Limited spending

[Bonegavel]

I just tried to resign Bobby Taylor after he became and UFA. My offer was 3yrs/14 mil. Jax, came up with 4yrs/21 mil. He was my best CB and I really wanted him. I jacked up my offer and before I could submit, a pop-up box tells me that your owner has set a limit of X for any one salary this year and won't let me complete the trade.

Nice.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Bonegavel
I just tried to resign Bobby Taylor after he became and UFA. My offer was 3yrs/14 mil. Jax, came up with 4yrs/21 mil. He was my best CB and I really wanted him. I jacked up my offer and before I could submit, a pop-up box tells me that your owner has set a limit of X for any one salary this year and won't let me complete the trade.

Nice. Somewhere, right now, Buc is creaming his britches once again. :D

[Ksyrup]

Woo-hoo! This is clearly a step in the right direction. There appear to be spending limits for coaches/coordinators/scouts, as well.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
Woo-hoo! This is clearly a step in the right direction. There appear to be spending limits for coaches/coordinators/scouts, as well. Yeah. I haven't given it a hard look yet, but if these spending limits go up/down according to profits, there's going to be dancing in the streets in Tucker tonight.

[Buzzbee]

I'm guessing these limits will be in Multiplayer as well?

I wonder if there is a way around it, since going up against the Steinbrenners of the world could get rather frustrating (for multiplayer, of course).

[Ksyrup]

That's my hope as well. I want the owner to act consistently - I don't want him restricting my signing ability one year, and then opening up the wallet another year, with no rhyme or reason. I hope there's a method to this madness, as opposed to just erecting obstacles for the sake of making the game harder. Basically, like the way OOTP handles whether free agents will sign with your team. There's no apparent rhyme or reason, some great players will listen to you, others won't give you the time of day.

[Ben E Lou]

Well, I over-spent in my first offseason and lost a good bit of money. Sure enough, the amounts I can spend on scouts/coordinators is significantly less this year. I was also worried that the game would still be too easy, as I signed free agents with impunity in the first offseason, and went 12-4 with the Falcons in '04. However, at the beginning of '05, I might just be in BIG trouble. I begin the offseason a whopping $14M over the cap. The "Cap Out" offer will help me, but it involves paying out bonuses... Right now it is looking like there will be long-term consequences for my overspending. NICE!!!

[TLK]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Well, I over-spent in my first offseason and lost a good bit of money. Sure enough, the amounts I can spend on scouts/coordinators is significantly less this year. I was also worried that the game would still be too easy, as I signed free agents with impunity in the first offseason, and went 12-4 with the Falcons in '04. However, at the beginning of '05, I might just be in BIG trouble. I begin the offseason a whopping $14M over the cap. The "Cap Out" offer will help me, but it involves paying out bonuses... Right now it is looking like there will be long-term consequences for my overspending. NICE!!!

Yeah, I made the Lions respectable in the second and third seasons, but I am screwed for 2006. I was $20 million over, so I restructured some contracts and still have no money to sign my draft picks. Live and learn I guess.


