Owner Mode Help Topic

[GenAlpha]

Since everyone here probably sucks at owner mode, I think we should start a topic (Please Sticky) that can help new people (coughn00bscough) make money and basically do better in owner mode.

My Advice:

When you first start out, start with a large budget. DO NOT UPGRADE YOUR SEATS UNTIL YOU HAVE A NICE BALANCED INCOME AND HAS NOT BEEN IN DEBT FOR AT LEAST ONE MONTH. When you have upgraded seats as you start, you have a higher maintanance expense and your fan base is still fairly small, so don't upgrade your seats until you have enough money AND you are getting an average of 85-100% attendance every home game.

Start out by buying consession stands ONLY. After spending, let's say, 2.5 million on concession stands, go to the promotions page and have promotions at least once per series that does not have a big impact. Like, I like the Mariners, and games against teams like the Indians don't have a big impact at all (1/10). So, for every game, around 1/4 to 1/5 of the fans gets something like a bat, or a magnetic schedule. And you should do this in the VERY begining because you're probably going to be in debt for a little while.

Now, you have a little decision to make. You can either trade all your big old guys like Boone and Beltre for younger guys like Meche. OR, you can keep the big guns.

Keeping the Big Guns:

PROS:

You have a higher income from ads, TV, and media that comes in the beggining. You also have a better chance of making it into the playoffs and world series. Older guys generally have more experience, and the happier they are, the better the team chemistry.

CONS:

You have a higher payroll. You lose alot more money per game than if you have younger guys.

Gettin the Younger Guys

PROS:

Your team is new. Every new owner mode is treated as a new team, and new teams cannot survive if they have a payroll as high as the yankees. You got younger guys that are faster, and can be better in a couple years. Your payroll is significantly smaller.

CONS:

Your media sponsorship money is lessened. You have less of a chance of making the playoffs, let alone the world series. Your guys might not get good until after a couple of years.

So, basically, whichever path you take, you need to WIN GAMES. The more games you win, the more people somes to your games. More people means your starting to run out of mountain dew and coors to keep those fans happy. And when you run out of coors and dogs, you know the money is rollin' in.

Yeah yeah, you need to win, but nobody is going to your games where the worst seats in the house are 50 bucks! Lower your prices a little. Start out by lowering your ticket prices 10-20 dollars and your consession prices 1-2 dollars. Then, play a home game (You can sim, but it's better to play it). After the game, check the screen where you set the prices. There, you're going to find the percentage of sales you sold last game. Your target for tickets is 85-100% and conseeions is 70-100%. If any of your soncessions are selling less than 40-50% per game, you can make the decision of selling the stand, but I advise not to.

Also, what is important is that you should MAKE THE PLAYOFFS. In the playoffs, and generally towards the end of the season, you can raise ticket prices to make more money. In the world series, you can raise your ticket prices to 60-70 dollars per game for the best seats.

So, just follow these tips. If you do things right, you may come out on top and make a few million along the way. Also, DO NOT EVER BUY BALLPARK UPGRADES DURING THE SEASON. Since away games don't generate an income, every road trip will make you lose money, and if you buy things, you lose MORE money.

I hope these tips help, and I hope anyone who has had sucess with owner mode post, and help those in need (coughn00bscough) of some help.

-{the Gen}-

[furball]

Since I have a question about ownership mode, I thought I'd add to this thread, since new players (if any) might find the tips worthwhile. (My question is at the end of this post.)

In addition to the tips in the prior post, I've found the following to be helpful:

Buy promotions for the first few home series before the first game of the season - before your income goes negative. In the first year of owner mode, I spend about 30,000 per home game. The goal is to get fans in the stadium to buy concessions and clothes. I've found that even after several levels of upgrades, it still pays to spend $60,000 or so on promotions per game up until the All-Star game. After simming LOTS of scenarios, I've found that promotions - particularly before the All-Star game - pay for themselves.

As others have commented, free tickets are a cheap promotion to get fans in the stadium. Also, I *think* the positive effect of any promotion diminishes throughout the season the more you use it, so mix them up. I always use any promo only once per series. Also, I don't use the calendar or schedule type promos after the first couple of months.

