After my cruel defeat on penalties in last night's super cup match, I have to say my finger momentarily hovered over the Vacancies button. Ack, what's the bloomin' point I thought. I'm getting nowhere fast. I keep getting tough teams in the cup draws while other, better teams, seem to get easier draws. My form in the Premiership is faltering to say the least. I can't buy an away win at the moment, which is just as well cos I haven't got any money. Relegation is a serious possibility this season, and, do you know what? It might actually be for the best.
Getting knocked out of the super cup so early severly affects my finances. Without the income from those games, my balance drops just that little bit faster. I don't tend to sit down and work out my finances to see where I'll stand at the end of the season. I'm sure others do, but I just let things take care of themselves. I mean, what can I do about it? Well, today I thought I would look at my finances more closely.
First of all, this week, I secured two of my regular players on new 4 season contracts. I managed to tie them up quite quickly. The first, Jay Sinclair, I did in one hit. Maybe I should've offered less? A wage of 7,750 and a signing on fee of 100,000 was enough for him. The second, Colum Goff, one of my best players, took a couple of meetings to thrash out a deal. Surprisingly, he wasn't after a wage rise, just a massive signing on fee. So, he remains on 15,960 but I'm 280,000 out of pocket cos he wants a new Ferrari. With those two contracts in the bag, I could now take a look at my money situation.
Income. Income. Income. Oh, wherefore art thou income? Reveal thyself to me. Ahem, um, where was I? Oh yes, income. Income actually comes in various different forms. Obviously, you could sell players to boost income, but here, I'm focussing on regular, every day income. Regular income comes in the form of ticket sales, merchandise, and TV rights. What these amount to will depend on whether you have a home game, or an away game. My average income for each is thus:
Home game: 240k
Away game: 85k
So, in a season of 38 games, I can expect a total, regular income of around 12,350,000. This season, I have 9 home games left, and 7 away. So, for the rest of the season I can expect around 2,755,000.
Now, let's have a look at expenses. Expenses. Expenses. Expenses. Wherefore art tho.... Er sorry, haven't we already done this? The expenses list is a little longer than the income list. Generally, expenses are taken up through player wages, player bonuses (appearance fees), policing services, stadium maintenance, and staff wages. My average expenses are approximately:
Home: 200k
Away: 188k
No game: 144k
The expenses, home and away, are the same except you don't pay policing services for away games. Non matchdays have all expenses except policing and player bonuses. So, again, for a 38 game season, expenses amount to around 14,744,000. But, that's just matchdays. The actual season is 70 days long, so you have to factor in 32 non matchdays, costing 144k each. That's another 4,608,000. We now have a grand total for the season of 19,352,000. Eek! Quick, let's go back and look at that income amount again. 12,350,000. Hmmmm. 7,000,000 difference. You begin to see how tough this game is. As someone once said, finances first, games second.
With 30 days left to go this season, 14 of those non matchdays, I can expect to lose another 5,132,000. Adding the income of 2,755,000 gives me a loss of 2,377,000. My current balance though is -1,604,000. So that leaves me with -3,981,000 by the end of the season. I can expect league prize money to be around 3,500,000 so I'll start next season about half a million in debt. Super! I look forward to it.
All these figures are approximate, and it's pretty early in the morning so I may have made mistakes, but I had to write something to keep me away from that Vacancies button. I hope this gives a good insight into the financial implications of the game.
Cheers
April 9, 2008
Money, Money, Money! (not so funny)
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17 comments:
Interesting discussion Webby and I'll reveal some facts taken from my accountant to make it more interesting!
Season 8 (after 40 days)
Income - 9,808,033
Expense - 17,579,114
Loss - 7,771,081
However as an accountant I will not agree with the result because I'll treat an expansion of the stadium like an investment. So I'll deduct 6,125,000 and the result will be loss amounting to 1,646,081!!!
I'm gonna extrapulate this for 70 days (Webby was too precise to calculate it depending of the remaining matches but I'm too lazy) and the loss for the season will be loss 2,880,641. This amount I'm gonna cover 100% with the prize money for the season so this season will be profitable for my team!
We had a discussion with chaos few days ago in which we conclude that the game is still not precise because rich clubs will become more rich and vice cersa! And despite being one of the richest teams in Manta I hope it'll change and the game will become more competitive!!!
Cheers!
Oh Webby. I feel for you. I really do. Your cup runs are actually worse than mine and that's saying something.
Your article reminds me of your 'Money meet Drain. Drain meet Money' post a few seasons back. But you got over that little crisis didn't you?
Admittedly, this article does go into a bit more detail and in the cold light of day the numbers do look a bit scary.
Do you have any youths? My game philosophy is quite simple (it could be wrong, but it's simple). Get young (I know that sounds oxymoronic but you know what I mean) youth players and promote. Sell 'established' players (maybe even your first team players if needs be). Keep a close eye on the transfer market for those bargains (yes they can be had). Following these simple rules has left me today with 5m in the Bank.
It's a long process Webby but whatever you've been doing up to now hasn't really worked for you so you need to try something different and change your strategy.
Good luck mate!
Since I was too excited in financial calculations I forgot to add the most important thing - Webby, please don't do it Webby!
