This post is the result of a lot of frustration and research. Many thanks to The Wolf for his research, that while used for a different purpose, led me here.
A few of you have already stopped into my "Level Playing Field" dynasty, and I've shared that I was intensely happy with my markets/financial settings due to some great information I've found. Instead of type it to the several posters that have inquired, I'm going to share my findings here.
The base of my findings resulted from this post by The Wolf -- so all credit for the start of this system belongs to him, I just chose to apply the information for a different purpose.
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...41-post10.html
I'll also post this short example for a point of reference:
NAME/OOTP MARKET SIZE
New York, NY 10
Los Angeles, CA 10
Chicago, IL 10
San Francisco, CA 10
Dallas, TX 10
Philadelphia, PA 10
Houston, TX 10
Washington, DC 10
Boston, MA 9
Detroit, MI 9
Atlanta, GA 9
Miami, FL 8
Seattle, WA 7
Phoenix, AZ 7
Minneapolis MN 6
San Diego, CA 6
Baltimore, MD 5
St. Louis, MO 5
Tampa, FL 5
Denver, CO 5
Pittsburgh, PA 5
Portland, OR 4
Cleveland, OH 4
Cincinnati, OH 4
Sacramento, CA 4
Riverside, CA 3
Kansas City, MO 3
San Antonio, TX 3
Salt Lake City, UT 3
San Jose, CA 3
Milwaukee, WI 3
OK... so what I did... I inputted my financial settings (Media contract, merchandising, contract levels, etc.) and I did it before anything was set into stone (IE before the league started).
After inputting my settings I went and looked at the financial projections and got:
Average Revenue: $131,568,000
Average Expenses: $22,000,000 (no minors in, yet)
Average PAYROLL: $84,062,000 (caps for a reason)
Average Profit: $25,506,000
Alright, so far so good. This is where it gets tricky. I have a 24 team league. I added the "point scores" from the table above for all 24 of my teams. I then took the Average PAYROLL and multiplied by 24. If its an average, I hypothesized, this is how much money is in play. I then took that total point score (only part I didn't write down, I BELIEVE my total score was 199.) I then took the TOTAL MONEY number and divided it by 199. This gave me the dollar value PER market size point.
I assigned the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers point scores of *12* where they would normally be a 10, just to simulate the fact that these two squads have more money than everyone else. Anyways... after using this system, this was my budget assigned BEFORE the inaugural, and what the team budgets were AFTER the inaugural once salaries were assigned.
AL:
NYY: $132M/$178.2M
LAA: $110M/$148.5M
CHW: $110M/$148.5M
TEX: $110M/$148.5M
BOS: $110M/$148.5M
DET: $110M/$148.5M
SEA: $77M/$103.95M
MIN: $66M/$89.1M
BAL: $55M/$74.25M
CLE: $55M/$74.25M
KC: $33M/$44.55M
OAK: $33M/$44,55M
NL:
LAD: $132M/$178.2M
CHC: $110M/$148.5M
SF: $110M/$148.5M
NYM: $110M/$148.5M
HOU: $110M/$148.5M
PHI: $110M/$148.5M
WAS: $99M/$133.65M
ATL: $99M/$133.65M
SD: $55M/$74.25M
STL: $55M/$74.25M
PIT: $55M/$74.25M
CIN: $44M/$59.4M
As you can see, the numbers come out identical for all matching markets, the small markets have the little money, and I've got the space at the top I wanted for the Yankees and Dodgers. If I had it to do again, I may even make those 2 squads a 13 or 14, but I digress.
The point was, that if you are using an inaugural draft, you CAN get the market sizes and budgets you want to START the league. Obviously, things will evolve in gameplay, but that it was what we all want anyway. It was important to me, however, to have my markets separated to start...
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I think I explained that fairly well, but of course, if you have questions, feel free. I'm very happy with the results of this, and if it can help someone else get extra enjoyment out of their game, I was more than happy to share it.
Happy OOTPing!
EDIT: I used San Jose for Oakland, sue me.
