League/Story idea

madjac74 · 10-26-2016, 03:34 PM

I want to write a story about a fledgling league trying to become successful in competition against the MLB. My plan is to simulate the 2016 season and then add a 4 team league. I was happy to see my Cubbies won the first simulation, however Cleveland didn't even make the playoffs. I wasn't happy to see my attempt to add a 4 team league in the off-season, locked up the game. No biggie it was just a test run.

Anyhoo my goal is to create the new league and not generate any new players. My hope is that the new league will start off poaching free agents and minor league players and even Mexican League players.

Has anyone tried anything like this or maybe have tips on how to get the new league started? Any help or insights would be appreciated.

Not sure how minor league contracts work with going to a different league

jpeters1734 · 10-26-2016, 05:55 PM

a very cool idea. I'm interested in seeing the responses

BIG17EASY · 10-26-2016, 10:27 PM

Vince McMahon, is that you?

madjac74 · 10-27-2016, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BIG17EASY

Vince McMahon, is that you?

Haha I thought of the XFL too as I was posting it. I think a league competing with the MLB would probably suffer the same fate

ohiodevil · 10-27-2016, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madjac74

I want to write a story about a fledgling league trying to become successful in competition against the MLB. My plan is to simulate the 2016 season and then add a 4 team league. I was happy to see my Cubbies won the first simulation, however Cleveland didn't even make the playoffs. I wasn't happy to see my attempt to add a 4 team league in the off-season, locked up the game. No biggie it was just a test run.

Anyhoo my goal is to create the new league and not generate any new players. My hope is that the new league will start off poaching free agents and minor league players and even Mexican League players.

Has anyone tried anything like this or maybe have tips on how to get the new league started? Any help or insights would be appreciated.

Not sure how minor league contracts work with going to a different league

I see why it locked up....the Cubs won the World Series

I have tried this in the past, I set up a 6 team United States Baseball Association and had teams in the larger markets (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston) and also teams in Las Vegas and Dallas. The first few years were tough, they really only signed older MLB guys and guys from the Mexican and Japanese league, none of which would play in the majors, or at least start. As it went on they signed the occasional "good" but never a star player from the MLB. They eventually became just another International League, where they would develop a really good player, only to have him sign with a MLB team when he hit free agency.

I think I set the prestige at 8 or 9 and it had fiances set a little lower than MLB, I think I had them use financials from 2005, so they would not be on the exact same level as the MLB. I did this because I couldn't see a league start up and start signing the big stars away right away. I think about 10 years into the league, I ended up moving all the teams to Canada and renamed the league Canadian Baseball League, it was successful but never reached the level of the MLB, seemed to be comparable with Japan or Korea.

jpeters1734 · 10-27-2016, 10:28 AM

unfortunately with how the game must be set up, it's impossible for any league to overtake the MLB organically. You have to intervene by matching the prestige and finances.

A cool idea would be to create a corporate All-star league. It would have the marketing power of the mega corporations and you could lure away the best players by infusing more money into the league. Maybe take the top 4-8 corporations. Actually, I have a plane ride tomorrow. Maybe I'll try something like this

madjac74 · 10-30-2016, 04:48 PM

I came up with the idea of a pair of baseball fans raising the money to start an independent league via kickstarter. A 4 team league playing each game on the same day in the same stadium which they start off renting out by the day. I'm also a bit of a board game fanatic currently working on a game design and want to incorporate some board game mechanics into my fantasy league.

For example...a deck of possible stadium sites each with a different rental cost and also a negative and positive bonus. "Abandoned community college field offers cheap weekend rental but lower concession revenue"

I havent delved too much into how revenue works in ootp but that will be an important part of my experiment. Keeping track of revenue for teams and the league as a whole so the league can purchase upgrades and expand. For example..earning enough to hire a professional caterer to improve concession revenue. or even earning enough to build their own stadium.

I've actually read some articles on the costs of running an independent team so I can keep it a bit realistic but mostly I want it to be fun. After a few years I plan on having the owners visit the Piranha Tank looking for more funding

Any suggestions or help on handling the revenue aspect and how to handle costs of running a league will be greatly appreciated.

madjac74 · 10-31-2016, 02:58 PM

would love some ideas from the community in picking a central city for my league where one team will reside and all the games will be played also with 3 good sized cities within a bus ride of the central city. My players will have to ride buses to start saving us money. I really picture a small market to start where my main character/league founder will be located.

Thank you!

United32 · 10-31-2016, 05:35 PM

Why not go with Toronto as a central city? Since it's outside of the United States, it has a perception of a smaller market but if you look at population numbers (I believe it's top 5 in largest cities in North America) and attendance (3rd in MLB in average attendance per game this year), there's clearly a strong love for baseball there. It's within 4 hours ride of Detroit and Syracuse. Buffalo is the nearest good size city.

