Hey jhigg
First off, no you don't ever have to pay to keep your team. If you choose to manage a second team in the "Utopia" country [link=http://www.buzzerbeater.com/country/99/overview.aspx ]then you have to pay $10 a year to extend that teams life.
It's actually impossible to pay for an advantage in BuzzerBeater. You have the option of buying Supporter
http://www.buzzerbeater.com/store/buysupporter.aspx if you want to help BuzzerBeater out, but it only gives you
out of game advantages like having a logo, a Hall of Fame, trophy case, jersey colors, some extra stats, etc.
Feel free to BB-Mail me if you have any questions about your team! Looks like you scored with the Jackson and Blanco combo. They are pretty good for a new team! They are about the same height so you can train them together nicely.
The game manual is here:
http://www.buzzerbeater.com/community/rules.aspx?nav=Rule...there is also a good (even if it is a little old) help thread here:
http://www.buzzerbeater.com/community/forum/read.aspx?thr...