Surprised Market Size increased after 1 season

[jmknpk2]

I was a bit surprised that my team's market size increased after only one season (I started with an inaugural draft).

I had always operated under the presumption that fan loyalty would increase before market size increased. I was wrong. My fan loyalty remained the same.

I had always operated under the presumption that fan loyalty and market size increases were very gradual and (approximately decade) long term projects. I was wrong here about market size, with a change in only 1 season.

My team did have the best league record in its first season.
My team did win the championship.
My team is stocked with mostly popular players (who were almost all recognized as "insignifcant" or less during the regular season). So there was a huge popularity increase during the off-season as players artificially jumped from "insignificant" to "popular" or better.
Fan interest increased from 59 to 86 during the regular season, then jumped to 100 before the pre-season.
I am still surprised that all these factors impacted the market size so quickly.

This must be the best team I've ever assembled.
This also means my team is very well suited to become a dynasty, as long as I properly manage money matters, which I believe I do well.

By the way, this great team was assembled by more than my personal management skills alone. I used commissioner mode (absolute value) ratings during the inaugural draft, hired the best scout in the league, and have other settings which give me a significant edge over the AI. I also gave myself the 1st draft pick in a serpentine inaugural draft, while taking the last (first pick in the 2nd round) pick in all the other rounds. Basically upgraded my team 111 overall picks in the first round.

I have other advantages over the AI as well. For example, this is an international league of 112 teams with only 50 (1 from each U.S. state) American teams. I have a foreigner limit of 5 players in the majors, with unlimited foreigners in the minors. American teams, like mine, have a much larger base of available players to use to fill out our team than international teams. While still retaining the possibility to get the top players from each international nation. The largest international nation bases are 14 teams for Japan and 14 for Mexico. Then there are much smaller proportions for the remainder of international teams. Beijing, for example, which is the only Chinese team. China would necessarily be composed of the best Chinese players, other than perhaps the few Chinese players on other teams, and only 5 foreign (e.g. American) players they may use. International teams have disproportionately less options in their player choices.

I doubt there is much source code in the game (if any) to assist the AI general managers to work with the international limit, other than when they are forced to have rosters and starting lineups within the limits.