No one has money

[Francoeurstein]

--So I'm in 2026 with my sim, and I will say the new patch has made the game much more playable. However, at this point, no teams have any money. Only two out of the 32 teams have money in the green for "Money for Free Agents" and the off-season just started - players just became free agents. I'm looking for ways to inject cash into to league so teams will be able to spend, but I am having no luck. Any suggestions?

[jfb1985]

The only way I know would be to put Commissioner mode on and go to every teams' settings and edit the Budget amount. Sometimes you also have to edit the available funds too, cause of how strict the owner may be. Also, sometimes if the owner is meddling, you can't lower the development funds to sometimes pump money into free agent money.

The only problem with such moves, I feel, is that the teams you naturally hate (whether in the game or real life) are the teams you might give a smaller budget to.

JFB

[jfb1985]

Supplemental: You might be able to find a setting in the actual league settings for how much teams can get in the overall luxury tax, or how much they can reserve. {this was the thought after I posted the initial reaction.)

JFB

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by jfb1985

The only way I know would be to put Commissioner mode on and go to every teams' settings and edit the Budget amount. Sometimes you also have to edit the available funds too, cause of how strict the owner may be. Also, sometimes if the owner is meddling, you can't lower the development funds to sometimes pump money into free agent money.

The only problem with such moves, I feel, is that the teams you naturally hate (whether in the game or real life) are the teams you might give a smaller budget to.

JFB

This SHOULD not have to be done. What settings are you using financially? Is this a fictional or MLB setup league?

[Francoeurstein]

Thanks, JFB. I'm playing with the Orioles and money is tight. I'm coming off a playoff season, but I'm looking to cut my payroll. I have some guys that would net some really good prospects, but nobody can afford them. For fun, I shopped around my superstar Adley Rutschman (7.5, 6.4 WAR past two seasons) who is set to make $16.5 million. No one was able to offer a prospect because no one can afford him. I want to be able to cut payroll and improve my farm system, but it seems like there is no realistic way to cut payroll since there isn't enough $$$ to go around. Does that make sense?

Edit: I should add that almost every single team is projected to make a loss next season. How do I prevent that from happening?

[jfb1985]

Sounds like something wrong with the entire league settings. I would eliminate the Luxury tax and set a universal floor budget.

And PSUColonial: Not sure about MLB or custom. Wasnt my question to begin with.

[Francoeurstein]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

This SHOULD not have to be done. What settings are you using financially? Is this a fictional or MLB setup league?

MLB setup, beginning in 2022. I have 1-3% inflation annually. Nothing else was touched.

[jfb1985]

Originally Posted by Francoeurstein

MLB setup, beginning in 2022. I have 1-3% inflation annually. Nothing else was touched.

Well that is confusing.... Are we seeing a premonition for how bad inflation might get??? Lol

JFB

[LansdowneSt]

This recent post sounds similar...

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...d.php?t=337531

[mars001]

Could it have anything to do with the negative average profit that is in the quick start? This was fixed and then re-introduced.

[Biggio509]

Originally Posted by jfb1985

Well that is confusing.... Are we seeing a premonition for how bad inflation might get??? Lol

JFB

Inflation shouldn't be a problem. It should affect revenues as well. The inflation will cause a rise in ticket prices and media contracts.

From the manual.

"If there are no historical financial values to import, then all league settings for financial figures will increase annually by an amount in this range. Be aware that very high values can cause issues with the game."

So inflation should cause ticket price baseline, media contracts, and merchandising to rise as well. It shouldn't have an net effect on profits.

[Biggio509]

I think the settings if you touch nothing just aren't right for fictional. If you click on 2021 settings in league setup for financials and/or LTMs they will change. I have no idea what those settings are since it isn't 22 because that isn't an option and it isn't 2021 because you get different numbers when change to 2021. I would reset finances to some historical year. This seems to always been the case. If you just run it out of the tin some things can get weird. So I always select the year before the current version for financials.

A possible fix. YMMV no guarantees.

1. Next preseason reset or whenever you can. I think you have to wait to preseason set financials to 2021 or so other year. (optional)

2. Go to leagues and teams.

3. In the league functions drop down select all league functions

You don't have to do all of the following but you do have to do 4.
4. Assign fictional fictional financials to teams.

