Making Money

I just finished a relatively short career game with Derby County.(9 seasons)

I had won the EPL for the last two seasons(3 times in total) and managed 1 CL Final(lost) 2 Semis and had the 3rd best average attendance, yet i rarely had more than £20M in the bank and that total would also be my new seasons transfer budget.

I am about to start a new career game with West Ham and wondered if there is a way of making money(without cheating) that i missed the first time around with Derby?

Dont see the point of turning a mediocre club into a Big Club if there is little or no financial gain, its hardly realistic either?

I just finished a relatively short career game with Derby County.(9 seasons)

I had won the EPL for the last two seasons(3 times in total) and managed 1 CL Final(lost) 2 Semis and had the 3rd best average attendance, yet i rarely had more than £20M in the bank and that total would also be my new seasons transfer budget.

I am about to start a new career game with West Ham and wondered if there is a way of making money(without cheating) that i missed the first time around with Derby?

Dont see the point of turning a mediocre club into a Big Club if there is little or no financial gain, its hardly realistic either?

I can't speak to it myself but I have seen others post that the sponsorship levels and ticket prices aren't too responsive to a club becoming more successful.

A look at your finances in your most successful seasons will tell you what the issue is but I suspect the old chestnuts of shareholder dividends and the mysterious 'other' in the expenditure section.

Champions League money is fairly high from what I remember (13m for TV then bonuses for winning matches and progressing?) and Premiership TV money is 30m(?) and finishing in the premiership nets you a few million more depending on position. So unless your wage bill was monstrous you should have seen some kind of progress in your balance unless it got swallowed up by the afore mentioned chestnuts.

Just to add(cant edit)

In my Derby save i took in just £17M total in season ticket sales for a stadium of 56,000 Season 10.

In my arsenal save 1st season i got £37.5M in season ticket sales for a stadium of 60,000 and the 2nd season this jumped to £54M with max capacity still at 60,000?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by isuckatfm:

I can't speak to it myself but I have seen others post that the sponsorship levels and ticket prices aren't too responsive to a club becoming more successful.

A look at your finances in your most successful seasons will tell you what the issue is but I suspect the old chestnuts of shareholder dividends and the mysterious 'other' in the expenditure section.

Champions League money is fairly high from what I remember (13m for TV then bonuses for winning matches and progressing?) and Premiership TV money is 30m(?) and finishing in the premiership nets you a few million more depending on position. So unless your wage bill was monstrous you should have seen some kind of progress in your balance unless it got swallowed up by the afore mentioned chestnuts. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This was something else i meant to mention, i always stayed within 75% of my wage budget, leaving the extra quarter to sign possible bosmans or if a quality player came up on the cheap?

I never had more than £25M for a transfer budget, so it was'nt like i was blowing all the money on players?, in fact, i was damn lucky if i could bring in any players to improve my squad with what £25M gets you after the 1st season?

Anyone?

try using FMM 2.25 Editor to edit ur save game and change the finances or the restrictions that could be placed upon it

such as ticket prices which can explain why arsenal gets more from less tickets

this isnt cheating as more like helping along the the game as it could only simulate so much...in other words, if u are really against this, wait till fm09 and hope they fix this

but i suggest u use this to at least remove what barrier u might have financially

Try to set up a commercial affiliate. By that I mean, you add a feeder club from a country such as USA, China, etc, in order to boost shirt sales, etc. It's one of the best ways of making money. Also, and this is rather obvious, sell more players.

Appreciate the replys fellas thanks!

Don't know if anything significant has changed on that front since FM07 (except that you get a hideous amount of TV money), but I played 10 seasons with Derby County (3 of them at the start in The Championship) in an FM07 game and was rolling in money after about 5 seasons.

It seemed to require quite some skill to not have pots of cash sloshing around when playing in the EPL. I did have a very good record on transfers though of finding young players and selling them on for big profit. Gate receipts, merchandise, TV cash and prize money were all pretty large in general though too.

