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So here is my long-term strategy for my roster/arena:

DivIV: Go for broke this season to win the title. Do not add to the arena until the playoffs have started.
Div III Season 1: Build my arena early and often until I reach minimum pricing for lower tier. Reduce my roster depth-injuries may be a concern but having a team that can win every game is no longer needed.
Div III Season 2: Evaluate if I will be able to win a title based on economy and current roster. If so do as I did in Div 4 and go for a title. If not, hoard cash to eventually win in season 3.
Div II Season 1: Finish off my arena.

Roster Details:
Until I get to Div II rely heavily on aged players (32+) for my starting rotation with my one pos or two pos trainees filling the roster.
Once I have my arena fully built in Div II (which now means extra cash goes to my roster), start adding uncapped youngsters to my homegrown trainees who should now be in the 23-25 age range. Work on 2 or 3 position training for up to 7 players in total. This should leave the reaming 5-6 players as aged (32+) veterans.
Once I am in Div I, continue to only add youth to my roster that are uncapped potential. Consider mostly team training at that point using the players in their best positions.

Above all else, rely on USA players to help contribute to merchandise. Continue adding drafted players to my roster every 2-3 seasons when I have a low draft spot. Continue investing 10K a week in draft even when I am not drafting that season. Consider a more elite trainer after my arena is fully built.

Ambitious.

Well, good luck mate. When I read some of this stuff, I'm thankful for being in a micronation. I've started this season, and have already spent about 1.7 mil in upgrading the arena.

I was pretty lucky about many things though.. Got easy opponents in the cup(was the only bot/new team left in the 5th round), and basically have a bot guest game - old team home game schedule. So good for my arena incomes. Also, my rival team is somewhat older, but their non-scrub played got injured just before our match, and I managed to win. Added to my fan survey nicely. Oh, and no injuries with a level 1 trainer *knocks on a wood against jinx*

Well looks like I did this for my title run:
I ran to the title carrying a $220,000 salary roster.
I used one 35K player (PG), two 30 K players (SF/PF), one 25K player (C), and one 21K player (SG). Adding to the rotation was 2 backups at 19K (SF/SG/PG) and 1 more backup at 12K (PF/C). I used an outside offense focused (Run N Gun) on high driving/handling/jumpshot/OD at the outside positions with a goal of high rebounding at the post positions. Most of my players are over 33 and salary efficient overall. I only have one player that was a starter from the previous season as I found a good number of players that were not too pricey. In fact I was able to find a couple under 33 players that were well-priced additions.

For next season I plan to reduce my salary some. Probably around the 175K range. I will be pricing my players high and looking to sell them at a profitable point so I can add higher salary players (50K-70K range).

I am saving my draft points until next season in Div III.
I still have my three main trainees ages 19/20/21 and drafted by me. By the end of next season, I can add a player to the training table as my 20 year old starts to get closer to capping as an All-Star Potential.

My arena going into Div III will be:
13,500
2,500
500
40
While in Div III I plan to add 1,500 Lower.

Well I won my Div IV.
Now I sold off two of my players that won me my title and am carrying a roster worth $143,000 and am tied for the lowest roster costs in the league.
I think I will carry my crappy roster until all-star break. Then I will try to win my league games after my arena is built up.

Gonna look for talent in the 40,000-60,000 range. Almost pulled the trigger on a 40K center, but figured I could get one of those later on the cheap. Have 700K in the bank.

So my plan is going on course. I will have my arena built up before all-star break it seems.
13500
4000
500
40

On the first play of the new season...my main trainee got injured...ouch.

Last edited by lawrenman at 9/21/2013 8:04:15 PM

It looks like I over-expanded. I kept selling out so I kept building more lower tier.

I'm pretty much in the same spot I was in last season. Except I don't need to worry about expanding my arena.

Because I lack a decent amount of cash reserves, it is doubtful that I will reach Div II this season.

I am still looking to add 40-60,000 range players from the USA. But at this point I am happy with my small roster. Perhaps I can look to add some assets near all-star break. As long as I can keep a winning roster, I don't mind having less players.

That's something I overlooked earlier in this game. An 8 man rotation looks to be ideal for economic prospects.

I think it's a well written piece rookeis will enjoy and follow without any problems, but there are some parts I disagree with.

Get basic staff for doctor and PR.

PR manager rarely makes enough money to justify his salary, so I think he's not necessary. You would rather buy one more player and win the games before your home games to boost your attendance.

Investing in players. A balanced roster around $70,000 total salaries makes sense in low div 5 to win a title. You want 3-4 starters in the 10,000 range. Consider players ages 32+. They will cost less to buy which is important early.

You contradict yourself here because buying 32+ players is not investing. Unless you call money from advancing a return on your investment, which I tihnk it's not.

If you buy old players, you basically have to replace them once you advance. This means you sell them for much less money than you bought them for, effectively losing money in the process. Then you have to buy a whole new roster.

