BuzzerBeater Forums

Fan Survey and Seasons Expectations / Predictions

I don´t like the current setup of the fan survey. I do like the concept of it beeing (a) somewhat random and (b) different fans having different opinions, so the mixture of two fans beeing asked and the "who rates which catagory most important" should still be random (20% deviation possible, weight of the different catagories varying for the purpose of further use).

I´d also like to "invent" a new part, which is based on the information the manager provides to the fans at the start of the season. You should set an own "seasons task" for your team, which has some influence on the teams development.

Season Task:

(1) Win it all - fans are willing to pay top entry fees, but expect to get rewarded with performance. If performance won´t come, they will not show up either. 1st it is. 2nd - 4th average. Below horrible.

(2) Playoffs - fans are willing to pay almost top prices, and will reward the team if it makes the playoffs. If the playoffs are endangered, don´t expect them to come, the more you miss, the less they will be interested. If you´re well in the playoff ranks or even leading your division, be sure they will pay almost any price. The more the better - 1st would be great, 2-3 good, 4th average and everything below would be a huge mess.

(3) Hold the League - fans are willing to pay medium prices, and are willing to "forgive" you some losses, even happening in streaks, as long as place 5-7 are in range. If you overachieve, they will be enthusiastic, but they will never accept top prices. You´re a small club and teams are not willing to overpay on small clubs. Team is expected to finish 5th or 6th, 7th will be accepted, but not celebrated. 4th would be great.

(4) Rebuild - fans won´t hit you with high expectations, but they expect fair value for it. If you relegate, you relegate, if your prices are fair people will come to support the new guns and help you build a true fan base. If your prices go through the ceiling, they will stay at home. If your team overachieves, fan base will be happy, but won´t "trust" you too much, so don´t expect them to spend all your money on you. Team is expected to finish 6th - 8th.

The predictions have to be made by each coach before the season starts, and can be altered (but no more than to the next higher or lower category) come all star day. Every team missing its´ prediction is meant to (2) go for the Playoffs.

Now to the Fan Survey:


Part I - the Cup.

The Cup expectations should be measured by two aspects.

(a) Last years success.
(b) Opponent strength.

Basic Value while still in the Cup: 4 Balls
Basic Value when going out of the Cup: 2 Balls

Winning against a stronger team: .5 Balls extra.
Losing against a weaker team: .5 Balls less.

Exceeding last years Cup result: .5 Balls per Round.



Part II - the League:

Last years success:

(a) Standings (1st in Div 3, 2 / 3 2.5 Balls, 4th 2 Balls, 5th 1.5 Balls, 6th / 7th 1 Ball, 8th 0.5 Balls) - 0.5 Bonus Balls for each playoff round, Winner getting another 0.5 Balls.

(b) W / L record (22 5 pts, 21-18 4.5, 17-14 4, 13-12 3.5, 11 3, 10-9 2.5, 8-7 2, 6-5 1,5, 4-3 1, 2-1 0.5, 0 0. -0.5 Bonus Balls for each Walkover.

Current Season

(a) Standings (see above), Bonus balls for the teams holding the best overall records (2 for the best overall, 1.5 for 2nd and 3rd overall, 1 for 4th and 5th, 0.5 for 6th-8th, 0.5 for every just-promoted team not in danger of demotion (5th or better).

(b) W / L record (100 % 5, and so on... see also W / L last season).

(c) Seasons prediction. If you are within your seasons prediction, you get 3-5 balls, depending on how good within the prediction you are (better place is always the better balls). If you overachieve your prediction by one category, you get a max of 4 balls. If you underachieve your prediction you end up between 1-3 balls. If you completely miss your prediction pretty much everything m

Last edited by LA-seelenjaeger at 1/29/2012 4:15:04 AM

uch everything might happen (underachieving: 0 balls, overachieving 0-5 balls, fans are complicated at times)


The categories for rivalry, TV Game and the consistency and activity of the management more or less stay the same, just that in rivalry and TV Game home and away aswell as ranking position of the opponent get recognized.

