Merchandise links with an MLS Team: Short Term Impacts

I started a new game as Barcelona, with a small DB, with the Chinese and US Leagues selected and playable.

The purpose was to see what impact affiliating Barcelona with an MLS or Chinese club would have. What impact it would have on Merchandise, the impact on signing high-rep players from that country and arranging a tour of that country.

2 games were started. 1 with an MLS Affiliate club and 1 without an Affiliate club. Same tactics were adopted, same team where possible. The short term results were surprising.

Game 1

Game 1 was the control game, no Affiliate link was requested. I signed Yury Zhirkov (AML) for Barcelona (it's a problem side for Barca and i didn't want the AI manager to be sacked for poor results)

I then went on Holiday for 2 seasons, Barca finished 2nd in the league twice and won no other cups in that time. No other players were bought and NONE were sold.

The Merchandise sales seemed to hit a small peak every summer as you'd expect with a new kit launch etc. Between summers they normally levelled out.

Total Income averaged around £33-34million per season.

Game 2

Game 2 involved requesting an Affiliate link. New England in the MLS were chosen at a cost of £1.6million per season 2 weeks into the start of the game.

Again Yury was signed for the AML role and i went on Holiday for 2 seasons. Barca won the League twice and the European cup in that time. In the Summer of 2009 i purchased 3 of the highest-rep US players, Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley.

No other players were bought or sold.

The Merchandise sales reached between £35-36million per season.

Analysis

I was quite surprised at how little impact affiliating myself with an MLS club had on my finances in the short term. Only £1-2million extra over the season? Signing the 3 biggest US players in the game had a neglible impact on my finances. It wasn't even noticable.

In the short term over the first 2 seasons, there wasn't any benefits to choosing New England over say, a National loan or International Loan. New England wanted a fee of £1.6mill and this was more or less the gain in sales from choosing the club anyway.

I couldn't arrange a tour as the congested MLS fixture list meant all my dates were rejected by the MLS clubs.

The next step is to repeat the same games, but without the MLS League selected and see the longer term impacts, ie. 5-6 years down the line.

Interesting. Have not even made it to a level where I can get economic affiliates yet, but at least in 07 it had quite the instant significant boost both for US and Japan and both of them at the same time=awesome.

Of course then you had to wait for the board to decide it, could not steer it towards it as fast as I am assuming the new system allows for.

Very interesting thread You could try this with a Japanese and Chinese team too if you'd like too.

I'm beginning to suspect that the Merchandise benefits of a Chinese, Japanese and US affiliate team have been wildly miscalculated

Getting an MLS club as a feeder hardly made any impact over 2 years. Whether thats down to an Active/Inactive MLS league, i don't know, but it's something im gonna look at tonight when i'm at work.

I'll run a Barca game for however long it gets to (real time 5 hours) hopefully it reaches 2012/13 and i can see the impact of an MLS club over 4/5 seasons with no MLS league selected

I was under the impression it works better with slightly lower rep teams - ie Bareclona are already as famous, and already earn as much from merchandising as they possibly can.

I was under the impression it works better with slightly lower rep teams - ie Bareclona are already as famous, and already earn as much from merchandising as they possibly can.

Well i can't speak for the Merchandise Affiliates, but in 2013 (in my normal save), im earning £8mill a month from Merchandise sales, up 4x from the £2mill per month at the start in 2008. So there's no upper limit as yet to how much i can rake in from Merchandise....

If your rep is too low, you won't be offered a Merchandise Affiliate anyway.

So i think it's safe to say you have the wrong impression

Well i just got back from work and my Barca save game is now at 2013

Gamba Osaka were affiliated with in July 2008. With no other league selected apart from the Spanish league.

Players were signed at the start to ensure that Barca were still performing in 2013 and wouldn't rely on the oldies.

As you can see, the Merchandise has more or less remained constant over the 5 seasons with some fluctuations.

I can only conclude from this that simply having a Affiliate club from Japan/US/China isn't enough to increase Merchandise sales on their own. Other factors must come into effect to take advantage of these types of feeder clubs.

I previously signed 3 high-rep US players with a US Affiliate club, and it had little effect. So it doesn't seem likely that signing same-nation players will bring increased merchandise sales. Perhaps a Tour might? I've yet to seriously test this.

The only other purpose of the feeder club i can see is that more merchandise is sold when you sign world superstar, than would be sold if you didn't have the feeder club. My normal Barca save also currently in 2013, has seen year on year rise in merchandise sales, largely because of frequent big signings and domestic, european and world success.

Interesting thread - I've been wondering the same thing in my Benfica save where money is really tight, i have two commercial link clubs and was really expecting them to help balance the books.

From analysing my graph, start dates of when the links were established and my club signings I've deduced that they seem to act as a multiplier for big money signings. The sharp spikes up were bigger after commercial links were establised.

From analysing my graph, start dates of when the links were established and my club signings I've deduced that they seem to act as a multiplier for big money signings. The sharp spikes up were bigger after commercial links were establised.

I'm learning towards this too, i couldn't see any major benefits over the 5 seasons (when i didn't sign any players)

So it seems likely that these type of feeders are only useful during transfer activity!

Have you tried scheduling a tour of the states?

I wonder if that would have any impact.

Have you tried scheduling a tour of the states?

I wonder if that would have any impact.

That's one of the next things i'm going to try.

I'll run a normal game with no affiliate club for 4/5 seasons.

And run another game with a tour of the US every summer with an affiliate club for 4/5 seasons

And then compare

So basically it doesnt do anything? Hmmm... I never used to think so but club finances is a big big part of managing the club huh... Needs to be revamped?

Confused,

ReeNah

That's one of the next things i'm going to try.

I'll run a normal game with no affiliate club for 4/5 seasons.

And run another game with a tour of the US every summer with an affiliate club for 4/5 seasons

And then compare

Good luck scheduling that friendly tour in the middle of the MLS season...

Are there any updates to this topic or has it been dumped?

Just anecdotely - I play with San Marino and eventally I got them into Serie A and requested an economic link. One would notice a difference in SM's income if it changed a lot. I can't check yet, but I will, I have a feeling it didnt change much, all my income is from player sales and stadium expansion.

I think a club like barcelona isn't the best team to do an experiement with because their income is so high, any changes would be hard to spot. Finding a smaller team

Just anecdotely - I play with San Marino and eventally I got them into Serie A and requested an economic link. One would notice a difference in SM's income if it changed a lot. I can't check yet, but I will, I have a feeling it didnt change much, all my income is from player sales and stadium expansion.

I think a club like barcelona isn't the best team to do an experiement with because their income is so high, any changes would be hard to spot. Finding a smaller team

Well i expected someone to comment on the fact i chose Barcelona (which is one of only a few clubs to gain a commercial link straight away) and so i ran 2 games, one with the link and one without the link to compare the differences. The differences don't change if you're Barcelona, San Marino or my local Pub team.

If someone would like to spend 4/5 seasons taking San Marino to Serie A, then running another game for 4/5 seasons to compare it to, they're more than welcome

But i've a feeling nobody will