Also, just to give some story angles. You could have your initial seasons play out during the MLB offseason. Just like how the XFL season was during the NFL offseason. The fact that the Rogers Centre has a dome would really play well into this so the winter won't be much of an issue.

You can also play around with the fact that the Canadian Dollar is kinda weak right now (compared to what it was a couple years ago), so definitely pros and cons to think about there.

madjac74 · 11-01-2016, 02:00 PM

I like your idea so i'm doing some test runs with the CanAm League based in Toronto with Teams from Toronto, Niagara Falls, Rochester and Syracuse. This has been a tough task so far.

I played the 2016 season of the mlb and then added the 4 team league in the offseason after the winter meetings. First problem is that I can't use Advanced mode for some reason so I can't stop the game from filling the rosters with fictional players. I had to delete them all by hand. I also set a $55,000 team cap but Syracuse managed to rack up a $12,000,000 player payroll. I think its because I didnt change the "typical salary" figures but I figured it shouldn't matter if there is a salary cap.

Back to the drawing board!

madjac74 · 11-02-2016, 02:56 PM

The use of templates has taken a lot of headache out of this process

BIG17EASY · 11-02-2016, 04:04 PM

Scranton (cue the theme music to The Office) could work. Three hours max from Syracuse, Philly, NYC, Harrisburg, Rochester and Hartford. And not much father to Baltimore

madjac74 · 11-03-2016, 01:04 PM

I have one more obstacle in getting my project going. This is the first year of the league yet it has prior year financials that are way over inflated for the league startup. Does anyone know if you can reset or delete the previous year in the financial report? Or is there any way to work around it? Thanks for any tips!

Cryomaniac · 11-03-2016, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madjac74

Haha I thought of the XFL too as I was posting it. I think a league competing with the MLB would probably suffer the same fate

The XFL was a fine idea, somewhat hampered by the fact that it was run by Vince MacMahon.

madjac74 · 11-13-2016, 03:12 PM

I've learned a few things in the trials and tribulations of developing my league. It may be common knowledge or it may not be but I wanted to share in case someone else attempts to run the same type of league.

1. The best way I found to use the real MLB in a fictional setting is to start a standard league (I chose the MLB, Mexican League and all the Independent Leagues) an then save it as a template. Create your fictional league and import the template.

2. The best way to add a league with no players that will funnel players from the MLB, Mexican and Independent leagues is to start your fictional league in a new game. Release all the fictional players to free agency via game settings>clear rosters and then do a mass delete in the free agents. Release all team personnel and then individually delete them in available personnel. Save as a template and then import it into your fictional world.

3. How to start a new fictional league with no previous financials. Disable financial system in the game settings, when setting up your league in the previous step. Save as a template. Import league into new fictional world or current fictional world and then enable financial system. There will be nothing in the previous years financials in the financial report or accounting section of the front office so you literally get to start from scratch.

Hope this helps someone. Im sure many know this by now but you never know!

Go Cowboys!

10-26-2016, 03:34 PM	#1
madjac74 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 133	League/Story idea I want to write a story about a fledgling league trying to become successful in competition against the MLB. My plan is to simulate the 2016 season and then add a 4 team league. I was happy to see my Cubbies won the first simulation, however Cleveland didn't even make the playoffs. I wasn't happy to see my attempt to add a 4 team league in the off-season, locked up the game. No biggie it was just a test run. Anyhoo my goal is to create the new league and not generate any new players. My hope is that the new league will start off poaching free agents and minor league players and even Mexican League players. Has anyone tried anything like this or maybe have tips on how to get the new league started? Any help or insights would be appreciated. Not sure how minor league contracts work with going to a different league

10-26-2016, 05:55 PM	#2
jpeters1734 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Juust a bit outside... Posts: 6,315	a very cool idea. I'm interested in seeing the responses __________________ "Cannonball Coming!" Go Bucs!! Founder and League Caretaker of the Professional Baseball Circuit, www.probaseballcircuit.com An Un-Official Guide to Minor League Management in OOTP 21 Ratings Scale Conversion Cross-Reference Cheat Sheet

10-27-2016, 10:28 AM	#6
jpeters1734 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Juust a bit outside... Posts: 6,315	unfortunately with how the game must be set up, it's impossible for any league to overtake the MLB organically. You have to intervene by matching the prestige and finances. A cool idea would be to create a corporate All-star league. It would have the marketing power of the mega corporations and you could lure away the best players by infusing more money into the league. Maybe take the top 4-8 corporations. Actually, I have a plane ride tomorrow. Maybe I'll try something like this __________________ "Cannonball Coming!" Go Bucs!! Founder and League Caretaker of the Professional Baseball Circuit, www.probaseballcircuit.com An Un-Official Guide to Minor League Management in OOTP 21 Ratings Scale Conversion Cross-Reference Cheat Sheet

