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I think this season might become quite interesting based on some stats that I calculated (will be published by Wagner later). I asked myself, who would be able to put up with Virtus Portici, who have now won back-to-back championships, especially now that Svätý Jur Snakers are not participating in the coming season. While the reigning champions’ top-8 salary decreased by 30K$, they are still the third in the top salary table and have a very balanced distribution of the team. Over the couple of last seasons Rajdersi and KK Stihija were the teams that had rivaled the undisputed top-2 teams of the league, but now it might get even more interesting.

Over the last seasons, we have witnessed a stellar rise in salaries of Lielupes Melnās Sirdis, who still have one of the youngest teams in the league and might be a serious title contender this season. Apart from KK Stihija and Lielupes Melnās Sirdis, who both have a salary of well over 500K $, we have additional 8 teams having salaries between approximately 350-450 K$, who might end up at the higher positions in the table as well, maybe even going for the final, or the championship.

Not only is the race for PO positions going to be an interesting one, we now have teams with similar salary ranges towards the lower end of the salary table as well. Though considering that Freccia Azzurra, Alanurmon Rikkaat and Homegrown Kings are among some of the youngest teams in the league, they have potential to increase their salaries significantly over the coming seasons.

Interesting is also to see that there are teams, whose rosters have gotten somewhat younger compared to the last season. While WiMaOlca’s top 8 got younger by a whole 2 years on average, also Homegrown Kings, Wagner College and Madrid Chotis will face the new season with a younger team than last season. In contrast, some teams have not gotten that boost of fresh blood into their rosters just yet and we have two teams, Hårdboll and Virtus Portici, whose top-8 average age is above 30 years (also dropped top-8 salaries just a little bit).

As of my personal goals for this season: I definitely want to finish the season with more wins that the last two ones (3 wins on both occasions), which should be doable, considering that we now have 2 additional teams in the league. To go beyond, my goal would be to reach at least the second round of play-offs, which might be ambitious, but would be a great achievement. On the side, as I got relegated in the regular BB league, I hope that I can just keep all my players and keep up financially.

Last edited by GM-LennuK at 1/26/2026 6:51:25 AM

The start of new, bigger than ever HGL Season is getting closer (less than hour to the tip-off!), so it's time to release again statistics that LennuK. (from BC Eos) have calculated for us - thank you!

LennuK. provided these in purpose in a similar kind of form as on Season 3, so it remains easier for all to compare numbers later on. If you're interested in older numbers, similar posts for Season 3 can be found from here: (328546.23) and here: (328546.24).

But now for the Season 4 data:

Team: Salary S3 -> Salary S4 (in 1000 $) | Salary change (%) | Age S3 -> Age S4 (y) | Age change (y)

Wagner College (WAG): 316 -> 349 | +10,4% | 30,4 -> 29,4 | -1,0
Les Gueux du Marais (LGM): 266 -> 278 | +4,5% | 28,1 -> 29,1 | +1,0
Elan Demars (ED): 335 -> 340 | +1,5% | 28,3 -> 29,3 | +1,0
BC Eos (EOS): 391 -> 432 | +10,5% | 23,6 -> 23,8 | +0,2
Vilniaus „Vilkai“ (VIV): 409 -> 430 | +5,1 | 25,3 -> 26,3 | +1,0
Madrid Chotis (MAD): 269 -> 279 | +3,7% | 27,0 -> 26,5 | -0,5
WiMaOlca (WMO): 347 -> 329 | -5,2% | 28,9 -> 26,9 | -2,0
Rajdersi (RAJ): 376 -> 447 | +18,9% | 26,5 -> 27,5 | +1,0
Freccia Azzurra (FRE): 257 -> 132 | -48,6% | 24,3 -> 24,4 | +0,1
Hårdboll (HB): 460 -> 444 | -3.5% | 31,1 -> 32,1 | +1,0
Lielupes Melnās Sirdis (LMS): 368 -> 526 | +42,9% | 23,6 -> 24,0 | +0,4
Alanurmon Rikkaat (ALA): 149 -> 164 | +10,1% | 24,9 -> 25,0 | +0,1
Virtus Portici (VPO): 490 -> 460 | -6,1% | 30,0 -> 31,0 | +1,0
KK Stihija (KKS): 567 -> 595 | +4,9% | 26,4 -> 27,4 | +1,0
Club Trouville (TRO): 275 -> 288 | +4,7% | 27,6 -> 28,6 | +1,0
Vindicta (VDT): 217 -> 258 | +18,9% | 24,5 -> 25,5 | +1,0
Homegrown Kings (HGK): 107 -> 140 | +30,8% | 24,4 -> 23,0 | -1,4
BC Rajaleidjad (BCR): 366* -> 398 | +8,7% | 28,6* -> 29,6 | +1,0


* for BC Rajaleidjad, an assumption has been made that they had not fired a top8-salary player.

