How do franchise budgets work this year?

[sink4ever]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

Ok, I did one sim for one year with 3 teams to see if I could figure out this budget stuff. I chose Dodgers (high payroll), Royals (mid payroll), and Padres (low payroll).

In the Franchise select screen it shows you the team budgets (all following numbers are in millions).

Dodgers: 174.5
Padres: 68.5
Royals: 113

After starting the franchise I looked at the salary expenses.

Dodgers: 142.4 Players + 12.96 Coaches + 8.79 Scouts = 164.15 total salaries
Padres: 43.8 Players + 7.5 Coaches + 6.95 Scouts = 58.5 total salaries
Royals: 89.4 Players + 6.24 Coaches + 6.93 Scouts = 102.57 total salaries

So each team starts with a budget roughly 10 million greater than total salary expenditures. However, that doesn't necessarily correspond to how much you can offer if you want to sign someone. This seems to be driven more by Cash Flow. Cash Flow of course is just anticipated revenue from all sources minus all expenditures. For the sake of simplicity I didn't use sponsorships for any teams.

At the beginning of Spring Training, the three teams showed the following:

Dodgers: -.1 Cash Flow and .181 Max Offer
Padres: .948 Cash Flow and 1.14 Max Offer
Royals: .599 Cash Flow and .791 Max Offer

For the most part, it looks like the difference between Cash Flow and Max Offer is the 5 million in the bank. It's probably worth noting that these numbers changed after ending Spring Training, I don't know if performance in Spring Training has some kind of impact on anticipated revenue.

Based on Cash Flow alone, here's the available funds for each team:

Dodgers: -2.6 million
Padres: 24.6 million
Royals: 15.6 million

So, the main takeaway here is that the funds available to sign people based on Cash Flow is very different than what you would expect based on the difference between total budget and current salaries. For the Dodgers, part of the reason they're in the negative is because of anticipated costs of $770K/wk for Revenue Sharing and $62K/wk for Competitive Balance Tax. Part of the reason the Padres are so much higher is probably because they project to receive $650K/wk in Revenue Sharing. The Royals only anticipate $40K/wk in Revenue Sharing so the 15 million based on cash flow is pretty much equal to the amount of unspent funds (10 million) plus what is in the bank (5 million).


I'll stop here for now and then pick up with the mid-season data. In the interest of full disclosure I am fairly sick and might not be thinking clearly, so please feel free to point out anything that doesn't look right. I think for the most part people (like ktd1976) have figured it out how it all works, but I just thought it would be an interesting exercise to walk through it all.

[sink4ever]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

Mid-Season (7/1/17)

Okay, now let's pick up at mid-season. First, here are the records for our three teams:

Dodgers: 55-28
Padres: 29-52
Royals: 43-37

I haven't made any changes to the roster, coaching staff, or scouts, so the total salaries remain the same. The Dodgers are paying the same in Competitive Balance Tax but their Revenue Sharing has increased for some reason to 860K/wk. The Padres are getting more via Revenue Sharing, up to 712K/wk. The Royals are even closer to break-even, they're getting 10K/wk.

The Cash Flow is now positive for all three teams, the Dodgers probably helped by their strong start. I guess the Padres were predicted to be bad so their actual poor record hasn't had much of an effect on their revenue. Because there's been positive Cash Flow, the amounts in the Bank have increased:

Dodgers: 8.52 in Bank, .36 Cash Flow, .686 Max Offer
Padres: 17.23 in Bank, .973 Cash Flow, 1.63 Max Offer
Royals: 13.47 in Bank, .837 Cash Flow, 1.35 Max Offer

Again, the difference between the Cash Flow and Max Offer is roughly the same as the amount in the bank if you divide it out by 26 weeks. For example, the Dodgers Cash Flow for 26 weeks is 9.36 (.36*26) and the Max Offer is 17.836 (.686*26). The difference of 8.476 is very close to the amount in the bank.

All three teams now have significantly more to spend thanks to past Cash Flow (accumulated in Bank) and future expected Cash Flow.

I simmed to the very end of the season and noted Cash Flow and whatnot, but these numbers are somewhat meaningless at this point since you're not signing anyone in October. I will note that the Dodgers ended with 14.32 in the Bank, the Padres with 30.92, and the Royals with 25.01.



Off-Season

This is where it really starts to get tricky and I want to do some more sims to really dive into it.

For the sake of simplicity, I'm just going to walk through one team. The Royals begin the offseason with a total of 56.04 total salaries (players + coaches + scouts). The Bank is back down to 5, the Cash Flow is 3.07, and the Max Offer is 3.26. Again, the difference between the Cash Flow and Max Offer is the amount in the Bank.

Based on this info, I'd expect you could sign players to contracts worth a total of 80.1 (3.07*26) to zero out Cash Flow or a total of 85.1 (3.26*26) if you wanted to use up your Bank funds as well. I signed a few players to huge contracts and verified that this was correct.

So while the game doesn't show you the total budget, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure it out based on what is known. For the Royals, we know there's salary of 56.04 and there's room to spend another 80.1 (if we want to break even) so the budget to begin 2017 is 136.14. This is an increase of 23.14. Using the same process, I show that the Dodgers' budget increased 9.45 to 183.95 and the Padres budget increased by 30.05 to 98.55.

It's somewhat interesting that the budget increases are not all that different than what was in the bank at the end of the 2016 season. Coincidence? Quite possibly, there's a lot more testing to be done.

My next goal is to simulate several seasons. This is only one small sim so not much can be gleaned from it, but based on this one result I think it's worth investigating whether teams' salaries increase too quickly.

