I wonder whether game shape should reset at the end of the season. Maybe there could be a partial reset where game shape shifts towards respectable.
I just had another idea. Let's say that there is an actual off-season, but that it is removed for reasons of game play. Maybe injury recovery and arena building should be accelerated to correspond to a longer period of inactivity.
If that were the case, then maybe the game shape should reset to correspond to a pre-season that doesn't actually happen.