Surely they must have re-tooled while in the NBBA... Do you think you have to entirely devote all your resources to winning the league in order to stay afloat?
re-tooling is almost impossible. starters for an NBBA-level team could run $1.5 million, impact players, over $2 million. but with competitive squads having salaries of around $650,000 and above, saving that kind of money is very difficult, and takes a couple of seasons. that money can really only be made if the team is competitive, and each season brings four new hungry teams. many managers take a short cut and buy older players, but after a couple of seasons, the squad is on the downhill slope that comes after 32. forget training players or draftees.
unlike lower leagues, no one here can have a bench deep enough to win against weaker competition (unless the team is tanking). that means a given squad can only play the starters twice a week -- either a Cup game or a league game will be lost. since many teams plan their finances on a deep Cup run, the result is a lot of teams around .500. you really can't look at the standings to gauge the best teams, for many are losing games tactically, but will be ready for a playoff run. that said, HCA is enormously important for the playoffs -- it takes one helluva team to overcome that deficit.
i'm convinced that staying in the NBBA for an extended period of time -- forget about winning championships, just staying here -- requires superior managing ability. and a good bit of luck.