How exactly do the cap settings work?

[Scruff]

I saw the other post about the cap, and it got me thinking, I want to make sure I do this correctly.

On the global game options screen, the information about the salary cap says the following:

The cap range affects the size of the cap increase each season with the signing of a new television contract. This value is multiplied by $100,000. 28 ($2,800,000) is the normal setting

So setting it at 28-80 means my cap could go up from $2.8 million to $8 million, pretty much at random? Am I missing something?

Assuming this is the case . . . and say a 5-year TV deal is signed . . . does that mean the cap will go up $2.8M-$8.0M each season, or over the entire length of the 5-year deal? Or does it go up all in one year and they stay the same for the rest of deal?

I'm using Nildor's files, and I started in 1960 with an $11.7M cap. So let's say the random number is a $5.0M increase on a 5-year deal . . . which of these describes how the cap will rise?

a) $16.7; $16.7, $16.7, $16.7, $16.7
b) $12.7, $13.7, $14.7, $15.7, $16.7
c) $16.7; $21.7, $26.7; $31.7, $36.7
d) something else I'm not thinking of?

I'm just finishing up 1960 and haven't advanced anything yet . . . so I want to set things correctly - as any changes now will have an exponential effect by 2007.

Since the numbers on this screen seem to be whole numbers (multiplied by $100K) not a percentage - does this mean I'll have to continually be tweaking the numbers, throughout my world, before each TV contract?

Thanks for any help!

[beargrowlz]

I found that starting in 1970, if you leave the cap setting at 28-80, you'll never have any quality free agents.

I had to reduce it to 10-20 until I hit the 2000's.

YMMV.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Scruff

I'm using Nildor's files, and I started in 1960 with an $11.7M cap. So let's say the random number is a $5.0M increase on a 5-year deal . . . which of these describes how the cap will rise?

a) $16.7; $16.7, $16.7, $16.7, $16.7
b) $12.7, $13.7, $14.7, $15.7, $16.7
c) $16.7; $21.7, $26.7; $31.7, $36.7
d) something else I'm not thinking of?

(c)

It sounds like you will want far lower settings, if you're starting with a cap of only $12m or so... maybe 4 to 10 or something of that sort. That way, your expected increased would be more like $700K per year, making things much more reasonable, given your starting point.

[Wonder Bear]

If you're starting up a game in say 2006 what is the most realistic setting?

[nilodor]

When I made the files I was gunning for a 100 million dollar cap in, I think 04. Then I worked backwards with 5 percent decreases to arrive at the previous year cap numbers. After I had done this I realized that the game doesn't use percent increases, but fixed dollar amounts. In my recent trial I used 1.8 to 3 million dollars as the range for the cap increases and it seemed to work out fine.

[molson]

Originally Posted by beargrowlz

I found that starting in 1970, if you leave the cap setting at 28-80, you'll never have any quality free agents.

I had to reduce it to 10-20 until I hit the 2000's.

YMMV.

The other side of that coin is that the higher the increases, the better the AI teams are at keeping their own talent (which has traditionally been a problem in FOF). I use 60-80 with the default settings.

[Scruff]

Thanks guys . . . one other question, are the contracts always 5 year contracts?

[Scruff]

I think I figured out what I'm going to do.

Start with 1960 . . . $11.7M cap.
By 2006 . . . $102.0M cap.

At 4.81992% annual increases, we end up there exactly.

Since the game goes in terms of 5-year contracts (from what I can see), I'll figure out what the target increase should be. So using the above numbers, by 1965, we should have a $14.805M cap.

That's an average increase from 1960-65 of $621K. So I'll take this number, and make my range in the game +/- 15%. I'm doing this so that the cap doesn't always increase by the same % - that isn't how it works in real life. Some TV contracts are better than others. So for this first contract, it could be anywhere from a $528K to a $714K annual increase. Game only uses integers, so I'll make the range 5-7.

The one issue that could arise is a couple of 'good' or 'bad' contracts early, and then because it is an exponential effect over 47 years, you could end up with a very different number than $102M by 2006. So I'll adjust the 4.81992% number each contract, so we are still projecting to $102M by 2006. So if we get a good or bad contract early, we'll offset it with a bad or good contract later, but at least it won't be a straight line on the way to $102M.

If anyone sees any logical or game type flaws in this plan, please let me know . . . thanks!

[DougWyatt]

Originally Posted by Scruff

I think I figured out what I'm going to do.

