A view from the bottom,
Seeing that most of this thread content is from managers that have high level teams I felt I should post the view from a IV league manager. I started midway last season and managed to win the league against mostly bot teams. Learning the game from week to week and making lots of mistakes. I really like the game and spend most of the time perusing the TL as that is my typical modus operandi. As all of you I noticed that the prices took a huge jump from last season and find it nearly impossible to find players that are at all decent that I can afford. Unlike many of you who have more than 200,000 dollars in profit, I can make maybe 40,000 a week. This, of course, means I can not afford very much ( I have saved approximately 500,000) and am barely competitive in my league. I have resorted to "throwing" games in the hope that I can stay at level IV while I train my prospects to decent levels. The problem I have seen in the NEWS section is that many of my competitors have been able to sell players for over 1.4 million dollars (crappy ones) and purchase players for that or higher levels. This causes an imbalance in the league and makes it very unlikely that no matter how much I "manage" my team if another team can purchase their way to the top, I will have no way of winning. I have no illusion that BB is a short term win but it is very difficult for me to get my mind around the idea that I will very likely never have a chance to succeed given the current economic climate. That being said I really love the game and the great work put into it.