Here is the solution I got to work. https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/2z5azg/is_there_any_mod_that_increases_the_number_of/
Here is a copy of the relevant info from the link from mwerle on reddit.
The only thing I don't understand is why this worked and just editing the origin contracts.cfg did not work.
I just traced into this because I've been meaning to do this myself, and it's pretty easy:
You can increase the number of contracts by increasing the AverageAvailableContracts parameter in Contracts.cfg in GameData/Squad/Contracts.
I haven't looked to see if it's possible to do it at runtime yet.
Here's a Module Manager patch (you must have Module Manager installed; save these lines in a file ending with .cfg and place it anywhere in your GameData):
# Copyright 2015 Michael "Micha" WERLE <micha@*obfuscated*.com>
#
# This Module Manager config file modifies the number of contracts
# offered by Mission Control.
#
# LICENSE
# Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
# http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
#
# This patch increases the number of contracts
@Contracts:Final
{
# Default: 10
@AverageAvailableContracts = 20
}