Start with 1960 . . . $11.7M cap.
By 2006 . . . $102.0M cap.

At 4.81992% annual increases, we end up there exactly.

Since the game goes in terms of 5-year contracts (from what I can see), I'll figure out what the target increase should be. So using the above numbers, by 1965, we should have a $14.805M cap.

That's an average increase from 1960-65 of $621K. So I'll take this number, and make my range in the game +/- 15%. I'm doing this so that the cap doesn't always increase by the same % - that isn't how it works in real life. Some TV contracts are better than others. So for this first contract, it could be anywhere from a $528K to a $714K annual increase. Game only uses integers, so I'll make the range 5-7.

The one issue that could arise is a couple of 'good' or 'bad' contracts early, and then because it is an exponential effect over 47 years, you could end up with a very different number than $102M by 2006. So I'll adjust the 4.81992% number each contract, so we are still projecting to $102M by 2006. So if we get a good or bad contract early, we'll offset it with a bad or good contract later, but at least it won't be a straight line on the way to $102M.

If anyone sees any logical or game type flaws in this plan, please let me know . . . thanks!

That is a great formula - and will give you what you want salary cap wise in the future.

One thing to consider is what direction you want your universe to travel. If you want it to parallel the NFL - then you should consider upping those figures. Free Agency wasn't an issue in old NFL; and a good sized salary cap increase will enable the AI to keep their guys - so you'll see "dynasties" like you did IRL.

However, if you're wanting the new modern NFL, with nice free agent periods, to start in the old days - then the lower the number the better.

[Scruff]

Does anyone know exactly what the salary cap was the first year it was implemented? Maybe that would be a better number to target - and then just use the actual historical numbers going forward? Does anyone have a history of it?

[Scruff]

Heh, should have googled it . . . Wikipedia says:

The cap was introduced for the 1994 season and was set at $34.6 million initially. Both the cap and the floor are adjusted annually based on the change in the league's revenues. As of 2006 the NFL salary cap is approximately 102 million US dollars per team, while the salary floor is roughly $75 million per team. This number has increased every year since 1994 and will reach approximately $109 million in 2007.

Wow, the straight line projection would have us at $57.98M for 1994 . . . I'm going to need to tone things down a bit . . . still looking for year by year numbers.

[DougWyatt]

Originally Posted by Scruff

Heh, should have googled it . . . Wikipedia says:



Wow, the straight line projection would have us at $57.98M for 1994 . . . I'm going to need to tone things down a bit . . . still looking for year by year numbers.

Doing that will give you the opposite player movement of what happened IRL.

Keeping cap increases low = increased F.A. movement

Keeping cap increases high = lowered F.A. movement

[Scruff]

So far I've found cap info for 1994 ($34.6M), 2002 ($71.101M), 2005 ($85.5M), 2006 ($102M), 2007 ($109M).

But then I hit this! Wow - a 122 page paper analyzing the salary cap.

http://www.williams.edu/library/theses/pdf.php?id=36

I'm hoping this has all the history I'll need. I'll let you know if I find any cool stuff in there . . . but figured I'd post the link in case others want to take a look.

[Scruff]

Originally Posted by DougWyatt

Doing that will give you the opposite player movement of what happened IRL.

Keeping cap increases low = increased F.A. movement

Keeping cap increases high = lowered F.A. movement

Right - so I might have to give it a big boost early, and then keep it there for awhile . . . but I wouldn't mind current type movement either . . . I guess I'll have to wait and see what I come up with . . .

[Scruff]

Ah, finally found it:

http://football.calsci.com/SalaryCap3.html

1994: 34.6
1995: 37.1
1996: 40.777
1997: 41.45
1998: 52.388
1999: 58.353
2000: 62.172
2001: 67.4
2002: 71.101
2003: 75.007
2004: 80.582
2005: 85.5
2006: 102.0
2007: 109.0

[Scruff]

OK - so to get from 1960 at $11.7M to 1994 at $34.6M, you need to go with 3.24% as your average annual increase.

I'm thinking $11.7M might have been too high of a starting point - is there any way to change this within Nildor's setup, or are we forced to start with $11.7M?

I'm only one year in, and I went 8-8, so I could start over if need be

[Scruff]

I tried this nifty plan - would give a cap that matches the actual caps from 1994-2007; would project the growth back at the same rates as from 1995-2007 for 1982-94, 1969-81. From 1961-69, I'd just use the 1995-2007 average of 9.4% since there are only 9 years as opposed to 13.

