Best use of Financial resources

[Acuna Matata]

Quite by accident during a recent offseason i noticed that the amateur scouting slider had shifted to 100% and in the months that followed my scout found top rated players aplenty for my farm system. As a result i intentionally set the scouting funds slider (only in the offseason) to 100% for amateur scouting now and it still ticks along nicely.
I tend to invest the max 24 million per year in scouting but im not totally sure its the best use of my resources.
My total budget per year is usually 130m with me aiming to use 75m or under on player payroll.
Bearing this in mind then im wondering if there are any interesting ideas out there as to how to use the yearly budget to get the most value resulting for your team.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by Acuna Matata

Quite by accident during a recent offseason i noticed that the amateur scouting slider had shifted to 100% and in the months that followed my scout found top rated players aplenty for my farm system. As a result i intentionally set the scouting funds slider (only in the offseason) to 100% for amateur scouting now and it still ticks along nicely.
I tend to invest the max 24 million per year in scouting but im not totally sure its the best use of my resources.
My total budget per year is usually 130m with me aiming to use 75m or under on player payroll.
Bearing this in mind then im wondering if there are any interesting ideas out there as to how to use the yearly budget to get the most value resulting for your team.

First, remember budgeting in OOTP is nothing like real world budgeting--something I retired from after 40+ years. So SPEND IT ALL every year. You don't get even a merit badge for saving money in this game.

Next, there are two main spigots in the financials, market size and the owner. They basically turn off much easier than they increase. So when they align to give you money, SPEND IT ALL.

If you go 100% on scouting, you need to spend a lot on Player Development, also. Otherwise you are letting your bright shiny new cars rust in the rain.

[NoOne]

scouting:

if you don't have an international league active - like NBL? in japan or something custom, you do not need international scouting. generated international free agents and international amatuer free agents fall under mlb / amatuer scouting budgets, respectively. it's only an 'international scouting' budget if it is a player in a simulated international league. (as of '18 for sure, 99% certain it didn't change in '19, but double check).

i always zero it out, and my IAFA in july are well-scouted with my augmented amatuer budget. i actually spend more in MiL, but there's 'lots' to go around when dividing 24M by 3 and mlb scouting only requires ~4M?-6M? to be highly accurate on default settings with a great scout, possibly even lower. so, you can dump ~10M into one of them that fits your organizational needs for that year.

(drafting #1-10? otherwise likely want it in MiL scouting for trades)

as far as moving the slider in the offseason, i don't think it matters. i am pretty sure it doesn't 'reset' until the budget locks, but i could be wrong too. Also, to see any changes you'd need a new scouting report. if you simply looked at a screen, changed budget, and then went back to previous screen, it would look the same without a new scouting report.

if you (can?) advanced far enough for a new report, it's very possible this works. you'd notice more discrepancies and maybe a bit more 'sway' in the scouting report history. you'll typically see small movements even when nothign is happening, though. so, it'd have to be considerably more pronounced.

while i am a proponent of spending 24m on scouting, there may be times you need to eat into that to maintain a fat payroll for a ~year. i would avoid it like the plague, but still a good idea in a few contexts.

same with developement. if rich, spend 36m, otherwise let it vary due to payroll needs. (including IAFA and draft budgets -- being able to sign them is just as important as seeing them accurately)

spend like a miserly, greedy bast^#d on payroll, but as far as spending all of your money per year as an over-arching conepct, yes do that. letting that 40M/year guy go when you can get AS-quality at ~20M is typically the right move. so, spend like a drunken sailor only after you have payroll locked up for that year or can predict it safely and accurately. and, if you can afford that 40M/year, go ahead and do it.


money:

think i said this elsewhere, the last line sums it up.

you can affect revenue from ticket sales too... find ways to max that as the season goes along. in winning years, you should be able to escalate throughout the season at various points. opening day you can charge more, too. playoffs you can charge more, too.

in an effort to learn the basics of how it works (assuming this still works in '19) you can set a ticket price, 'start a game' but don't go beyond the settings for that 1 game. you can see the attendance number.

there are 'tiers' of attendance relative to factors at play. ~full house may not always be exactly full capacity, and other resulting attendances will have a range of ticket prices that cause that tier of attendance as a result. each with a variance so that it isn't so easily distinguishable, but definitely exclusive ranges at the top at least. if you tracked by %, i bet it'd be obvious. figure out what attendance you want to maintain and start to learn high high you can price tickets at a particular date in season relative to win percentage (longer winning streaks at beginning of season definitely improve your revenue as opposed to a long winning streak at end of season, so it is incremental and based on wins/losses/time etc)

anyway, increasing revenue will increase next year's budget relative, all other factors remaining the same.