Suggestions: Front Office Finances

[battists]

This suggestion thread is designed to collect suggestions for the next version of OOTP, on the following topic:

Front Office Finances

Includes
- Things related to team finances, including stuff like salary caps, merchandising, the front office screen, and related reporting tools.

Excludes
- Nothing about player or personnel contracts, we'll do a separate thread about this. This thread is just for the "big picture."

Instructions
We will use this thread to collect suggestions on the above topic. Later on, we hope to present this information back to the community in a way that would allow you to vote and prioritize certain features.

If you would like to participate, here are the rules!

1. Only 1 suggestion per post.
2. Suggestions must be on-topic for the thread.
3. Constructive, non-inflammatory suggestions only.
4. No comments on others' suggestions are necessary. That means, we don't need 15 posts in the thread saying "Great idea!" or "I agree!"
5. Please don't link to other forum threads as your way of making suggestions. ("My suggestion can be found HERE.") If it's important enough to you that you want it in this thread, then it should be important enough to put it in the format I've asked for here!
6. You can certainly post suggestions that conflict with or build upon earlier suggestions.
7. Mockups are welcomed, they really help Markus see what you're interested in accomplishing.

Format for Suggestions

Suggestion
What is your suggestion? Be as specific as possible; include the screen you're talking about, if applicable.

Reason
Why do you think this is important? If this is to correct what you perceive as a problem in OOTP 2007, what is that problem? Be as specific as possible.

Priority
In your opinion, how important is this suggestion?
High (MUST have), Medium (should have), Low (nice to have))


Handy Cut-and-Paste Suggestion Form:

Suggestion


Reason


Priority


Thanks for participating!

Steve

[Hazza]

Suggestion:

Re-add the "Owner mood/personality" information to the front office.

Reason

Was their prior, and was nice to have.

Priority

Low. (obviously)

[battists]

Suggestion
Devise SOME way to make it crystal clear how much money you can spend on free agents and contract extensions, and make the numbers that make that up visible somehow.

Maybe an "accountant's summary" page, that wouldn't be right in your face, but you could dig into it if you wanted the detailed numbers.

Reason
Despite the strides made in 2007 in the front office area, it's just STILL too darn hard to understand why you have the amount you have.

In Tech Support and on the boards, there's still just way too many cases where it's very difficult to explain why the number is what it is.

Priority
High

[battists]

Suggestion
Have a way to begin a league with a salary cap in place, and have the game make sure all of the teams are under the cap in year 1.

There should be a relatively easy way to do this, even with the way the game currently assigns contracts. Have the game generate the contracts, and then use a calculation to reduce salaries proportionally league-wide until the largest initial payroll is just under the cap.

For example, if the largest payroll ends up at 100 million, but you want an 80 million cap, multiple all of the contracts in the league by .8 so that all teams are under the cap, and the biggest payroll is right at the cap. All of this would happen before control was returned to the user.

Just a thought.

Reason
Currently, if you want a salary cap, you have to start out with no cap, and gradually get teams under the limit.

Priority
Medium

[Tony M]

Suggestion

Allow Minor League Teams to have separate finances that feed through to the Major League Team.

Reason

It would enable a more realistic financial structure. Players in Minor League teams without ML Contracts must be getting paid and the people who come to watch must be handing money over. It would also allow independent unaffiliated teams to inhabit the minors.

Priority

Medium

[Tony M]

Suggestion

Make use of the Stadium Expenses field.

Reason

It must cost something to run a stadium. And there's no financial hit from going into edit ballpark and adding 10,000 seats to a stadium. There are fields for type of park, type of field, size of foul ground so it must be possible to come up with a formula for general stadium expenses.

Priority

Medium

[Mattymo]

Suggestion
Have the ability to "build a new ballpark" or "renovate", which would obviously cost money. I guess that the current finance structure wouldn't work because that money is only meant to go to staff/players, but it would be neat...kind of like what I believe is in the new Madden (though I don't play any other game but OOTP. It'd be great just to have more off-the-field stuff involved in the game.
Reason
It would just add to the game. Plus, I feel like I'm cheating when I just change the name of the stadium and pretend that they built a new stadium.
Priority
Low

[Muzamba]

Suggestion
Add a Rivalry Meter, or some other way of identifying historical and geographical rivalries between teams. This could be as complex as a sliding bar on a team's Editor screen for every opposing team in the league or as simple as a Top 3 Rivals list or a team-vs.-team grid. These could either be locked or allowed to fluxuate over time.