[fightingirish595]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

Very frustrating system to this point. I'm being told I can't afford a player when my cash flow after the signing is 1.5 mil. Even with pending arbitration players that might not be included in the cash flow, I'm pretty sure I should be able to afford the player. I just don't understand. I'm the Yankees and it maxes my payroll out at about 160 after I won the World Series.

[Bosox1389]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

Based on what you guys are saying and I appreciate the tests and explanations I plan on running some tests this weekend as I haven't had much time to play yet.

I really hope the budget system isn't an issue, it sucks when 3 seasons down the road every team has over 100 mill to spend.

Anyway it seems weird to me that every thing they have been saying is making franchise mode more accessible and simpler for non hardcore players yet they do this... very strange


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[tabarnes19_SDS]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

Based on what you guys are saying and I appreciate the tests and explanations I plan on running some tests this weekend as I haven't had much time to play yet.

I really hope the budget system isn't an issue, it sucks when 3 seasons down the road every team has over 100 mill to spend.

Anyway it seems weird to me that every thing they have been saying is making franchise mode more accessible and simpler for non hardcore players yet they do this... very strange


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I haven't had a lot of time to spend with the game, I'm finishing my basement, but I did run a couple sims a few years into the future. There are some teams that "could no longer afford the contract," but I honestly can't tell what the budget is or amount they have earned more or less from previous season.

I think the system is very clunky right now and confusing. Last year it was much easier to know what funds you had to sign players. I like the idea of an increased fund balance throughout the season, but I need to try to see if it allows for taking on more than 10 million in the first season or not. I would like to see the old emails notifying of the increase or decrease and a yearly total in free agency.


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[fightingirish595]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

One thing I noticed on A roster that I downloaded, is that the salaries seemed scaled down. ellsbury I think is making over 20 mil this year but In the game(could just be the from the first roster I downloaded) I think it's less than 10. My point is I think they scaled everything down such as budgets and salaries, but the best free agents are getting 31 mil a year... that being said I downloaded a different roster and salaries seem to be more accurate and I'm able to afford more players, but as I said it isn't letting me go over 160 mil after 2019.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

i don't like cash flow right now but after i get use to it i will be fine. math hurts my brains so just give me the total bill and i would be happyier

[tabarnes19_SDS]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

One thing I noticed on A roster that I downloaded, is that the salaries seemed scaled down. ellsbury I think is making over 20 mil this year but In the game(could just be the from the first roster I downloaded) I think it's less than 10. My point is I think they scaled everything down such as budgets and salaries, but the best free agents are getting 31 mil a year... that being said I downloaded a different roster and salaries seem to be more accurate and I'm able to afford more players, but as I said it isn't letting me go over 160 mil after 2019.

The system has always had contracts that way. I would prefer real contracts, but editing them to real contracts(for me at least) causes too many issues.

The first season may be ok, but in the off-season the cpu logic reverts to the value it gives players and contracts get severely out of whack. Teams have too much budget room and moderately priced players(in real life) become overpriced to the games logic.

A player that makes 10 million in real life may only be valued at 5 million in the show.

I wish that contract values would be in relation to the league. So if I edited contracts the gpu would adjust the value players are worth.

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[JayD]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

I still don't understand Max Offer. I will offer a contract to a player for more than what is listed for max offer and everything goes through. Not too impressed with this system as of right now.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

I still don't understand Max Offer. I will offer a contract to a player for more than what is listed for max offer and everything goes through. Not too impressed with this system as of right now.

The short of it is to multiply the max offer by 26 to convert from the weekly to annual value.

[fightingirish595]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

UPDATE.So I am re running throw my off season after the 2019. the game lets me run my payroll to 190 if I dont offer arbitration and just sign the arbitration elible players to contracts. Im about to exit and reload to see again what happens when I offer arbitration to these players

Okay so I offered severino arbitration. Pending offers went to almost 8 million even though I offered his previous salary which was 500k, these pending offers do not change the payroll or max offer amount when negotiating contracts. However In my second test which Im currently doing my payroll is at 147 And Its saying I can not sign castrol for 17 mil a year. Now if you add that 17 mil a year to the pending offers I have and add it to the 147. Thats still lower than test 1 which i ran up to 190.

Edit. So. with no arbitration offered to any players which means no pending offers, ALL my coaching positions filled, My 40 man filled. a 156.1 million dollar payroll, a cash flow of 1.35 mil... I still can not sign jose abreu for about 9 million a year, which would bring my cash flow to 1 mil. Does anyone have any ideas....

Did another sim through off eseason, resigned guys. did arbitration. then set free agency to auto. Have 1.44 in cash flow. CPU is trying to see free agents and cant do it. UGHHHHH

[335TDC]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

I still don't understand Max Offer. I will offer a contract to a player for more than what is listed for max offer and everything goes through. Not too impressed with this system as of right now.

Max offer -- I THINK -- doesn't refer to how much you can offer as a yearly contract, but how much you can offer as a WEEKLY contract. So if your Max Offer is 1m then you can offer a contract of about 26m per year -- right? It's all weekly this year, dammittohell...

[TGov]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

From what I'm reading here...
It just shouldn't be this difficult and confusing...

[Steven78]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

From what I'm reading here...
It just shouldn't be this difficult and confusing...

This.

The design decision to change this is kind of mind boggling.

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[KayOtic723]

Re: How do franchise budgets work this year?

Really not that hard just think of your max offer as your total amount of money you can spend as your max offer goes down the less you can spend it is way easier then last year budget


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