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+---- Thread: *An Idea to Improve Free Agency (/showthread.php?tid=23535)
*An Idea to Improve Free Agency - Ephenssta - 07-11-2020
To put it quite simply, free agency in the NSFL is boring. It’s generally uneventful and very few players leave their teams to test the markets in free agency. I understand that some of that is because unlike real life, many players are motivated more by spending time in locker rooms they enjoy and playing with their friends than chasing championships or trying to make as much money as you possibly can. Obviously the fact that the NSFL is a sim league and not an actual reflection of real life will mean that free agency around here will likely never be anywhere near as exciting as it is in actual real sports. But I believe there is something the league can do that would make free agency at least a little more interesting and engaging for the community.
Truth be told, this idea is not entirely original. It is largely borrowed from a system the NFL uses. The system designates a short period immediately before the opening of free agency where teams are allowed to contact players and their agents who are about to become free agents. I believe a similar system could be implemented in the NSFL to make things a little more interesting. When a player is on the last year of his/her contract, the NSFL allows that player’s team to work towards an extension for the entire season while any team that might have an interest in attempting to sign the player must wait until they are officially a free agent to avoid violating the tampering rules. Some argue that the tampering rules themselves need serious revision or should be abolished entirely. I personally feel the rules are generally fine, but I believe this one slight change could make free agency far more interesting without requiring vast changes to the existing rules.
I propose that teams should be allow to contact a player who is in the final year of their contract after the trade deadline, making the period between the trade deadline and free agency officially a chance for players to meet with GMs from teams who might be interested in pursuing them. By requiring that teams wait to contact the player until after the trade deadline, the chances of the player being tampered into leaving their current team via trade and signing an extension with their new team are greatly reduced. It does, though, allow for other GMs to have a small window near the end of the season to at least gauge the interest of prospective free agents in leaving their teams and beginning contract negotiations with another club without being penalized for tampering. Though the window is small, this is far more of an opportunity than what teams are currently granted while still giving the advantage in negotiating to the player’s current team, since the current team may negotiate a contract extension throughout the entire final season of a player’s contract.
Finally, to ensure that the rules are still being followed and players are not being tampered, GMs who are reaching out to future free agents should be expected to contact both their HO liaison and the player’s current GM when they contact a free agent prospect. Doing this provides accountability by allowing the player’s current GM and HO to keep a close eye on the situation for any potential foul play.
The largest grey area left, in my opinion, is how this rule would apply to players who either have a mutual option (MO) or a Player Option (PO) and who could become free agents at the end of the season or could choose to remain on their current team for another season. There are several ways I believe this could be handled.
First, players with an option could be treated as players who are going to become free agents. If this option was chosen, it would allow teams to potentially attempt to convince a player to use their option and become a free agent. This option would certainly be tampering were it not for the legalized meeting window making it legal and is probably the one that would be least likely to be adopted because of this as it is the most “risky.”
Second, the option I feel is the worst. Players with an upcoming option could be treated as if they are still under contract until they declare they are leaving their team after the season and would not be allowed to participate in the window. This would be unfortunate for players who are planning on testing free agency but are waiting on an option and for GMs interested in signing that player should they opt out and, therefore, is the worst of the three options in my book but probably the easiest to enforce.
Finally, players could be given the choice to use their option sooner. This is my preferred solution. As it currently stands, players with options are asked to make a decision on whether they will leave their teams or not just before free agency opens. If HO and GMs were willing, there could be two chances for players to opt out. The later window is fine where it currently sits, but the earlier could be opened at or just before the trade deadline so players could “opt in” to participating in the window and receiving offers from other GMs following the rules proposed above. If players do not choose to “opt in” to the window, they would again be given the option to opt out or remain on their current team at the end of the season. This option would require a little more work and bookkeeping on HO’s part, but would allow players to signal to everyone involved that they are open to hearing offers during the legal window instead of forcing them to wait until free agency officially opens.
*An Idea to Improve Free Agency - AdamS - 07-11-2020
Reasonable. Well thought out. Also indirectly helps with the issue gms have where free agency and the draft collide very quickly and it becomes difficulty to juggle possibilities.
This idea has my support.
*An Idea to Improve Free Agency - ScorpXCracker - 07-11-2020
I think free agency would be a lot more exciting if we radnomly contracted a team every offseason causing every player on that team to be forced to go to FA
*An Idea to Improve Free Agency - The_Kidd - 07-11-2020
I really hope I don't repeat any ideas but some ideas I believe that would make free agency more exciting and somewhat mimics real life
1. No Moratorium period -- aka no tampering once a player's season is over
2. No early signing, one default date for everyone to announce signings to be official to allow playoff teams a chance to get involved.