Front Office Football 2004
Detroit Lions Roster, Contract View

Player # Pos Start OnTm EndCnt Exp Cap Cost Save if Rls
Abraham, John 99 RDE 2005 2009 7 $10,750,000 $1,530,000
Harrington, Joey 3 QB 2002 2010 5 $10,150,000 $1,360,000
Woodson, Charles 27 LCB 2004 2009 9 $6,460,000 $1,250,000
Heimulu, J.J. 62 RT 2005 2009 2 $2,820,000 $1,150,000
Jett, John 19 P 1997 2007 14 $1,410,000 $1,100,000
Harris, Corey 25 SS 2002 2006 15 $1,370,000 $1,070,000
Martin, Curtis 23 RB 2004 2006 12 $1,340,000 $1,030,000
Walker, Brian 45 FS 2002 2008 11 $2,230,000 $1,010,000
Gaffney, Jabbar 13 FL 2005 2006 5 $1,060,000 $970,000
Edwards, Kalimba 98 RDE 2002 2009 5 $3,400,000 $930,000
Schlesinger, Cory 30 FB 1995 2006 12 $1,110,000 $930,000
Rogers, Shaun 92 RDT 2001 2010 6 $4,010,000 $920,000
Holt, Terrence 42 FS 2003 2006 4 $1,010,000 $910,000
Ricks, Mikhael 86 TE 2002 2008 9 $1,780,000 $870,000
Hakim, Az-Zahir 81 SE 2002 2009 9 $3,340,000 $850,000
**DiNapoli, Gennaro 55 C 2004 2008 9 $2,250,000 $840,000
Beverly, Eric 79 LG 1997 2008 9 $1,670,000 $830,000
Redding, Cory 78 RDT 2003 2006 4 $880,000 $810,000
Green, Barrett 54 WLB 2000 2011 7 $3,840,000 $790,000
Garza, Roberto 66 RG 2005 2010 6 $2,430,000 $780,000
Rogers, Charles 80 FL 2003 2006 4 $3,010,000 $760,000
Cash, Chris 29 RCB 2002 2009 5 $1,270,000 $730,000
Simmons, Jim 39 RB 2004 2009 3 $4,840,000 $720,000
Raiola, Dominic 51 C 2001 2009 6 $1,580,000 $720,000
Anderson, Scotty 88 FL 2001 2007 6 $850,000 $650,000
Minor, Travis 36 RB 2005 2007 6 $670,000 $650,000
Babers, Roderick 26 LCB 2003 2006 4 $640,000 $630,000
Bailey, Boss 97 SLB 2003 2007 4 $1,000,000 $560,000
Jarvie, Ross 11 QB 2004 2007 3 $720,000 $500,000
Johnston, Tim 94 LDT 2004 2006 3 $560,000 $500,000
Cave, Sam 85 FL 2004 2006 3 $530,000 $500,000
Fitzgerald, Darren 53 MLB 2005 2008 2 $870,000 $470,000
Thomason, Jeremy 22 SS 2005 2008 2 $640,000 $420,000
Waller, Will 91 RDE 2005 2008 2 $560,000 $420,000
Klinghagen, Monty 93 LDT 2005 2007 2 $450,000 $420,000
Amey, Henry 89 TE 2005 2007 2 $440,000 $400,000
Vaughn, Matthew 44 LCB 2005 2007 2 $400,000 $400,000
Torres, Ronnie 84 SE 2005 2008 2 $1,240,000 $370,000
Zellars, Hugh 41 LCB 2006 2008 1 $400,000 $300,000
Mason, Buddy 75 LT 2006 2008 1 $330,000 $300,000
Cochrane, Walt 83 SE 2006 2008 1 $300,000 $300,000
Ahanotu, Chidi 90 LDE 2004 UFA 14 $0 $0
Spears, Marcus 65 LT 2005 UFA 12 $0 $0
Williams, Grant 67 RT 2005 UFA 11 $0 $0
Detmer, Koy 15 QB 2005 UFA 8 $0 $0
Benjamin, Ryan 59 C 2005 UFA 7 $0 $0
DeVries, Jared 95 LDE 1999 UFA 7 $0 $0
Coleman, Kenyon 77 LDE 2004 UFA 5 $0 $0
Fitzsimmons, Casey 82 TE 2003 ---- 4 $0 $0
Davis, James 52 MLB 2003 ---- 4 $0 $0
Hunter, Frank 58 WLB 2005 ---- 2 $0 $0
Caver, Ryan 38 RB 2006 ---- 1 $0 $0
Pereira, Omar 71 RG 2006 ---- 1 $0 $0
Foreman, Deron 64 LT 2006 ---- 1 $0 $0
Emtman, Courtney 76 LDE 2006 ---- 1 $0 $0
Gaines, Bert 56 MLB 2006 ---- 1 $0 $0

$$ - player is in starting lineup, ## - player is inactive.

Players Under Contract: 41
On Active Roster: 41

Salary Cap: $92,100,000
Cap Room: $10,000
Maximum for New Player: $10,000
Cap Room Lost (to old contracts): $7,480,000

Cap Room Lost Next Year (to old contracts): $4,800,000
Cap Room Required Next Year: $114,960,000

[QuikSand]

A couple observations:

-The limit on annual salary, in particular, can shut down an attempt to really backload a contract. I don't know how this works out in the long run, but I do like the general idea that there are some limitations on what you can do -- like you'd really expect in a true GM situation.

-As some of you are finding out already, I think it's a lot easier to find yourself in cap hell in this game -- so many opportunities to sign players to deals that blow up in year two or three, so many guys willing to re-neg if they can only get a juicy re-bonus offer... it all adds up to dead cap space and committed money - more realistic, in my mind, than any preceding version of the game in these respects. (That "cap out offer" is really tempting, isn't it?)

[Buccaneer]

Originally posted by SkyDog
Somewhere, right now, Buc is creaming his britches once again. :D

Already used up half of box kleenexes earlier, now I got get more. :)

[Buccaneer]

From the help file...

Financial performance is considered as strongly as on-field performance.

(insert Bucc kissing Jim emoticon here)

[QuikSand]

What is the context for that quote from the help file? Is that something new?

[Buccaneer]

I perceive that financial performance in previous versions where nearly irrelevant. Now it appears that there are more consequences to financial decision-making, like owners capping coaches/scouts salaries, cap hell and perhaps being fired for constantly losing money (I speculate). These appear new.

[Ben E Lou]

I don't think it is new, but it certainly appears so far to be MUCH more globally implemented. In the past, financial performance didn't affect much besides your end-of-year score. In a thread discussing this, the huge majority of people admitted that they don't care about their end-of-year score, just how the team did on the field. All indications are that in this version, I'm going to have to pay more strict attention to finances in order to win long-term. As Quik pointed out, with cap out offers and backloaded contracts, it isn't terribly difficult to put together a team that wins for a year or two. However, it appears that things can then fall apart very, very quickly without "smart growth."