The "last game" is reduced in importance. Yet, active streaks (win / loss) should get an influence on this, following the "the more, the merryer" method (3 game winning streak is better than just the last game won).

The mixture of the different factors should still vary between the different "fans" on a random basis, as might any fan give his personal preferrence in the rating of different factors by a standard deviation of roughly 20%.


The maximum income for home games now is a multi-influence effect:

(a) Fan Survey, telling something about the Mood.
(b) Season prediction - setting the expectation of the fans this determines how much the fans are willing to pay max and how willing they are to get to the game when the team is close to the seasons task or even overachieving.
(c) Ticket prizes.

Coming back to Dr. Christophers´ suggestion about "Game Shape re-adjustment" you might grant players on teams who are close to their teams task a little GS bonus (.4 or something like that) or slightly overachieving a smaller GS Bonus (0.2), as they gather confidence into the team and its´ management.





Last edited by LA-seelenjaeger at 1/28/2012 4:46:08 PM

I love this idea. I do not have anything to add or argue. +1.

Basically it is a good suggestion.

Just to clarify how I see it;
In case one aims low, but achieves high, he is expected to still earn less comparing to one that aimed a little higher than that user, and who just achieved is goal.

I'm not sure that one can even give a choice to which level he aim.
I believe it should be calculated upon his assets value in comparison to his league.

Yes, exactly. If you overachieve by much (or - the other way to look at it: if you lowball on your prediction) you will receive less than if you set a higher task and "only" fulfill it. Still managing your ticket prizes will matter, but the prediction should target the "willingness to spend" on the fan base. It might also influence Merchandising, but that´s not crucial for the suggestion.

I´d prefer coach / manager choice of the seasons aim, because finances and team evaluation are quite important in managing.

i believe currently they exist also a bit in that way, different succes give you already different surveys and the fans imho have higher expectation of a top team then of medium sized team about the current season. And i think if not this is the way how it should like, that the fans raise their expectation on the previous season(s), and like to see your team getting better.

But with the task, this will lead to weird results ... Lets say i say next season, i want to rebuild and can tank and my fans support me for that.

As a german i might give you two example of weird target the presidents give out, BAyreuth often ztalks about the playoff the fans know that they have the money to land in the midfield and will most likely face the relegation innstead of the PO. So they don't take there president for serious.
Bayern Munchen came into the league with a top 3 etat, and said that they like to come into the PO ... Something which would be now realistic approach, but nobody i was talking too would say that would be a succes with that enviroment.

But hey i sell my stars, don't get replacement for it, but my fans will still like me since i say we rebuild ... I think the fans will say damn he have a winning team, and now ruins the franchise and they are used to good basketball and don't want to see the rookie ball now.

well the idea is that even if your fans support you while rebuilding, they will not pay top ticket prizes. so if you lower the prize enough, you will have a stable but still not top notch income. the task should switch the curve for the optimum ticket prize depending on your success.

You have put a massive amount of work into this idea so I applaud that.

I do think that if you decide to rebuild then your fans will punish you. I know certain NBA teams keep their fans constantly fed with the "we are rebuilding" line as they suffer through season after season of bad teams. For some like OKC it is true others it is just a line. I think the thing is to have an exciting team while rebuilding.

If you have drafted a $7,000 18 year old HoF potential who is your starting PG your team fans can get excited (like with Ricky Rubio right now) but too often "rebuilding" Buzzerbeater teams just have random scrubs getting thrashed every week and there is really nothing for the fans to look forward to.

I don't know how the GE can decide who is truly rebuilding a an exciting young team that could get fans through the gate and who is just tanking at the salary floor.

1) Merchandise is not related to that. Merchandise is upon the fans getting connection to the team and/or a specific player.

2) It should be based on that team roster. If it is a strong roster (salary-wise) comparing to the rest of the league, then the fans will expect them to make more of this season.