Hey, thanks for your comments guys. For the record, my income this season so far is 4,038,313 and my expenses are 7,973,595.
Hristo, you are of course right not to factor in your expansion costs. Neither would I.
Pleasant, I can't buy those bargains if I have no money, but I know what you mean. Can you do me a favour and stop outbidding me?
Oh, I do have 2 youths, but I am inexperienced with youths, so I don't know how best to go about promoting them. That, I'll soon find out.
I keep scouting for youths but what with my scouts being 38/42 rated, they sometimes come up with dross. Sometimes? Most of the time.
I may well have to sell my best.
First of all, let me start by supporting Hristo: Webby, please don't do it Webby!
I'm too lazy to throughly dig through my budget, but a quick subtraction of my LC prize money and the two transfers I made leave me with around 2.8M available funds. That's 1M less than what I had at the start of the season. But if I also take into account the renewal of Yates(77) and Ison's(67) contracts, those two alone cost me around 500k, plus a significant increase in wages per day. Overall, I'm slightly on the losing side, but even if I finished around 8th (which is what I consider the worst I can do), the prize money at the end of the season would still push me at least 2M upwards compared to my starting balance 40 days ago.
Having posted my own little financial review, I took a closer look at something that caught my eye when I first read Webby's post: ... he remains on 15,960 .... WOW! Did I happen to mention Yates is currently paid 11.8k? I'm too lazy to check your squad right now Webby, but if I can tie a 70+ rated player for 4000 less, then surely you could've done a better job in the negotiations. The other thing is you paying 200k home expenses. I lost 150k last night after the SC game fielding most of my reserves. So even if I had played my best squad, the App. Fees aren't likely to cost me more than 20-30k more. Just as my comparison with Yates, this shows you should be able to do something about your wages and/or appearance fees.
Hope I was of some help :)
Yes chaos, 15,960. This could be a consequence of mistake in contract negotiations way back in season 1 or 2.
Have you ever had any success in getting players onto a lower wage than their current one? Do you think I should/could get him back into the office?
Ali is on 16k, Norton on 12k and Bridge on 10k.
Have you ever had any success in getting players onto a lower wage than their current one? Do you think I should/could get him back into the office?
Yes I have. The best examples would be both Riggott and Waine from my squad, who I gave everything they wanted in the contract negotiations when I was buying them, only to give them severely decreased wages once they were in my squad, since I had the time to play around with their demands. Can't remember Roggott, but Waine was on a 11k contract which was reduced to 8k at the moment.
You can try it out for yourself with Ali. Just start negotiations and see if you can get his contract satisfaction to at least 80% at a wage of around 10-11k. Keep in mind that if you actually do it, you'll be saving 350k per season! ;)
I am glad that I am not the only one having troubles with the funds.
I was doing well for 7 seasons. But since season 8 started I am doing worse. Stadium is not filled up and losing money almost each game.
The only difference with webby is that my team is winning a few games more.
But my vinger has crossed the vacancies button aswell.
Income 5,734,076
Expense 8,226,445
Balance -3,271,966
Webby. Bargains are to be had when you’ve stabilised and have available funds. I’ve only been getting these bargains in the last couple of seasons. You need luck in the transfer market as well, bidding on players that no other manager needs. Timing is sometimes important too. Try and get them between the middle and end of the season when other managers have spent up – it cuts down the opposition.
You need patience with youths. My scouts are the same rating as yours and are constantly out looking for youths. Eventually you will get a diamond – the problem being you might not recognise him as such (and no, I’m not going to tell you how!). On the other hand it might be as plain as day.
Negotiating contracts is something I do all the time! Just make sure that the savings in wages are more than you’re paying out in sign-on fees. A prime example is my 73 rated forward Much. On the last round of negotiations, he accepted about 3k less in wages than he was on previously. Now he is on 9,590 per day. (I don’t have any player on a 5 figure contract).
On transfers, as chaos says, give them what they want to get them to sign and then re-negotiate. Another example is my defender Nyborg. When I bought him he was on over 12k + a MHW clause. After a couple of weeks I negotiated out the MHW clause. After another couple of weeks I re-negotiated again and his wages are now 5,500 per day.
Try it! If their demands are extortionate you haven’t lost anything. You might, howeve, gain a lot.
(Apologies if the words grandmother, eggs and suck come to mind when reading this respone)
Oh. Well played pleasant!
And well said too..
pleasant in "boost comment count" shocker!
pleasant in "boost comment count" shocker!
As if!
(Thanks for removing anyway Webby. However it now looks as though I posted something dodgy. 'Removed by administrator'. Gulp. Naughty lad pleasant.)
And let's see if these tag thingies work.
I just renegotiated my reserve keeper's contract. I reduced his wages by 1,550 over 210 days. That's a saving of 325,500. His signing on fee was 85,000, so that reduces the saving to 240,500. Not bad.
I just renegotiated my reserve keeper's contract. I reduced his wages by 1,550 over 210 days. That's a saving of 325,500. His signing on fee was 85,000, so that reduces the saving to 240,500. Not bad.
Well done Webby. Now, if you can do that a few more times you could be looking at saving about 1m!
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