Ok so here goes my second attempt at this.
I was adding up some figures, and trying to figure out how much money Raknian and his financial backers were making off the Free City Games. What follows are my figures.
I figured that there would be fees for licensing of the licensed managers. I pulled a number out of thin air and figured it would cost a manager anywhere from 2,000gp to 5,000gp to register. This amount would depend on how many warriors were in the group, how powerful they seemed, and how popular they were. Thus the players with a Initial Rank of 3 would only cost Ekaym about 2,000gp for him to become a licensed manager. Auric's band on the other hand would cost their manager about 5,000gp. I figured by looking at the Initial Ranks, that the fees would average out at 3,000gp. Added to this would be a 100gp registration fee to be paid by each member of the gladiatorial teams. With 4 members of a team being the average, there would be roughly 100 warriors enrolling in the competition. Thus the fees would bring in a total of 82,000gp. These fees would serve two main purposes as follows:
The main purpose would be to offset costs. I added up the total prizes given away to the winners, and it added up to 70,000gp (71,100gp to be exact). Thus the fees would bring in about 11,000gp of revenues beyond paying for the prizes. Any modern entrepreneur would recognize this as a good way to get rid of overhead expenses and would put the arena well on the path of getting into the black.
The second purpose of these fees would be social. Because of the high cost of licensing, those managers that could afford it would be seen as being able to flaunt their wealth, and thus gain status and prestige amongst the rich and powerful of the Free City. This would also make the management an exclusive club, limiting membership to the rich and powerful, something aristocratic societies such as Greyhawk would find to be a positive outcome.
Ok so that puts them in the black, but what would the other fees be?
Well page 37-38 of Dungeon 128 indicates that Raknian has hired at least 32-2nd level warriors as his Arena Wardens. Lets double that number to add two shifts, and add another 64 guards for other functions/areas. This totals out at 128 Arena Wardens. Lets add in some more, just to beef up security, and total it out at 150 guards. If each guard is being paid 6sp per day (as indicated on page 149 of the DMG), and each guard is working for 5 days, then the total cost would be 450gp. Lets add in another 50gp for bonuses and holiday pay, for a grand total of 500gp.
Page 38 also indicates that Raknian has hired a bunch of low-skilled ruffians to supplement his normal security, known as the Pouncers. Lets say there are 200 of them (they only work 1 shift as indicated, so we don’t double them). If each is paid 2sp (as per a 1st level mercenary), the total cost is 200gp. Lets add in another 50gp of extra fees, for a total of 250gp.
Then there are Raknians personal guards. These are highly skilled 5th level fighters, not cheap for sure. I found in the Arms and Equipment guide a ratio for paying upper level hirelings, 2sp x level /day. Instead of 1gp per day though, lets say that Raknian pays a premium for these top level fighters in the, lets face it, rather expensive city of Greyhawk. So lets say that he is paying them 5gp per day instead. That totals them out at 750gp.
Then there are the artisans and unskilled laborers. Lets say there are 50 skilled artisans, with an average wage of 6sp per day, and 100 unskilled laborers, with a average wage of 2sp per day. That totals to 250gp, but lets double it to 500gp for rush jobs and the like. Add in some highly skilled workers such as animal handlers and alchemists, and lets add another 500gp, for a total of 1,000gp.
Then there is Madtooth the Hungry! Let say he sets back Raknian about 15,000gp (a number pulled from the air), possibly paid to the Noble Henway.
That means that wages and what not cost a total of about 17,500gp.
Now lets look at some revenue. Page 36 indicates that there are 18,000 seats, although only 10,000 are filled on the first 4 days. Lets even lower that by assuming that only 9,000 show up for the second day, as no major battles occur that day.
Now page 36 also indicates that prices for a seat are either 1sp, 1gp, or 50gp. With that in mind, I drew up the following figures for the first 4 days of the games:
Average crowds of 10,000 –
8,000 – 1sp seats filled (14,000 total 1sp seats available)
1,700 – 1gp seats filled (3,500 total 1gp seats available)
300 – 50gp seats filled (500 total 50gp seats available)
Total seat sales per day – 17,500gp per day x3 days + 15,000 for the 2nd day.
On the 5th day it is indicated that the arena is sold out so that would be as follows:
Full capacity seating – 30,000gp
Thus the Total door would be – 97,500gp
Add to this an average of ½ ticket price in betting proceeds and ½ ticket price in food and other revenue from each audience member. This is obviously a gross underestimate (just think how much you spend on food at a minor league ball game compared to how much the ticket price is) but I figure it averages in people who sneak in food and those who do not bet. Thus we would average in another 97,500gp in revenue. Let’s be even more conservative though, and lower that to 70,000gp (who knows maybe gambling isn’t that big in the Free City, or Medieval hot dogs don’t cost that much at the arena).
Finally lets figure that the Lords of Greyhawk impose a 20% luxury tax on the revenue of the games and add in another 10,000gp of incidental fees (Ulgurstasta baby food and what not).
Thus the total costs would be – 88,600+20% of the Revenue or 50,000gp
(49,900 to be exact)
The Total Revenue would be – 249,500gp
Thus Revenue – Costs = the total profit of the Champion Games would be: 111,000gp, or a damm lot of gold.