For the S.F. Giants, even years into owner mode, I never make *that* much money off ballpark attractions. Yes, they help fan happiness, but in the early years, I think my money is better spent elsewhere.

I'll lower ticket prices if I have to so that my ticket sales are consistently 85% or higher. I want those fans in the seats so they'll buy concessions and clothes.

If I make the post-season, I always lose enough away games to ensure that I play every home game I can, since it's the home games that earn money. And yes, raise ticket prices by a click for playoffs, and by two clicks for the World Series if your attendance was 90% + for the last games of the regular season. You can probably raise clothing prices by a click for the post-season, as well.

Don't bother buying any stadium upgrade until you're just about to start a (preferably long) home stand. Why pay for the upgrade if you're away and it's not making money for you? And it really is best to only upgrade seating capacity AFTER you're already filling your current stadium. The extra seating options of some of the upgrades won't pay for themselves if you aren't already filling your current seats.

Now, others might disagree with this, but as a general rule, I've found it's best to upgrade stadium capacity last. That is, I'll upgrade lights, scoreboard, etc., all to level one, THEN upgrade the stadium to level one; then upgrade all others to level two, then upgrade the stadium to level two, etc. And I ALWAYS try to upgrade the stadium just before the last important homestands of the year, or before the playoffs, if I know I'll make the playoffs. (And if it's September and I don't have the cash to do both, I *will* upgrade the seating capacity before say, ads and logos, if I'm pretty sure I can fill the seats.)

This is kind of cheating, but I do it the first year or two of ownership mode for 3 or 4 key trades right at the start: Turn off FAIR TRADES in gameplay options. With FAIR TRADES *ON* I can trade my great old pitcher with a high salary for a decent young pitcher sometimes. With FAIR TRADES *OFF* I can trade the same old guy for a great young guy with a low salary. Again, purists will frown at this.

The reason I do that is, I've found the first year of ownership mode is KEY! In Dynasty mode, bad years are balanced a bit by your position in the draft. In ownership mode, if salaries kill you in the first year, you will have a heck of a time ever recovering.

Here's another "cheat" I do. Depending on the kind of person you are, and how good your reflexes are, you might play the game at PRO or higher levels. I play ownership mode as follows: I play in management mode most of the time, and SIM many games, but drop down into PLAY in critical situations or for pitchers that I like, but who I can play better than the computer does (most knuckleballers). And the one gameplay option I've "tweaked" is the steal delay. For whatever reason, I was finding I was getting thrown out far too often when running with players rated 90 or more in SPEED, even against poor catchers. I want realism, but I like the running game and I just wasn't having fun when my 99 Dave Cota was getting thrown out consistently by a catcher rated 60 in both throwing categories. (By the way, steal headfirst, to the outfield side of second base.) All I'm saying here is that, if you're playing games in PLAY mode and having trouble with an aspect of the game (pitching, hitting, running) go ahead and tweak that setting for a season or two until you get the hang of it. Why should Pujols suffer just because you have terrible hand-eye coordination?

It takes a few minutes, but I often save my mode before a questionable upgrade and then SIM the rest of the season to see if the upgrade works as I think it will. If you're new to ownership mode, you should particularly try this with the concession stand and clothing prices. Go through a sim once with the prices up where you think you'd like them; note how much money they earned at the end of the season. Then run the sim again with the prices a click or two lower and see if you might have made more money due to higher demand. (This can also assist fan happiness.)

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And now my question:

I played ownership mode a year or two ago and after a few seasons, had managed to purchase all the ballpark upgrades, was making plenty of money and consistently had fan happiness at 5 by the end of each season thereafter. I started a new ownership mode recently. After 6 seasons, I've purchased everything, I'm very rich, my teams are winning their championships and my players are happy. BUT. . . I can't get fan happiness to budge beyond 4.

I've even simmed the next season with ticket prices reduced by a click or two UNDER settings that are already giving me 100% attendance. I've reduced concession and clothing prices a couple of clicks BELOW settings that were giving me 100% sales. My manager rating is A+ for all my teams but I can't get those fans to 5 happiness!

Any thoughts?