BSL: New Financial Policy - All Owners Read and Check in please

[sinocc]

thanks!

eric

thanks so much for your help! see, just one quick note and you helped me by telling me i am in control of ticket prices. i had no idea i could change that!~ how do you find the league average for ticket prices? i don't know how to do that yet. i tried and tried to trade chipper and could not, then thought i would just keep him and he had a horrible year! i overpaid on salaries that first season sim because i did not understand how to do this. i am getting better at offers for contracts and am signing guys to less than their demands and less years. if i can deal chipper, i think my payroll will be manageable next season

thanks again!

Hang in there. I think you have a really good chance to fix things in a hurry. You can recover a lot faster than most teams since your Market Size is astronomical and you have extreme fan loyalty. A lot of the small market teams should be very jealous that you have that to work with.

Also, I'd look at your ticket prices, too. They're higher than league average. Might need to drop them a little during down seasons to get more fans in the stands and ultimately more gate revenue. In your good years, you can probably raise them much higher than most teams, but the down years some teams are closer to $20 - $22. It's tough to find the right balance so I tinker with mine every few SIMs just to find the right mix of attendence and gate revenue.

It looks like you were pretty challenged starting the season down $30 million in the hole. Your payroll was $101 million on the year so you would have needed a strong Gate to pull that off. Once attendance drops, you need to have that $20 - $30 million cash built up to handle that kind of scenario. Without that in reserve to start the season, you might have been better off taking an $$70-$80 million payroll to be safe. I think every team should build up cash reserves as a first priority. Until you have $20+ million, it's a risk to go negative in any given season. I know we all want to win and be competitive, but it's more important to stay financially solvent and sometimes it takes a season or two of complete rebuilding.

A couple of those long term contracts are really hurting you - Chipper's was pretty risky signing him 3 years when he was 35 years old and likely to decline. Garland and Marte are 2 star players. Not saying they're terrible, but 5 year deals in the $5-$6 million per year range for these guys is probably pushing it and now it makes it tough to trade them.

I would suggest reevaluating your pitching talent. All of your starters except Chacin are 1-star guys. Check out some of the top staffs around and many of them have 3-4 star guys starting and maybe a 2 star guy in the #5 spot. Don't go by stats in previous years before 2007 - it's best to look at the star ratings and Stuff, Movement, Control ratings to see how they're likely to perform. I'm actually impressed that your starters ERA was as good as it was with all of the 1-star guys in your rotation. I know you don't have the money to immediately sign guys and rebuild it, but once you get solid financially, you can work on it.

You've got some really good building blocks in Chacin, Allen, A. Gonzalez, Gardner, Pena, etc. I could see you turning this around quickly - hang in there. I think you're closer than you think.

Eric - Reds

 

[spartanfan1]

No problem - here's a really good page that I like to look at for ticket price comparisons:

Go to BSL, then click on Statistic & Leaders. Then click on the tab that says Team Statistics, next click on the sub-tab of Team Finances. You can see everybody's market size, fan loyalty, and ticket prices here.

The place to change it is on your home page, then click on the Front Office tab. On the lower left of the screen under General Information is where you can edit the ticket price.

You can tinker with it during the season. I usually try to find the max price I can charge and still get strong attendance, but it's a delicate balance.

Eric

 

[sinocc]

where do i find attendance at?

i cannot find the attendance anywhere. i must be blind. help? thanks for all. this is really helping me!

No problem - here's a really good page that I like to look at for ticket price comparisons:

Go to BSL, then click on Statistic & Leaders. Then click on the tab that says Team Statistics, next click on the sub-tab of Team Finances. You can see everybody's market size, fan loyalty, and ticket prices here.

The place to change it is on your home page, then click on the Front Office tab. On the lower left of the screen under General Information is where you can edit the ticket price.

You can tinker with it during the season. I usually try to find the max price I can charge and still get strong attendance, but it's a delicate balance.

Eric

 

[spartanfan1]

I like looking at attendance in the Front Office tab, then click on Advanced Info. It shows average per game attandance in the top right and a nice chart in the lower right to see how it changed every game during the season.

You can pull up any team you want, too. If you look at my team, you can see where I raised ticket prices too higher for a month in the middle of the season (around July) and my attendance dipped. Then, I lowered prices in August and my attendance bounced back closer to capacity.

Eric

 

[sinocc]

how do i find these?

thanks so much for your help! this is extremely helpful and i am getting excited that i can finally get through all of this! there is so much i still am not familiar with and know. nathan is player option. i would hate to lose him but . . what can i do if he chooses to leave? also, how do i non-tender a cruz? he is team option. i don't know where to go to non-tender him or deny the team option.

also, where do i go to see the media revenue and merchandising revenue at? see, i am really a novice at this! thanks for all your help, all of you! it is a huge help!

It is as simple as the fact your attendance crashed compared to the previous year. You would have had to run a payroll around 60 million this season to break even. You ran the 9th highest payroll this season in the league...while I commend your cuts and think you did a pretty solid job on getting payroll out, you have to remember that all financials work on a cycle like real life.

Your 2008 attendance: 2.595 mil
Your 2007 attendance: 3.884 mil

1.289 mil less people during the year x ticket price (estimated $25, not sure what you're set at) = 32.25 MILLION DOLLARS!

