[scottrleo1]

Can somebody explain why i have no money to spend on trades? everytime I try and trade for a player it says I can't afford their salary. I don't get it. And how did it come up with -34 mil in projected balance?

[Mattymo]

Well, all your expenses are based on the season thus far...and it's only April 22.

Your gate revenues and merchandising revenus will increase throughout the season but your media revenue is fixed.

Using basic #'s (we'll pretend that you are one month into the season to make the #'s work easier and project over 6 months)

Payroll= $99mil

Media revenus= $25mil
merchandising= 13.2 mil
gate revenue=$30mil

Total= 68mil

68mil (income) minus 99mil (expenses)= -31mil

Since my numbers don't line up because April 22 doesn't exactly equal 1 month, I'd say -34 million is about right.

Of course it is "projected", and if you can average a higher attendance through the course of the year (playoffs helps, as evidenced by the year before)...same goes with merchandise. Your projected balance should change regularly.

As for the trade, it looks like your just about at your budget of $100.9 million, which is why the owner won't let you bring on any more payroll.

[Dave1408]

Nevermind, thanks for the response.

[scottrleo1]

If I have a budget room of 1.8 million on the left side, how can I have a projected shortfall of 34 mil?

[mattshwink]

Originally Posted by scottrleo1

Can somebody explain why i have no money to spend on trades? everytime I try and trade for a player it says I can't afford their salary. I don't get it. And how did it come up with -34 mil in projected balance?

Yeah, this doesn't make sense to me either....you have plenty of cash on hand to make up for even for a $31 million dollar shortfall.

I found another forum thread that talks about the same thing, but no answers Front Office Screen

I would post in tech support.

The manual has this to say:
To determine whether the teams can afford the deal, the computer checks your projected remaining player expenses before and after the trade and adds or subtracts any cash involved in the deal. It compares that figure to your budget for the current year and the next year as well, factoring in contract extensions, possible arbitration, players leaving through free agency, and so forth. If the trade remains within the estimated budget, then the trade is acceptable.

OOTP Baseball Manual - Initiating Trades

It's not entirely clear, but it seems to be that the proj. final balance is the issue.

[zekester91]

Originally Posted by scottrleo1

If I have a budget room of 1.8 million on the left side, how can I have a projected shortfall of 34 mil?

did you see Mattymo post above he expalined how the numbers there work pretty well.

[scottrleo1]

actually it doesn't explain it at all. Why would the projected numbers on the left hand side be correct, but the projected numbers in the middle be -32 mil?

It doesn't make any sense.

[Mattymo]

Originally Posted by scottrleo1

actually it doesn't explain it at all. Why would the projected numbers on the left hand side be correct, but the projected numbers in the middle be -32 mil?

It doesn't make any sense.

It really does...the numbers in the center column are real "year-to-date" numbers.

The balance at the bottom is *projected*, based off averaging out those year-to-date numbersover the course of the season. It's a running balance sheet. You can't assume how much gate/merchandising revenue a team will receive in August or September when it's still only April. So those numbers are averaged out over the course of the year to get a projected balance. It's basically a running balance sheet.

Any company uses a running balance sheet and projects its numbers to figure out where it needs to improve. I'd like to see Scott's "advanced financials" page to see if attendance has decreased on average from the year before. Plus he may have started out the season on the road and therefore not earned as much gate revenue from home games yet.

Plus the $1million scouting expense has already been deducted from the bottom line. So, statistically speaking, that $1million is a lot more expensive on 4/22 than it will be on 10/1. BUT remember, the $25mil media revenue is already added in, which accounts for the majority of the current profit, as well as balance. Again, that $25million is worth a lot more now than it will be on 10/1.

It really does work...the key is to not be overly concerned with the current balance and profit/loss, because that is constantly changing the deeper you get into the season.

[ehencley]

Originally Posted by scottrleo1

actually it doesn't explain it at all. Why would the projected numbers on the left hand side be correct, but the projected numbers in the middle be -32 mil?

It doesn't make any sense.

The left side is your budget. This is an estimated amount based on prior revenue and expenses. The projected balance for you budget is just the difference between owner determined budget and what you are spending.

The right side is your revenue and expenses. This reflects what you have actually spent so far and what you have actually earned so far. If you are spending faster than you are earning, you will have a deficit.

[OldFatGuy]

Originally Posted by Mattymo

Well, all your expenses are based on the season thus far...and it's only April 22.

Your gate revenues and merchandising revenus will increase throughout the season but your media revenue is fixed.

Using basic #'s (we'll pretend that you are one month into the season to make the #'s work easier and project over 6 months)

Payroll= $99mil

Media revenus= $25mil
merchandising= 13.2 mil
gate revenue=$30mil

Total= 68mil

68mil (income) minus 99mil (expenses)= -31mil

Since my numbers don't line up because April 22 doesn't exactly equal 1 month, I'd say -34 million is about right.