Thus I would say that not only are the Champion's Games in the black, but that Raknian and his financial backers (can we say the Church of the Ebon Triad) are all making a huge killing on this event. Considering that the other years events must have been smaller, and excluding any other profits that the arena makes throughout the year (maybe this is the only one and the others just pay the bills, who knows) one could figure that Raknian has brought in nearly 1 million in gp over the past decade, probably making the Free City about 300k in direct luxury taxes as well. Now I know why he is so beloved by the citizens and nobles of the city. I mean damm what a money maker eh?
By the way what do you think of my figures? I know they are really crunchy, but as a Social Studies teacher I have a love for economics. I wrote some history to the event outlining that in past years, the normally smaller events had prizes that totalled out at 38,000gp rather than the 70,000gp of prizes given away at the bigger, better, badder, 10th anniversary Champions Games.
just to finish off explaining what I have done with the Champion Games, I expanded it to a 7 days event, based in the Brewfest holiday Week (as I started my campaign out early in the month of Reaping). I added 2 days of parades and festivities before the begining of the games, in which the teams competing in the games parade about the city in Carnival like fashion, with musicians, bards, banners, and decorated chariots all paid for by their Managers and Raknian (in order to drum up more excitment amongst the populace for the Champion's Games). These festivities would end with the Dinner on the 0th night of the games, although I also envisioned a final Champions Parade after the Final battle. I am keeping in mind the Imperator parades of the early roman generals and the Roman Emperors who followed them (keeping with the Gladiator/Roman theme).
Good stuff, well done!
I think when I first complained that the ticket prices did not cover the prize money, I forgot the tickets are per-day, i.e. I forgot to multiply by 5.
And as you say, there's a few more expenses that would be outlayed, what we would call "marketing", which in our world can be very high!
Good stuff, well done!
I think when I first complained that the ticket prices did not cover the prize money, I forgot the tickets are per-day, i.e. I forgot to multiply by 5.
And as you say, there's a few more expenses that would be outlayed, what we would call "marketing", which in our world can be very high!
Yes I forgot about Marketing. A big mistake on my part. The cost of running 24 different parades alone would at least be in the 2,000-10,000gp range. And then of course there would be the cost of hiring bards to travel around the Free City, the countryside, and neighboring cities and towns to get out the word about the wonders of the Champions Games. That would probably add up to another few thousand. Add in some posters printed, and perhaps a few cheap magical spells (thick magic mouths on street corners and Permenant Images tell all about the wonders of the arena) and yah you could easily add up quite a few thousand more, perhaps 10,000 or more. On the other hand, really expensive advertising would mean a higher attendance rate, so if Raknian really went all out, for instance doing all of the things I just outlined, I would say that he would probably make it back in increased attendance at least, if not make a little more in net profit.
But then again, one could even chop say, 30,000gp off my estimates of their final profit and the Games would still be one of the biggest darn events in terms of gold making that the City probably sees in a given year. And remember that in every calculation I erred on the side of Raknian making less money and costs being higher than anticipated, so his profit, especially if Gambling made more money than I had estimated, could possibly be 2-3 times what I outlined. I would probably stay with my nice comfortably conservative estimates though.
The calculations look sound but I think you forget some things.
First, Raknian bought the place years ago. Even if he could pay for the arena himself, in full, when he bought it, a sizable amount of the profit should be regarded as recouperation of the initial loss of money when he bought it (eg. the price of the arena). It would be more likely that he either payed the price during a longer time or loaned money from other people, in both cases he would have to pay interest.
Second, he doesn't own the arena for this particular week only, he owns it the whole year round. For every day of the year, regardless whether the arena is used, he has to pay for maintenace, repairs, staff, advertisment and security. Sure, there are other battles and such during that year and they might bring some nice profit but he might there might also be quite some shows and battles that make a loss (the yearly interpretive mime and kazoo festival comes to mind).
Effectively an arena, theater or opera house starts each year with a large number which represents the cost of maintaining, staffing and interest and especially the main events (like the Champions belt games) are needed to cover this cost.
The calculations look sound but I think you forget some things.
First, Raknian bought the place years ago. Even if he could pay for the arena himself, in full, when he bought it, a sizable amount of the profit should be regarded as recouperation of the initial loss of money when he bought it (eg. the price of the arena). It would be more likely that he either payed the price during a longer time or loaned money from other people, in both cases he would have to pay interest.
Second, he doesn't own the arena for this particular week only, he owns it the whole year round. For every day of the year, regardless whether the arena is used, he has to pay for maintenace, repairs, staff, advertisment and security. Sure, there are other battles and such during that year and they might bring some nice profit but he might there might also be quite some shows and battles that make a loss (the yearly interpretive mime and kazoo festival comes to mind).
Effectively an arena, theater or opera house starts each year with a large number which represents the cost of maintaining, staffing and interest and especially the main events (like the Champions belt games) are needed to cover this cost.
Oh I was not saying that Raknian himself had made almost a cool mil. All I was saying was that the Champions Games were a very financially viable operation. If you read really carefully you can see that I said "Raknian and his financial backers" because I assumed that he had not bought the arena all by himself. I also said in one of the last paragraphs that:
"Considering that the other years events must have been smaller, and excluding any other profits that the arena makes throughout the year (maybe this is the only one and the others just pay the bills, who knows)."
So I assume that even if the arena really isn't that good of a business venture the rest of the year (it just breaks even and makes no profit) that the Champion's Games are a really good business venture. If you also look very carefully I always lean to the side of Raknian making less money and the costs being higher in all of my calculations. Thus for Raknian and his financial backers, whoever they may be, this would be a minimuin profit margin and the actual profit could be much higher.