The biggest positive about your team is you have the largest media revenue by nearly 6 million dollars, and your media revenue is double what at least 6 teams receive. Think of that as ~10 million in free money every year.

Your merchandising was 4th in the league, which is really surprising if you consider how bad your attendance dropped. Getting attendance up will make a huge windfall. You raise attendance by two main things. Winning and Having Popular players on the roster.

I'm looking at your team...just estimating, if you run a 60 million payroll next season, you should be easily solvent for the future seasons. It is a matter of getting caught up while the huge contracts fall off the books!

Does Nathan have a team option? If so, decline it! If he has a player, maybe he will elect free agency. Same with A Cruz's 1.9 mil

You have a LOT of players that are arbitration eligible. I would consider non-tendering a lot of the contracts unless you just absolutely cannot find a replacement in house or think you can find a cheaper free agent.

A good rule of thumb on veteran contract extensions is 3 years. Everyone does it differently, but consider age and future money when offering these extension. It will free up payroll later on.

 

[valediction]

thanks so much for your help! this is extremely helpful and i am getting excited that i can finally get through all of this! there is so much i still am not familiar with and know. nathan is player option. i would hate to lose him but . . what can i do if he chooses to leave? also, how do i non-tender a cruz? he is team option. i don't know where to go to non-tender him or deny the team option.

also, where do i go to see the media revenue and merchandising revenue at? see, i am really a novice at this! thanks for all your help, all of you! it is a huge help!

you can non tender him after the World series, the game will tell you who has contracts coming up and ask what you want to do.

Losing Nathan would help you much more than hurt you. Look at his numbers, now look at my closer(Byrd SD Padres). Nathan has better control, movement, and stuff. But look at their season ending stats
Nathan
56G 66.0IP 3W-5L, 31SV, 73K/20BB 3.69ERA 1.28WHIP for $12.1 million

Byrd (he is currently rated at 1 star)
40G 43.0IP 4W-1L 27SV 34K/6BB 2.72ERA 0.84WHIP for $432,000 and he was on the DL from the end of last season until May 27th and again from Aug 15-Sept 19

You paid about $390,000 per save, I paid about $16,000 per save

Relief pitchers and closers you don't want to pay a lot for, the difference between average and elite just isn't the same as an everyday player or front of the rotation starter. You've got over $21 million tied up between Nathan, Marte, and Otsuka. All 7 members of my bullpen combined made under $5 million. Losing that $12 million off your payroll would be huge.

Another thing to watch is you have 44 guys collecting major league salaries, including 28 players making the league minimum. If they are playing in the minors now for major league money, they are just making it to their arbitration years even faster. If some of them are ready to come up and you can't use them to replace a higher priced veteran player, consider trading them for a prospect that hasn't been on the 40 man roster. It'll cut $432,000 off your payroll. Those 19 guys you'll have in the minors once the roster goes back to 25 guys means you are paying 8.2 million for guys you aren't using. If you could get rid of 10 of those contracts,be it by non tendering them or trading them, and if Nathan were to decline his option, that alone would knock your 09 payroll into the $66 million range. I'm not sure how likely he is to decline a $12 million option though.

 

[sinocc]

thanks!

some nice info and advice! i appreciate it. one thing, though, you must admit you got pretty lucky with byrd this season. how could anyone have known from last season and his ratings, etc, that he would do that well? how do you get lucky like that consistently? i have no clue!

thanks again! anything else you can think of is greatly appreciated!

you can non tender him after the World series, the game will tell you who has contracts coming up and ask what you want to do.

Losing Nathan would help you much more than hurt you. Look at his numbers, now look at my closer(Byrd SD Padres). Nathan has better control, movement, and stuff. But look at their season ending stats
Nathan
56G 66.0IP 3W-5L, 31SV, 73K/20BB 3.69ERA 1.28WHIP for $12.1 million

Byrd (he is currently rated at 1 star)
40G 43.0IP 4W-1L 27SV 34K/6BB 2.72ERA 0.84WHIP for $432,000 and he was on the DL from the end of last season until May 27th and again from Aug 15-Sept 19

You paid about $390,000 per save, I paid about $16,000 per save

Relief pitchers and closers you don't want to pay a lot for, the difference between average and elite just isn't the same as an everyday player or front of the rotation starter. You've got over $21 million tied up between Nathan, Marte, and Otsuka. All 7 members of my bullpen combined made under $5 million. Losing that $12 million off your payroll would be huge.

Another thing to watch is you have 44 guys collecting major league salaries, including 28 players making the league minimum. If they are playing in the minors now for major league money, they are just making it to their arbitration years even faster. If some of them are ready to come up and you can't use them to replace a higher priced veteran player, consider trading them for a prospect that hasn't been on the 40 man roster. It'll cut $432,000 off your payroll. Those 19 guys you'll have in the minors once the roster goes back to 25 guys means you are paying 8.2 million for guys you aren't using. If you could get rid of 10 of those contracts,be it by non tendering them or trading them, and if Nathan were to decline his option, that alone would knock your 09 payroll into the $66 million range. I'm not sure how likely he is to decline a $12 million option though.

 

[Maddawgz]

Nationals understand