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CONTRACT NEGOTIATION
DIALOG
The Contract Negotiation
Dialog is an important part of Football Mogul. It is used every
time you wish to negotiate a contract with an existing player, or
sign a college player or free agent to your team.
The top part of the dialog
displays information about the player you are negotiating a contract
with. If you wish more information (such as the player's recent
statistics) hit the 'Scouting' button to bring up a Scouting
Report.
The other buttons let
you negotiate certain aspects of the contract. The player (or rather
his agent) already has a basic price in mind which he's confident
he can achieve on the open market. Therefore, you cannot 'negotiate'
with the player in the traditional sense of asking him to lower
his demands. You can however make trade-offs that will make the
contract more agreeable to you while still meeting the player's
needs.
Signing
Bonus
The first trade-off you
can make is to offer the player a signing bonus. Contracts in Football
Mogul are not guaranteed. This means that if a player gets
injured the first week after he signs a contract, his team can release
him and stop paying his salary. This is true even if the player
just fails to make the cut. For this reason, players prefer contracts
with signing bonuses and will be willing to accept a lower salary
in return for cash up front. Because money now is worth more
than money later to a player, higher signing bonuses tend
to reduce the overall amount of money you pay a player.
Example:
A player seeks a straight $2,200,000 salary as part of a four-year
contract. This is a total payment of $8,800,000 over the four
years. When the negotiating team offers a $2,000,000 signing
bonus, the player drops his salary demand to $1,500,000 per
year. The new cost of this contract is now only $8,000,000 ($6,000,000
in salary plus the $2,000,000 bonus) over the four years. |
The other major advantage
of signing bonuses for team owners is the ability to fit more talent
under the league Salary Cap.
All teams must keep their players' total Salary
Cap Impact under the specified cap. In the above example, the
player's salary cap impact without the bonus is $2,200,000 (his
salary). His salary cap impact with the bonus is only $2,000,000
(the total $8,000,000 contract divided by it's four year duration)
Therefore if the team only had a current payroll of $65,400,000
(with a league default cap of $67,400,000), the signing bonus would
allow him to sign a player that he otherwise wouldn't be able to
sign.
The disadvantage of a
signing bonus for a team is that it makes a large cash commitment
to the player. If you plunk down a large bonus in cash, and then
decided the player isn't right for your team, you've already spent
the money. But if you have a clear vision of your team's needs,
working signing bonuses into most of your deals is usually an excellent
way to squeeze as much talent as possible under the league salary
cap. Moreoever, if you ever do need to get rid of the player, to
lower salary established with the help of a signing bonus will make
the player more attractive as trade bait to other teams.
The other problems with
signing bonuses is that you have to have the cash on hand immediately.
When you accept a contract with a signing bonus, you have to pay
the bonus to the player immediately. Thus, you cannot offer a signing
bonus greater than the amount of cash you have. If they signing
bonus is already at the highest amount you can offer (or you are
in debt) then the button that lets you increase the signing bonus
will be disabled.
Contract Length
You can also adjust a
contract by altering it's length. Again, because Football Mogul
contracts are not guaranteed, you can release a player at any time
with no cost to you (except the salary you've already paid the player,
and any signing bonus). Therefore, a longer contract always benefits
the team; if you are going to lock a player into playing exclusively
for your team, and not testing the free agent market, he may require
a higher salary in return. Younger players, with a strong future
on the open market, will most definitely ask for a higher salary
(or signing bonus) if you request a longer contract.
Accepting The Deal
When you have achieved
a deal that you find acceptable, hit the 'Accept' button and the
player will be signed to the specified contract with your team.
You may still need to use the Offense,
Defense, or Special
Teams dialogs to put this player in the proper place on your
team.
If you can't come to
an agreement with the player, hit the 'Decline' button.
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