Solution would be 2-position training for first 2-3 seasons until the rookie manager becomes comfortable with training. This will not only provide him with more good players down the stretch, but also not make his trainees expensive salary-wise as a lot of rookie managers mismanage one-position training.

Look at your standings in your league. See if you have the chance to win the title this season. If no invest in the arena. If yes invest in starters.

Even if I had the chance at advancing, I wouldn't. Because this means I would have to buy old players who are good for your current league, but useless unless backups in higher leauge. But the main reason for waiting a bit more is 1) making your trainees ready for higher league and more importantly, 2) when you advance, you get something I call "golden season". I.e. roughly until all-star break your fans reward your title with massive arena attendance even if you are losing. if you don't give yourself time to build an arena first, you won't be able to sell all the seats you could and this will make you lose money.

Imagine if a rookie manager advances in his first season. Suddenly his old players are not good enough for new league and their skills are dropping. He can't train effectively as he's losing games because of it. He cannot build arena fast enough to capitalize on advancement AND he is facing demotion which punishes you with much less attendance.

I like your long term plan - just a suggestion if you are able to train a u21 player and eventually turn him a national team player you dont have to go all local you will still get the merchandising boost - one of the teams in our country went all local and the difference is not that big. Man the guy who started this thread is confusing the noobs - I think Buzzerbeater is reacting to what league and division you are in. It is easy to throw numbers and say this and that. It has to make sense to your situation. Keep it up. One ball 4 u.

I learned the most, and am still learning, by looking at what the highest ranked teams in my league are doing. Sure you can't see everything, but the things you can see can quickly speed up the learning curve. Things like Arena size, ticket prices, enthusiasm (not explicit but easy to figure out), offensive/defensive strategies, transfer history, total player salaries, highest salaried player, player ages and I'm sure I'm missing a few, are easy things to emulate and/or incorporate into a new players strategy. Also, reading the forums, and doing an advanced google search (for non supporters) on the buzzer beater boards using keywords, can help new players get up to speed on the best strategies pretty quickly.

I also noticed (not scientific at all) that many players over expand their Arena, and I can match or exceed their ticket revenue with a smaller arena and higher prices.

Last edited by Big Chief Triangle at 1/9/2014 10:46:47 AM

Point #1
PR Managers aren't that important. I guess you could consider the $3000/wk to pay for a basic as an expense you don't need. I agree with your assessment. Its really splitting hairs though.
Point #2
Every player is an investment. As soon as you add a player to your team he is ultimately depreciating before your eyes. If he's young you can improve him and thereby beat the depreciation but that requires an investment in training and less than ideal roster. As for how much an "oldie" loses value. First of all, I trypically rent a player for 1-2 seasons. If he can stay longer than that he is either a trainee or he has remained valuable to me. Every season requires a review of your current condition and then a review of your roster in contention to a title or other condition. Secondly, a player who costs a lot to buy also has a holding cost. If you spend a bunch on a player that is less than you are able to spend elsewhere including more players. Therefore, unless the player is purchased at a super value, he is ultimately just a place setter for cash. Now in my situation I sold 3 players over 33 last week. Two of them I took a 100K loss on resale value. The other I actually gained 50,000 on the sale for a net loss of $150,000. Considering all 3 players helped me advance to Div III I was more than happy to rent them. Overall I had spent 600,000 to retain them. They lost me 150,000 as they were being held. That means overall they had only lost 25% of their value even though I held them each over 1-2 seasons. I would qualify them as good investments.
Lastly, I can pull value from my trainees. In Div III they are finally starting to carry their own weight. I don't think it was a bad idea to advance the way I did. Even though they were not as valuable as the rest of my roster "carried" them.

Point #3
I agree to an extent about the "golden season". This guide was written before overextension tax. Overall this makes it ideal to try to expand your arena before jumping up too high. However, its hard finding the right time to jump to the next division. But there is no reason to stay in Div V or Div IV longer than needed. Unless you are looking to make money off drafting which has also become easier since the odds of getting a good draftee has increased substantially for bot leagues before I published this originally. Overall recent changes has made it a bit more lucrative to take a slower approach to developing a team. However, when the title looks easy enough to grab its best to go ahead and go for it. Mostly because its easier to stay in a higher league than it is to advance up. Overall though I believe arena expansions have value. Although in my case I did overexpand some. Which likely cost me a title shot this season.

NY Mob>

Your approach is a good way to advance up the ranks. But what you lack currently is homegrown talent. This will cost you some overtime in merchandise and overextension taxes. Completely ignoring training will win you titles quicker. Also you have ignored arena expansions which in your strategy made sense because the payback is much slower than advancing up divisions.

If I had any suggestions it would be to take a season to expand. Then look at possibly buying some talented well-trained youth to add to your roster for training purposes. After 2-3 seasons of making your economy more stable you will be able to challenge for titles in Div 2.

Of course this is my opinion. Your strategy works excellently to advancing up the ranks quickly. It's a good strategy IMO.