Subject: I.1

Hopefully they will rectify it soon - if I had made I.1 I believe I would be in the middle / bottom middle group and would have had an extremely difficult time gaining any OR - your only hope is to make the CWC and somehow win.

We need to keep coming up and discussing solutions instead of griping about the unfairness though - the dev's are not stupid and can see the same thing we do but I am sure that they'd love to see ideas for fixes.

that's why I quit playing Simyard. In Simyard you ran a major league baseball team with several minor league teams and you got to choose what league you joined - it wasn't assigned. Eventually after 2-3 years no one was willing to play in a league with the top teams because you could make more money in an easier league - and the top league I ran for 3 years folded when 2/3 of the people ran.

Just for comparison's sake for everyone - I got a 2* deal this season which rated out to $12,446,547 a week general and 5* TV deal for another $1,324,295.

I have the best HR in our league (and really the world for that matter - I haven't seen anyone higher than 10 yet), I won league I.1 3 years in a row, won the National cup 2 years running and finished in the top 4 in the Champion's league which all helps your deals and builds up your OTR (#2 in the world) and I have REALLY good marketing guys (57 and 51 marketing at the time the deal was signed - I haven't trained scouting) so I think I'm making about as much as anyone can make right now with a 2* deal. The 1* deal I was offered on day 1 was for 11.8 and if it's a linear progression that means the 5* deal would have been around $14.2 or so for a 5* total around 15.5.

Given all of this, it's surprising to me that Jojo who isn't that far below me team skillwise makes around 1/3 what I do a week. In the long run it'll be virtually impossible for there to be any competitive balance with that going on, but the other side of the coin is that the prices of players and staff (both salaries and purchasing them on the market), facilities and arena upgrades go up exponentially as you go up so even if I have 3 times the money as someone else I don't necessarily have 3 times the buying power - a dubious silver lining to a gray cloud at best I admit.

just saw your post now, Opivy. Not sure how to fix it but some ideas -

1 - narrow the earnings gap between the top teams and the lower teams - either make playing in I.1 in and of itself prestigeous enough to get you better offers than what's being offered to leagues II (though that'll increase the disparity between tiers) or come up with revenue streams available / keyed to the lower tier teams

(special tournaments on Thursdays keyed to getting them some OTR exposure while the top teams are gaining OTR in the champion's league or the CWC? maybe? more OTR gain for credit tournaments? Tier II champion's league?)

2 - tweak the OTR to weigh league level higher than it does now - set it up to give some OTR to teams who lose to a much higher tiered team and give higher tiered teams virtually nothing for beating lower ranked teams and the OTR gap will close pretty fast

3 - prima donna rules - the top players for the top teams start to act like Pacman Jones and get suspended. Alternatively set it up so that the lower-tier teams have some sort of morale / motivation bonus which gives them a playing advantage over higher tier teams because they're 'hungrier'. Who knows...I'm a moron (just ask my wife - she'll be very pleased to expound on that topic ad infinitum) so someone out there should be able to come up with some other ideas.

I like 2.

If you are going to get points for losing in CWC and Champion's League, why not in I.1?

League level should be the main determining factor when it comes to sponsorship deals. Right now it means next to nothing. Unfortunately, OTR is weighed way too much, really to the point where it is the only discernible variable used to determine general sponsorship offers. I hope this will be fixed one day, but I have my doubts.

I know very well that barring a miracle or half the league deciding they want to be demoted my stay in I.1 is going to be very short. I'm okay with that. My plan was and is long term. I never thought I'd be in the spot to promote that quickly, but it was there so I went for it.

That leaves me with two choices. Go out and blow all my money on top end players or continue with the long term plan of building within. At this point my preference is the latter. And I realize the consequences of that choice. I just wish one of those consequences wasn't that next season I will make less money than this season.

A team that gets demoted SHOULD make less money then they did while at a higher level, but they should equally be able to reap the rewards while being at that higher level. Right now that isn't the case.

OTR and league position also. Trueblue has a higher OTR (by about 30 points) but finished 11 or 12 in I.1 as opposed to 1st in II.1 the prior year and his deal went down.

rofl...you will make more in 5.5 weeks than I have in 3 complete seasons

anyone know what the 'other' column is in the finance page?
just for grins I looked at my incomes - so far from day one 11% of my money is from tickets & souveniers, 35% from the 2 sponsors, 31% from the market, 7% from ranking / stat bonuses and about 15% from 'other'

loans?

Based on it being as much as I've made in sponsorship I think that's what it is.

I always assumed it was money back from construction, NT payouts, and random events that aren't covered under the other headings.

doesn't seem to add up but I can't think of anything else...

I like the prima dona rule, MAKE IT RAIN!! I think that concept is going to be the best way for them to normalize things a bit. Find ways to penalize those at the top, of each division, but still make it enticing to be there. Then again, being #1 is always going to be coveted.

I think it's crazy offbalance to have you making 3x what jojo, for example, is getting and that's off you getting a 2*! There's no denying you've made the right moves and played exceptionally well. I mean worldclass expceptionally well. It's just going to get damn boring for you and others if there's little hope to catch up. While the buildings are indeed more expensive it's still pulling that much farther ahead since we'll all have those same costs to get to that level.

I like #2 first, as I.1 should matter more, everyone should want to be in it, no matter the country.

Your option #1 is also interesting, as I think international tournaments would be fun

My "hat in the ring" is have a super league, made up of the top team from each country, but it not be a tournament (they are excluded from CWC and Chl) and it be an actual league of the I.1 winners

anyone else have their player salaries drop substantially from yesterday to today?