We'd start in 1960 with a cap of $1.699M ($32,060 would be the average salary for a 53-man roster). I think that's pretty reasonable when looking at the salaries of the times, probably too high. Using the CPI, a $32,060 salary in 1960 would be the equivalent of making $218K in 2006. Many pro athletes back then worked 'real' jobs in the off-season - there's little doubt in my mind that real players made significantly less than this. Heck baseball's minimum salary was under $10K at least into the early 1960s, I can't imagine football players made more . . .

Here's the rest (in millions):

1960	$1.699
1961	$1.859
1962	$2.034
1963	$2.225

1964	$2.434
1965	$2.663
1966	$2.913
1967	$3.187
1968	$3.486
1969	$3.738
1970	$4.109
1971	$4.177
1972	$5.279
1973	$5.880
1974	$6.265
1975	$6.791
1976	$7.164
1977	$7.558
1978	$8.120
1979	$8.615
1980	$10.278
1981	$10.983
1982	$11.777
1983	$12.944
1984	$13.158
1985	$16.630
1986	$18.523
1987	$19.735
1988	$21.395
1989	$22.570
1990	$23.810
1991	$25.579
1992	$27.140
1993	$32.378
1994	$34.600
1995	$37.100
1996	$40.777
1997	$41.450
1998	$52.388
1999	$58.353
2000	$62.172
2001	$67.400
2002	$71.101
2003	$75.007
2004	$80.582
2005	$85.500
2006	$102.000
2007	$109.000

I think that work as a realistic cap structure for a historically based sim - if you want it to function like the 1994-2007 cap. As Doug says, if you want less free agency, you'd probably want to start lower and make the annual jumps higher, so teams find it easier to keep their players.

[Scruff]

BTW, the 11.777M figure doesn't hit until 1982. I think that matches up pretty well with MLB at least. I know in the 1984 Abstract, Bill James mentions that Don Mattingly made something like $30K or $35K for the season (he was basically at the league minimum then) - which is what the rookie minimums are ($30K) in the nildor files for 1960.

[underlinedi]

Just reading through some old cap issue threads and I found that someone was going to try using a 0-0 cap increase so it will just stay the same and the contracts shouldn't get too outrageous.

So i was wondering if anyone has tried this and how it worked out...I know that in 2025 rookies will be signing 100 million dollar deals but for personal interests it would probably be easier to manage salaries with a base around 110 cap. By keeping the cap the same you are familiar with what amount of money players are worth..

[Scruff]

Is there any way to edit the .fdt files that nildor posted? Just to change the starting cap numbers?

Also would the player salaries fall into line accordingly (i.e. are they in the file as % of minimum or cap or something, or are they hardcoded?).

If every player salary would have to be edited, that'd be rough.

[Scruff]

I found that someone was going to try using a 0-0 cap increase so it will just stay the same and the contracts shouldn't get too outrageous.

Going that way would work much like a current keeper auction style fantasy league underlinedi.

It'd be much rougher if you backload contracts for one. Since the cap doesn't go up, you don't get any kind of bailout in a few years in terms of cap room rising to offset the big deals. Not sure if the game logic could keep up with that or not.

[underlinedi]

Originally Posted by Scruff

Going that way would work much like a current keeper auction style fantasy league underlinedi.

It'd be much rougher if you backload contracts for one. Since the cap doesn't go up, you don't get any kind of bailout in a few years in terms of cap room rising to offset the big deals. Not sure if the game logic could keep up with that or not.

Good point. The setting I am using is 60-85. Do you feel that's a fair increase? BTW I started with the 2006 real player file...thanks

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by DougWyatt

Doing that will give you the opposite player movement of what happened IRL.

Keeping cap increases low = increased F.A. movement

Keeping cap increases high = lowered F.A. movement

I'm wondering, have you tested that? I mean, I was presuming that player demands are based on the cap figures and cap increase settings, rather than the apparent default demands. But if the later is true (salary demands are always based on the current salary cap with future years demands being defaulted), the fast/slow increase rates would definately help/hurt your and the AI's chances to keep the team together.

[DougWyatt]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

I'm wondering, have you tested that? I mean, I was presuming that player demands are based on the cap figures and cap increase settings, rather than the apparent default demands. But if the later is true (salary demands are always based on the current salary cap with future years demands being defaulted), the fast/slow increase rates would definately help/hurt your and the AI's chances to keep the team together.