10-31-2016, 05:35 PM	#9
United32 Bat Boy Join Date: Oct 2015 Posts: 8	Why not go with Toronto as a central city? Since it's outside of the United States, it has a perception of a smaller market but if you look at population numbers (I believe it's top 5 in largest cities in North America) and attendance (3rd in MLB in average attendance per game this year), there's clearly a strong love for baseball there. It's within 4 hours ride of Detroit and Syracuse. Buffalo is the nearest good size city. Also, just to give some story angles. You could have your initial seasons play out during the MLB offseason. Just like how the XFL season was during the NFL offseason. The fact that the Rogers Centre has a dome would really play well into this so the winter won't be much of an issue. You can also play around with the fact that the Canadian Dollar is kinda weak right now (compared to what it was a couple years ago), so definitely pros and cons to think about there. Last edited by United32; 10-31-2016 at 05:37 PM.

11-13-2016, 03:12 PM	#15
madjac74 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 133	I've learned a few things in the trials and tribulations of developing my league. It may be common knowledge or it may not be but I wanted to share in case someone else attempts to run the same type of league. 1. The best way I found to use the real MLB in a fictional setting is to start a standard league (I chose the MLB, Mexican League and all the Independent Leagues) an then save it as a template. Create your fictional league and import the template. 2. The best way to add a league with no players that will funnel players from the MLB, Mexican and Independent leagues is to start your fictional league in a new game. Release all the fictional players to free agency via game settings>clear rosters and then do a mass delete in the free agents. Release all team personnel and then individually delete them in available personnel. Save as a template and then import it into your fictional world. 3. How to start a new fictional league with no previous financials. Disable financial system in the game settings, when setting up your league in the previous step. Save as a template. Import league into new fictional world or current fictional world and then enable financial system. There will be nothing in the previous years financials in the financial report or accounting section of the front office so you literally get to start from scratch. Hope this helps someone. Im sure many know this by now but you never know! Go Cowboys! Last edited by madjac74; 11-13-2016 at 03:15 PM.

10-26-2016, 10:27 PM	#3
BIG17EASY Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 3,291	Vince McMahon, is that you?

10-30-2016, 04:48 PM	#7
madjac74 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 133	I came up with the idea of a pair of baseball fans raising the money to start an independent league via kickstarter. A 4 team league playing each game on the same day in the same stadium which they start off renting out by the day. I'm also a bit of a board game fanatic currently working on a game design and want to incorporate some board game mechanics into my fantasy league. For example...a deck of possible stadium sites each with a different rental cost and also a negative and positive bonus. "Abandoned community college field offers cheap weekend rental but lower concession revenue" I havent delved too much into how revenue works in ootp but that will be an important part of my experiment. Keeping track of revenue for teams and the league as a whole so the league can purchase upgrades and expand. For example..earning enough to hire a professional caterer to improve concession revenue. or even earning enough to build their own stadium. I've actually read some articles on the costs of running an independent team so I can keep it a bit realistic but mostly I want it to be fun. After a few years I plan on having the owners visit the Piranha Tank looking for more funding Any suggestions or help on handling the revenue aspect and how to handle costs of running a league will be greatly appreciated.

10-31-2016, 02:58 PM	#8
madjac74 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 133	would love some ideas from the community in picking a central city for my league where one team will reside and all the games will be played also with 3 good sized cities within a bus ride of the central city. My players will have to ride buses to start saving us money. I really picture a small market to start where my main character/league founder will be located. Thank you!

11-01-2016, 02:00 PM	#10
madjac74 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 133	I like your idea so i'm doing some test runs with the CanAm League based in Toronto with Teams from Toronto, Niagara Falls, Rochester and Syracuse. This has been a tough task so far. I played the 2016 season of the mlb and then added the 4 team league in the offseason after the winter meetings. First problem is that I can't use Advanced mode for some reason so I can't stop the game from filling the rosters with fictional players. I had to delete them all by hand. I also set a $55,000 team cap but Syracuse managed to rack up a $12,000,000 player payroll. I think its because I didnt change the "typical salary" figures but I figured it shouldn't matter if there is a salary cap. Back to the drawing board!

11-02-2016, 02:56 PM	#11
madjac74 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 133	The use of templates has taken a lot of headache out of this process

11-02-2016, 04:04 PM	#12
BIG17EASY Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 3,291	Scranton (cue the theme music to The Office) could work. Three hours max from Syracuse, Philly, NYC, Harrisburg, Rochester and Hartford. And not much father to Baltimore

11-03-2016, 01:04 PM	#13
madjac74 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2011 Posts: 133	I have one more obstacle in getting my project going. This is the first year of the league yet it has prior year financials that are way over inflated for the league startup. Does anyone know if you can reset or delete the previous year in the financial report? Or is there any way to work around it? Thanks for any tips!