Last edited by Wagner at 1/26/2026 6:58:33 AM

Even more HGL Season 4 data, calculated and these comparison tables made by LennuK. (BC Eos):


Top 5 teams of top-8 players’ salaries in Season 4:
1. KK Stihija (595K)
2. Lielupes Melnās Sirdis (526K)
3. Virtus Portici (460K)
4. Rajdersi (447K)
5. Hårdboll (444K)


Top 5 of oldest teams (based on top-8 average ages) in Season 4:
1. Hårdboll (32,1 y)
2. Virtus Portici (31,0 y)
3. BC Rajaleidjad (29,6 y)
4. Wagner College (29,4 y)
5. Elan Demars (29,3 y)


Top 5 of youngest teams (based on top-8 average ages) in Season 4:
1. Homegrown Kings (23,0 y)
2. BC Eos (23,8 y)
3. Lielupes Melnās Sirdis (24,0y)
4. Freccia Azzurra (24,4 y)
5. Alanurmon Rikkaat (25,0 y)


Top 5 of teams that increased the top-8 players’ salary most between Season 3 and Season 4 in absolute salary:
1. Lielupes Melnās Sirdis (158K/42,9%)
2. Rajdersi (71K/18,9%)
3. Vindicta (41K/18,9%)
4. BC Eos (41K/10,5%)
5. Wagner College (32K/10,4%)/Homegrown Kings (32K/30,8%)


Top 5 of teams that increased the top-8 players’ salary most between Season 3 and Season 4 in relative salary:
1. Lielupes Melnās Sirdis (42,9%/158K)
2. Homegrown Kings (30,8%/32K)
3. Vindicta (18,9%/41K) [better than Rajdersi in later decimals]
4. Rajdersi (18,9%/71K) [worse than Vindicta in later decimals]
5. BC Eos (10,5%/41K)


Top 5 of teams getting younger (or less old, based on top-8 average ages) between Season 3 and Season 4:
1. WiMaOlca (-2,0 y)
2. Homegrown Kings (-1,4 y)
3. Wagner College (-1,0 y)
4. Madrid Chotis (-0,5 y)
5. Freccia Azzurra/Alanurmon Rikkaat (+0,1 y)


Team "power"/"value":
(see note below the table)

1. Lielupes Melnās Sirdis (LMS): 21,9 [K & per y]
2. KK Stihija (KKS): 21,7
3. BC Eos (EOS): 18,2
4. Vilniaus „Vilkai“ (VIV): 16,4
5. Rajdersi (RAJ): 16,3
6. Virtus Portici (VPO): 14,8
7. Hårdboll (HB): 13,8
8. BC Rajaleidjad (BCR): 13,5
9. WiMaOlca (WMO): 12,2
10. Wagner College (WAG): 11,9
11. Elan Demars (ED): 11,6
12. Madrid Chotis (MAD): 10,5
13. Vindicta (VDT): 10,1 [better than TRO in later decimals]
14. Club Trouville (TRO): 10,1 [worse than VDT in later decimals]
15. Les Gueux du Marais (LGM): 9,6
16. Alanurmon Rikkaat (ALA): 6,6
17. Homegrown Kings (HGK): 6,1
18. Freccia Azzurra (FRE): 5,4


Note/explanation (from previous Season) on "power/value"-comparison by LennuK.:

I tried to think of other interesting parameters other than just salary and age, which would be interesting to monitor over the seasons. So, I looked into the relationship between the ages and salaries directly [...]
So, I looked at the parameter of top-8 salary sum divided by the top-8 average age to get a general parameter or a “power” ranking showing the salary to age ratio (in 1000$ per year of the average age), which could probably even be termed “value” of the players on the roster of a specific team. This by no means determines the actual value of the players in the top-8 of different teams, but is interesting to look at, when considering that a high salary and a young age are associated with a player that is actually valuable; hence the higher the described ratio is, the higher the “value” of a player would/should be. If you think such information could be interesting too, here comes the list of the HGL teams in Season 3 in the order of more to less “valuable” players in the top-8 considering their salary to age ratio.

Last edited by Wagner at 1/26/2026 7:26:24 AM

I formed a top8-salary table of all HGL teams on Season 4, based on previous data provided by LennuK.

In this case I made an attempt to make table little bit more visual, and also added familiar "league table lines" (after 4th and 12th teams) to this post, so that we could easily compare at the end of Regular Season who has exceeded expectations, if we only look at top8-salary as a predictor of future success (which it of course solely isn't, but that's still about the best value we do have available as people are understandingly not willing to expose their players' skill point numbers).

