Ideal Roster Size?

[stu]

Hi folks. I thought I'd post this thread here, as it pertains to anybody running a fed. I know this has been discussed, perhaps ad nauseum, but what the heck...why not beat a horse to death? ;D

I was curious as to what you folks have found to be your ideal roster size. I've experiemented with all kinds of numbers over the past 10+ years. This much I know. When I get down in the low 30's, while easier to manage, that's a bit too small for my tastes. But, when I get in the higher numbers such as when the GWF was at its biggest before one of the Sudden Death's, that can become unwieldy.

Unless...you have a strong stable structure. By that, I mean if you have a fed of 75 wrestlers, on the surface that can appear to be too many. But, if these 75 wrestlers are divided into 15 different and clearly defined stables, well that's something altogether different. If one has a very well defined stable structure, then adding more and more wrestlers can be manageable.

I guess it depends upon how you play, i.e. every wrestler for himself (more like a sport), the use of stables, or perhaps even a hybrid of the two.

For me, it looks like that sweet spot is somewhere between 40 and 50 wrestlers. But, I'd love to hear of others' structures, as I'm always looking to improve upon a good thing, so to speak.

Thanks folks.

-Stu

[Trent Lawless]

I'm with you on that sweet spot, Stu. I was thinking 45-50 before I even saw your ending paragraphs. The roster sizes as written in COTG right now are just a little small for my 100-card-or-so a year schedule, because I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot. Expanding it up a bit might make it more open to possibilities.

[stu]

Thanks Mark. I too run a lot of cards in a year, pretty much playing a "real time" schedule, so it demands a larger roster. I've even tinkered with going pretty high on a roster, upwards of 70 at a time, and giving it a well defined stable structure. But, for the most part, 40-50 works pretty darn well all things considered.

[Trent Lawless]

Yeah, those pre-New Beginnings days for the GWF got too unwieldy for me, but the trimming was a bit much. Still, I've been playing it by the book lately.

[Gunslinger]

I'd say it depends on how many belts you have and how many shows you run. I've got two feds going, each with around 30 wrestlers and two belts, one tag and one singles. I run 50 6 match shows a year for each fed and it seems to work well as long as I rotate a few wrestlers in and out. If I had another belt or didn't phase people in or out I'd probably up it to the agreed upon 40-50 sweet spot range.

[Tournament Master]

Low 40's works for me.

[Vegas]

For me personally, it really depends on what game I'm playing- either COTG or LOW. For COTG I play a limited set number of cards (24)/game year so I don't distort the records (which now extend to 49 years- 2074 to 2123) in my GWF fed and the current roster sizes for the GWF, CPC, and aCe work out pretty good for me.

But when I play my LOW fed Major League Wrestling, I play more cards each year because I play LOW in real time. I actually just counted last night and I currently have 77 of the LOW official cards on my active roster- but I have these cards broken up into 2 different brands (with each brand having 1 show per week): RAW and Smackdown. I have 37 wrestlers on my RAW brand and 40 wrestlers on my Smackdown brand (in addition to those 77 regular LOW cards, I also use all of the Legends of the Future cards with a few other regular LOW in my developmental brand Minor League Wrestling). And to keep my rosters fresh, I have at least 1 major annual draft per year along with periodic trades between my two brands.

[vassago]

I'm running about 50 cards a year and 10 tournaments. Right now I have 20 groups and 71 wrestlers.

[whiplashfan]

I guess I have a conflict I love a smaller roster, but love to have the talent available