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Protecting the Future...GM's
This article will be divided into two seperate
sections, though it's applicable to ALL BTHL
General Managers. Consider it as being unto a
plea to each and every Manager in the league to
readjust their collective mindset on new GM's. The
first section will be focused towards what new
GM's can and should do to increase and maximize
their efficiency/potential within the league. A
secondary section will be devoted to what we as
established GM's can and should do to protect the
Future of our great league.
First of all, lets reestablish why
this article is pertinent reading material. Yes,
this league is comprised of old and new alike,
some with upwards of Eight years of
service/participation, while some will be lucky to
have eight weeks under their belt. Of course, none
of us would've accepted the responsibility/priveledge
if we didn't believe in the product, the beauty
that is known as the BTHL. This league is
ultimately a renewable resource, and can be
self-sustaining, as long as all of the individuals
involved contribute in the ways that are able. It
should be mentioned first and foremost, that we
have to protect this resource, and re-sow the
seeds that will germinate down the road. As of
this moment, we do not pay monetary funds out of
our pockets to be associated with this league.
Yet, many man-hours and precious free-time is
dedicated to this leagues' survival, especially
it's upkeep. Do you, as a General Manager,
recognize the amount of effort and sacrifice
willingly exerted in your behalf? Take for example
the league-wide Rerates taking place as you
read this article. This in itself is a major
undertaking, as will be the upcoming Finance
updates and Draft. If you don't already have a
hand in helping with one or more aspects of the
fine tuning of the league, why not contact the
Commissioner (Ryan Archer) or the Web
Designer/Co-Commissioner (Adam Archer) to see how
you can keep our league running smoothly? -This is
not a "Help, the league will crash soon if we
don't get some goddamn assistance" plea. No, like
anything in life, we ultimately receive dividends
from the things we invest ourselves in. Let's
concentrate on our "young GM's" for a moment, and
how they can "invest".
Rookie General Managers
What is the most
important thing you can do as an inexperienced GM
to make your team succeed? READ (and re-read) YOUR
CONSTITUTION! Seriously, if you hope to win a cup
someday (and it isn't easy, as you'll come to see)
or have any measure of success in the post-season,
this you must do. Knowledge is power, and
unfortunately, there are (veteran)General Managers
in our league who have not done this, or no longer
refer to it. It is my firm belief that their teams
would be benefitting to a higher degree if they
would take this upon themselves. As you read this,
there is a "Comprehensive Constitution" being
composed, mostly for YOUR benefit, so as to
tighten even further the competition within the
league, and strengthen the overall position of the
Big Time Hockey League. Again, this labor of love
comes from the hands of our
Web-Designer/Co-Commissioner. Nothing would please
the league more than to hear from you as new GM's
in the form of Articles submitted to The Insider.
Oh yeah, it's also worth money to
your team for the article(s). It can be on any
topic concerning the BTHL, and right now, we would
particularly like to generate some hype
surrounding the new season, complete with Rerates
(which have already been done on some teams) and
an influx of new personnel in the league. It might
be mentioned that this is not really a "casual,
sunday-drive-style league". Though this kind of
dedication/intensity is not mandatory, we have
GM's who have complete charts, graphs, and other
measuring tools that help them observe their
overall performance within the league. Realisticly,
this can become a religious experience, and has
for some. Wanna know who these GM's are? Look to
the top of the standings, year after year, and
you'll find out. Part of their success stems from
having a solid gameplan, complete with short and
longterm goals. BE PATIENT WITH YOUR TEAM! Rome
wasn't built in a day, and neither were the
Synthesis or Meteors. Usually, the short term fix
has little payoff, but assessing your teams' long
term goals, and particularly rounding out your
individual, specific positions. This year
especially, the Draft will be important, and it
surely is the best way to build: From within. With
even less hype and information regarding the
lesser known players available in the NHL draft,
it's imperative to do your homework. This
assignment is due Thursday, at 6:00 pm PST, 3:00
pm EST, though the report card won't be issued for
a few months. One last note for the aspiring GM:
MONITOR YOUR FINANCES WITH TENACITY! With the
comprehensive constitution on it's way, you will
realize the (increased) import of controlled
spending. Again, your first impulse might be to
'put your stamp on the team' you've inherited. But
it's strictly that, an impulse, and it's wise to
avoid making a lot of deals in the early part of
your tenure. Unfortunately, some GM's in this
league are known as predatory and try to suss out
(undercut) deals with new GM's, preying upon their
limited knowledge. It wouldn't be a stretch to ask
for "deal advisement" from the Commissioner or
Web-Designer for your first couple of deals, to
make sure you're getting a fair shake. Their
interest is league longevity, and it starts with
making sure you've got the tools to work with as
you sculpt your Cities' product.