If you want to do the following do them between step 3 and 4 I am not sure it is needed.
1. Make Fictional player contracts
2. Make Fictional personell contracts


IIRC the game will set market size, revenues, and budget on payroll of each team when assign fictional finances. In previous versions I always did this after the draft. Come to think of last version just out of the box settings seemed to have almost every team but mine in the negative.

Part of the problem is the owner seems to vastly overstate the draft budget at least in 22. I would find it looked like I was in the red but after August when the picks were finalized and I spent half or less of the budget I was in the in the green. This mucks with trading because teams really have money but they are projecting a loss. The projection doesn't change until the draft signing deadline and that is after trades are over. I didn't find it impossible to trade for high paid guys but very very hard because few teams if any had money.

[Biggio509]

To show the draft budget problem here is my brand new game in year just after the draft. My owner budgeted 22 million in the draft but I only spent 8. With 5 rounds negotiated I found it hard to spend 22 million. So I had over 13 million taking from my projected budget that I didn't spend that didn't some up in budget until after August when signings were finalized. It affects trades and also FA signings since the inflated draft budget is there.

I think this is the culprit. Teams are losing money but they think will because draft budgets are way too high compared to the baseline offer. I have no idea how to fix that. My only guess is clicking entire revenue available versus owner decides budget. That takes an element of out of your control out but it might fix it? Maybe?
I am not sure if increasing negotiated rounds would set draft budgets to something more normal. I doubt it but it might reboot it.

[wallewalls]

The draft budget thing was speculated about on the subreddit as well. I think this is the problem.

I've had to give budget increases to each team as I've gotten 40-50 years in the future, but never so early on in a game.

[Bobbyraz49]

Originally Posted by Francoeurstein

Thanks, JFB. I'm playing with the Orioles and money is tight. I'm coming off a playoff season, but I'm looking to cut my payroll. I have some guys that would net some really good prospects, but nobody can afford them. For fun, I shopped around my superstar Adley Rutschman (7.5, 6.4 WAR past two seasons) who is set to make $16.5 million. No one was able to offer a prospect because no one can afford him. I want to be able to cut payroll and improve my farm system, but it seems like there is no realistic way to cut payroll since there isn't enough $$$ to go around. Does that make sense?

Edit: I should add that almost every single team is projected to make a loss next season. How do I prevent that from happening?

MY Orioles in the playoffs ??????
Are you a magician ?

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by Biggio509

To show the draft budget problem here is my brand new game in year just after the draft. My owner budgeted 22 million in the draft but I only spent 8. With 5 rounds negotiated I found it hard to spend 22 million. So I had over 13 million taking from my projected budget that I didn't spend that didn't some up in budget until after August when signings were finalized. It affects trades and also FA signings since the inflated draft budget is there.

I think this is the culprit. Teams are losing money but they think will because draft budgets are way too high compared to the baseline offer. I have no idea how to fix that. My only guess is clicking entire revenue available versus owner decides budget. That takes an element of out of your control out but it might fix it? Maybe?
I am not sure if increasing negotiated rounds would set draft budgets to something more normal. I doubt it but it might reboot it.

I believe IRL, the league hands out draft budgets and its usually around 13mil for the highest team. In OOTP, you can set it as high as you want and I think the AI set its budget way too high. I increase negotiated rounds to 10 (this is how it was pre covid, not sure of the rules as of now)

The MLB rule isn't in the game but an alternative would be to reduce the recommended draft slot budget to normal levels because neither the user or AI ever spend 20-30 million in the draft unless of course you change the default settings.

[pgjocki]

Originally Posted by Bobbyraz49

MY Orioles in the playoffs ??????
Are you a magician ?

I was doing a fast sim test and the Orioles made the playoffs in 2025 and then the World Series in 2026. Of course they proceeded to have an Oakland type sell off the winter of 26 and in 2027 won only 63 games. I don't know if the realism ticked me off or the fact that a team would get to the World Series, lose it in 6 games, and then be all nope and tear down.

[Gee Laroy]

I had the same problem and posted it to the bug reports section.
@LansdowneSt mentioned it above

But I am not sure if the OOTP Team saw it as I uploaded the save game later than I would have like and thus received no response

Hoping they do know what's up and can fix it in the next patch

[Francoeurstein]

Originally Posted by Bobbyraz49

MY Orioles in the playoffs ??????
Are you a magician ?

I'm good at what I do.

[PSUColonel]

I am wondering if anyone here has tried Biggio's suggestions?