Of course it is "projected", and if you can average a higher attendance through the course of the year (playoffs helps, as evidenced by the year before)...same goes with merchandise. Your projected balance should change regularly.

As for the trade, it looks like your just about at your budget of $100.9 million, which is why the owner won't let you bring on any more payroll.

While this explanation makes sense, it really does make that bottom number useless, so why have it there at all??? I mean the word "projection" should mean some sort of actual projection you would think. This "projection" is so flawed its useless.

[mattshwink]

It still doesn't make sense....if you he has $99 mil in expenses with $68 million in expected revenue there is still an issue....what about the $25 million in cash he has...in that case he is only $6 million down...That is a prettly large discrepancy.

And the real issue here is why it won't let him make the trade....(although he didn't tell us the salaries of the two players involved). Understanding that formula would be helpful, but I couldn't find it in the manual....

[OldFatGuy]

Originally Posted by mattshwink

It still doesn't make sense....if you he has $99 mil in expenses with $68 million in expected revenue there is still an issue....what about the $25 million in cash he has...in that case he is only $6 million down...That is a prettly large discrepancy.

And the real issue here is why it won't let him make the trade....(although he didn't tell us the salaries of the two players involved). Understanding that formula would be helpful, but I couldn't find it in the manual....

The part I said made sense was Mattymo's explanation of the "Projected" balance being -34M. The game simply took 99M as the "projected" expenses, then basically took April's Gate revenue and Merchandising Revenue and multiplied by 6 (because there are six months in the season), to come up with projected revenues that leave a 34 million dollar deficit.

Again, this is such a flawed way to come up with "Projected" revenue, it makes this number useless, so why have it??

As for the trade thing, one thing to consider is next years availabe money's. That is only $7 million, so a trade for a player with a salary higher than that would be unable to be completed. That may be the problem here. Or the game is INCORRECTLY using the approximate $1M left in budget and ignoring the $25M cash. When signing FA or making trades, the money availabe was always the amount under budget PLUS beginning cash.

[JoseRijo]

Originally Posted by OldFatGuy

Again, this is such a flawed way to come up with "Projected" revenue, it makes this number useless, so why have it??

It works pretty well for me. This estimate is usually within a couple million of the final number even pre-season!

[OldFatGuy]

Originally Posted by JoseRijo

It works pretty well for me. This estimate is usually within a couple million of the final number even pre-season!

Well, if you look at the screenshot in question, I'd be willing to bet that the end of the year Actual Final Balance will be nowhere near the "Projected Final Balance" of -$34M. Just look at last years gate revenue and merchandising revenue, and if his team draws and earns anywhere NEAR what they did last year, they will nearly break even, not be 34 million dollars in the whole. Not to mention they started the year with $25 million. No, I don't think the actual final balance will be anywhere near this "projection."

[tysok]

Originally Posted by OldFatGuy

Well, if you look at the screenshot in question, I'd be willing to bet that the end of the year Actual Final Balance will be nowhere near the "Projected Final Balance" of -$34M. Just look at last years gate revenue and merchandising revenue, and if his team draws and earns anywhere NEAR what they did last year, they will nearly break even, not be 34 million dollars in the whole. Not to mention they started the year with $25 million. No, I don't think the actual final balance will be anywhere near this "projection."

Ignore that number, that's the best advice I have.
I tried a million different things to figure out what it was doing, and you can't. It's always off, by either 34 million or just a few... but it never adds up right.

Luckily, that number means nothing at all in the scheme of things, it's just an informational number (and since it's bogus it doesn't provide much information).

[Mattymo]

Originally Posted by tysok

Ignore that number, that's the best advice I have.
I tried a million different things to figure out what it was doing, and you can't. It's always off, by either 34 million or just a few... but it never adds up right.

Luckily, that number means nothing at all in the scheme of things, it's just an informational number (and since it's bogus it doesn't provide much information).

Agreed...and I think the trade problem was based off not having enough room in the budget, not the projected final balance. Of course he never told us what the contracts for the traded players looked like.

[tysok]

Originally Posted by Mattymo

Agreed...and I think the trade problem was based off not having enough room in the budget, not the projected final balance. Of course he never told us what the contracts for the traded players looked like.

Yeah, I never looked at trades, but if the guy is set to make more than 7.3 million next year (the OP's $ for extensions) I think it would deny the trade

Wouldn't have anything to do with the projected final balance number though, even though it doesn't figure it up correctly (or in any way I can figure out) it isn't actually used in any financial calculation anywhere.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by tysok

Ignore that number, that's the best advice I have.
I tried a million different things to figure out what it was doing, and you can't. It's always off, by either 34 million or just a few... but it never adds up right.

Luckily, that number means nothing at all in the scheme of things, it's just an informational number (and since it's bogus it doesn't provide much information).

Originally Posted by Mattymo

Agreed...and I think the trade problem was based off not having enough room in the budget, not the projected final balance. Of course he never told us what the contracts for the traded players looked like.

Sound advice from these gentlemen. For gameplay, the left hand column of that screen is the most important, IMO.