Any improvements in the Financials?

[mtlcash]

Seems like there hasn't been that much of a drastic change to that part of the game over the last several releases. Does anyone know if OOTP19 adds anything, like how you can spend money (not just on general player dev/scouting etc..). But it would be great if they could add to that this year.

[torpidbeaver]

I’d like the option to sign a guy as a bench player. Maybe you need to pay him more, or maybe a lot of guys wouldn’t sign knowing they’d be benched. But the 1-Star or 1.5-star guys you sign to bench contracts would be less likely to bitch and moan about playing time.

Maybe eventually you get deeper into defined roles, like 4th outfielder or utility guy or backup catcher.

Whatever the case, is like to be able to sign guys with the expectation that they aren’t going to be a starter.

[HercMighty]

Seeing as a GM would be heavily involved in financials I to am surprised how little there is to this part of the game. Should be more to ticket prices, merchandising, and TV. Financials screen could use a make over to, I never did like how it was laid out.

[MrBojangles]

Originally Posted by HercMighty

Seeing as a GM would be heavily involved in financials I to am surprised how little there is to this part of the game. Should be more to ticket prices, merchandising, and TV. Financials screen could use a make over to, I never did like how it was laid out.

Agreed. Even concession stands would be a factor.

[falcon4e]

The improvements I'd like to see are integrating how other professional sports leagues handle free agency. This would give us more options of how we'd like to construct our leagues.

[jaysfan17]

It would be a nice feature, but for those of us who aren't interested in handling financials other than maybe the player/staff budgets, I'd like to be able to hire a character to handle the finances.

[wallewalls]

what i really want is to have IFA pool money and you can trade that with other GMs, this is a big part of the MLB nowadays

[PSUColonel]

Most GMs today are more or less act as the "Director of Baseball Operations"...they don't usually get involved with concessions or ticket prices and such...to me, this should be an operation of ownership.

If you want more detailed finances, I can think of better ways to do so from a baseball side of things such as the luxury tax and so forth.

[wallewalls]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

Most GMs today are more or less act as the "Director of Baseball Operations"...they don't usually get involved with concessions or ticket prices and such...to me, this should be an operation of ownership.

If you want more detailed finances, I can think of better ways to do so from a baseball side of things such as the luxury tax and so forth.

yes, i really really want the luxury tax in the game as it is in real life. HUGE part of todays MLB, having the AAV of the contract counting against the tax and so on. dont think its in the game this year which is very disappointing to me

[homerj]

Originally Posted by PSUColonel

Most GMs today are more or less act as the "Director of Baseball Operations"...they don't usually get involved with concessions or ticket prices and such...to me, this should be an operation of ownership.

If you want more detailed finances, I can think of better ways to do so from a baseball side of things such as the luxury tax and so forth.

Yes, there's enough actual baseball to dive into without worrying about in-depth non-baseball related financials. I don't really want to be looking at full-blown balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow trying to get profitability out of a team.

I've always just considered what we see as budgets, is just the baseball operations.

[Calvert98]

Originally Posted by homerj

Yes, there's enough actual baseball to dive into without worrying about in-depth non-baseball related financials. I don't really want to be looking at full-blown balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow trying to get profitability out of a team.

I've always just considered what we see as budgets, is just the baseball operations.

Agreed. You are the GM; you have your budget from Ownership (which is really for the most part, it's own office). As you mentioned, it appears to be that way in the game and it makes sense.

[Rain King]

The Financial improvement I would like to see is a re-balancing to go along with Promotion-Relegation. Currently, if you have any type of realistic setup you have to adjust a team's Market Level as they move between leagues (i.e. a team that is a 7 in League Two will likely be more like a 4 in League One). It would be nice if that was done automatically.

[Bkennedy]

I don't think I'd particularly care about messing with things like concessions, but I *would* like to see the team financials be smarter. I typically play as the Yankees and usually have anywhere between the 5th and 8th highest allowed budget.... that seems pretty off lol

[majesty95]

I’m not big on concessions and such either. Unless you’re going to go full on owner mode and allow you to hire and fire a GM. But probably not much interest in that bc you don’t have much control of your team.

[wallewalls]

Originally Posted by Bkennedy

I don't think I'd particularly care about messing with things like concessions, but I *would* like to see the team financials be smarter. I typically play as the Yankees and usually have anywhere between the 5th and 8th highest allowed budget.... that seems pretty off lol

you could go into commish mode and edit the owners willingness to spend. i've done it before

[Bkennedy]

Originally Posted by wallewalls

you could go into commish mode and edit the owners willingness to spend. i've done it before

Oh for sure, but I always feel like I'm cheating and I'd theoretically like to be able to play Challenge mode as well. I'll be the first to say I'm not too great at this game but I love bringing my team to the gloryland!

[r0nster]

GMs do negotiate how much the vender will pay the team to be there same goes for advertising and media (TV, radio, print) Also negotiate with city for land zoning issues that always crop up forcing teams to pay a bit more. GMs also participate in negotiations in staying in a city plus negotiate terms for minor league teams to be within their organization most teams do 3 year deals while others as I have learned do it on a yearly bases as that's dying off as they are trying to do longer term deals of which I wonder of GM's tired of having to do it each year or every 3 years on that front. GMs have a bigger role in things we often don't realize in trying to keep team making a profit.

[Leo_The_Lip]

I have suggested this in the past, and continue to think these are great improvements:

1) You agree to a three budget along with goals and objectives you will meet.

Examples would be: make the playoffs, improve the minor league system and so forth.

2) Owner demands would be consistent with budgetary agreements. If the owner gives you less money, then he doesn't ask you to sign an all-star, for example.

3) The budget is NEVER adjusted up or down by the owner saying he wants you to end up with a cash balance of $X million. In real life, that is not done like that. He has already agreed to fund you the budget amount, what he makes is his problem, not the team's. In reality, the baseball team is consolidated into the ownership's tax return and other companies are brought in before computing taxes. So unless you want OUT OF THE H & R BLOCK BASEBALL game, let's skip this part forever.

4) By going this way, the game need not implement the balance sheet or income statements in any way. Much simpler and actually far more realistic.

[Calvert98]

As long as the AI can assess it correctly (and it seems to do “ok” with cash/salary retention), I think trading of IFA pool money would be a good addition, if not in OOTP 19, then at least in OOTP 20. Same with the Luxury tax, which could be a bit more difficult however in terms of the AI’s assessment of the overall Club’s management strategy; also, this could be something that can change rather quickly in the real world, so the Luxury tax should be something that is an option and can be adjusted by the player.

Finally, when I go to baseball games, I think drinks and snacks are too expensive; if there is an option to make them cheaper, I’m all for it (ok, this is a bad joke, and no, I don’t want to deal with concessions in the game; give me my budget, and then let me deal with baseball operations).

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by wallewalls

yes, i really really want the luxury tax in the game as it is in real life. HUGE part of todays MLB, having the AAV of the contract counting against the tax and so on. dont think its in the game this year which is very disappointing to me

The problem is that the current real life rules are rather complicated, and adding them to the game without adjustments is a lot of work and would confuse the majority of users. We'll likely look at this after the release, right now it is not a priority I'm afraid.