[TGH-Adfabre]

Originally Posted by rylinus

Thank you everyone for your responses on this. TGH-Adfabre, here are responses to your specific questions.

1) Are the top teams making so much more money than the bottom teams that they price out the bottom teams?
Yes. There is a huge gap in earning power between top and bottom teams. See more details below.
2) What is your cash cap?
I don't use a a cap.
3) Do the majority of teams have money at the start of the offseason? Are they barely above water or in the red?
Most have some or a lot of $$ at the start of the offseason. A few are in the red. It just goes quickly.
4) How far apart are the media contracts? I try to keep national media contracts close or the same. Then the income difference in ticket revenue, merchandising and local media contracts. This tends to stabilize finances.
There is a wide range. Top media contract is for $863 million, the bottom is at $232.
5) How far apart are your budgets? If the top teams are 3, 4, 5+ times the bottom teams budgets there will probably be finance problems, The AI seems to have a hard time with too large of a spread.
The spread as of now is $711 million for the top team and $424 for the bottom. The payrolls range from 1.3 billion to $374 million. The average payroll is just over a billion dollars. Right now each team is averaging losing $160 million per year.
6) Do the teams with money (assuming there are some) in need of the players that are unsigned and available in FA?
No, except for some rebuilding teams all the other teams spend all their money and it simply runs out by the time the preseason hits.

To me it seems that the cost of contracts is simply out of control. Right now the top player in the league makes $274 million per year. The 25th highest paid player makes $132 million. The "average" quality player makes $42.5 million. A "good" quality player makes $85m per year. What seems to be happening is that between locking up players approaching free agency and then the early offseason, teams just run out of cash.

I toyed with simply setting settings back to 2015 rates but it created an odd effect where new free agents/arbitration are getting those offers but current contracts remain at the inflated 2050 rates.

I think I just need to call this experiment a bust. It is unfortunate but I don't know how else to salvage this league. Open to any suggestions any of you might have.

My own two cents - it seems inflation should be a natural part of the game (salaries do go up each year in MLB) but for the purposes of OOTP should be much lower, say 1-2%, rather than trying to reflect realistic inflation.

If you want to spend a little time and energy you can fix this league over 5-10 seasons. If it is not worth it then start over. Post here or PM me and I will give you some ideas that should stop this problem either way.


Good Luck,
Tom (LP)