3. Options must have a default deadline that predates signing date
4. Sign and Trades - if a player wants to leave, allows team to get value in return and keep relationships civil
5. NBA has supermax/bird rights, MLS has a rule for three players to jump over the salary cap. NSFL could adopt a similar rule to allow two players(typically one for offense, one for defense) to exceed salary cap. To curb abuse - these contracts can only be for 3-4 seasons max and not "lifetime"-esque deals and both original "Super" contracts must expire before signing another "Super" deal
6. Rookie Salary Floor --- Rookies have to be paid a flat rate. It could be a true flat rate or a percentage of the salary cap(e.g. if Cap is 60 million and rate is 5% then each rookie must average 3 million annually over the life of the contract. Can't afford all the rookies - trade the picks/players, make a trade in free agency or let someone walk.
7. I think the main reason free agency really isnt enforced, aside from people being actual friends, is that teams aren't forced to spend to build quality teams. Create a minimum salary floor teams must hit --- and it has to be distributed throughout 60%(can be adjusted) of the roster. So if a team has 25 players ---- 15 players must make up enough salary to cover the minimum salary floor ---- to prevent a team from loading up bank on two or three players and everyone else making league minimum.
Most of these are probably seen as radical and would cause uproar, but the lack of roster turnover is the one thing so far that really makes the sim league a sim league and distances it from the realism of the actual sport ---- if that makes sense(sim league = everyone gets to circumvent and buddy up / real sports = force your hands to work your finances and find cheaper, undervalued gems)/ The fact it's not real money is probably the biggest enabler to the lack of movement
*An Idea to Improve Free Agency - qWest - 07-12-2020
The absolute biggest part of what makes free agency and player contracts in the NSFL so uninteresting and boring is the fact that the current NSFL money system is boring, clunky, and largely useless. Maybe we need to disconnect money from content creation on the site from contract money or just give players more ways and reasons to need and use money, but as it stands right now the unimportance of money as a whole in the current system is the biggest barrier to any real change.
*An Idea to Improve Free Agency - Ephenssta - 07-12-2020
(07-12-2020, 12:10 AM)qWest Wrote:The absolute biggest part of what makes free agency and player contracts in the NSFL so uninteresting and boring is the fact that the current NSFL money system is boring, clunky, and largely useless. Maybe we need to disconnect money from content creation on the site from contract money or just give players more ways and reasons to need and use money, but as it stands right now the unimportance of money as a whole in the current system is the biggest barrier to any real change.
I generally agree. I had a little over $30 mil in the bank last time I checked and I've never had a contract worth more than 3 mil. That said, I still think it's worth exploring some other ways to maybe add a little more excitement to free agency that don't require massive changes to the structure of the league like messing with the money system. Although I do wonder what would happen if suddenly contracts were being used as a primary source of income for players.
*An Idea to Improve Free Agency - Jo3fish5 - 07-12-2020
yes qwest :eyes: there needs to be more ways to spend money, there’s not much to do with it at the moment
*An Idea to Improve Free Agency - retrospace111 - 07-12-2020
Yes change FA please it’s so fucking boring compared to the NFL and any NFL fan here will agree with me that it’s one of the most exciting parts of the sport. People who don’t really keep up with it don’t understand the thrill of it, but I can say that we need something a bit better than what we have now. Money is too easy to come by. Change the system!
*An Idea to Improve Free Agency - Memento Mori - 07-12-2020
The league economy definitely plays a role in why FA is boring, but that's a lot harder to fix than implementing a period where players with expiring contracts can talk to other teams. Think it'd be great to see this implemented.
*An Idea to Improve Free Agency - The_Kidd - 07-12-2020
(07-11-2020, 10:10 PM)qWest Wrote:The absolute biggest part of what makes free agency and player contracts in the NSFL so uninteresting and boring is the fact that the current NSFL money system is boring, clunky, and largely useless. Maybe we need to disconnect money from content creation on the site from contract money or just give players more ways and reasons to need and use money, but as it stands right now the unimportance of money as a whole in the current system is the biggest barrier to any real change.
Yes, even new users like myself see how much the surplus of money affects the lack of movement. Perhaps the league could add more TPE related purchases to give players incentive to spend, which could force the need for money and possibly move.
For example:
1. Add higher tiers of equipment.
2. Extra OTA's/Mini-Camp a player can purchase for bonus TPE
3. Regression Passes - these will allow a player to push back their current regression level a year
4. Position Switch Passes - would allow a player to freely position switch again without TPE penalty
5. A weekly drawing that players can pay to enter that gives them the opportunity to win PT Passes/Regression Passes/ Position Switch Passes/Double Payout on their next published item/Free Training/Bonus Equipment Purchase/etc ---- where the entry fees are scaled for the prizes available
This might not encourage movement directly, but it could get people to spend more, and those without league jobs that want to fast track or catch up or stay at peak will be looking for extra money. Then again, those with plush league jobs will definitely be class of the league if they choose to spend the hundreds of millions they have