Alternative "financials.txt" File for You to Try

[Seviien]

Hi Folks,
I noticed a number of people were posting about difficulties with the default financials.txt file. I had similar issues, so I tinkered around with it a bit for use in my own fictional league. The results were pretty solid, and I thought I'd share the file in case it could be helpful to anyone else.

I ran a few sims from 1901 to 2011 using a 16 team league, and while a few teams every year lost money, no team was perpetually in the red, and things tended to correct after a season or two.

I had a 20% straight revenue share and 33% of the gate going to the visiting team. I'd expect a luxury tax system (or of course no revenue sharing) could lead to more teams being in the red, but I didn't test that, and OOTP has surprised me before
Also, it's calibrated for an 81 game schedule. More that that will mean more revenue, and fewer games will mean less revenue. Player demands should not scale, so keep that in mind.

As far as what I changed vs. the default file... it's basically a complete rewrite. The coefficient scales roughly the same way, but I changed everything else so that the "average" team has the same amount of revenue each year, after adjusting for the coefficient (i.e. inflation). That amount is pegged at 75MM 2010 dollars, before merchandising revenue. As time goes by, more of that revenue shifts towards media contracts, which is realistic. However, there is always some media revenue (not realistic) since it's a great financial stabilizer.

The gap in salaries between stars and other players starts out modest, grows gently until 1970 when free agency started to take off, and then accelerates through the present and stabilizes after 2010.

The file continues on past 2011 and on to 2050, with 1.5% inflation baked in. I'm pretty sure that older versions of OOTP would read past the current year, but I'm not sure if Markus changed that in the past few years.

As far as installation, you'll want to go into your OOTP data folder when OOTP isn't running, and find the folder called "database." Inside, you'll want to change the name of the "financials.txt" file to something like "financials - default.txt". That way you can easily go back if you don't like these results. Then just drop the attached file into the folder. Results probably won't take effect until OOTP recalc's the financials at the end of the year. I'd try it with a test league too, before using it with any leagues you're heavily invested in - just to be safe.