Economy Changes

[puddleduck]

Economy adjustments

General comments

The HT-Team always monitors the global Hattrick economy to make sure that it is healthy. Based on the data available, we adjust the economy in the season break. Please note that we mainly look at the underlying economy, not so much the fluctuations on the transfer market. We would prefer a transfer market that did not fluctuate too much. However, a lot of factors determine how the market behaves and we cannot fully control the transfer market, so there will always be fluctuations on the market.

Instead, we concentrate on the two most important factors for ensuring that the transfer market is as stable as possible: A healthy global economy (the amount of money available in the game), and a set of rules for the transfer market that does not change too dramatically. Last season we made some major changes to the transfer rules, and those rules will, on the whole, remain for many season to come.

The global economy however, needs some fine tuning each season. It must not be over-heated and it must not be starving.

Measures for season 24

The global economy of Hattrick has been rather stable this past season. The average team now has 253 000 US$ in the treasury, which is only marginally less than one season ago when it was 259 000 US$. The big drop happened in last season's break (when it dropped to 229 000 US$ ), while the economy has spent this past season slowly, slowly recovering.

However, next season teams will generally have higher salaries (as they always do, mostly because the average team gets slightly better, and therefore gets higher player salary costs). The salary formulas have also changed (as we explained in the HT 6.6 release). Then there will be a change to the cup system which has economic effects.

Having evaluated the current situation and all changes, we have come to the conclusion that in order to continue to have a stable economy in the game, we need to increase the income side somewhat for the upcoming season.

The general economic adjustments to take effect in the upcoming season are as follows.
Spectator income per sold ticket will increase:
Terrace places from 5.0 US$ to 5.5 US$
Regular seats from 7.5 US$ to 8.0 US$
Seats under a roof from 10 US$ to 11 US$
Seats in VIP lounge from 25 US$ to 27.50 US$
This will give an overall increase of ticket income of slightly less than 10%.

Sponsor income will be 10% higher.

The prize money for series positions (but not the promotion bonus) will be doubled from their current values. The cup prize money will also be doubled and start being given out two rounds earlier than before. This will, of course, not have any practical effect until towards the end of season 24. The cup prize money will be as follows:
Cup winner: 800 000 US$
Losing finalist: 400 000 US$
Losing semifinalists: 200 000 US$
Losing quarter finalists: 100 000 US$
Losing eighthfinalists: 50 000 US$

Along with these changes, we would like to give you advanced warning about a change that will not occur until the season after the upcoming one:

From season 25 (which starts late January 2005), the costs for expanding your arena will be doubled compared to today. In the season after that, it will increase even more. The reason for this change is that these prices have fallen behind while all other costs have gone up since season 1 when these prices were set.

I thought this deserved to be posted here so we can discuss the ramifications. I'm thinking we'll see a much hotter market next season as teams expect more money. (As always in a market expectation matters more than reality)

Also, there's clearly going to be a lot of building going on at the end of next season.

[Kevin in Louisiana]

I may expand, but of course it depends on where I'm at. I don't really expect to be much above sell-outs during this season, but even if I'm not doubling the future cost may be enough to convince me to go ahead and expand this season.

[ur_land]

These are not really huge changes--the average D.V team will probably see arond $20k to $50k more a week. It makes funding your youth system easier, but other than that.......

The important factor, however, will be what puddleduck mentioned about people's expectations. If they do expect to be getting more money each week, the beginning of the seaosn may be a good time to make some sales.

[phillips10]

to me the big change is with stadium construction. I've got a 17K stadium for a middle of the pack D5 team. I was going to wait one more complete season at least before expanding to around 30K...but now I've got to act inside of season 24....hmm.

[kuhnscoot]

Well I think some of this was expected, they always raise something in the offseason to keep an economic balance. That said, like ur_land said, there is little it will do for DV teams other then some more money to help the youth system and eventually help he team become better.

On the stadium issue, if I get some good crowds this season, I plan on expanding my stadium as well,I sold out my 32,000 seat stadium the last game of this season, but I don't plan on expanding just yet, due to the fact that I did that last offseason, and then I only pulled over 20,000 twice last season, so I'm gonna wait and see how the crowd is this season before I expand a lot.

