This doesn’t necessarily have to be very fleshed out. Heres how I could imagine it:
Make a small 10-12 team league of any sport (Baseball, Basketball, and Football are most popular in NY)
Teams should be valued at around 1-5 billion, and have stats such as “Championships Won” and “Last Years Record” and “Team Strength” Higher the strength, better the record
Add a slider for money invested to the team, more money invested means higher team strength
Add a slider for ticket sales, and add a average ticket price value, much like real estate
Make random events such as “Viral Play” or “Winning the championship” and add a temporary revenue boost to that
Typing this out sounds like a lot but I believe the mechanics are already involved in the game, and it doesn’t need to become a sport manager game, just a separate part of revenue that can add spark and a new piece of life into the game that no other game can really offer in this setting.
Overall I like the idea. Especially as it is quite common for tycoon and entrepreneurs to own sports teams.
However it’s a bit too niche/narrow to defend the development costs. Far from all players will find sports related stuff interesting.
That being said, if we can combine this feature with other areas (not just sports teams), it might become reality. As long as we can use the same mechanics for all (labels can change).
If anyone got ideas on how we can expand this beyond sports team, please feel free to share!
I think a way to expand it more generally would be to add the ability to purchase ‘events centers’ like theatre’s on broadway or stadiums for teams/concerts. Theatre’s can be home to productions and plays, can utilize the same type of mechanic I listed above for ticket prices and even the same type of ‘investment’ mechanic where more money put in means more turnout. Even smaller places like comedy clubs could be a more low tier, less costly, way to dip the players toes into purchasing these ‘events centers’!
Let there be 3-level leagues as amateur, semi-pro and pro. We can buy clubs from these leagues. Let’s improve the club by buying and building club employees, football players and club buildings.
I can see this easily transitioning to other businesses/buildings and also being useful for additional businesses.
Go to a game to relax when you do or don’t own it
Add the stadium as an additional marketing location
Mechanics of the stadium could transfer over to business ideas such as a Record Label, Hotel, Event Planning, Boat parties, and more.
(For example, Last Years Record/Championships Won/Team Strength could transfer to music with Awards Won / Artists of the Year Won / Appearance Fees or transfer to a Hotel with Visitors Last Year / Hotel Awards Won / Nightly Price)
Depending on the setup, the player could have buildings NEAR the stadium that are considered IN the stadium and they could build stores for them. Maybe a 300 Customer building limit but the price is reduced because of the fees having to be paid until the stadium is owned by the player.
Could easily assist with creating a Security type business as Security would be needed during events and could be transitioned to stores/offices/warehouses with a random likelihood of an event happening.
I’ll try to come back and touch on more later on, but OP has my vote.
Owning your own record label would be sweet or even owning music/sport agencies would be nice. Both types of agencies could be run as office type businesses too. That way, the devs wouldn’t really have to change anything. Just adding.
Players can open indoor stadiums for profit, such as table tennis, badminton, etc.
Required equipment: table tennis table, badminton flooring, various rackets and balls, lockers
Profit method: venue rental fee, equipment rental fee, sports drink sales, and even coaching fees.
Employees: customer service, cleaning, sports coaches
Players can also get involved themselves and use it to increase their satisfaction value, similar to the role of a gym.
I think for one the sports team thing is a really amazing idea and later in development, this being added in would be super special and really set this game apart in it’s genre if really given the proper attention. One Idea I think you could implement easier potentially would be in fleshing out the gambling system. Adding in fantasy sports betting and having the games play out “virtually” instead of creating an entire stadium with different teams and games playing out. Although the latter would genuinely be AMAZING in my eyes, I think this would be a neat way to incorporate the idea without breaking the bank in terms of time or money.
