PowerPlay Magazine

Basketball will launch full version sometime this week with the season starting next Monday. I thought I would take the time to mention a few things to keep in mind with the launch of PPM's 4th sport as there are some very interesting changes that will give us more to think about and tinker with.

1. Increased Day 1 player OR values
   In all previous sport launches players have started with 100-150 OR (in that range). This has meant that players can be pulled from the academy at 15 years old and launched straight into the lineup. Increasing the initial OR of players on day 1 by 100-150 points will have many potential impacts.
    
   1. If you pull a superstar player he likely won't crack the lineup for a season or two if you were to play your best team. So, do you play to win or play to develop your future star?
   2. If you play to develop your future star keep in mind he will be growing (height is important!) and also that his training rate will be hindered each day he plays given poor regeneration facilities early on.
       
2. Draft
   The draft will be implemented for the first time at the launch of a sport and it will be under the modern format (2/season with 2x the player pool, half the pool size of other sports due to the shorter season). This will give everyone a realistic crack at drafting a special player. However, how much money do you invest in your SA to get an earlier pick in the mid-season draft considering points 1.1 and 1.2 above?
   
   
3. A league game each day (plus friendlies and/or tournament games)
   This is a massive change that has many potential impacts.
   1. You will now have 3.5 league home games per week compared to 1.5-2 per week in other sports.
   2. It will become challenging to set friendly and league tactics each day so ProPacks have never been more valuable.
   3. Players will play more games and as a result the training loss will likely be higher as a result - consider revisiting your value of the regeneration facility (PPM Mag article coming after the conclusion of this hockey season!) 
       
4. Ability to set ticket prices
   You can choose the value of ticket prices for each game. Pay attention to your attendance and revenue and adjust accordingly. My early data collection indicates that setting a lower price early in S1 will generate more money.
   
   
5. Shortened season
   The season is reduced from 112 to 70 days (16 weeks to 10). This will have numerous effects as well.
   1. Players will age more quickly and thus have lower OR at given ages than in the other sports.
   2. Players will undergo C/L drops more quickly.
   3. Facility build times are reduced but the costs remain the same. Since money is accumulated at the same rate it will take an equal number of days and thus more seasons to build things.
   4. Things will move quickly, so be sure to start playing as early as possible!
      
      
6. Given points 1.1, 1.2 and 5.3, the ideal time to pull a player will be much different than in the first three sports.
    
7. Conferences will add rivalries and make things much more interesting.
   
   
8. Market
   The market will be much different in basketball. Perhaps it may be more wise to fire someone than sell them if they may not fetch a pretty penny.
   1. Fewer 5% fee sales per season
   2. Higher cap on the fee.
   3. Faster fee increase when exceeding the baseline sales per season.