I should preface this post by saying hello, I'm new to the forums - so be gentle. Also I *think* that I already know the reasons behind what I'm about to talk about, but I just want to get confirmation - and if I'm right to place on record how impressed I am that the game is complex enough to recognise and create this situation!
My Kidderminster save has been the best experience I've had on football manager, without question. Losing the playoff final in my first season was followed up with back to back promotions through winning titles, and then, astonishingly a third in a row via the playoffs against Bradford. This was actually my third trip to Wembley in just 4 seasons, as we also lost the JPT final in the League 1 playoff year. The championship is ridiculously hard at the moment. West Ham, Swansea, Wigan (managed to a 100% record in mid-November by Gary Neville), and even Villa are in my division. Villa are looking to loan Steven Ireland, who is on 56k per week, 12k per week more than my entire wage budget. Sadly they want 50% of his wages paying! I played Swansea who had a player valued at 15M in their line up.
When we got promotion to the Championship the board were forced to invest in the facilities at Aggborough and convert it to an all seated ground for league regulations, and we are currently playing our home games at the Bescott stadium, home to Wallsall. From selling out Aggborough every week last season (around 6k), I'm now only getting 4.5k average in a bigger ground, in a higher league. I assume this is due to fact that it's not actually my ground and my supporters will be having issues getting there? I hope so, as we are due to move back in February, and while it looks like I might just keep us up, it's by no means certain, and the club needs the financial benefits of the gate receipts and hopefully an average crowd of around 7-8k if we are ever to upgrade the half star training and youth facilities.
Anybody who has been in a similar situation - can you advise me as to whether the drop in attendances is due to the fact that we're not playing at 'home' or the fact that we aren't in the top end of the table, or what? I don't expect the fanbase to be the same as established Championship clubs overnight, but it has certainly grown hugely since the days in the conference, I'm hoping that they are going to stick with us for the ride!
A final question as well - I am not complaining about the lack of financial resources available, truth be told promotion to the Championship has probably come before the club could hope to be ready for it, but it does make my aim of keeping us there very difficult. Having attained over 90% in the club stature satisfaction bar, and being on a 5 year contract, I would hope and assume that I should keep my job if the club were relegated? I've heard that the board sometimes expect you to attempt to avoid relegation, rather than to actually avoid it, but in this case I have been told to avoid it. If I can't - is my Kidderminster project toast? Should I have kept the expectations realistic and thrown the playoff final, I would still be way ahead of the curve and could have gone up at a more manageable pace? They board are 'pleased' at the moment with the season objectives, but we're outside the relegation zone - JUST. Media prediction pre-season was for me to finish 24th by the way, so I will feel very harshly treated if I'm sacked!
My Kidderminster save has been the best experience I've had on football manager, without question. Losing the playoff final in my first season was followed up with back to back promotions through winning titles, and then, astonishingly a third in a row via the playoffs against Bradford. This was actually my third trip to Wembley in just 4 seasons, as we also lost the JPT final in the League 1 playoff year. The championship is ridiculously hard at the moment. West Ham, Swansea, Wigan (managed to a 100% record in mid-November by Gary Neville), and even Villa are in my division. Villa are looking to loan Steven Ireland, who is on 56k per week, 12k per week more than my entire wage budget. Sadly they want 50% of his wages paying! I played Swansea who had a player valued at 15M in their line up.
When we got promotion to the Championship the board were forced to invest in the facilities at Aggborough and convert it to an all seated ground for league regulations, and we are currently playing our home games at the Bescott stadium, home to Wallsall. From selling out Aggborough every week last season (around 6k), I'm now only getting 4.5k average in a bigger ground, in a higher league. I assume this is due to fact that it's not actually my ground and my supporters will be having issues getting there? I hope so, as we are due to move back in February, and while it looks like I might just keep us up, it's by no means certain, and the club needs the financial benefits of the gate receipts and hopefully an average crowd of around 7-8k if we are ever to upgrade the half star training and youth facilities.
Anybody who has been in a similar situation - can you advise me as to whether the drop in attendances is due to the fact that we're not playing at 'home' or the fact that we aren't in the top end of the table, or what? I don't expect the fanbase to be the same as established Championship clubs overnight, but it has certainly grown hugely since the days in the conference, I'm hoping that they are going to stick with us for the ride!
A final question as well - I am not complaining about the lack of financial resources available, truth be told promotion to the Championship has probably come before the club could hope to be ready for it, but it does make my aim of keeping us there very difficult. Having attained over 90% in the club stature satisfaction bar, and being on a 5 year contract, I would hope and assume that I should keep my job if the club were relegated? I've heard that the board sometimes expect you to attempt to avoid relegation, rather than to actually avoid it, but in this case I have been told to avoid it. If I can't - is my Kidderminster project toast? Should I have kept the expectations realistic and thrown the playoff final, I would still be way ahead of the curve and could have gone up at a more manageable pace? They board are 'pleased' at the moment with the season objectives, but we're outside the relegation zone - JUST. Media prediction pre-season was for me to finish 24th by the way, so I will feel very harshly treated if I'm sacked!