1996 Financial Outlook

[mad0die]

With a month to go in the regular season let's take a look at the MBBA Team Financials. Expenses for the remainder of the season are estimated based on your payrolls. Revenue for the remainder of the season is estimated based on how you have been doing so far, but beware if your attendance sucks it really bottoms out if you are out of contention in September.

Your finances are important for a number of reasons. They affect your ability to sign free agents, your ability to extend your players and coming back next season your ability to sign your player selected in the amateur draft. I will also give a tip that your merchandising revenue is heavily influenced by your attendance. It is typically financially advantageous to lower your ticket price until you are selling out your home stadium. One last note is that the MBBA broadcasting revenue increased by $5mill for everyone this seaon with the conversion to OOTP XI.

Attendance
We have 5 teams that are averaging more than 40,000 fans per game. They would be in descending order: Austin, Valencia, Buffalo, Las Vegas and Hawaii. Other than Buffalo all those teams are in the top 5 in merchandising revenue as well. We have no team averaging less than 20,000 fans per game which is nice to see, but just barely in Montreal's case which is pulling 20,979. Vancouver, Long Beach, Baltimore, Omaha and Madison are all averaging less than 25,000 / game.

Expenses
Typically you'd expect a team to have lower expenses than payroll as our players and staff still have another month of the season to get paid for. This ratio can be reversed in situations where you buy out the remainder of a player's contract to release him or drastically reduce your payroll via trades. I haven't been playing close enough attention to be able to tell what category a team falls in, but two teams have expenses significantly greater than their payrolls: Baltimore $44mill and Las Vegas $27mill. This is going to greatly affect their bottom line this season.

Wasted Revenue
Anything profit you make that pushes your current cash on hand figure to over $25,000,000 will get chopped off when we roll to next season. I call this "excess cash" and it's a valuable commodity that can be traded to help those teams in need. However, in the MBBA because of the salary cap and the very high cash on hand limit there are few teams projected to generate any excess cash this season, they are as follows: Washington $3.7m, Greenville $3.5m, Austin $174k.

Projected Next Cash
Finally we come to the bottom line. This is the projected amount of cash you will start with in 1997. This takes into account your complete total financial picture.

At the max ($25,000,000)
Washington*, Greenville, Austin*

No worries
Louisville* $21m, Valencia* $20.6m, Buffalo $17.1m

Above $10m
California $13.4m, Hackensack* $12.3m, Hawaii $11.4m, Seattle* $10.5m

Less than $10m (getting in the danger zone)
Vancouver $5.1m, Long Beach $5m, Birmingham $3.7m, Chicago* $2m, Atlantic City $1.4m, Las Vegas $727k

IN TROUBLE (negative cash)
Baltimore -$20.7, Calgary* -$12.6m, Montreal -$10.5m, Madison -$7.7m, Phoenix -$4.7m, New Orleans -$4m, Des Moines -$1.4m, Omaha -$1.3m

* Currently leading a playoff spot

[mad0die]

1/3 of the league potentially starting next season in the negative despite the increased broadcasting revenue is not a good thing.

[lynchy34]

1/3 of the league potentially starting next season in the negative despite the increased broadcasting revenue is not a good thing.

Yeah, that's part of the reason I had to do something about moving some salary. We would have been even worse without some of the moves I made.

[elligator]

1/3 of the league potentially starting next season in the negative despite the increased broadcasting revenue is not a good thing.

Not good at all. However, I'm not that concerned with our negative balance. I expect the Wolves to improve tremendously next season, and for that alone to make up for most of that negative balance. If I can get that bastard Imel off my team, the outlook will be even rosier. I expect the cash to grow with my team's performance, enough to allow us to sign a free agent or two or take on traded salary when needed.

I do thank you for the suggestion about the ticket prices vs. Merchandising.

[aaronweiner]

We're just glad to be back in the black after starting the year in the red, potentially. If we make the playoffs (a real possibility - check my feature on the FL races!) this should be a lot better, too.

[DenverZeppo]

When I took over Calgary I knew we were in trouble financially. I went out looking for help to get us into the playoffs without spending too much money...

I got help, but we're choking away that much needed playoff revenue with disasters like our recent 2-6 sim.

Zep

[whitebread]

I have had about $30 million in contracts dumped this season due to previous bad contracts from the previous ownership.

I am looking to lose 20 million this season. However it still says I have $31 million for extensions so I am not too worried. Plus I traded my highest salary at the deadline which helps.

[Afino]

We bringing signing bonuses back for draftees or is it too much of a financial burden here?

[cramsey51]

Nice breakdown. Looking over the league, it seems I should raise ticket prices for next season

[mad0die]

We bringing signing bonuses back for draftees or is it too much of a financial burden here?

It was promised we would be and with the huge broadcasting revenue and high cash limit any financial burdens are self-imposed.

[elligator]

We bringing signing bonuses back for draftees or is it too much of a financial burden here?

It was promised we would be and with the huge broadcasting revenue and high cash limit any financial burdens are self-imposed.

agreed

[JimBob2232]

I stepped into a mess financially here in New Orleans. i have spent hte better part of 2 seasons trying to clean up, and i am almost there. Understand that I am still in trouble, but lots of good prospects combined with the clearing financial picture, and i should be good to go if not by next season, the season after.

[scotto313]

My payroll is 52 million this year and projected to be 40 million next year. If a team can't sign their draft picks with a payroll that low, something is wrong with the league finances.

[cramsey51]

My payroll is 52 million this year and projected to be 40 million next year. If a team can't sign their draft picks with a payroll that low, something is wrong with the league finances.

You still have to generate enough income to offset the expenses (payroll) and turn a profit to have cash on hand for signing those draft picks.