FOF Financials and guaranteed money

[robster1225]

I'm still a FOF n00b, so I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, but can someone please explain to me how FOF financials work. How much of a contract is guaranteed, and what can I expect to lose if I release a player with time remaining on his contract.

[Eaglesfan27]

The signing bonus is guaranteed and a prorated portion of the current salary is guaranteed. For example, if you release a guy in week 12, you've already been paying him for the first 12 weeks, so approximately 3/4 of his salary is guaranteed in addition to whatever signing bonus you have paid him.

Also, you should know that the signing bonus is prorated over the life of a contract when you sign a guy and keep him. If you release him, the signing bonus cap hit is accelerated and can put a team into severe cap difficulty.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

To add a couple of points:

1) In term of accelerated bonus, it will all occur in the season after the season in which the player is released/traded.

2) Although when you release a guy mid season, you have already paid him for games played, any new player you sign will come on board with a reduced salary as well (e.g. if you cut a guy with an annual salary of 540k halfway through the season, you will only reduce your salary cap by 270k, but when you sign a replacement player at 540k, only half of his salary will count towards the cap. The key is to read the information in the dialog box when you select the release or contract offer.

[jzicc]

Follow up question ---- for instance: 13 year vet signs a contract for 3 years with a 3 million signing bonus --- he retires after one year --- does the 2 million acceration into the following year still occur? I'm not sure if retirement is considered different than cutting them or trading them...

[QuikSand]

In FOF, a retirement triggers the same cap effects as a trade or release, with the one exception that if the player retires with more than two years left of his bonus to be apportioned, only two years' worth applies in the following acceleration year, and the rest is basically ignored. (This was a FOF 2007 patch addition, intended to relieve the potential for AI-run teams to suddenly find themselves in a salary cap black hole)

[twothree]

In FOF, a retirement triggers the same cap effects as a trade or release, with the one exception that if the player retires with more than two years left of his bonus to be apportioned, only two years' worth applies in the following acceleration year, and the rest is basically ignored. (This was a FOF 2007 patch addition, intended to relieve the potential for AI-run teams to suddenly find themselves in a salary cap black hole)

Except right now there is a bug (or maybe this is now a feature) in the current version of FOF, and if a player retires with more than one year left on a contract then only the bonus money for one year is charged against your cap for the upcoming season. And the rest of the bonus money is ignored.

[twothree]

Follow up question ---- for instance: 13 year vet signs a contract for 3 years with a 3 million signing bonus --- he retires after one year --- does the 2 million acceration into the following year still occur? I'm not sure if retirement is considered different than cutting them or trading them...

You are correct in your example, your team would be charged 2 million against the cap in the following year. This would be the case in all previous versions of FOF 2007. However, in the current version, 6.0d, there is a bug (feature), so that only 1 million would be charged against your cap in the following year and the remaining 1 million will disappear off your cap.

[mac]

Viniateri your comment about signing a player mid season isnt correct. There is an error in the way the salaries are calculated.
example
Your punter gets injured with three weeks left.
The replacement costs 340k
In real life he would get 20K (340/17) a week so if you have 60k under the cap you could sign him
But in FOF you need the full 340
Even worse if you sign him and then cut him after a week (your original punter gets better) He gets paid for 15 weeks! not one! and costs 300K not 20k
I think the problem is that player has to get the minimum salary andthat is not prorated downwards as the season goes on. i think this is a bug/error.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Hmm, are you sure mac? Right now I just went into my MP game after week 2. When I go into sign a replacement at 540k annually, the dialog box tells me "this contract would cost an extra 480k under the salary cap." After making some additional moves, I just made an offer to a guy with a 540k salary with only 490k in cap room available, and the game went ahead and let me make the offer without telling me it would exceed cap room.

Anybody else can clear this up?