BUDGET STRATEGYA big part of your success in Football Mogul is the ability to balance your team's budget. Not only do you have to worry about your players' salaries, you also have to deal with the salaries of your medical staff and scouts, setting ticket and concession prices at your stadium, and even negotiating television broadcast rights. All of these financial factors will affect your path toward the Mogul Hall of Fame. Perhaps the most important thing to remember in planning your budget is that, in the end, the players on the field determine your success. Your Mogul Rating is derived only from your regular season and playoff performance, and not from any financial performance. Furthermore, if your team wins, more fans will come to see them, and even slightly higher ticket prices won't dissuade them (to a point - more on that later). And of course, the more money your team brings in, the more you can afford to pay your players, which allows you to keep your higher priced free agent stars, which allows you to keep winning. That said, there are many things to consider in the early going when money is tight. Getting off to a good financial start will help you set off down the road to prosperity. ExpensesPlayer Salaries You should expect to have a bit of disparity between your players salaries. Some of your players will be making megabucks, while some will be working for the league minimum. So what happens when the player making the minimum has a stellar year and demands an enormous pay increase, while at the same time your megabucks player is under contract for 4 more years? Will you have the money to keep them both? A good rule of thumb is to avoid high salaries whenever possible. Obviously, some players are worth paying the money for, but ideally, you'd like to keep your team payroll down. The biggest gains in player performance usually come at the lower level of the salary scale. So, for example, replacing a $209,000 rookie tight end with a $500,000 journeyman might help your team more than spending $300,000 more for your star quarterback. Scan the free agent pool periodically - you can often find a bargain player who will perform well while you wait for a rookie superstar to develop. And don't be afraid to trade away your higher priced players for lower priced ones if you're strapped for cash. When dealing with free agents from the free agent pool, it sometimes pay to wait out a player. If he's demanding a high salary and remains unsigned for awhile, he may lower his salary demands. But be careful - if you wait for too long, another sharp general manager may sign that player out from under your nose! The rule here is don't be cheap, be smart. Spend your salary money wisely and you'll have a winning, money making team for many years. Other Team Expenses Other team expenses that you control are divided among three categories: Medical Staff, Farm System, and Scouting Team: a. Medical Staff The amount you spend on your medical staff determines how serious the injuries your players receive are and how long it takes them to recover. If you have a lot of higher priced players with long contracts, it's important to pay your medical staff well. If you are in a rebuilding phase and have players you feel are not worth protecting, then lowering the pay of your medical staff for a season or two might free up some cash to help with the rebuilding effort. In general, though, it's a good policy to keep your medical staff happy. b. Scouting Team The amount you spend on your scouting team determines the accuracy of the scouting reports you receive. If you feel that you are capable of scouting players on your own by studying their skills and statistics, then you can probably skimp a bit on the scouting team. But if you consider the word of the scouts to be law, you'll want to put more money into the scouting team to get the most accurate reports possible. Note that if you underpay your scouting staff, they won't out and out lie to you, but they may miss the call on a potential superstar or super flop! RevenueStadium Revenue Stadium revenue is the money you make from ticket sales and concession sales. a. Ticket Sales Finding just the right price to charge for tickets is one of the keys to financial success. Charge too much, and fans will stay away. Charge too little, and people will flock to your stadium while your team stays poor. The "Other Team" button is useful here because it lets you compare your prices to successful teams with a similar fan base. You can compare Fan Loyalty and your city's Per Capita Income to that of other teams to find the ones most similar to your situation. Then, take a look at their ticket prices and see how their ticket income compares with yours. This information can give you ideas about how to adjust the ticket prices at your own stadium. You can also use broadcast contracts to drive people to your stadium. If you lower ticket prices and blackout games locally, people might be more inclined to come to the stadium in person. See the section on Broadcast Contracts for more information. b. Concession Sales You also control the prices of the concessions at your concession stand. Each team's concession stand sells beer, food and souvenirs. You can adjust these prices up and down, a nickel at a time. Just like tickets, raising prices too much will steer people away from your concessions, while lowering them too much will not do much for profits. Hint: Football fans love cheap beer. And after having enough of it, they may not mind higher food prices. Broadcast Contracts Negotiating television rights is another way to bring in money for your team. There are three types of television broadcast contracts you can sign your team to: a. Standard Broadcast A Standard Broadcast contract allows your team's games to be broadcast on regular local television. Depending on your fan base, this contract can generate different results. For example, fickle fans might be content to sit at home and watch your games at home if the team isn't doing so well, thus keeping more fans away from your stadium. Fans do not have to pay to see your team on television if you have a Standard Broadcast contract. The revenue you get is from the station with the rights to the broadcasts. While you won't get rich quick with this type of contract, it's the most popular with the fans, who can decide to stay home and root for the team if for some reason they can't make it to the stadium. b. Pay-Per-View A Pay-Per-View contract means that in order for your fans to see your team on television, they must have cable television and pay extra money to the cable company for each game they wish to see. You get both a flat payment and a percentage of the money taken in from the fans who pay to see your team play. A Pay-Per-View contract is a good way to raise a lot of money quickly, but use these contracts with caution. A Pay-Per-View contract may be viewed as tyrannical by your fans, who will then stay away from your stadium, affecting your overall revenue negatively. c. Blackout Blackout contracts mean that your team's home games will be "blacked out", or not broadcast locally, unless tickets to a particular game sell out. Because fans can't count on seeing the game on television, this type of contract is likely to send them to the stadium, which in turn helps your ticket and concession sales. Like Pay-Per-View contracts, blackouts are a good way to make a lot of money quickly, but also like Pay-Per-View contracts, fans who can't invite their buddies over to watch the game aren't likely to warm to the team and may lose interest, causing your fan base to diminish. It takes patience and skill to balance your income against your expenses. Finding the right mix of prices, salaries, staff expenses, and broadcast expenses will take much experimentation, but it's crucial to your ascent to the level of Football Mogul. Making Some Quick Cash Sometimes you need to boost your cash to sign a quality free agent or keep from going bankrupt during bad times. Here are some tricks of the trade: 2) Sell talent (use the Trading Block to get the best price for a player). 4) Trade high salary players. |
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