OOTP10 Suggestions: Front Office Finances

[battists]

This suggestion thread is designed to collect suggestions for the next version of OOTP, on the following topic:

Front Office Finances

Includes
- Things related to team finances, including stuff like salary caps, merchandising, the front office screen, and related reporting tools.

Excludes
- Nothing about player or personnel contracts, we'll do a separate thread about this. This thread is just for the "big picture."

Instructions
We will use this thread to collect suggestions on the above topic. Later on, we hope to present this information back to the community in a way that would allow you to vote and prioritize certain features.

If you would like to participate, here are the rules!

1. Only 1 suggestion per post.
2. Suggestions must be on-topic for the thread.
3. Constructive, non-inflammatory suggestions only.
4. No comments on others' suggestions are necessary. That means, we don't need 15 posts in the thread saying "Great idea!" or "I agree!"
5. Please don't link to other forum threads as your way of making suggestions. ("My suggestion can be found HERE.") If it's important enough to you that you want it in this thread, then it should be important enough to put it in the format I've asked for here!
6. You can certainly post suggestions that conflict with or build upon earlier suggestions.
7. Mockups are welcomed, they really help Markus see what you're interested in accomplishing.

Format for Suggestions

Suggestion
What is your suggestion? Be as specific as possible; include the screen you're talking about, if applicable.

Reason
Why do you think this is important? If this is to correct what you perceive as a problem in OOTP 2007, what is that problem? Be as specific as possible.

Priority
In your opinion, how important is this suggestion?
High (MUST have), Medium (should have), Low (nice to have))


Handy Cut-and-Paste Suggestion Form:

Suggestion


Reason


Priority


Thanks for participating!

Steve

[phillosopherp]

I would ask that the minors be given a financials too. Let them get money from the affiliates just like RL. Make the minors more closely resemble the way they are money included. Overall please focus on the minors more. I would like to be able to run minors in the early era like they were in that time. Whoever paid for them were the affiliate, and then let other teams buy and sell them. This would give a reason to hold lots of cash reserves and the like.

[TheBishop]

Suggestion
Get financials to actually work properly in online leagues.

Reason
Every league I'm in has had mucho problems with finances, with teams seeing their budget drop a ton despite playing well and having the option checked that lets GM's use their entire revenue. Free agents are asking for insane amounts of money that no team can actually afford, then they head off to retirement instead of signing for less, which makes zero sense.

I'd like to see budgets adapt to the times as well, as teams have started reaching into the $200M payrolls, but our Yankees are stuck at around 100M annually and few teams get past that threshold. If salaries can progress, so can budgets.

Priority
High. This has been a major sticking point in all the online leagues I've participated in using this version and we've seen little to no relief from it in any patches put out with the exception of being able to use cash on extensions.

[jmknpk2]

Suggestion
Provide Game Setup Function Button to equalize all financials (set all teams to average).

Reason
Doing this manually is quite time intensive and should be relatively easy to program. Some people like to play fictional leagues without pre-existing dynasties.

Priority
Medium

[aewin]

Suggestion

Change formula for [projected final balance] from [current balance] - [remaining expenses] to [current balance] + (remaining games/total games *([last season gate revenue] + [last season merchandising revenue])) - remaining expenses.

Reason

Will provide a closer to reality "projection" of the final balance. Currently the formula does not allow for future gate revenue and future merchandising revenue which totally screws the projection early in the season.

Priority

High.

[Afino]

Wrong category. Deleted and put in right one.

[koohead]

Suggestion

Be able to use cash to schedule promotion days. The more cash I have available, the more promotion days I can schedule, thus driving up attendance.

Reason

just adds something to the front office aspect of the game. also gives me something to do with all the cash besides spending it on scouting and player salaries


Priority

Low

[fhomess]

Suggestion
Show me the actual values for +/- Cash from Trades and +/- Cash from Owner on the front office screen.

Reason
There's really no good reason to hide this, and it gives a better idea of where money is going.

Priority
Medium

[fhomess]

Suggestion
Provide a salary report that shows the full detail of salaries for this year and next.

Reason
The current report shows the next 10 seasons, but salaries are abbreviated to $17.3m when it may be $17,325,678 for all I know. This is easy to look up in the game, but requires going away from the front office screens. Also, many people in online leagues have limited time at the computer they have the game on, and could use this there.

Priority
High

[Mike Donlin]

Suggestion

Have a financial model that can apply to pre-free agency era.

Reason

The finances on or finances off option is too simplistic. There was never, ever a team that did not have finances or financial considerations. There needs to be a way to have finances matter without having free agency or other modern rules turned on. For example, with finances off, scouting is a bit ridiculous. Scouts are signed in perpetuity, and no distinction is possible in the amount of resources a team devotes to scouting. But the best clubs in the pre-modern day finances--the Yankees, for example--had much more money than their opponents, and as a result could scout more widely and find and then buy better prospects. Moreover, players did not have free agency, but many held out for higher pay. I suggest using arbitration as a way to determine salary, and then fiddle with the revenue numbers so that scarce resources need to be distributed among scouting, purchasing prospects, etc.

