Franchise Mode - New trailer & Deep dive

Hey NHL Gamers,

lots of new details about NHL 17's rebranded GM mode, now called "Franchise Mode", dropped in form of an interesting blog write-up - which we have summarized below - and a new trailer:

Owner's personality:

• Spending: The higher your owner's spending rating is, the higher your overall budget for players, marketing, upgrades etc. will be
• Importance of success: This category determines whether your management is focused on profit or actual league success, and influences your financial decisions
• Patience: Low patience ratings require you to lead the franchise to quick success, thereby influencing your personell decisions
• Owner goals: These are known from earlier NHL games, and are now split up into three categories: Primary, secondary and stretch goals

Below you can take a look at one of the team's internal tools, which shows several triggers that influence your owner's happiness:

Arena and facilities:

• Set prices: Tickets, concessions, merchandise and parking are your main source of revenue, therefore it is important to find that 'sweet spot' for optimised sales
• Upgrade and maintain: Concessions, team stores, parking lots and club seats can be improved to a maximum of 5 levels, while each new level unlocks new items - these new items also have a maintenance level, which means you are responsible for keeping everything in shape
• Arena customization: Customization features will also be available in Franchise Mode, however they are tied to your progress (similar to EASHL)
• Team ranking and sales: You are able to compare yourself to the other teams within the league, to see how you stack up against them in terms of revenue

Dynamic attendance:

If you are watching real life NHL games at times, you might have noticed that there are certain differences when it comes to attendance. Have you ever seen a Florida Panthers game? Yes?

Good news: This will be reflected in the new Franchise Mode as well. There are a couple of factors which influence crowd attendance:

• Time of the season (pre-season games will have lower attendance than playoff games)
• Quality of opponent
• Pricing
• Performance
• Fan base loyalty and many more

Relocation:

If you feel like you have done everything to improve your situation, but the fans are still visiting your home games sparely, it's time for a relocation! There are 19 cities to choose from (including Las Vegas and Quebec City), and after your management negotiations were successful, you are fully able to build the new franchise including uniforms and arena customziation.

Budgets:

Your budget can be split up between 4 categories: Player salaries, arena operations, promotions and advertising. Depending on your owner's mood, you could either become the leagues 'big spender' with lots of financial possibilities, or one of the more financially limited managers who is expected to cut player salaries while keeping up good performance.

Promotions:

Another way of increasing home game attendance and boosting revenue are promotions, which can be applied to all of your home games (e.g. puck or bobble head giveaways). Right timing is key to selling out games which might otherwise only have lots of empty seats.

Season ticket drive:

Ahead of each season, you are responsible to tie your fans to the franchise by selling as many season tickets as possible. When settings prices, it is essential to meet your customer's expectations - otherwise you need to rely on day tickets which are far more likely to not get sold after bad team performances.

How do you like the new changes to the revamped Be a GM mode? Tell us in the comments below!