Established GM's
This is a
recording: READ YOUR CONSTITUTION! In order to be
successful in anything we do, we must know the
rules of the game. At this point, most of what I
would have to mention has been covered in the
section above. But, more than anything outside of
knowing the constitution, PROTECT YOUR REPUTATION
AS A FAIR GM! This can cover a lot of bases, but
really, these are our Colleagues. Especially so in
protecting the best interests of the league and
your teams' success, future and present. Having
personally spoke with inexperienced GM's who felt
robbed of a fair deal upon their inception into
the league, this was their single largest
turn-off. And we NEED this youngblood, and they
have rights too. It does nobody any good to have a
team go through 3 or 4 quick GM turnovers, with 3
or 4 bad trades that bleed the team of their
talent and competitiveness. Now that the league
powers are monitoring the trade situation more
adeptly, it's imperative that we show our good
faith when dealing with them. Sure, an individual
might 'pull a fast one' on a new GM, but even if
that happens, are there not repercussions? Other
GM's sure notice when this sort of underhandedness
transpires, and it drops their desire to make
deals with such a GM. I personally can think of 3
GM's off the top of my head that I am really
hesitant to deal with now because of raping and
pillaging an inexperienced GM. On the flip-side,
do you think that Neil Hayes, Ryan Archer or Steve
Holodinsky have made the deals they have because
they're 'sneaky'? No, they're reknowned for their
fair approach and honorable dealings. The
reputation they've garnered has GM's across the
board willing to dial their phone number and table
deals. You're only as good as your name.
Established GM's, I implore you: Protect your good
name, protect the future of the BTHL, and above
all, protect our young GM's.
BTHL Insider Managing Editor,
Larenzo Jensen
The BTHL Finance System
For those of you who are new to the BTHL,
here is a rundown of how the finance system works
and how you can use it for your team’s benefit.
The BTHL uses a finance system that is separate
from the FHL simulator’s finances, it is also
scaled down, for example, a team’s payroll budget
is 11 million as opposed to something like 40 or
50. In this article, I will break down the
components of the finance system and talk about
how they can be used in conjunction with free
agency, trades and your team’s long term future.
The Finance Page:
Located under the Information section of
the page (on the left menu) is the finance page,
this is where you can see the information relating
to your team and other teams. Every GM needs to
know how where there team stands financially:
The Salary Cap:
The “salary cap” should actually be
called a “payroll budget” as that would better
describe it’s function. The 11 million dollar
“cap” serves as a pre-set amount of money that
your team has to spend on players. In other
words, every team automatically gets 11 million
dollars worth of payroll money. If you spend more
than your 11 million dollars, you have to pay the
amount over out of your team bank account, so make
sure you can afford that before doing it! If you
look around at teams in the league and find that
some have negative amounts in their bank, they
went over budget and didn’t make enough profits to
pay it.
The Bank:
On the finance page, each team has their
bank account listed, this is money that is made
from profits each year and is reduced by any
amount over payroll budgets. It is important to
know that if you are under your salary budget, you
get to keep 20% of that amount per season (if the
cost of all your players is 9 million dollars, you
are 2 million under the 11 million dollar budget,
you will get 200,000 deposited into your bank that
season). You can also trade money that is in your
bank, this can be useful in sealing a deal or when
trading with a team that is negative in their
bank.
Team Profits / Payroll:
Half way through every season every
team’s payroll is called in. This means that you
have to pay your players for the first half of the
season. If your team is over the payroll budget,
half of that amount will be taken out of your
bank, the second half will be taken out at the end
of the season. If your team is under the payroll
budget, they will get 10% of that added to their
bank account, the second 10% will be added at the
end of the season. This is to prevent teams from
trading away all of their costly players before
the end of the season to avoid having to pay for
them. At the end of the season, teams will make
additional profits aside from money that can be
made from being under your budget. This money
comes from players performing well, winning
trophies, from GMs writing news articles, from
playoff home games played and from a cup win.
Here is an example of what the season end profits
looked like for the Aces in Season 8:
Looking at the Aces profits, they could
afford to be 1,578,000 over their payroll budget.
Be careful with being over your payroll budget,
even with a good team you could be swept in the
first round and be left with a big bill at the end
of the season. Most profits are made in the
playoffs, here is how money is handed out in the
playoffs:
Here is how other profits are calculated:
Free Agency:
Understanding Free Agency is very
important for teams that are trying to make the
playoffs. Free agency is where you can pick up
cheap players and potentially get star players
that bigger budget teams can’t afford anymore.
Keep in mind when you bid on players: If the
player has a restricted contract (almost all
players in the league do at this point) then the
team that owns him can match your bid, if you
don’t bid high enough they might match your bid.
Lets look at an example, at the end of each
season, any player that a team does not re-sign to
a contract will go to free agent bidding, they
will be listed on the website and all teams will
have 1-2 weeks to bid on them, it looks like this:
In this case, Satan’s old contract was 2.65
million dollars (Super high in this league). The
Meteors did not re-sign Satan in the hopes that
nobody was willing to pay him too much. Sure
enough, the highest bid was 1,110,000, which the
Meteors could afford, so they matched the offer.
If a team had come in and bid 1.5 million the
Meteors would not have matched as it would have
been too high a number (I can say that in this
case because I am the GM of the Meteors). Free
agency is the one place where you can get you
player’s contracts lowered, however it comes at
the risk that someone might be willing to take him
for his old salary or more. If you are a team
that is under budget, you can build part of your
team through smart free agent bidding. Keep in
mind that you have to compensate a team when you
win the bid for their players, here are some
examples of compensation handed out in season 8:
Conclusion:
Being under your payroll budget can be
used in many ways to improve your team. Keep an
eye on players other GMs are offering you,
remember that if you are taking expensive players
from another team, they should be paying you for
it. Remember to use your free payroll space to
your advantage, whether by earning money for your
bank account, getting free agents, or getting a
good deal on players other teams can’t afford.
BTHL Insider Freelance Writer
- Adam Archer
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