one online league's in-depth financial history

yajeflow · 03-11-2010, 12:42 AM

the following is a look at the first six season of my league. we use a very low dollar amount compared to today's baseball. the reasoning here was we didn't want to have million dollar players. if there ever WAS one, then he would be god-like. the highest salaried player so far made $775K per season.

we use a system where the average ticket price is $4.00, and the average attendance is 4,500. the gate is split 50-50 between home and visitor. we have media contracts of a straight $1 million for each team, each season.

early in our history, teams were out of control financially. we rapidly sunk to a point where all 12 teams lost money. through education and shrinking free agent markets, in four season we turned it around to where all 12 teams made a profit.

this new situation where teams now have money in the bank has led to some developments. teams are willing to resign their current players for what is now considered on the cheap, making the free agent market much smaller. before it was few dollars chasing many players. now it is a lot of dollars chasing few players.

attendance:

3,756,090 4,047,428 3,818,341 3,676,850 3,949,657 5,043,634

as you can see, the past season was the best for attendance. this is due entirely to what we call the 'rhode island plan'. RI was good enough to test the boundaries from every angle early on and exposed some issues. we are not for 'gaming' things up and wanted to keep it all realistic, so it was a matter of squashing loopholes that RI found.

one of these was setting highs/lows for ticket pricing. we now use a high of $5 and a low of $3. the RI plan calls for a team to go cheap early on until attendance flattens out. the better teams are all at $3 early on for this reason.

in the second half, many teams are already seeing a floor of attendance at around 1,700 per game. this is when those teams switch to $5 tickets. the attendance doesn't go down any lower, so you maximize your gate.

the benefit of the early low ticket pricing is to get butts in seats and generate more merchandising revenues. i will show this in detail later. for now, you can see that at least the impact of the RI plan in bringing fans to the parks league-wide.

gate receipts

$16,201,432 $16,625,948 $15,906,446 $15,813,364 $15,456,354 $18,641,140

these were expected to remain somewhat flat, as the profits would come via merchandising. i was a bit surprised to see that the gate revenues also increased substantially. for what it is worth, the second to last season was a blowout from the get-go, so maybe that contributed to lower fan interest.

merchandise

$5,822,890 $6,654,560 $6,367,498 $6,352,771 $7,432,101 $9,302,437

bingo. the impact of the RI plan is now evident. the league as a whole has gained $3 million more in merchandising revenues. you can see the total impact here for total ballpark-related revenues:

$22,024,322 $23,280,508 $22,273,944 $22,166,135 $22,888,455 $27,943,577

an extra $5 million in the kitty is enormous for a league this size.

budgets

34,036,321 35,292,508 34,953,327 34,559,731 34,724,094 37,333,834

not really relevant, but i figure i'd show you at least what we are working with.

expenses

43,043,663 $41,947,365 $37,966,630 $34,514,371 $30,129,619 $28,760,151

this represents actual payroll plus actual staff expenses. at first the league shrunk because no one had money. as the initial large contracts came off the board, they were forced to take much smaller deals in february. guys were asking for $600K ended up getting closer to $150K.

now we have a lot of players under long-term deals at bargain rates, and there are not many free agents. this will change in 2-3 years, i'm sure. still - to see the league's expenses shrink by $15 million total in six season is amazing. it is about 2/3 of the old total now.

bank balance

$2,470,392 ($4,196,465) ($7,884,410) ($8,983,946) ($4,905,110) $5,458,316

this was our cash on hand at the end of each season. see what i mean? no one had money to spend except for about 2 or 3 teams. we really turned the corner on things this past season, as you can see.

profit/loss

$2,470,392 ($6,666,857) ($3,687,945) ($1,099,536) $4,078,836 $10,363,426

and finally, you can see the complete recovery from four years ago to now. we will see more and more of this for another two season until such a time as more and better players become free agents. at least i hope so. there is no incentive to let a decent player walk as a free agent now, so teams are locking guys up left and right.

i hope this helps some league out there understand the impact of the financial on their league.