[Deuteriumoxide]

mo money mo problems.

[Helghallen]

with current stadium size i will get 14K for a sellout. figure another 6K or so in sponsor money.

More importantly, I will probably increase stadium size before the end of next season. Not sure how big yet, but my stadium is probably a little undersized at the moment anyway. Actually, thinking about it. I'm going to expand sooner rather than later.

[ArsenalTexan3]

to me the big change is with stadium construction. I've got a 17K stadium for a middle of the pack D5 team. I was going to wait one more complete season at least before expanding to around 30K...but now I've got to act inside of season 24....hmm.

yep, likewise. In fact I might over expand in order to avoid any hassle. Right now it is 25k, might move it up to 50k to be ready for the future.

[Danks81]

Can we expect stadium maintenance to double as well? Also, since all seats but regular will earn 10% more income (regular sees a 6.6% increase), will utilization figures change enough to care?

[AAGunner3]

The doubled series prize money is nice, but for team #4, I don't think it's much of an incentive to not drop down to 5th for a qually.

[kuhnscoot]

The doubled series prize money is nice, but for team #4, I don't think it's much of an incentive to not drop down to 5th for a qually.

Yes, it's not much incentive, but it is nicer to get 38K then it is to get the 19K I got this season for 4th.

[kopiteinkc]

I was wondering if they were gonna do something like this.

They had to inject more cash into the game as the economy was suffering.

Why was it suffering?

1. Daytrading is almost dead, not quite, but it is dying with the changes they made in the trasnfer market. Hard to make a killing any more

2. The switch to buying coaches has taken money out of the game. Thijnk about it, before you could spend $10K and get lucky and get a decent enough coach, now you might spend more than $2million to get a solid/solid and that money is "lost" to the game. Not to another player like trasnfer money is. This has taken money out circulation. Now, this money will be made back by solid trainers training players a week quicker, but that is slow, slow, slow trickle down economics.

3. Less emphasis on PM in the match engine has seriously deflated Pm transfers.

[Stogey23]

The stadium change is huge for teams like PB United, who still play in a 7000 seat stadium. This will greatly affect how soon and how much I expand to.

[Footer Phooter]

3. Less emphasis on PM in the match engine has seriously deflated Pm transfers.

No lie, I'm having trouble unloading a World Class PM for what I'd consider a fair value. Thinking about switching training. (Also think about quitting altogether, but that's for another thread.)

[Craig P]

I was wondering if they were gonna do something like this.

They had to inject more cash into the game as the economy was suffering.

Why was it suffering?

1. Daytrading is almost dead, not quite, but it is dying with the changes they made in the trasnfer market. Hard to make a killing any moreParadoxically, in Hattrick terms this means a healthier economy, because less money is leaving the world through agent fees. The move to kill daytrading may be having an effect here, though, as there may be more wastage when players are sold.

2. The switch to buying coaches has taken money out of the game. Thijnk about it, before you could spend $10K and get lucky and get a decent enough coach, now you might spend more than $2million to get a solid/solid and that money is "lost" to the game. Not to another player like trasnfer money is. This has taken money out circulation. Now, this money will be made back by solid trainers training players a week quicker, but that is slow, slow, slow trickle down economics.I have a hard time accepting this at face value. It's possible, but it's also possible that the HT team succeeded in flattening the cost of changing a coach without increasing the amount of money leaving the game.

3. Less emphasis on PM in the match engine has seriously deflated Pm transfers.See my comment about day trading; less money involved in transfers means more money floating in the game world.


I think you're missing the single most important factor: the worldwide effect of "smarter" fans. Not only was there the attendance decline (with the attendant decline of money entering the game), there was also the loss of sponsorship money (probably not significant, but still there).

As a team owner, we see our major income stream as training, but that's just money in flight in the game; it has to come from somewhere. The places where money enters the HT universe are: Sponsor income, interest income, stadium revenue, prize money, new team starting money / elimination of debts in departing teams. If there's a problem in the HT economy, these are the places where it arises.