbers across the board might not be reduced enough. After year one, with free agency set to one year, I haven't seen "league 1" stars switch over to "league 2", any players that have are either "second tier" or names I don't recognize. I can't speak towards $ amounts, though, team finances or contracts.

[Kemp]

I run the same kind of setup and have had success by messing with the Media Contracts. So if you want League #1 to be the "big money league", manually edit their Media contracts to be significantly higher than League #2.

For the record, I also had different "Typical Salaries" for the two leagues.

[Corsairs]

Thank you Kemp, I'll give adjusting the media contracts a try. At the least it should give League #2 less money to throw around. Since you have a similar setup as mine, do you also find that teams in the league with lower "typical salaries" can sign the same free agent for less money than teams in the other league?

[ctorg]

The key I've found is to have the numbers be extremely different in the two leagues. Even then, this doesn't work perfectly in the game and I think it needs to be improved. I still get guys who sign for ridiculously less than their market value in the lesser league. I actually had an MVP of my big major league sign a paltry contract with a lesser league the following year, which made no sense. This feature of the game (i.e. the ability to run two separate leagues with different levels of play) is not quite right yet IMO, but it works okay if you keep an eye on things.

Oh, and it's a good idea not to allow trades between the leagues. I often end up with players being traded to the lesser league whose salaries eat up the whole budget of teams there, handcuffing them.

[Corsairs]

I see, and thank you for the advice. It does seem difficult to achieve the kind of balance between (supposedly) separate dominate/subordinate leagues. I'll experiment with a combination of the suggestions made here; lower the core financials in League #2, increase the "typical salary" separation, and not permit trades between the two leagues. After I've had a chance to run some test sims I'll report back here and see if any of this worked. Hopefully it will and this can serve to help other people trying to set up this kind of dynamic in their own universes.