Reason
This would be a way to accurately reflect more intense rivalries that result in a surge in attendance and an increase in on-field tensions.

Priority
MEDIUM

[Hazza]

Suggestion:

Add in College/Hs "finance."

Reason:

One would presume that richer COL/HS(S) would have more money in scholarships to offer up and coming players. Just a thought.

Priority:

Low.

[Mattymo]

Suggestion
Allow "fan interest" to increase when you manually edit a player to join a team, just like when "fan interest" decreases when you manually edit a player to leave a team.

Reason
I just performed a World Cup and manually moved players from their regular teams to the correct WC teams, and back again. When I moved them FROM their teams, fan interest declined (including my team), but then when I moved them back, fan interest to increase back to where it was. That's not fair!

Priority
for me, high...I'm guessing medium, but seems like it's something easy to fix, though I know nothing about this stuff.

[Mattymo]

Originally Posted by Hazza

Suggestion:

Add in College/Hs "finance."

Reason:

One would presume that richer COL/HS(S) would have more money in scholarships to offer up and coming players. Just a thought.

Priority:

Low.

that doesn't happen IRL by the way, all D-1 colleges offer the same amount of scholarships, and high schools don't.

[Charley575]

Suggestion
Add at least the option at league creation to base market size on the size of the market in which the team is located. In conjunction with this, modify the way the game assigns contracts and financials such that prior to the inaugural draft, each team will have a budget that they must live by in the draft. This also means assigning players contracts PRIOR to the draft and making that visable to the user/AI.

* I realize some folks may feel that there are 2 or 3 different suggestions here. I'm sorry for that, but it all goes together. Just one of these ideas alone won't work.

Reason
Realism!!!! New York is NOT a "Tiny" market! Also, it's too easy to win right away when you start with an inaugural draft. All you have to do is draft the best players available and the Money Fairy will grant you a "Huge" market.

Priority
High

[phenom]

Originally Posted by redsoxford

Suggestion

Make use of the Stadium Expenses field.

Reason

It must cost something to run a stadium. And there's no financial hit from going into edit ballpark and adding 10,000 seats to a stadium. There are fields for type of park, type of field, size of foul ground so it must be possible to come up with a formula for general stadium expenses.

Priority

Medium

Originally Posted by Mattymo

Suggestion
Have the ability to "build a new ballpark" or "renovate", which would obviously cost money. I guess that the current finance structure wouldn't work because that money is only meant to go to staff/players, but it would be neat...kind of like what I believe is in the new Madden (though I don't play any other game but OOTP. It'd be great just to have more off-the-field stuff involved in the game.
Reason
It would just add to the game. Plus, I feel like I'm cheating when I just change the name of the stadium and pretend that they built a new stadium.
Priority
Low

to add to these two...

Suggestion
In some way, model in stadium deterioration. Parks get old and crusty and crumbly, and cost of upkeep should reflect that.

Reason
umm... cuz parks get old and crusty and crumbly, and cost of upkeep should reflect that.

Priority
Low-Medium

[falkonisback]

Suggestion:
Allow separate finance settings for each professional league. For instance, maybe you want a separate league that can sign free agents that are left over in your MLB at a lower price. In other words, give the ability to adjust below average player average salary, average player average salary, above average player average salary, etc, etc... instead of one for all leagues, have separate settings for all professional leagues (not talking minors or feeder leagues). If a superstar player's average salary is $15,000,000/yr in the MLB, maybe you want it to be $3,000,000/yr for a different, separate league. (I hope i explained this well enough and didn't just confuse the hell out of anyone.)
</br>Reason:
Would allow you to create league for 'older players' to continue playing instead of just sitting in free agency for 4 or 5 years until they retire and not have to worry about this league signing superstar players that are worth $25M/yr because with the separate settings, that league wouldn't be able to afford it.
</br>Priority:
Medium

[tysok]

Originally Posted by Mattymo

that doesn't happen IRL by the way, all D-1 colleges offer the same amount of scholarships, and high schools don't.