Not thoroughly. But when I ran my first solo with normal settings and a 1971 start - the AI kept their players around forever. The FA cupboard was always loaded with minimal talent. (exception - there was a single team - GB or Dal I think - that ended up unloading a bunch of talent).

Then I ran a league with lower increases & the FA board was active. Not sure if this is just due to the salaries that nilodor instituted; or the AI - as I didn't progress far enough to determine if it eventually evened out in either scenario.

[Scruff]

Originally Posted by underlinedi

Good point. The setting I am using is 60-85. Do you feel that's a fair increase? BTW I started with the 2006 real player file...thanks

Well, in the salary cap era, about 9.4% per season has been average. The ranges have been pretty wild though - from 1996-97 it only went up 1.65%. From 1997-98 it went up 26.4%, from 1998-99 another 11.4% (the cap rose from $41.45M to $58.35M from 1997-99); from 2005-06 it went up 19.3% ($16.5M).

But from 1999-2005, the increases (in % terms) were 6.5%, 8.4%, 5.5%, 5.5%, 7.4%, 6.1%. The reason for the huge bump from 2005-06 wasn't a new TV deal, it was a new collective bargaining agreement that gave the players a bigger portion of the pie.

Next year it's going up $7M, so yeah, I think 60-85 is reasonable, given the current climate.

[underlinedi]

Originally Posted by Scruff

Well, in the salary cap era, about 9.4% per season has been average. The ranges have been pretty wild though - from 1996-97 it only went up 1.65%. From 1997-98 it went up 26.4%, from 1998-99 another 11.4% (the cap rose from $41.45M to $58.35M from 1997-99); from 2005-06 it went up 19.3% ($16.5M).

But from 1999-2005, the increases (in % terms) were 6.5%, 8.4%, 5.5%, 5.5%, 7.4%, 6.1%. The reason for the huge bump from 2005-06 wasn't a new TV deal, it was a new collective bargaining agreement that gave the players a bigger portion of the pie.

Next year it's going up $7M, so yeah, I think 60-85 is reasonable, given the current climate.

As my cap currently stands around 110 the 6-8.5 mil is a 5%-8% increase for the time being. Once the cap gets around 150, let's say in the year 2015, should I increase the amount so that it's constantly increasing by the same percentage? Or just leave it increasing by a few million each season

[Scruff]

Originally Posted by underlinedi

Once the cap gets around 150, let's say in the year 2015, should I increase the amount so that it's constantly increasing by the same percentage? Or just leave it increasing by a few million each season

I would think that would be personal taste . . . but I'd say keeping it between 5% and 8% per year would keep things reasonable in terms of things have worked over the last 13 years. That should give you enough room for long-term deals to be back loaded, but not so much that the great teams can just keep everyone.

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by Scruff

Is there any way to edit the .fdt files that nildor posted? Just to change the starting cap numbers?

Also would the player salaries fall into line accordingly (i.e. are they in the file as % of minimum or cap or something, or are they hardcoded?).

If every player salary would have to be edited, that'd be rough.

Even if you change the starting cap numbers, the salaries won't change with them. When I built the files I had to generate all of the player salaries along with them. I used the last 3 or 4 years salary data from the NFL to figure out the splits for each position, then applied a multiplier based on how many years of experience the player has and what his rating is, so a 5 Qb will have a higher salary than a 2 Qb, also a second year QB with a 2 rating will have a lower salary than a fifth year QB with a 2 rating.

[Scruff]

Well give me a swift kick in the butt - the lowest opening salary cap the game will accept when creating a file is $10,000,000. According the plan I set up before that means I can't start before 1980, wow.

That was the first year I remember in the NFL, so maybe it isn't so bad, but I really wanted to play with the older guys, bummer.

Would this be something that I could edit using the reshack on the .exe? But I'd also need to edit the allowable minimum salary and things too - probably too much trouble. Basically I'd need the salary editor to go in 1000 increments instead of 10000 increments.

[Scruff]

Doing a little more research it turns out my list is even too aggressive in terms of a realistic salary structure.

In 1980 the average NFL player made $78657, in 1981 it was $90102.

Multiply by 56 players due to IR guys and that comes out $4,404,792 . . . So something like $5 million cap for 1980 would not be unreasonable at all.

[Scruff]

OK after looking at 1994-2000 data the typical cap is about 55x (54.9 technically) the average player salary. This ranges from 52-56, but 55 is about average (not every team hits the cap).

