In 16 seasons, I've generally been unable to acquire superstar talent. Draft picks have been especially poor.. What are some tactics that you successful owners use to improve opportunities for such acquisitions?

First find out where most of the money goes in your world to begin with. Some worlds are FA heavy, some IFA heavy ($30M+ for the top signing), some are draft heavy with ~$12M avg's in HS and Col scouting (vs. ~$8M in other worlds), and some worlds are fairly balanced.

Free agency is easy in that all you need is a lot of payroll.

For IFA's you need $20M in Int'l scouting with $20M in prospect and probably a little extra transferred over (or a lot more depending on what world you are in).

For draft picks you need $20M in one of HS or Col. If I join a new world and notice the world is closer to ~$9M in avg HS/Col scouting or less, I'll put $20M in HS and Col. and drop my medical down to $0M (just be sure to draft high health players) because chances are I'll get good players in the supp round, round 2, maybe even round 3 if I'm lucky. Actually I find myself doing $0 Med across all my leagues. Been hit with a few bad injuries but not enough yet to keep me from continuing. That's $20M more per season towards a FA or $10M more for an IFA.

Don't give out garbage long term deals to average or below average players. Every dollar counts. Find out which area of your world is being neglected and exploit it.

Thanks Brian, but where can you see how much other teams have in their HS, College and etc. budget items? All I can find is one report that shows only International and Payroll and Coaching.

You can't see how much each individual spends but you can see the average across the entire league. World -> Finances -> Budget Analysis. Bottom of the report shows averages of all budgets.

Ok, thanks.

I should also mention the 4th way is through lopsided trades. But those should be vetoed and if they aren't you should leave that world.