That's true but they don't all cost the same to attend right? So the scholarship from Super-U would be "worth" more than the scholarship to Bob's backyard-U. For various reasons. A financial system for colleges might help mirror that... who wants an education from Bob's backyard-U when you can go to Super-U and get a super-ed.
Sorry, don't know anything about colleges for baseball, or even football, or I would come up with a better analogy.

[Mike775]

Suggestion: Like the one post said before, I would love to be able to biuld and/or renovae the stadium. It would be nice to add more attractive and interactive scoreboards, "todays lineups" on the scoreboard, and something similar in what most ballparks have such as homerun fireworks, flashing lights or like at Shea Stadium; the home run apple. Seeing an active bullpen and the pitcher walking to the mound. You would have the option to pick the size and amount of seats (including luxuary boxes) but of course you would have to pay fees such as state tax and give a portion of the revenue to the state. I would like to see parking lots and how they reflect whos in the stands such as a full lot equals sellout crowd, empty seats equals plenty of parking. YOu could have parking fees to increase funds and of course some would go to the state. I would like to see more animation. The amount of stats put into this game are perfect. In a game that wasnt released here in the U.S. you could watch the games in the stadium (hockey sim similar to OOPB). Lively crowds, cheering, jeering, booing. Add more concession stands/different foods offered, drinks, icecream, pretzels. Have the option of instead calling the game, you as the GM can actually sit in the stands and watch the game. How about press conferences to introduce your new superstar you traded for, or the number one pick in the draft.

Reason: Add to the replay value and would probably please diehard buisness fans as well as add some super realism. It would place this game into the " Just one more turn" category.

Priority: High

[lt2cents]

Suggestion--

Restore (version 6.5 and earlier) some user control for investments in marketing and promotions. Extend this for minor league levels.


Reason--

Game immersion.


Priority--

[Raidergoo]

Processed

[Geebob]

Suggestion: Again, I suggest an import from FM/WSM -- The Finance Page. The teams' actual bottom line and debt is visible, but there is a clear budget for both salaries and expenses (transfer fees). This would be a huge improvement over the current financial screen, which almost guarantees overspending. In the OOTP world, it would indicate how much short term salary was available, as well as what the current wage budget is.

Reason: This works extremely well in the FM/WSM world and makes much more sense than the current, very confusing finance screen.

Priority: Extremely high (something has to be done to improve this screen... why not use something that is proven to work?)

[tysok]

Revenue sharing, again.
It needs to actually do more than a debt relief program. RIght now money is taken out, but not necessarily put back in... it needs to go somewhere. The Yankees don't take a pile of cash at the end of the year and say "Well, no team operated in the red this year, guess I should just shred this cash now".

In one of my leagues I've had a fairly stable financial structure for 10 years. Most teams operate within their money, some fall into the red and receive debt relief... it's been about 50/50 of whether those receiving debt relief have gone in the red the next year.
10 seasons ago I zeroed out all debt, so everyone either had their money, or were at 0 cash.

The worst team in the league (Washington Nationals) has a budget of 32 million, that's 20 million less than the next lowest team. This team WILL NEVER compete to win anything. It stays within it's budget, always makes money, but it's a team of triple A players, average salary of 552k in a league that average 2.9 million.
This league paid in revenue sharing money, and paid out in debt relief... the balance afterward was 104 million dollars that disappeared. The Washington Nationals received $0 in revenue sharing money. $0 paid out to THE poorest team in the league, while 104 million dollars was carted off to the local shredding machine.... some money HAS GOT to be pumped into this team. With it's budget and payroll it CAN NOT get off the mat and compete for anything other than the cellar.

So the suggestion is, either make revenue sharing actually do SOMETHING to help poor teams... or rename the whole system "debt relief" instead.

Priority: Depends, for making revenue sharing actually do something would be HIGH.... for renaming the system to "debt relief" would, I suppose, be low.