BuzzerBeater Forums

Your point is clearer now. Expanding early can help long term for the reasons of salary, and to get it done, as you point out. Here's the rub: my team has a salary of around $60,000 and I'm 15-1 this season. When my stadium sells out on Saturday (which it will) I'll earn over $100,000. And next month, I'll increase my prices, still be selling out and have spent nothing in the process. So, no, I don't regret not buying seats.

Believe me, I will be expanding soon, especially if I get to the EBBL, which is where such huge expansions are justified.

Last edited by LA-The Phil at 4/1/2008 9:22:16 AM

If you can win your league without the need to invest in players what are you waiting for??

Lets take into consideration 2 other factors... inflation and deflation of player prices...

a) we could all have to spend loads more on players soon so if you dont have a stable training regime then sorry the bottom of the ladder is now out of reach for a lot of people.... (time it takes to make decent weekly profits - slower)

b) you train your players to find that you can only sell at the price you paid...(time it takes to make decent profits - slower)

better to have them and not use them than to not have them and need them!

I agree with you. I'd like to expand soon but until I'm totally satisfied wih my roster, I won't be dong so and I'm not going to expand before I reach them EBBL (or max out my prices, if I fail to promote) because I am going to need to improve my team further whether I promote or not.

Ultimately, the ideal solution is a bit from column A (expansion) accompanied by a bit from column B (increased ticket prices) according to where you are in the league system, what your team is doing now, what your player needs are, how much cash you have, how well you fill your arena...

Admittedly, I wouldn't have expanded as aggressively as you have but then I wouldn't have step-traded either, so really your economy-first approach is a win-win situation for you and will, long-term, provide you with a substantial financial advantage over your opponents. Then again, not everyone can follow your system, so the opportunities are limited, and your opponents may experience a brief competitive advantage over you (perhaps. If they're good).

For new teams - like the OP - rapidly building up the arena at the expense of obtaining good trainees and good position players is probably not the best move. Or so I contend

i agree that expansion may not be his immediate no1 choice today but i also contend he may be wiser hoarding cash until his path becomes clearer. just because money doesnt go into stadium doesnt mean it has to go into players.

Anyhow, the OP (and anyone else reading this!) has a strong insight to the pros and cons of arena expansion from 2 different perspectives.

I think we have almost exhausted this subject... and I am now off to bed! Goodnight!

Well done guys,

If there would be a discussion like that around every topic, all newbies would be very happy (if they take the time to read it.)

As I see it now, for a starter, an expansion of the arena is not a good option, financially, it should be considered lateron.

Nevertheless, I already gave the assignment to install 3 luxury boxes. Just to have them (I need my proper seat in the stadium).
In a next move, beginning of May, I will adapt the ticket prices according to the demand of the seats, untill I'm almost at the maximum.

The large advantage is that, theoretically, you can adjust your stadium one seat at the time, maybe it's good, when having financial reserve, to expand your stadium a little after each home game...

I had +600k in economy, I wanted to do something with this money and I had 2 optins:

1. Buy a crapy player on TL for 500-600k and then train him for some 1 season and then maybe sell for better price, but who knows maybe till that time the market prices will go down, as I already have a good young trainees I decided better to expand my stadium for some 1300seats and spend these 500k, anyway there is no arena upkeep and my 7000 arena in last game was almost full with average ticket prices....So I decide better no to rise prices but increase my stadium....so spectators and my fans will better like the prices and fullfill the stadium.....because with bigger prices I had aproximately 120k per match, now when I lovered a little bit prices I had almost full stadium and 150k per match....so I will let to stay the prices the same and increase the stadium......and hope that it will also be full....:)))

GM-SuperflyGuy & LA-ThePhil both gave a lot of good information in the midst of their disagreement.

Specific to your case:
You're selling out your lower tier & courtside seats on a regular basis. I notice that you've already tried to increase the price of these seats, but were a tad late, so the change won't take effect until May 1st (around the time of the playoff finals this season). You're also adding a few luxury boxes, which is good IMO.

In the meantime, you may want to consider further expansion. The main reason I will suggest expansion to you (or anyone else reading this) at this time is because in a bit more than a month, the season will end and your Season Ticket Holders will be updated (most likely will grow by about 50% or more).

The rule of thumb that I use regarding expansion of my arena is to only build about half the seats I can afford. This leaves a safety net of cash to cover salaries and expenses while the expansion takes place (usually takes about 1-1.5 weeks to add the seats). Remember also that after expanding, each seat you build needs to sell about 15-20 times before it pays for itself.

Regarding raising ticket prices, my advice is to make very minor adjustments. You're stuck with these prices for a full month after they go into effect, so be careful. I've found that it is best to raise prices by around 10% or less. If you're selling out lower tier seats at $35, try $38-$40 next month. The most sensitive seats to raise prices on are bleachers, so I'd recommend going $1 at a time in either direction ($2 is about a 20% hike, and I saw a dramatic decrease in bleacher seats sold after raising the price from $12 to $14). I'd also recommend lowering the price you currently have on luxury boxes if they don't sell once they're complete.

All-in-all, a quick check of your arena page makes most of this post seem redundant. But I'd still recommend putting some additional investment into courtside seats, as well as some lower-tier.

Best of luck!

Last edited by darykjozef at 4/3/2008 12:36:15 PM

Thank you for the advice...
But I guess I'll wait for the beginning of the next season, in order to see how we are performing from a financial point of view. I have the impression I'm not turning break even each week...