So looking at average salary data for the years I have have, and multiplying by 54.9, I get the following "realistic" salary caps . . .

1967: $1.372M (avg salary $25,000)
1972: $1.921M ($35,000)
1977: $3.034M ($55,288)
1980: $4.316M ($78,657)
1981: $4.944M ($90,102)
1982: $4.961M ($90,412)
1983: $6.199M ($112,967)
1984: $8.703M ($158,600)
1985: $10.426M ($190,000)
1986: $11.171M ($203,565)
1987: $12.621M ($230,000)
1988: $13.087M ($238,490)
1989: $16.463M ($300,000)
1990: $19.316M ($352,000)
1991: $22.773M ($415,000)
1992: $26.554M ($483,900)
1993: $36.569M ($666,400)
1994: $34.600M ($628,300) - drop is because of all the front loading in 1993 in anticipation of the cap - I would probably not use 1993 in a systematic structure.

1994-2007: See above - we already have the caps for 1994-present, so no extrapolation is necessary.

[Scruff]

Since I can't start with a cap lower than $10M, I think that what I'll try is to start in 1980 and edit the salaries to fit the $4.316M cap (leaving every team way below the cap). Then I'll set first bargaining agreement (which should cover 1981-85) to have no cap increase.

After that, I'll try to match the realistic caps listed above as closely as possible . . . I'm just wondering if giving teams all of that cap space will cause spending to go crazy, and then the SimAI will start releasing everyone when the cap doesn't go up. I guess I should test a 5-year run before actually playing to see what happens.

If anyone has any insight to how this might work, I'd appreciate hearing about it . . . thanks!

[Scruff]

Another option would be to just start with a $10M cap in 1960 (after looking at this, if you go back 5% annually from 1967 --> 1960, you'd start at a $975,000 cap) and just mentally remove a zero from each number. Problem is that by 2006 I'd be over a billion for the cap . . . but something like that could work too. In anyone else has any ideas, I'm all ears.

[molson]

Has anyone ever tried max cap increase settings)? I like the idea of AI teams staying intact, having dynasties, and not cutting everyone and signing 50 rookies when they get in trouble. I wonder if there's any instability this causes though.

[Scruff]

I don't think that would cause any issues within the game molson, but I've never tried it.

Regarding my idea to multiply everything by 10 - that doesn't work either - because you can't have average cap increase of more than $9.9 million per season. By 1980-85 I'd need $12.22M increases per year to keep up. I'd need over $50M annual increases to keep up by 1995-2000. These limitations are killing my need for realism. Every work-around runs into a roadblock.

[Scruff]

Actually I did just think of an issue molson . . .

With max increases, the AI will spend the money (I assume).

Eventually, your max increases will become a small % of your actual cap (since the increases are capped at $9.9M annually through game limitation).

Once your increases become a small % of the cap (I don't know how small) the AI may run out of the wiggle room the rising cap allows teams that over-extend themselves.

So eventually, you'll run into the same problems with AI cap management - but you can hold it off for awhile your way.

That's just 'theory' though - I've never tried it.

[nilodor]

I also think that players salaries are tied to how much the cap is going up, so I would imagine that you would see players wanting a larger % increase every year as well as larger salaries.

[Scruff]

Now that I'm getting back into FOFB . . . I had asked a question last year that went unanswered, so I'll try again. Can I use the reshack program to change the minimum opening cap that the game will take, and the increments? Thanks for any advice.

[sovereignstar]

The Player File Generator that will be used to import your CSV has a field where beginning salary cap can be input. The increments are controlled by the user's global options settings.

Edit: There is also a field for the year you want the league to start.

[Raiders Army]

Beginning in 1966, I left the cap settings at default. I believe I changed them sometime about 2000 to 70-99. The cap for each team in 2015 (49 years later) is $289,400,000.

[Scruff]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar

The Player File Generator that will be used to import your CSV has a field where beginning salary cap can be input. The increments are controlled by the user's global options settings.

Edit: There is also a field for the year you want the league to start.

Thanks, but the minimum setting there is $10,000,000. I was hoping to set an initial cap of like 1 million.

Any idea if there is any way to do this. I'm trying to get back into this for the first time in about a year and a half - it didn't take back in April - but now I think I'll have the time.

[Mike Lowe]

Bump, what would be a good place to start for a NFL career starting with the 2009 season?