2022-01-26, 10:53 AM - Word count:
Hello SSL, it is I, your friendly neighborhood idiot who knows nearly nothing about football. I think I may have an idea on how to implement a transfer market and pro/rel in the SSL, however it's not exactly a gentle transition. Since pro/rel requires a few more teams to be feasible, let's start with the transfer market.
I hope none of you have grown attached to your teams (or for managers, your players) because this more or less is going to result in a total roster wipe. To start, you need to establish an economy (obviously), and this requires a little bit of research. To best illustrate my point, I'm going to look at Inter London FC and Hollywood FC, clubs who most likely will be on opposite sides of the spectrum here. I'm going to break this into three parts, Income, Injection, and Development. Income and injection are based heavily on your market. For example, Inter will see a high volume of income right out the gate, as Football is a huge market in England and London itself has a huge population. On the other hand, Hollywood would see a much lower income as the market for Football in America is substantially smaller and Hollywood is saturated with entertainment already. Balancing wages and transfers with the money you have coming in will make certain markets stronger than others in that regard. Then we have injection, and this is where every team's starting balance will come from. A market like Hollywood, while may struggle with their revenues, would see a huge injection to start as the market is difficult to get started in without a large wad of cash. This would give them a lot of flexibility in the transfer market, however balancing wages may be difficult or even require some gambles (this will come later). Meanwhile, Inter's injection could be equal or a touch smaller for different reasons. England is a football-heavy market and one of the most pricey in the world, meaning a large initial injection could be expected. I would like to state now that all of the things I have thrown forward haven't been researched very well, so my guesses could not line up with application whether it's from a balance perspective or me just being wrong. Finally, we come to development. This is where things get complicated. Team success is likely to bring in more fans, thus driving up revenues, and vice versa. However some markets are more difficult to grow than others, whether it is due to high barriers (i.e. low sport popularity in Hollywood) or volatile fanbases (i.e. a bad season in London could torpedo the fanbase), there will be teams that struggle to maintain their finances. There is also loyalty that will develop over time, however, building up a floor that the team can't sink below. This offers a bit of risk-reward as well, touching on Hollywood gambling earlier. A team that needs to build up revenue could go out and buy a player whose wages will slowly drain the club, but will bring them success in the short or long term. If it pays off, the club's success could help increase revenues to the point where the player becomes a permanent fixture, or simply allows for more wages to be paid without risking the club's future. With the economy more or less established, teams can now say goodbye to their rosters as an auction draft will take place to rebuild them. The auction draft is essentially teams offering contracts to these players, and the highest offer gets to sign them. New players go straight to market where clubs can make offers to them, and to ensure teams do not completely fall apart some mock FFP rules should be implemented. This ensures both that clubs will manage their finances responsibly and that they will have enough budget to sign new players. I know this is a VERY rough idea but I think as a framework it could be used realistically.
Pro/rel requires a minimum of 12 teams, with future expansions being added to the lower league and expanding the promotion rules for that season to even them out.
The switch from a single 12 team league to a 6/6 split will see the first 12 team season follow these rules:
Top 4 teams: SSL Cup
Middle 4 teams: Relegation playoff, 2 go down
Bottom 4 teams: Automatic relegation
From there, the 6/6 split would be similar, maybe with the addition of a second-tier trophy so that teams not involved in either the cup or relegation playoffs would still be engaged. For example:
Tier 1:
Top 4 teams: SSL Cup
5th Place: Pro/Rel playoff
6th Place: Automatic relegation
Tier 2:
League Winner: Automatic Promotion
2nd Place: Pro/Rel playoff
Bottom 4 teams: Tier 2 Trophy
With added expansion teams, say 14 total teams, both new teams enter the second tier with new rules to balance the leagues at 7/7:
Top 2 teams: Automatic Promotion
3rd and 4th: Pro/Rel playoff, 1 goes/stays up
Bottom 4 teams: Tier 2 Trophy
Obviously, these rules would change as time goes on and the league expands, but that doesn't need to be immediately addressed. These ideas were thrown together without a lot of effort put into them, but if there is enough interest in the framework I'd be open to doing a bit of actual research and fleshing this out properly. None of this can be implemented easily so please don't take this as "This is what the league NEEDS to do", that would be unreasonable at best, I was just listening to Omni's pod with Canadice on Pro/Rel and thought I'd throw an idea out there.
