The Beginning of the Offseason 2004
Weel, quite frankly I didn't know how to title this part of it, since so many little things happen, but I don't know that anything really deserves its own post. So here we go, bit-by-bit.
I have pushed the button on the 2003 season, and we have moved on to the beginning of the 2004 offseason.
TV Contract
The league signed a new 5-year TV contract, which will raise the salary cap $4.1 M per year over the life of the contract. That means we're looking at a $79.1 M salary cap this season, and I have a good $22 M or so in free cap room.
I suppose I will have to be careful not to fall into the "spend-too-much" habits of some of our other posters here at FOFC, one notable standout being SkyDog.
The minimum salary was raised $10K to $240K overall.
Not Unrestricted After All
Not that it matters, since I didn't take this into account at the time at all, but I discovered that WR Bryan Gilmore, WR Kevin Kaspar, WR Nate Poole and CB Renaldo Hill, as former undrafted free agents, are restricted free agents, not unrestricted. So I still have options on them--not that I am going to exercise them.
GM Performance
I am, of course, subject to immediate review every season, and it's only fair I post my ratings, even if I had little to do with the composition of my roster.
Here they are:
Code:
Performance: 5
Roster: 89
Profit: 40
Franchise Value: 55
Overall Evaluation: 35
All in all, I didn't think I made out too bad for running a squad that went 2-14.
Balance Sheet
Here's a look at my balancer sheet.
Code:
Revenues (in millions)
TV Contract: $30.0
Ticket Revenue: $23.2
Suite Revenue: $4.2
Concessions: $1.2
Parking: $0.3
Advertising: $4.6
Total Revenues: $63.5
Expenses (in millions)
Player Salaries: $40.8
Player Bonuses: $5.5
Training: $3.6
Coaching: $3.4
Scouting: $15.8
Maintenance: $2.6
Stadium Payments: $0.2
Total Costs: $71.9
Profit: ($8.4)
I can't do much about TV Contract, so Ticket Revenue is the biggest source of revenue I can control, by far, and my guess is that it also leads to increased suite, concessions, and parking revenue. I had the lowest ticket prices of any team in the league, so it seems I will have to raise prices a little bit, especially since I plan to carry a higher player salary this year (indeed, I am already several million higher before free agency or the draft).
I was really surprised at the price of scouting. I hope it's worth it. But more on that in a second. It's nice to see such a cheap stadium payment. $200K? Man, the taxpayers in Phoenix got jipped! Can't wait to check out the new stadium (circa 2006, in case you forgot).
Obviously, opverall, I can't be too happy about losing $8 M and I haave a feeling the Bidwells aren't too happy either, but I think I may have to lose some money for a year or two before I can show signs of improvement.
Attendance Report
It said we were by far the lowest supported team in their market area, and the 2003 attendance figures seem to back that up.
We were dead last in the NFL in attendance for our eight home games, at an average of 51,600 fans (70.4% capacity). The next lowest was Oakland at 55,900 (and they were at almost 90% capacity...). The highest in the NFL was (of course) the New York Giants, at 79,400--a whopping 99.6% capacity.
Franchise Value
The value of the Cardinals' franchise as a whole went up significantly, although this is essentially guaranteed thanks to inflation.
Still, it was significant enough of a jump that we leapfrogged Cincinnati in value to move up to the 28th-highest valued franchise at $369.4 M.
The highest-rated franchise was, no big surprise, the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, at $590.1 M.
2003 Coach of the Year
The coach of the year for 2003 was Ed Blanchard of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
CR