03-11-2010, 12:42 AM	#1
yajeflow Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: newport beach Posts: 199	one online league's in-depth financial history the following is a look at the first six season of my league. we use a very low dollar amount compared to today's baseball. the reasoning here was we didn't want to have million dollar players. if there ever WAS one, then he would be god-like. the highest salaried player so far made $775K per season. we use a system where the average ticket price is $4.00, and the average attendance is 4,500. the gate is split 50-50 between home and visitor. we have media contracts of a straight $1 million for each team, each season. early in our history, teams were out of control financially. we rapidly sunk to a point where all 12 teams lost money. through education and shrinking free agent markets, in four season we turned it around to where all 12 teams made a profit. this new situation where teams now have money in the bank has led to some developments. teams are willing to resign their current players for what is now considered on the cheap, making the free agent market much smaller. before it was few dollars chasing many players. now it is a lot of dollars chasing few players. attendance: 3,756,090 4,047,428 3,818,341 3,676,850 3,949,657 5,043,634 as you can see, the past season was the best for attendance. this is due entirely to what we call the 'rhode island plan'. RI was good enough to test the boundaries from every angle early on and exposed some issues. we are not for 'gaming' things up and wanted to keep it all realistic, so it was a matter of squashing loopholes that RI found. one of these was setting highs/lows for ticket pricing. we now use a high of $5 and a low of $3. the RI plan calls for a team to go cheap early on until attendance flattens out. the better teams are all at $3 early on for this reason. in the second half, many teams are already seeing a floor of attendance at around 1,700 per game. this is when those teams switch to $5 tickets. the attendance doesn't go down any lower, so you maximize your gate. the benefit of the early low ticket pricing is to get butts in seats and generate more merchandising revenues. i will show this in detail later. for now, you can see that at least the impact of the RI plan in bringing fans to the parks league-wide. gate receipts $16,201,432 $16,625,948 $15,906,446 $15,813,364 $15,456,354 $18,641,140 these were expected to remain somewhat flat, as the profits would come via merchandising. i was a bit surprised to see that the gate revenues also increased substantially. for what it is worth, the second to last season was a blowout from the get-go, so maybe that contributed to lower fan interest. merchandise $5,822,890 $6,654,560 $6,367,498 $6,352,771 $7,432,101 $9,302,437 bingo. the impact of the RI plan is now evident. the league as a whole has gained $3 million more in merchandising revenues. you can see the total impact here for total ballpark-related revenues: $22,024,322 $23,280,508 $22,273,944 $22,166,135 $22,888,455 $27,943,577 an extra $5 million in the kitty is enormous for a league this size. budgets 34,036,321 35,292,508 34,953,327 34,559,731 34,724,094 37,333,834 not really relevant, but i figure i'd show you at least what we are working with. expenses 43,043,663 $41,947,365 $37,966,630 $34,514,371 $30,129,619 $28,760,151 this represents actual payroll plus actual staff expenses. at first the league shrunk because no one had money. as the initial large contracts came off the board, they were forced to take much smaller deals in february. guys were asking for $600K ended up getting closer to $150K. now we have a lot of players under long-term deals at bargain rates, and there are not many free agents. this will change in 2-3 years, i'm sure. still - to see the league's expenses shrink by $15 million total in six season is amazing. it is about 2/3 of the old total now. bank balance $2,470,392 ($4,196,465) ($7,884,410) ($8,983,946) ($4,905,110) $5,458,316 this was our cash on hand at the end of each season. see what i mean? no one had money to spend except for about 2 or 3 teams. we really turned the corner on things this past season, as you can see. profit/loss $2,470,392 ($6,666,857) ($3,687,945) ($1,099,536) $4,078,836 $10,363,426 and finally, you can see the complete recovery from four years ago to now. we will see more and more of this for another two season until such a time as more and better players become free agents. at least i hope so. there is no incentive to let a decent player walk as a free agent now, so teams are locking guys up left and right. i hope this helps some league out there understand the impact of the financial on their league.