In a table below, I've given team one line per each starting $20K of wages. So for instance a team with $120K salary would receive 6 bars of line, while team with salary $152K would receive 7, and so on.

Let's see how this turns out, and please let me know what you like of this new "format"/experimentation:

-----------------------------KK Stihija (KKS) $595K
--------------------------Lielupes Melnās Sirdis (LMS) 526
-----------------------Virtus Portici (VPO) 460
----------------------Rajdersi (RAJ) 447
----------------------Hårdboll (HB) 444
---------------------BC Eos (EOS) 432
---------------------Vilniaus „Vilkai“ (VIV) 430
-------------------BC Rajaleidjad (BCR) 398
-----------------Wagner College (WAG) 349
-----------------Elan Demars (ED) 340
----------------WiMaOlca (WMO) 329
--------------Club Trouville (TRO) 288
=========================
-------------Madrid Chotis (MAD) 279
-------------Les Gueux du Marais (LGM) 278
------------Vindicta (VDT) 258
--------Homegrown Kings (HGK) 174 #1
--------Alanurmon Rikkaat (ALA) 164
------Freccia Azzurra (FRE) 132

#1=Homegrown Kings Season 4 starting salary was $140K (position in table changed from 17th to 16th due to transfer on January 28th, 2026).


Last edited by Wagner at 1/30/2026 3:17:09 AM

Thanks, MrJ!
I'm kind of a visual person myself to some extent, so sometimes at least for me it's easier to interpret something more visual, hence the attempt to make some "graphics" in BB text editor.

As for the actual salary and age data, as I mentioned, we need to thank LennuK. from BC Eos for compiling/calculating all of the base data/stats, that we can then use to create something (some comparison tables, etc.) if we want to!

Last edited by Wagner at 1/26/2026 8:18:07 AM

Thanks, MrJ!
I'm kind of a visual person myself to some extent, so sometimes at least for me it's easier to interpret something more visual, hence the attempt to make some "graphics" in BB text editor.

Yes, well, kecal's $430k roster is punishing my team currently...

...as expected :`(

That's very visual! lol

Maybe I should've used $-signs instead of - though xD
But hey, it's my first attempt so maybe we'll get there, and can improve on next one.

The difference (140 to 430K) is big, so yes, to some extent that's to be expected.. but your team has developed a lot (and will keep on doing so, I have no doubt about that), so I think you won't be leaving Season 4 without wins, and being an experienced manager yourself, could also very well surprise someone with clearly higher salaries.

Personally I'm having a surprise lead (by 13) against HGL top8-salary #2, LMS at half time, but maybe BB Gods will turn against me now that I mentioned about it - does knocking wood at this point help anymore, or has the damage been done already? ;P

Last edited by Wagner at 1/26/2026 11:10:12 AM

I think this season might become quite interesting based on some stats that I calculated (will be published by Wagner later). I asked myself, who would be able to put up with Virtus Portici, who have now won back-to-back championships, especially now that Svätý Jur Snakers are not participating in the coming season. While the reigning champions’ top-8 salary decreased by 30K$, they are still the third in the top salary table and have a very balanced distribution of the team. Over the couple of last seasons Rajdersi and KK Stihija were the teams that had rivaled the undisputed top-2 teams of the league, but now it might get even more interesting.
[..]

Thank you LennuK. also for your Season 4 preview (in addition to the aforementioned salary and age statistics)!

While Svätý Jur Snakers' high top8-salaries (845K on Season 3; not participating on Season 4) does lower the HGL top8-average salary effectively (as it's way more than average salary of a HGL team), the average top8-salary level seems to rise every season, which to me makes HGL highly competitive and interesting.

I haven't calculated Season 3 and Season 4 teams' top8-average salaries though, in order to being able to give you values on how it has developed. On the other hand, couple of things affect this salary development:

- some teams (especially FRE) have sold players, that they could have theoretically keep, so these kind of effectively reduce "HGL average top8-salary", and are not a sign of bad training but instead a result of managers' own choice (to get rid of salary baggage by either tactical or forced selling/firing)

- we have different number of participating teams this season, so comparing "team salary layers" (explained just below) is not as straightforward, and

- also as new teams have been introduced that are on the lower salary spectrum of HGL so that lowers average HGL top8-salaries (while again not implying that managers would have done bad job in training, as their numbers weren't even included in the previous season top8-numbers)


Salary comparison tables (should they be made season by season) could also be "chopped to parts" in addition to providing a whole HGL's top8-salary value.
We could provide average top8-salaries for instance for
-top4,
-top 5-8,
-top 9-12,
- and top 13-16
- (and top 17-18, if there are more than 16 teams).

This would give all of us an idea, what's your teams' distance to the next level (consisting of 4 teams here in this example). Of course this salary table that has already provided gives an idea about it, but this is just a possibility/thought.