Draft Expenses?

[mgoetze]

So, every year, my owner tells me he has set aside $7m for signing bonuses for draft picks. I then go on to spend about $3m of that. The draft pick signing deadline comes and goes, and my balance sheet still shows $7m draft expenses.

What happens to the remaining $4m? Do they just disappear? Why can't I spend that money on, say, international amateur free agents?

[Ts-Rock]

YEP! it's the biggest waste of money there is. If you don't spend it you lose it! This is horrible in online lgs cause $4m could be the difference in acquiring that deadline player to fill a injury or bench depth or pen arm. one of my biggest "WTF" things about OOTP. IMO if you don't use you should get it back!

[Bluenoser]

Budgets don't work like that. You don't just take the surplus from one budget and throw it into another one. There's a lot more to it than that.

It is modeled correctly in OOTP, works like real life.

[VanillaGorilla]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Budgets don't work like that. You don't just take the surplus from one budget and throw it into another one. There's a lot more to it than that.

It is modeled correctly in OOTP, works like real life.

I'll alert the Los Angeles City Council.

[mgoetze]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Budgets don't work like that. You don't just take the surplus from one budget and throw it into another one. There's a lot more to it than that.

It is modeled correctly in OOTP, works like real life.

OK well how about like in real life I get to talk to the owner beforehand to tell him what I think a realistic budget would be?

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by mgoetze

OK well how about like in real life I get to talk to the owner beforehand to tell him what I think a realistic budget would be?

Do you think the budgets in OOTP aren't realistic?

[mgoetze]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Do you think the budgets in OOTP aren't realistic?

Yes, I think in real life the owner/GM interaction is much different than in OOTP. In real life an owner might want a certain amount of the budget to be spent on (specific or any) star players, but he won't give a **** how much of the budget is spent on draft signing bonuses vs., say, international amateur free agent signing bonuses, and would leave this decision entirely to the GM.

[VanillaGorilla]

When the owner gives the draft budget, he says you can go over that number but, if you do, spending will have to be reduced elsewhere.

If you can go over budget in the draft by reducing scouting expenses, for example, it seems to be very reasonable to say you can increase scouting expenses by reducing what you spend on the draft.

In my last draft I drafted a pitcher in the late first rd who was tagged as 'extremely hard' for me to sign. I offered him in excess of $2 million over what he asked for a bonus. He chose not to sign with me. I should be able to use that $2M elsewhere just as I COULD have raided another budget and offered him $4M over his demand.

So, OOTP does allow you to take the surplus from one budget and put it into the draft budget. It just doesn't allow you to reallocate a surplus from the draft budget. This makes zero sense.

[Ts-Rock]

Originally Posted by VanillaGorilla

So, OOTP does allow you to take the surplus from one budget and put it into the draft budget. It just doesn't allow you to reallocate a surplus from the draft budget. This makes zero sense.

this^^^^^^

[braunfullyaccused]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Budgets don't work like that. You don't just take the surplus from one budget and throw it into another one. There's a lot more to it than that.

It is modeled correctly in OOTP, works like real life.

Cept', yes they do. Operational cash-flow estimates and forward looking financial modeling exist independent of a (annual) budget.

Regardless, the feature is broke and doesn't appear to work as intended and covered in the OOTP manual.

The 'Draft Expenses' line item in the 'Current Financial Overview' portion should reflect actual activity, just like the other figures do.

From the manual under the section "Current Financial Overview"

Draft Expenses: Draft expenses paid so far this season.

OOTP Manual

[beorn]

I think it's a practical problem.

If the draft money were interchangeable with other money, then many teams (human and AI) would end up without enough money to sign draft picks. This would not really be in the best interests of a league, both for competitive reasons and because large numbers of makeup picks in following seasons makes things ridiculous (and tends to be self perpetuating).

So some draft money is always there, no matter how much long or short term financial trouble the team is in. Spend yourself into a bind, and you have to do without contract extensions and free agents, but not completely without draft picks.

However, the whole thing could be made more transparent.

[Mike Lowe]

Sort of related:

Where does the budget for international FA come from? What happens if I don't use it?

Is it like the draft in that it's separate from the team finance (regular) budget?

There's a young INTL player I'd like to sign, but honestly...if it's regular team money, I don't want to waste it on a 17 year old.

[beorn]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowe

Sort of related:

Where does the budget for international FA come from? What happens if I don't use it?

Is it like the draft in that it's separate from the team finance (regular) budget?

There's a young INTL player I'd like to sign, but honestly...if it's regular team money, I don't want to waste it on a 17 year old.

This is just a regular expenditure, like signing a player to a contract. There is no separate budget for international ammies.

[slugga27]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowe

Sort of related:

Where does the budget for international FA come from? What happens if I don't use it?

Is it like the draft in that it's separate from the team finance (regular) budget?

There's a young INTL player I'd like to sign, but honestly...if it's regular team money, I don't want to waste it on a 17 year old.

I could be wrong, but I think it comes from regular team money (money for FA's). The reason I believe this is the case is because I attempted to make an offer to an IFA and couldn't because I didn't have enough money in the budget.

[mgoetze]

Still annoys me, can someone tell me whether anything has changed in OOTP 15?