Priority

High

[Mike Donlin]

Suggestion

Have an option to tie market size to city population.

Reason

The New Yorks and LAs and Chicagos of a league should always have larger markets, etc. than the Kansas City's. But now it's determined randomly. It shouldn't be too hard to tie these to census numbers, which would not be totally accurate but at least have a logic. This site is good for historical data: Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places In The United States: 1790 to 1990

Priority

High. People have been asking for this for years.

[Tullius]

Suggestion

Informations about minor league options, professional service time and rule 5 in player contract screen when financials are off

Reason
Even when you have financials off you can still have waivers and a Rule 5 draft. But the player do not give you any information about the contract status of the player. You do not know how many minor league options are left, professional service time and if the player is eligable for a rule 5 draft. When you have financials off these informations are only availabel when you look in the editor.


Priority

High

[mikev]

Suggestion

Make player contract demands fall in line with league settings for contract values, regardless of cash on hand around the league.

Reason

As documented in several threads, contract requests are frequently WAY over "superstar level" salary settings because of the cash on hand that teams have. That makes the salary levels pretty meaningless, aside from pre-arb minimum contract values. If the setting for "superstar" level salary is $15 million per year, there shouldn't be free agents asking for $27 million per year.

Priority

Medium to High.

[phillosopherp]

Suggestion:

Allow for cash to be accumulated, without effecting the FAs demands.

Reason:

Currently teams can not build up a cash reserve, which in Online Leagues could be used for stadiums/upgrades/attracting All-Star games ect.

Priority:

High to me, probably med to others at best.

[mikev]

Suggestion

Implement buyouts for team option years

Reason

Realism. The majority of contracts that have a team option are written with some sort of buyout, as opposed to simply declining an option and being free of the player contract.

Priority

Medium

[lt2cents]

Suggestion

Provide financials for all minor teams--

Reason

Because there are now major weaknesses in following your suggestion to 'try managing a minor league team'. Some reasons do not fit this thread but one reason for here is, if you want to GM/manage an independent minor team and handle financials the team must be in a completely independent league. If it is in a league that includes teams linked to a major team (a common situation from the 1920/30s - 60s) there are no financials available.

If you want to sim a manager career, and start out in the minors, this is one of several features that are needed.

In addition, minor league financials, whether for independent teams or farm teams, support other functions needed in modeling historic times better.

Priority
Medium

[Ekcut]

Suggetion-
Perhaps this should be in the AI section, but I have seen too many times in our online league where a Free Agent will sign a Minor league contract even when offered a large major league deal.

Reason-
I can't imagine anyone turning down a long term multi-million dollar contract for a MLC.

Priority-
High...very frusterating for GMs in our league. To the point where we are discussing preventing GMs from offer MLC during the first FA days.

[Ekcut]

Suggestion-
It would be nice to have options how we set up our salary caps.

Reason-
It would be nice to have the option to have players in the minor league still get paid, but NOT count against the salary cap(but with a huge league wide hit to a teams reputation and ability to attract FA's if a large contract player is sent to the minors to dodge salary cap issues)
And an option to have a portion/all of a released players salary count against the cap and an option to have it age-dependant (eg released players 38 and older have all of their contract count towards the cap, released players 30-37have 50% of thier salary count against the cap, players under 30 can be released outright) Basically some flexabiltiy how to juggle salary cap issues.

Priority-
Low...this is a gravy option.

[Ekcut]

Suggestion:
Option to have the salary cap hit equal the average yearly salary of the signed contract (including option years) plus bonuses. For example a Contract of $4mil for season 1, $5mil for season 2 and $6mil for season three with a $100,000 bonus for winning the MVP will count as a $5.1mil salary cap hit for each season. This is how the NHL has their salaary cap, and it works pretty well.

Reason: To prevent extreme front and rear loaded contracts or outrageous option year offers and bonuses while trying to attract FA's.
For example a the league I am in has a $65mil salary cap and we have had contracts signed for example a 38yr old to $9mil, $9mil, $15mil deal with the player being released before season 3 (due to the extreme surplus cash this was chump change to buyout the contract)
Or to prevent the abilty to offer a huge option year, with no intention of picking up the option.
Or to prevent offering an outrageous bonus for winning the MVP to a moderatly skilled player. These are 3 situations we've encountered that were "legal" manouvers, that we have had to create rules outside of the game (which takes times to enforce) to close the loopholes.

Priority-
Medium

[udbacker58]

Suggestion
Add salary cap information to the Finances screen, such as Cap Room

Reason
Makes it easier to tell how much room you have for free agent signings and trades. Especially in online leagues so you don't have to go to the forums or rules page to find the info and then do the calculations.

Priority
Low