Attention Economics in Sheets of Ice
In hockey sims, the money side of the business wasn't ever really something that was explored a whole lot. It always felt like a bounding box that was slapped on top just to ensure human players couldn't exploit the really silly AI GMs in the game. When I was ideating the original specification I came up with something that I felt was more interesting and more fun plus combines some real-life forces that affect sports franchises. I'm calling this the Attention Economy.
Sports franchises generate revenue through capturing people's attention and deepening their connection to the team. But teams don't work in a vacuum this way; the league also increases it's gravity to attract attention. So teams are competing with one another on the ice, with one another for attention, but they're also cooperating to grow the overall league attention. There's a business term for this called 'coopetition'. Teams are both competing and cooperating at the same time. Grow the league overall AND capture as much of that overall attention for themselves.
All of this attention translates to revenue based on how committed those fans are to the team. Teams that do well, make the playoffs, win championships, will deepen their relationship with those fans over time. Diehard fans will pay more and stay through more ups and downs than casual fans. Teams are incentivized to ice good teams that people want to watch. They also are incentivized to do things that creates attention - big trades, signing star free-agents, drafting the next superstar. And with long-term attention brings reputation that may influence players wanting to play for those teams. That history has a weight and a cachet that survives long term. The "storied franchise".
But just having attention doesn't automatically translate into revenue. You have to cultivate it by spending on marketing and spending on channels. Marketing raises potential awareness - you're doing events, running ads, doing promotion... all of the things that maybe someone would go from unaware about your franchise to aware that they exist. Then, spending on your channels increases the capture rate - how much do you invest in social media, radio, television, print, in-person? Teams that invest in the channels have more opportunity to convert that awareness into casual, committed, and diehard fans.
All of this meta-game will ultimately affect the salary cap. The more the league is able to generate in attention as a whole, will translate into league revenue (through the teams setting their marketing & channel spend) and that league revenue translates into what the salary cap will be. So, every team wants to invest wisely to help the league grow. They also want to invest wisely to have good players, good games, exciting series, so there is more revenue to go around.
The trouble with building a spec for this that conforms to some sense of realism is that there isn't a lot of numerical data out there about what actually is "realistic". There is research about this phenomena of fandom, how people choose teams, how long they stay, and what events cause them to gain attention and become fans. This is going to require a lot of testing to get something that feel right.
Posted Jul 10, 2026, 3:22 PM UTC