Stadium Move - share or move to an empty stadium?

[cosmiccreepers]

Hello,

So I had an interesting question about stadiums within the Football Manager universe that I haven't seen directly answered anywhere yet.

For context, I am playing a save as Hamilton Academical. We are currently a top Scottish Premier league team and competing in Europe, however our stadium size is only just over 6000, and we aren't selling out every game yet (selling out about 50% of home games so far and averaging 95% capacity). When it comes to European fixtures, our home games are played at other stadiums due to the minimum capacity requirements.

My team is on the brink of qualifying for the Champions League, and is gaining more fans, however the initial fan growth is slow. At some point we are going to have to leave our 6,000 capacity home and move to a bigger ground, however given that we don't have the biggest of finances I don't like the idea of asking for a new stadium or a stadium expansion that may only last a couple of seasons if our reputation continues to grow, particularly when i probably need to be investing that money in player wages, signings, coaches etc.

Is their a mechanic within the game that allows your club to search for/rent/purchase a ground that already exists but isn't being used, or is not being used at anywhere near its capacity by its current owners?

I notice that ground shares and ground switching is something that has happened in the past in Scottish football, and was intrigued if there was any element of this in the game beyond moving home games when there are minimum requirements?

It would make way more sense for a club in my save's Hamilton position to have a short term move to a nearby club (some of which have much bigger stadiums but have been relegated) or short term use of an unoccupied stadium (my european fixtures are played at Glasgow rugby union's ground, and previously Hampden Park was listed as a potential venue for my european fixtures) than to pile in on a stadium expansion or building maybe a 10,000 capacity stadium only to potentially outgrow it if we continue to qualify for the Champions League.

Thoughts? Anyone know if this mechanic exists somewhere or if I have to push for a stadium expansion after all?

 

[Edd2020]

I don't think you can actively search for, or request, a groundshare in the same way that you can go to the board and request a stadium expansion, but you can definitely be moved grounds.

In my current Oldham save I played a season of home games at Sheffield United's ground whilst the capacity was being expanded. In previous saves, I've also played European games in a different stadium for a season I think.

Presumably, however, if you were competent using the editor you would be able to do this.