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Football Mogul 24

 
 

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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