Sorry to be butting into your forums but I will explain the ABBL phenonom. It doesn't affect everyone as obviously last season Koop spent a fortune gunning for gold but when you win division II what do you get?
$1,000,000 cash bonus.
$2-300,000 extra a week for the entire season ofset by having to spend $1-200,000 more a week to compete.
Shiny trophy.
Great fan survey the following season.
When you win the ABBL you only get the bottom two. Therefore teams are willing to go in hard to try and win a division II or III because the cash rewards will well make up for it. I ended last season in debt before promoting and hopelessly addicted was famously on his last benkruptcy warning when he won but the extra money fixes all of that. When you win the ABBL there is no extra money, just a debt you need to somehow fix. This is why lots of the "old timers" don't believe in risking too much to win.
Good news is on the horizon however. We have II.3s own Aussie Pride and Chelsea Seagulls being 2nd in the Big 8 and Great 8 this season as well as CROCKERS and I don't think any of us are known for being too conservative. I suspect that within a couple of seasons all of us will have had a serious crack at it.