Fictional Financials Question

[legofarley]

I'm planning on putting together a new fictional league that is set entirely within Washington state. Basically I'm modeling the Washington state high school baseball leagues as professional leagues.

My plan is to set up a league with the following financials:

5,000 average attendance
80 game season + playoffs
$15 ticket price average
$75K minimum player contract
$1M superstar player contracts with a salary cap at $1.5M

Will this work, or will my teams go bankrupt?

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by legofarley

I'm planning on putting together a new fictional league that is set entirely within Washington state. Basically I'm modeling the Washington state high school baseball leagues as professional leagues.

My plan is to set up a league with the following financials:

5,000 average attendance
80 game season + playoffs
$15 ticket price average
$75K minimum player contract
$1M superstar player contracts with a salary cap at $1.5M

Will this work, or will my teams go bankrupt?

Well, with a $1.5M cap, you'd have room for 1 superstar player at $1M and 6 more players at the league minimum of $75K with $50K left over. Hard to field a team with only 7 players.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Well, with a $1.5M cap, you'd have room for 1 superstar player at $1M and 6 more players at the league minimum of $75K with $50K left over. Hard to field a team with only 7 players.

Yeah, but you're forgetting the $500 million media contract.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Yeah, but you're forgetting the $500 million media contract.

He has a $1.5M salary cap - it doesn't matter if he has $500M or $2 Billion - his cap is going to prevent him from spending that extra money on players.

All I was pointing out is he might want to consider changing his cap to a higher limit.

[legofarley]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Well, with a $1.5M cap, you'd have room for 1 superstar player at $1M and 6 more players at the league minimum of $75K with $50K left over. Hard to field a team with only 7 players.

What I meant by salary cap is to limit individual contracts to $1.5M per player. What would you recommend for a team salary cap?

[Cinnamon J. Scudworth]

I made a league on this scale once. I don't remember the figures I used, but at that scale, the question of whether you are using scouting and development budgets, plus the coaching model, also weigh heavily.

Here is the process I went through.

First, calculate your average annual revenue:

(average attendance) times (average ticket price) times (number of home games) = home box office revenue

PLUS

(average attendance) times (average ticket price) times (number of away times) times (visitor's set % of gate share) = revenue from away games

PLUS

any national/local media contracts and merchandise

= GROSS REVENUE

SUBTRACT average player development budget, average scouting budget (if applicable)

= AVAILABLE PAYROLL

SUBTRACT average coach salary times the number of coaches in each organization (major leagues and minor leagues) (if applicable)

= AVAILABLE PLAYER PAYROLL

Now you can determine the "average" player salary. First, take the difference between the secondary roster and the active roster. At default settings, of course, this is 15. These players will be getting the league minimum salary. Make up a baseline minimum that sounds right and multiply that by 15. Now subtract that total from the player payroll.

You are left with the active roster payroll. Divide by 25 (or whatever you've set the active roster limit to be), and this is your "average player" salary. By taking into account the distance between the "average player" and the league minimum, you can now set the average salary tiers in relation to each other in a realistic way.

It takes a little bit of trial and error but this covers all of the bases.

[Antonin]

I've never had a salary cap in any of my leagues, but have toyed with the idea. Problem is, I just don't know how to control league finances in a SIMPLE way. I have always played with the default financial system. But in a league I just started, I notice that one team has a payroll more than twice as high as one of the other teams.

I'd like this league to have more parity.

With an existing league, can you simply set a salary cap in the offseason, something approximately equal to your league's current highest salary, and thereby control finances without messing up everything? Do you also need to set average salaries?

Some simple tips on evening out the league's financial playing field would be appreciated.