TRANSFERS
I hope none of you have grown attached to your teams (or for managers, your players) because this more or less is going to result in a total roster wipe. To start, you need to establish an economy (obviously), and this requires a little bit of research. To best illustrate my point, I'm going to look at Inter London FC and Hollywood FC, clubs who most likely will be on opposite sides of the spectrum here. I'm going to break this into three parts, Income, Injection, and Development. Income and injection are based heavily on your market. For example, Inter will see a high volume of income right out the gate, as Football is a huge market in England and London itself has a huge population. On the other hand, Hollywood would see a much lower income as the market for Football in America is substantially smaller and Hollywood is saturated with entertainment already. Balancing wages and transfers with the money you have coming in will make certain markets stronger than others in that regard. Then we have injection, and this is where every team's starting balance will come from. A market like Hollywood, while may struggle with their revenues, would see a huge injection to start as the market is difficult to get started in without a large wad of cash. This would give them a lot of flexibility in the transfer market, however balancing wages may be difficult or even require some gambles (this will come later). Meanwhile, Inter's injection could be equal or a touch smaller for different reasons. England is a football-heavy market and one of the most pricey in the world, meaning a large initial injection could be expected. I would like to state now that all of the things I have thrown forward haven't been researched very well, so my guesses could not line up with application whether it's from a balance perspective or me just being wrong. Finally, we come to development. This is where things get complicated. Team success is likely to bring in more fans, thus driving up revenues, and vice versa. However some markets are more difficult to grow than others, whether it is due to high barriers (i.e. low sport popularity in Hollywood) or volatile fanbases (i.e. a bad season in London could torpedo the fanbase), there will be teams that struggle to maintain their finances. There is also loyalty that will develop over time, however, building up a floor that the team can't sink below. This offers a bit of risk-reward as well, touching on Hollywood gambling earlier. A team that needs to build up revenue could go out and buy a player whose wages will slowly drain the club, but will bring them success in the short or long term. If it pays off, the club's success could help increase revenues to the point where the player becomes a permanent fixture, or simply allows for more wages to be paid without risking the club's future. With the economy more or less established, teams can now say goodbye to their rosters as an auction draft will take place to rebuild them. The auction draft is essentially teams offering contracts to these players, and the highest offer gets to sign them. New players go straight to market where clubs can make offers to them, and to ensure teams do not completely fall apart some mock FFP rules should be implemented. This ensures both that clubs will manage their finances responsibly and that they will have enough budget to sign new players. I know this is a VERY rough idea but I think as a framework it could be used realistically.
PRO/REL
Pro/rel requires a minimum of 12 teams, with future expansions being added to the lower league and expanding the promotion rules for that season to even them out.
The switch from a single 12 team league to a 6/6 split will see the first 12 team season follow these rules:
Top 4 teams: SSL Cup
Middle 4 teams: Relegation playoff, 2 go down
Bottom 4 teams: Automatic relegation
From there, the 6/6 split would be similar, maybe with the addition of a second-tier trophy so that teams not involved in either the cup or relegation playoffs would still be engaged. For example:
Tier 1:
Top 4 teams: SSL Cup
5th Place: Pro/Rel playoff
6th Place: Automatic relegation
Tier 2:
League Winner: Automatic Promotion
2nd Place: Pro/Rel playoff
Bottom 4 teams: Tier 2 Trophy
With added expansion teams, say 14 total teams, both new teams enter the second tier with new rules to balance the leagues at 7/7:
Top 2 teams: Automatic Promotion
3rd and 4th: Pro/Rel playoff, 1 goes/stays up
Bottom 4 teams: Tier 2 Trophy
Obviously, these rules would change as time goes on and the league expands, but that doesn't need to be immediately addressed. These ideas were thrown together without a lot of effort put into them, but if there is enough interest in the framework I'd be open to doing a bit of actual research and fleshing this out properly. None of this can be implemented easily so please don't take this as "This is what the league NEEDS to do", that would be unreasonable at best, I was just listening to Omni's pod with Canadice on Pro/Rel and thought I'd throw an idea out there.
