Club Building

[addug]

A few questions on how building a small club up to the top works. So far I've taken Berwick Rangers from SL2 up to the SPL in 4 years. First season I came 4th, then a ( disappointing) 2nd the following year after a home draw on the final day. How is population factored into attendances? Are the minimum and maximums attendances in the database dynamic? Does competition prize and TV money rise in line with competition reputation? How accurately/significantly is it likely to rise? Will the board only pay a set amount off debts or does it depend on what your revenues are? Any other advice on this area would be great!

 

[seacow]

From my experience of the previous fm population wasnt holding me back as much as realistic fan base growth. i was a team in a major city but still couldnt sell out a 50k stadium after a few champs league wins

i found the prize and tv money rose reasonably well for league competitions, however cups struggled with the dynamic rep

as for debt i dont know as i was always in the black

i am currently getting hyde up through the divisions on 15 so cant comment on the long term of 15 but can only imagine it has improved from last year

 

[addug]

From my experience of the previous fm population wasnt holding me back as much as realistic fan base growth. i was a team in a major city but still couldnt sell out a 50k stadium after a few champs league wins

i found the prize and tv money rose reasonably well for league competitions, however cups struggled with the dynamic rep

as for debt i dont know as i was always in the black

i am currently getting hyde up through the divisions on 15 so cant comment on the long term of 15 but can only imagine it has improved from last year

Might be a struggle then without selling players! Berwick are firmly in the up to 25,00 population bracket, managing 3000+ on average at the moment despite being top of the SPl after 14 games.

Not managed to get into either European competitions properly yet, had tough draws in my qualifiers, hopefully I can win the league this year and should just about guarantee Europa at least.

My board bought the ground early on and we;ve been slightly in debt ever since, managing to keep it around the same level though, but could be tight this year given the increase in wages unlesss we performly strongly across all cups.

What year are you in mate?

 

[seacow]

on my current save with hyde im in 2018 and in league 2 (the conference took a few attempts) but have found my fanbase has grown with my club stature so far but i havent risen too quickly
on fm14 got to 2030 with bath and about 2025 with clyde both were successive promotions so found i had got promoted too quickly to cope financially. On both games i was a selling club to balance the books but had a production line of young foreign talent coming through and making healthy profit

 

[endersgame]

I tried this. In FM 12 or 13 I downloaded an expanded German league and picked Dynamo Berlin. I always found it curious how Berlin, one of the biggest cities in Europe, don't have a major team. So I thought, with such a large population a consistently successful side would become one of the biggest teams in Europe.

Well.. yes and no. It took 30 seasons, 15 league titles and 7 champions league titles to fill a 40k stadium.

The biggest problem is money. Going from part time to full time almost bankrupted the club, the increasing demands of players and staff as you creep up the leagues is impossible to deal with and the only real source of income is selling players. Although it does give you a lot of pride seeing the national team filled with players that once played for you, its mostly f***ing annoying. The first decade was just crises management. Played half my first season in a third tier with half my squad made up of youth players, loan signings and freebies. It was just horrible.

It's only when the sponsorship deals start rolling in that you get a sense that things are turning around. Which was the 4th season in the first division. I could keep my players and staff and even splash out on a new signing.

But then the board decided to build a new stadium. I looked forward to that moment. But when it came, it dawned on me that it was my transfer budget for the next 5 seasons that was paying for it.... FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF***

 

[addug]

on my current save with hyde im in 2018 and in league 2 (the conference took a few attempts) but have found my fanbase has grown with my club stature so far but i havent risen too quickly
on fm14 got to 2030 with bath and about 2025 with clyde both were successive promotions so found i had got promoted too quickly to cope financially. On both games i was a selling club to balance the books but had a production line of young foreign talent coming through and making healthy profit

I can imagine the Conference would be very tricky! Not sure I'll attempt that any time soon if at all.

My average attendance is looking to be around 3500 this year, but that includes a few European qualifiers and a strong run in the cups, so skews it a little.

Yeah I'm starting to think I'm gonna have to sell 2 out of my top 5 players which hopefully should bring in around £8 mil plus, then look to invest that in wages for some of the top Bosman's the following year. That's the only route I can see for financially stabilising the club for the next few years.

I tried this. In FM 12 or 13 I downloaded an expanded German league and picked Dynamo Berlin. I always found it curious how Berlin, one of the biggest cities in Europe, don't have a major team. So I thought, with such a large population a consistently successful side would become one of the biggest teams in Europe.

Well.. yes and no. It took 30 seasons, 15 league titles and 7 champions league titles to fill a 40k stadium.

The biggest problem is money. Going from part time to full time almost bankrupted the club, the increasing demands of players and staff as you creep up the leagues is impossible to deal with and the only real source of income is selling players. Although it does give you a lot of pride seeing the national team filled with players that once played for you, its mostly f***ing annoying. The first decade was just crises management. Played half my first season in a third tier with half my squad made up of youth players, loan signings and freebies. It was just horrible.

It's only when the sponsorship deals start rolling in that you get a sense that things are turning around. Which was the 4th season in the first division. I could keep my players and staff and even splash out on a new signing.

But then the board decided to build a new stadium. I looked forward to that moment. But when it came, it dawned on me that it was my transfer budget for the next 5 seasons that was paying for it.... FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF***

That's bonkers that it still took that long to start getting 40,000 plus with that level of success.

I've tried to move from having a majority of first team as loan signings to permanent contracts as I felt it was leaving the squad disrupted so I was finishing the season a lot better than I started it. But unfortunately that isn't particularly looking the case so far. I could do with Celtic to start performing better in Europe to drag the rep of the league up as I'm struggling to get any offers for my players outside of the Scottish Championship.

I'm in my 3rd season in SPL and looking likely to get 2nd again so hopefully that will boost sponsorship again, because god knows I could do with it. Starting to struggle a lot at home, guessing due to my reputation increasing, yet away from home I'm smashing it including Celtic.

Jeez haha how did you do in that period? I can't see that I'll actually need to expand my ground ever. I don't sell out top of the league clashes, the only matches I'm selling out are European qualifiers but due to my stadium being below par those matches are being played anywhere from Darlington to Manchester. Can't see them building a new ground on 5 sell outs a year!