BuzzerBeater Forums

I committed early last season to a rebuilding/tanking project in an effort to allow my trainees more time to develop before I go to the NBBA, and to improve my financial situation. Since I committed early in the season, I was able to shed the right amount of salary to maiximize savings, while still fielding a solid cup lineup that gave me a deep run to continue making $50K a week. I "secured" the 1st pick in the draft which resulted in over 1 million dollars in sales (probably 50% to 100% less than what I hoped for, but the TL issues are a seperate subject.).

My attendance has indeed taken a SEVERE hit this season, and in my past game despite being 18-0 heading in, and having 5 balls on my fan survey, my attendance dropped down to 57%. So there is credibility to the discussion that missing the playoffs, or relegating affects your attendance in such a way that it taps into the short term savings you have by tanking or not paying salaries for 2 weeks during the post season.

However, when I started my project, I was SEVERELY in debt...I sold my expensive players, made a ton of money the rest of the season, and used that to buy a solid roster this season. Now I am 19-0, heavy favorite to promote again, and I couldn't be more happy about my financial situation unless the attendance Gods were nicer to me and put more butts in the seats every week. I have a decent amount of cash right now, and today is my last road game until Game 2 of the Championship. So I have 2 regular season home games to finish the season, and 3 consecutive home games in the playoffs...plus if things go according to plan, another $500 in promotion bonus.

There are obviously short and long term benefits/consequences to both strategies...and in the end, if something happens and i lose in the playoffs and don't promote, this whole thing could blow up in my face....but I do believe a well thought out plan can help reverse a financial mess.

That said, it's too bad that there can be strong rewards for intentionally not fielding a winnning team. Or, more specifically, heavy penalities for tanking (i.e. Field 3 players, or give a walker, and you don't get home revenue) I love how my plan has worked out, and the direction my team is going in...but I felt horrible last season tanking every game, and I felt my situation had a negative effect on the league. To me, that is where making 5th seed an attractive option is bad for BB.

Yes the effect of the last game is huge, but to make it a +/- think, you just need around 5-6% more income in the next season to compensate for the 70% homegame income you miss that week to get a the money of a full attence and i believe atleast betwen 4 and 6 you get it and you have always a chanche to get to the next round to get even more money.

So the amount of money you are loosing shouldn't be that big, foor a nice oppurtunity you get.

So without evidence, I'll stick with what I know for sure.

And if you're trying to win playoff games, it's likely that you're not training players all 3 games in a week anyways.

You're not making much sense anymore. I'm betting I what is known, you seem to be betting on the unknown. That's your opinion but doesn't have much of a logical base. It is you that is playing the 'lottery' in this instance, not me.

Not sure why you're digging your heals in here but I'm guessing it's because you're finished 3rd or 4th place and lost in the first 2 rounds for about 4-5 seasons in a row now. So basically, you need to believe that you're not losing money by making the playoffs. And it looks like you're heading down the exact same path this season.

Personally, I believe that you've lost yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars with that strategy. Maybe if you start embracing other strategies, your results will be different.

My attendance has indeed taken a SEVERE hit this season, and in my past game despite being 18-0 heading in, and having 5 balls on my fan survey, my attendance dropped down to 57%. So there is credibility to the discussion that missing the playoffs, or relegating affects your attendance in such a way that it taps into the short term savings you have by tanking or not paying salaries for 2 weeks during the post season.

Relegation absolutely destroys your attendance revenue. It's a MASSIVE hit that's completely unavoidable.
Missing the playoffs is only mildly unpleasant, but not debilitating in any way.

Millions of dollars difference between relegating or simply missing the playoffs and avoiding relegation for a D.I team. Probably $2m on the small scale, $5m on the high scale. I don't know if BBs are aware of how unrealistic the relegation penalty is. I'm pretty confident a 0-22 team would make more money than a 22-0 team that has just demoted if they were in the same league with the same expenses, same merchandise, same arena size, etc. Doesn't make much sense to me.

But who makes more money with attendence, revenue, tv etc? The worst team in the NBA or the best team in the NBDL? Clearly the worst team in the NBA would.

In that respect, one could argue that it's realistic. But I don't follow European Football which has a ture relegation system. That's probably the best model to use to gauge what is fair.

I think the Bobcats would love to make as much money as the Lakers or Heat, or whatever contending team does...

I was talking about the demotion penalty's affect on attendance, not attendance revenue in general in lower-tiered leagues. There's a demotion penalty of sorts, a promotion bonus of sorts, and neutral (a team repeating the league). The demotion penalty is gigantic and you're at a gigantic disadvantage financially when you enter the league upon demoting.

Using the neutral attendance revenue as a baseline, I'd estimate a promoting team has the ability to make 110-115% of what neutral can make and a demoting team 50% of what neutral can make. Less maybe? I don't know. It was huge when I demoted. I reduced prices like 35% all-around and only sold out 47%.

Last edited by Stajan at 4/21/2012 7:06:43 PM