Club and finances

Youth academy

Hire a recruiter in the Staff tab: every Monday, he offers you a recruit aged 15 to 17, just for your club.

The recruit is shown on a card with all attributes and a potential estimate (Prospect, Big prospect or Prodigy, see Potential), more often good with a better scout, and two buttons, Accept or Decline. Without an answer, the recruit is replaced the following Monday. An accepted recruit joins the academy (15 places maximum) and progresses automatically every day, with no matches and no training choices.

The Youth academy, which can be upgraded level by level from this tab, speeds up that progress. When a youngster turns 18, you must make a decision: promote him to the pro roster (he then reveals his true potential tier) or release him for good. If no decision is made before the next season, he is released automatically. The history of promoted youngsters remains visible at the bottom of the page.

At any time, Release lets a youth player go after confirmation: a permanent departure, at no cost, and his spot frees up immediately. The Progression button shows his progress since he arrived.

Transfer market

All ongoing auctions in the league, yours and your opponents'.

Each auction lasts 1 real day. Minimum raise: 20% of the current bid (at least $1,000) up to $250,000, then $50,000 up to $1,000,000, then 5% above that. At the top, a strip of figures: your available budget (budget minus the auctions you are leading), the amount committed and your roster (free spots after your bids). The page has tabs: Players and Staff (filters in a column on the left, “Filters” button on phones), My bids (your ongoing purchases, players and staff, with the auctions where you have been outbid first, and “Outbid”), My sales (your listings and the offers received) and History (your transactions and your balance).

Search by position, age, potential, price (including "within my budget") and up to 5 attribute criteria, with several sort orders (auction end, rating, potential, price, age). Each listing shows the player's rating, his strengths and a Compare button to measure him against your roster; you first negotiate the contract with the player, then you bid. To sell one of your players, use the ⋯ menu in the Roster or the Sell button on his profile. The identity of the highest bidder stays private.

Followed players and alerts (Premium): “Follow” on a listing or on a player's page adds him to your followed players (Menu → Recruitment → Followed players, with his market situation); the market's “Followed players” filter only shows those who are for sale. “Create an alert with these filters” saves a search, and Hoop Magazine tells you when a followed player is put up for sale, when his auction is about to end, and when a new listing matches one of your alerts.

Global market: listings from every league, in every country, also appear (seller's flag and division on the card; "Whole world" or "My league" filter, or the country of your choice, with a search box). You bid the same way, and the player joins your club when the auction closes. Listings from other leagues update every few minutes: if someone has outbid you in the meantime, your bid is refused and the price is updated.

Play-off deadline
A player who arrives less than 14 days before the first play-off match no longer plays in the league this season (end of the regular season, play-in and play-offs included). He remains available for the Cup, friendlies and private leagues.

Finances

Club budget and its trend, payroll (players and staff), revenue from the arena, the shop and TV rights, and transaction history grouped by week.

A budget that stays below the alert threshold will eventually force the whole roster up for sale at $1: keep an eye on the payroll.

Arena

Expand your arena seat by seat to hold more fans (Expand the arena block: each seating category has its own price per seat and maximum number of seats), and set ticket prices CATEGORY BY CATEGORY: Upper Stand, Center Stand, Courtside and VIP Boxes don't share the same capacity or price tolerance.

Only home matches bring in revenue. Fan mood affects turnout and price tolerance. Other facilities are also available, each with 5 levels like the youth academy: Fan Shop (fixed weekly revenue), TV Station (fixed weekly revenue), Weight Room (reduces injury risk) and Wellness Center (reduces in-game fatigue).

Fan mood

Fan mood (0 to 100, dedicated tab) affects how full your arena gets and tolerance for ticket prices: happy fans show up more easily and accept higher prices.

It changes with every result (win or loss, home or away), the tone you choose in milestone interviews, and drifts slowly depending on whether ticket prices are seen as reasonable or not.

Season objective: at the start of the season, the board sets a standings target (Safety, Mid-table, Playoff qualification, Playoff final or Championship title), which is all the more ambitious the stronger your roster is. The verdict comes at the end of the season: beating the target delights the fans and missing it annoys them, all the more so the bigger the gap. Two smaller interim signals come at mid-season and at the end of the regular season.

Sponsors

Three slots: the jersey (the best paid), the arena and the billboard in front of the arena.

At the top of the page: what your contracts have earned this season, your fixed income per week and the bonuses at stake; in each contract, a scale shows the board's target (CA), the sponsor's target (BONUS) and, after the regular season, the steps already reached. Ending a contract costs a clause of 4 weeks of fixed income, with no effect on your reputation.

Offers arrive regularly and expire after a week without a reply. Each sponsor has a profile: Cautious (big fixed fee, small bonus, easy target), Normal or Ambitious (small fixed fee, big bonus per win, higher target). A contract lasts one season: a fixed fee every week, a bonus for every win, and an end-of-season bonus if the target is met.

Your reputation with sponsors rises when you meet your targets and falls when you miss them. The higher it is (and the higher your division), the bigger the brands that approach you: local businesses, then regional brands, then national ones.

Club history

The club's trophy case (titles, promotions, Cup runs), its records (which link to the match's box score for the current season) and its Hall of Fame: induct a standout player and retire his number.

All of this stays with the club from one season to the next.