Player Contracts and Managing Capspace
by Grendel Khan (Rich Rawson)

Capspace.

This is a beast that each of us has to deal with as we try to get a Championship Team in order, and is probably one of the biggest differences between an "also ran" and a Title. It's the same number for every team, but how we approach it varies from team to team. Same as how roster size and make-up can go from one extreme to the next as you look at different teams.

Is there a "Right way" to approach player contracts? A Golden Rule that will lead you down the path of success? I doubt it very highly. Owners are as individual as teams, and what might work for one, may be disasterous for another to try. Some methods I've observed, or used, I will try to point out characteristics of.

When I first started playing, I noticed, and was told, 1 year contracts were the standard. Now I had zero experience with Simgalaxy, but way too much experience with other sports sims of one kind or another (anyone remember Front Page Sports Football? - I know, deffinately dating myself) and the majority of them gave a "pay-back" for signing a player more then one season. Being the "individualist" that I am - much like Bam, I decided to do things the way I wanted or felt was right, regardless to common "wisdom". I signed my Rookie Center that I took first over all to an 8 year $5mil contract. I was pretty stokked about and figured I had "bucked the system". Now, did I "win" with that contract?

Short Term Contracts: With-out a doubt this is the fastest "bang for your buck". With the right signing bonus and effort you can take a player down to 70-75% of their asking. (signing bonus probably only accounts for a 10% reduction in salary) there is NO wasted capspace, you don't have a $2.5mil player getting paid $4mil, and you basicly "have what you see". You get an increased single season flexability, but as you train those players you lose ground on that flexability. If you have the "win now" mentality, this is an easier way to reach your goal. Many Owners use this approach, year after year, and just "shuffle" players as needed each off-season - typicaly grabing what-ever ageing vet best suits their situation.

Long Term Contracts: This can best be viewed as "slow and steady". You increase stability from season to season, but reduce over-all short term flexability. In the long run you WILL increase flexability, but it will take several seasons, and several contracts to achieve this. Signing bonuses have to be increased because the base is increaseing and it is being applied over more seasons. It could take you 5+ seasons to see the results, and in the meantime cause frustration as one FA or another becomes out of your reach due to "dead" capspace.

So is one approach better then the other? Should either be applied to all players and instances? NO.

I believe (and this is just personal opinion) that it is best to use a blend of contracts, even though I weight heavily on Long term deals. I try to avoid using anything but a short term contract for players once they reach 28-30. At that point I am waiting for the salary drop due to lowered ability, and also weighing the player's value upon the team comapred to their salary. Besides, most Owners don't appreciate a long term deal on an aged vet if you try to trade them...

Best use for the Long Term contract is for the very young, when you intend to train them heavily, because there is a "kick-back" to the longterm deal. It is possible to have a player play for roughly 50% of their asking price in a long term deal, where a short term won't sign for that low, regardless to how much money you throw at them.

Getting Back to my Center, Trundle, he's had 4 years of development on that $5mil 8 year contract. he's now asking for $4.1 mil, and has 3 more seasons of contract left. So I am "killing" $.9mil of capspace with him currently. It's the off-season and I have been trying to convince him to take on a 2 year extension, taking him to 5 years, (I wish I had gone 10, instead of 8) while droping his salary to $4.75mil - which is very possible, I just need to break out the cash for it. So that's 50/50 as to if I am wasting my capspace there or not, but his contract helped to be the foundation for the rest of my long term contracts, due to the stability, he gives me at his age and being "locked-in", with the result of allowing me to have paid a 22 year old PG/SG/SF $14.05mil per season for 10 seasons - out of the FA market. I have 7 long term contracts on that team, and 16 players, including the $14.05mil one. I intend to move or cut two of them and I will have $5mil in capspace with which I will "lock-in" 3 more of those players to 8-10 year deals, and leave a few million to sign this years rookies that I like to long-term contracts next season.

I fully feel that my long term contracts are what has allowed me to over-pay for a player that I really like and wnated, without getting myself into a horendous bind cap-wise.

But in 3-5 years when many of these young players have grown up, you can bet I wi be using short term deals.