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SBS Oakland Baseball Simworld






The Oakland Baseball Simworld was originally created as a tool to evaluate how new stadium proposals would impact the business of running the Oakland Athletics Bsseball Organization. The equation base was developed when SBS CEO Zennie Abraham , its creator, was Economic Advisor to Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris in 1998.

That year, the Mayor asked Mr. Abraham to find potential buyers for the A's franchise. At the request of one of the potential owners, Mr. Abraham created a five-year system dynamics model of the Athletics organization. That simulation, far beyond a spreadsheet, became the basis for the Oakland Baseball Simworld.

The Oakland Baseball Simworld that you're about to use came to life after Mr. Abraham established a relationship with Forio Business Simulations, represented by Michael Bean and Will Glass-Hussain. As both Mr. Abraham and the Forio Business Simulations principals know, System Dynamics, and live in the San Francisco / Oakland Bay Area, they created a strategic alliance. When Mr. Abraham met University of San Francisco Professor Dan Rascher in June of 2002, he also expressed an interest in Abraham's simulation work. When Abraham and Rascher met again after the Oakland Baseball Simworld was finished, they established Sports Business Simulations.

Oakland Baseball Simworld Objectives

The simulation has over 100 decisions that impact the baseball organization. What you're trying to do is "grow" the business of the baseball firm over a period from 2006 to 2021. (SBS changes this each year to maintain a current base of team information and a 15-year play period into the future). Your objective is to achieve constant increases in franchise value, keep the team "in the black" where annual revenues are greater than annual expenses, and maintain a competitive team on the field, winning playoff and World Series games‹if you get that far. You must do this within the overall economic structure currently presented by Major League Baseball. The recently passed Collective Bargaining Agreement is represented here. But you can try different CBA agreements, too. All of the observed macro fiscal patterns common to the A's organization are replicated here. Thus, this platform is perfect for evaluating different new stadium financing options and baseball economic strategies, from high-payroll teams to low-payroll teams and other considerations.

To understand how to use the Oakland Baseball Simworld for your class, just read our curriculum section by clicking here.

MoneyBall and the Oakland Baseball Simworld

Michael Lewis wrote "MoneyBall," a very popular book on the player selection and development process used by the Oakland Athletics. The Oakland Baseball Simworld is designed to permit the player to mimic the high-player-development expenditure, low-payroll spending dynamics of the Oakland Athletics as one possible way to run the team and achieve good results. You can better understand how team business models like that used by the Oakland A's work, using the Oakland Baseball Simworld in conjunction with the book MoneyBall. You can order MoneyBall here:

To try the Oakland Baseball Simworld over a one-day free trial, just click here: START SIM TRIAL. To buy an account for use in your class, just click here: BUY AN ACCOUNT. It's $12.50 per student per class. Please e-mail SBS at info@sportsbusinesssims.com with other questions. You may also contact Dr. Joris Drayer of The University of Memphis, Professor Dan Rascher of The University of San Francisco, Professor Professor Rod Fort of Washington State University or any of the members of the SBS Advisory Board for questions on how they used the SBS simulations in their classes. Just send an email to SBS at the adress above.