Moving up the divisions

I've been managing AFC Wimbledon, at the start of my 7th season and just been promoted to L1, but I'm beginning to worry that success could ruin the finances. The stadium holds 4500 with no money to expand it. We have 100% attendence in all 7 home matches this season so far and still losing over 200k a month, while also being well inside my wage budget, so obviously the problem is only going to get worse.

After 10 games in L1 I'm in the play offs and almost starting to fear the prospect of ending up in the championship with my 4500 capacity stadium lol

Anyone having similar problems/worries?

Such is the way of football in the modern era unfortunately. I too have suffered similar problems at lower league clubs. Its up to you to decide whether you can sell players to balance the books, or whether you fancy just risking everything on promotion.

I dont think promotion is realistic but I'd fear for the finances if it did happen. Short of a takeover I feel I may have taken them as far as they can go. Surely no team could ever compete in the championship or even top end of L1 with a 4500 capacity stadium.

Organise friendlies with the reserve teams of premiership clubs. Lots of them! Then throw your U-18s out or whoever, let them get stuffed, you still get a bit of cash.

If you organise friendlies at the end of may/ very start of june you can actually get the top teams to play you if they have not organised ther friendlies yet. I was able to raise about £400K pre-season doing this but nowhere near enough to have enough money to expand the stadium

i had the same problem, i got Alfreton Town to the championship with a 3800 seater and they would not expand it, i couldnt attract any decent players due to the wage structure and the club wouldnt give any more, unfortunately my players were not at the desired standard and i jumped ship after 12 games and 1 point

It hurts, but it is realistic, as pointed out. Again, as in real life, you might stay afloat by selling one young star.

Yep, I've been in the same situation MANY times.

Hopefully you can hang on and get promoted to the championship. 99 times out of 100 in my experience the board will build you a new stadium in a new location ( I guarantee it!) if you get promoted. It'll take at least a season to build though, so you'll have to try and hang on ANOTHER season in the championship with struggling income.

But boy, when that new stadium gets built, you'll be rolling in cash

In the meantime, try to cut back on wages if you can, releasing any dead wood, even if it means having a terrible reserve squad.

Same as everyone else here really. I was Blyth Spartans, and hit a brick wall in the Championship. Never got a new stadium in FM09 due to the local council. All I did for three solid seasons was pick up the released "decent" players from the Premier League and sell on my success stories at the end of the season - even making an annual transfer profit of £8m+ was barely enough to keep me afloat!

I have moved up a couple of divisions since the start of my game and now I'm in league two but I don't own my stadium. I'm still not maxing out attendances but I'm more concerned about the state of the pitch. Is there any way I can improve it if I don't own it?

can you ask to improve the pitch? Maybe it would act as if the board then spoke to the owners? Otherwise dont know, sorry

Can you not ask the board to 'relay the field'?

thats waht i was getting at, just dont know if it lets you if you dont own the stadium

thats waht i was getting at, just dont know if it lets you if you dont own the stadium

Hmm. Not sure. Never NOT owned a stadium before, so I couldn't possibly say..

Nope, I don't own the stadium, so the board tell me they can't relay it. Oh well, perhaps I could improve attendances with a cheerleader mud fight in the centre circle at half time.

The answer is more along the lines of long-term planning. Intentionally stay unpromoted while your club is still profitable until you've built enough of a bankroll to build a stadium once you're promoted.