BuzzerBeater Forums

My team is at a sort of a crossroads and I am looking for advice on how to proceed.

Background
I started playing late in season 18, season 19 I ate up D5, and so far in S20 I am 11-1 in D4. My initial plan was to keep steamrolling and adding salary but I'm worried if I somehow promote this season I won't have the stadium or roster to compete in D3. I have spent over a million on my stadium (6200/800/200/9) which I think is good for a competitive 2nd season manager but quite small compared to D3 teams.

Current Situation
I have 900k banked and I am taking home around 95k per week after expenses (currently 80k but big expansion about to finish). I feel good about winning games with a below league average salary, but on the down side seven of my eight main rotation players are 30 or over. My current roster is really balanced with all 8 of my main players between 11.5k and 16.2k salary.

Option 1: try to promote
Replace two of my guards with ~25k salary players as soon as I can find the builds I want, which should use up my current cash reserves. Spend all post-all-star income on upgrading a big men right before playoffs, and put any remainder and post-deadline income into stadium. I will have a good shot at promoting, but if I succeed D3 might toss my salad. If I don't promote my situation will still be good with a powerhouse D4 team but my cash situation won't be nearly as good as with below options.

Option 2: hold steady
Make only minor roster moves and try to cheaply win as many games as I can for fan support. Spend some cash on arena right away. Likely lose in first or second round of playoffs. Will have lots of cash and flexibility to make a promotion run in S21.

Option 3: blow it up
Sell off players to cut salary in an attempt to stockpile cash for s21. Remember that 7 of my best 8 players are 30 or over. Would the crashing fan support make me wind up with less cash than option 2?.

Here's what i would do, promote this season (if possible) and when you get to D.3 sell all of your players over 30 and get a couple trainees (if you haven't got them already.) Because you said so yourself you couldn't compete with your current roster and you wouldn't have the income to afford a ton of salary. So the plan is to promote and sell veterans. Here's the main part right here: Now I'm not telling you to tank, but once you promote then rebuild by cutting veterans and getting salary relief you will be rolling in the cash. So once you demote you will have ALOT of money to put into your arena and then you will have a good, young team with great income and you will blow D.4 guys out of the water. How does that sound?

Oh I forgot to tell you something... I am saying promote to D.3 because the TV contract is higher so you will naturally be making more money.

promoting is nearly always better for the econoonic, and it don't look like you go really crazy with your salaries trying to promorte, and then you can see if you have a chanche to staay in the league.

promoting is nearly always better for the econoonic, and it don't look like you go really crazy with your salaries trying to promorte, and then you can see if you have a chanche to staay in the league.

I think you'd do really well if you go with option one. Even if you can't sustain your position in Div III, you'll earn a lot of money in Div III, much more than you are earning in Div IV, and that will have a positive impact on your arena. So I think its a win-win situation for you.

Oh btw very well written ;) +1

Option 2 would be ok, if you didn't have as many 30+ players. Since you have to rebuild soon anyway, it's better to do it in DIII, getting a high pick as a bonus.

I'll say a hybrid of 1 and 2. Right now, you're better served in the long run by spending on the arena, not on players to push you over the top. If you can promote with what you have, of course, go for it, but don't spend extra to do so yet.

And I'll say that if you do promote, you may well find yourself more competitive in a III than you think. I went through a very similar start as you did, and I didn't expect to be competitive at IV or III and it's turned out fine so far. The age of your players is somewhat of a concern, but only one of them is 33, so at least the others aren't losing skill yet, just value.

So, you might be inclined to ignore this since I'm in your league (and conference). But I offer it with no ulterior motives (except perhaps to keep our league as competitive as possible so that when we do promote, we kick @$$ in D3). I think you'd be best served to keep winning as much as possible with what you got and try to build your arena up at least to something like 8000/750/200/10 while saving about 1 mil to buy a good trainee or two when they flood the market after the next draft. Once your trainees are ready to promote, do it. And fill in with cheap older players around them.

I think this game is built to reward long term strategies. You can see this by looking at teams that are in D2. Most have spent a long time in lower leagues building their arena and training players around whom they can build successful squads. If you want to jump up to D3 and then demote, you'll get a good draft pick, but a season of empty arenas after you demote (no matter if you're winning or not). I think you'll be better off making deep playoff runs for a few seasons before you promote (while earning lots of dough), than you would be bouncing to D3, back to D4, and then trying to promote right after demotion. Part of this is the merchandise bonus you get for giving more minutes to people you've drafted or developed or who are from your country.

So, long story short... I think option 2 is your best. Good luck (except on July 24th)!