Am I heading for financial ruin?

[Thestaggy]

I took charge of AFC Telford with the goal of getting them to the Premier League (they're in Blue Square North). I just won the division, securing promotion to the BSP.

Now, we don't own the stadium, paying a nominal fee of 1 quid in rent. But, I urged the board to buy the stadium in order for us to expand and improve it in line with my grand vision. So, they agreed and now have just completed buying the stadium. It has almost doubled the value of the club, but at the same time has saddled the club with 1.6 million pounds of debt, with monthly payments of 10,600 pounds for the next 15 years. It seems a small fee, but throughout my season I was operating at losses of 10 - 20,000 pounds a month. I did however make a profit of 36,000 for the season. I am comfortably below my wage budget and am planning to trim my squad even further in the BSP as a money saving exercise.

One bonus is, I was far and away the best supported club at this level of football. My average crowd attendance was better than a number of the BSP clubs, and I think that will only get better in my BSP season. Bear in mind this is my first save with FM11, so does anyone have long-term experience with a lower league club that has been hit with heavy debt and can you recover? Obviously rapid promotions will help, but I am worried that I have put myself in a bit of grief.

 

[Raikan007]

hey mate, I dont think so, never played in the BSP but increasing/investing in new stadiums (which will increase revenue from ticket sales) is not a bad thing.. if you had asked for new youth facilities etc then that would be a problem! Stadiums are investments, not an expense!

there are quite a few tricks that you can do to generate extra cash, the best way is to organize pre-season or mid year friendlies with large teams (the bigger the better)

 

[Thestaggy]

hey mate, I dont think so, never played in the BSP but increasing/investing in new stadiums (which will increase revenue from ticket sales) is not a bad thing.. if you had asked for new youth facilities etc then that would be a problem! Stadiums are investments, not an expense!

there are quite a few tricks that you can do to generate extra cash, the best way is to organize pre-season or mid year friendlies with large teams (the bigger the better)

Thanks for that. I hope my clubs relatively strong support base for this level sees more butts in the stadium help me break even. And thanks for mentioning the youth facilities. I've been on at the board to improve them and they say no due to funds. In hindsight they're right as you said, a stadium will ultimately benefit me in revenue while a youth facility won't as the chances of me being able to farm talent are slim to non.

I've read about the ''tricks'' with regards to money, but I don't find most of them to be realistic. I am aiming for realism. Sending your team of part-timers on a trip to Australia is not really possible in reality. I do however see no problem with arranging lucrative pre-season friendlies with Premier League teams, as that does happen in reality. Money for me, and a nice easy run out for a Premier League outfit.