[tm1681]

I've found the same problem.

I run old-timey leagues where there isn't a ton of cash floating around. My leagues have Free Agency, so initially there ended up being quite a few quality players going unsigned each winter because of the combination of lack of funds and player demands. What would eventually happen was that these leftover quality free agents would end up going unsigned until right around opening day of the next season.

The way that I had to fix it was to turn off the automatic importation of yearly financial figures from the in-game database, set my own inflation parameters, and let teams have much greater cash reserves. Basically the AI players aren't good at lowering their salary demands until it's too late, and AI front offices aren't that good at spending money ahead of time based on their revenue prognostications.

Seeing that your game is in 2042, you might be able to fidget with things like ticket prices and maximum cash amounts to see if that helps the teams in your league have more money to spend on free agents since you're at a point where the yearly financials no longer change via the in-game database. However, I can't remember if you can do that if you're not in Commissioner Mode.