FOF2004: Should I accept my Firing?

[Eaglesfan27]

Well, I can't decide if it is cheating to refuse my firing. I have lead this Eagles Team to the best record in the league over the past 12 years or so, but I've never won the big one. The last two years I've lost over 50 million dollars a year and now my owner wants to fire me. I can't decide if I should accept it or not. Obviously, this will be a fairly time limited poll as I can't save the game until I make my decision..

[sabotai]

Worst. Businessman. Ever.

$50 million a year? I'd be pissed if you lost $100 million of my money. :)

[SackAttack]

Accept it, and then resume control of the team under a myriad of pseudonyms.

[Eaglesfan27]

Well, I'm going to leave the game open for a few hours while I mull this over and wait for more responses. I definitely had a hard time making money as player salaries went up, coaching salaries went up, and scouting money went up. My ticket sales didn't go up nearly enough to compensate for these increases. I tried to raise ticket prices to keep my team in the upper echelon of revenue, but unfortunately season ticket sales decreased and my income didn't increase as much as I would have liked.

[MizzouRah]

I say yes. I had this same dilemma in FOF4, except I fired myself. Went to the playoffs 9 years in a row with 0 Super Bowl appearances. :)

Took control of Dallas who never made it to the playoffs, then FOF2k4 came out.


Todd

[Da_Bear75]

Tough decision, I think if you decide not to accept the firing then you should make a real effort to cut costs, player cuts, maybe even hire some cheaper coaches???

[Easy Mac]

Fight it.

And just to note, I lost 155,080,000 this year. Granted, I'm building a huge stadium, but still. I lost 1817% compared to last year.

[General Mike]

I voted yes, but I would probably continue to run the team. Main reason, I have no clue how much I'm supposed to increase ticket prices each year, so some years I lose some serious cash. Any ideas?

[nilodor]

I voted no, if you love the eagles stick with the eagles. Think of it more as a warning that you should be more fiscally responsible in the future. Maybe hire a cheaper scouting and coaching staff or skip resigning that big contract. Aim to get the team back in black withing 3 years.

[Eaglesfan27]

Well, an interesting thing happened...

I went away from the computer for a few hours to play Gladius...

I came back to check the results of this poll and abide by it.. even though I really knew I should accept the firing, and I discovered the game either made the decision for me (presumably because it got tired of waiting for me to click yes or no) after a few hours or my kitten clicked a button on the computer when I wasn't looking....

I now have an email message stating that I'm fired. Furthermore, the game has advanced to week 1 of the preseason. I guess I didn't get any offers? Will I get offers in future years?

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola - I can't simulate games or apparently do anything.. I guess that is the end of this career? Is this how it always works if you accept your firing?

[Eaglesfan27]

Double Dola - Nevermind, I just did a search of the forum and I guess even though there were 12 teams willing to hire me last year, none are this year. Oh well, I'll start a new career and try to do a better job of guiding Donovan and the Eagles to a Superbowl, although it is kind of rough to lose my league's history.

[GoSeahawks]

Double Dola - Nevermind, I just did a search of the forum and I guess even though there were 12 teams willing to hire me last year, none are this year. Oh well, I'll start a new career and try to do a better job of guiding Donovan and the Eagles to a Superbowl, although it is kind of rough to lose my league's history.
I feel bad for you. Losing that much history in you league would be pretty upsetting. If my franchise came to an end today I don't think I would ever play FOF again.

[MizzouRah]

I feel bad for you. Losing that much history in you league would be pretty upsetting. If my franchise came to an end today I don't think I would ever play FOF again.
You know, I feel the same way. I had that happen in ootp4, took the game off my pc. :)

That stinks Eaglesfan27, that's why I always save right after the Super Bowl and just before 'End Season'. I'll save under a completely different file name like 'End of 2005 Season'.

Bummer. :(


Todd

[cody8200]

Wow man, that does really suck. I was going to vote to go ahead and let yourself be fired but not if you couldnt continue on with your league.

[strait8]

your big problem is losing Money not winninig. Here are the areas to look for on your next career.

If you go with the Eagles you cannot upgrade the stadium for 15 years. Real revenue comes when you renovate and add club seats and luxury boxes.

So what are the other options.

Definitely hire cheaper staff. I think the multiple on scouting is a 45x charge the expense. That is if you pay a scout 1 mil you get a 45 Mill scouting cost. Coaches are less multiple but co-ords making 6-8 mil significantly affect the bottom line. So if the poor performance e-mail comes up fire them and hire cheaper. It is the only way to save the short term while you build attendance. That won't really happen till you renovate.

Also my guess is you are keeping the team together so you are probably maxxing the payroll. As much as I like Donavan McNabb. If he is 31 and looking for 12-30 Million he is getting traded. I can get at least 2 number 1 choices.

I always look for cheap free agent QBs with high potential. Guys who have been 2nd stringers and can be signed for 3-9 million for 2-4years. I always trade off the guys after they develop for draft choices. Usually I get a 1 for them or possibly a 2.

I do this at every position especially DT (which is expensive. and CB).

Normally I am 5-7 mill under teh cap which drops to the bottom line. I win championships at the rate of 1 every 2-4 years. So the system works.

In FOF4 I took over a team which was 1-15 and took to the Super bowl in one year and was fired because I lost 100 Million.There was nothing I could do as it was an old stadium and attendance was abysmal. I complained to Jim about this and Jim tweaked this in fof5 I read. You now have more time.

I still do not believe Jim has totally fixed the attendance bug whih limits the attendance increase to about 5-10% per year despite winning a super bowl or really improving a team Even today the only way to get a 25% increase in attendance is to renovate or rebuild the stadium.

Hope this helps

[Eaglesfan27]

Well, I'm very disappointed and couldn't get myself to fire up a career last night... but the good side of things is I get to do things differently and try to win Donovan a SB this time. Last career, I wasn't aggressive enough in upgrading the receiving corp at the beginning of my career and really didn't get "good" receivers until I was 9 years into the career. So, this time around (I will start tonight) I will be very aggressive in getting a good WR immediately.

By the way, I save fairly frequently (but not at the end of every season for some reason - this practice might have to change) and I could have gone back to a save in the middle of my last season. I thought about it, but that would be a form of cheating as well.

However, I would LOVE to see Jim add an option to continue the league without a human controlling a team once s/he is fired. It would also be very cool if you could be hired by a team after a few years. We see this in real life with both coachs and GM's who will "take a year or two off" after being fired and then get hired with another team. Hopefully, this might get added in a future version.

[strait8]

IN TPF if your fired you are automatically reassigned to the leagues worst team. In my case I was reassigned back to my own hapless 1-15 team. I improved them to 8-8 the next season.

[Vince]

IN TPF if your fired you are automatically reassigned to the leagues worst team. In my case I was reassigned back to my own hapless 1-15 team. I improved them to 8-8 the next season.
I'd think that might be a 'bug,' and that they might want to change that. If your team happens to be the worst team, and you get fired, it should either [trying to be funny]A) Tell you you really are a jackass[/trying to be funny], or B) Give you to the next worst team.

Notice, I said 'bug' and not bug...this is something that I'd see as improper, not necessarily what is.

[BigJohn&TheLions]

co-ords making 6-8 mil significantly affect the bottom line.

I refuse to pay a coordinator that kind of $$$. I see it as a flaw in the game that AI teams sign coordinators to 8 mil contracts while the HC makes 3.5... coordinators should make less than the coach. period.

[Eaglesfan27]

I think my overpaying my coordinators was the biggest reason for my demise in retrospect.