Another way to make money, which some consider and exploit and others do not, is to buy young players and sell them when they really improve.

THere are two ways to sell a good player.

1. Sell them when they are very young and you can make around 2/3 mill on these

or

2. Keep them a little longer and with the special stars, sell them for lots with a 50% sell on clause. This means that the next time the player gets transfered you get 50%. This will be 50% of the up front fee and also 50% of any ongoing monthly fee's.

I would say 75 of the players i sell have this clause and its nice when a year or two down the line you get 5 mill or my highest was £20mill.

That last one was unbeleivable. it was Anderson. i bought him from Man U for something like 5mill (he wasnt played for 1.5 season) i then sold him to Roma for 50mill with 50% share of next sale. they when sold him for 20mill to AC Milan (i think) for 40mill.

So in the end i made 65 mill off one player.

That was an exception. But even the standard premiership players will move around for 10 to 15 mill each time. and you can get half of that each time.

Needless to say this can be done with your average players:

Tom Huddlestone (Spurs DM). I hadnt been playing him much so his value had dropped to 4.5 mill. I offered him out at 3mill with the 50% clause. i beleive the AI teams see this as a £4.5mill value (3mill + 50% = 4.5mill) and this was his generated value, therefore considerd a good deal.

The key to this was at the time i did not need that extra 1.5 mill from the original sale and i knew that he would perform elsewhere and its the usual storey.... because he hadnt been played it was a smaller team that came in for him and once they start performing, a bigger team come and take them within 2 seasons.

In this case it was Ipswich to Middlesborough.

This happens all the time. I did this with Jenas, Huddlestone, Dervite, Keane, Hara, Dawson, Bale etc etc.....

Give it a bash.

As i said, the first method may be considerd an exploit, i beleive this is only so if you use 3rd part programs or editior to find the stars. If not then no exploit.

Lee

If buying and selling players is considered an exploit we're all up the swanny!

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by glamdring:

If buying and selling players is considered an exploit we're all up the swanny! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh crap, I've been cheating all these years!

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> there is little or no financial gain, its hardly realistic either? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think its very realistic. You don't make that much money so quickly for being a 'Big Club' for three years. Did you expand the stadium, get feeder clubs? Did you spend all of your budget every season?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Neji:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> there is little or no financial gain, its hardly realistic either? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think its very realistic. You don't make that much money so quickly for being a 'Big Club' for three years. Did you expand the stadium, get feeder clubs? Did you spend all of your budget every season? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Do behave, Derby in the 10th season get just £17M in season tickets for a 55,000 stadium, yet in season 1 Arsenal get £37M for a 60,000 stadium which then flys up to £54M in just the 2nd season, never heard of inflation?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> never heard of inflation? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Inflation is not in the game.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Neji:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> never heard of inflation? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Inflation is not in the game. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Fair enough, but then why did Arsenals season ticket sales rise by £17M in just one season when the stadium capacity never changed?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Young Freddie:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Neji:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> never heard of inflation? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Inflation is not in the game. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Fair enough, but then why did Arsenals season ticket sales rise by £17M in just one season when the stadium capacity never changed? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

They sold more season tickets?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Midge:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Young Freddie:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Neji:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> never heard of inflation? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Inflation is not in the game. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Fair enough, but then why did Arsenals season ticket sales rise by £17M in just one season when the stadium capacity never changed? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

They sold more season tickets? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Errrrrrrrr..........no! they sold out both seasons and if the capacity was still the same.......?

Clubs in real life have vastly varying season ticket prices and it isn't just on a sliding scale based on success - some more successful clubs have cheaper season tickets than less successful ones.

Arsenal are posh and in London, Derby are a provincial club who could probably never charge as much.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by glamdring:

Clubs in real life have vastly varying season ticket prices and it isn't just on a sliding scale based on success - some more successful clubs have cheaper season tickets than less successful ones.

Arsenal are posh and in London, Derby are a provincial club who could probably never charge as much. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Another fair point, but a Derby side who finished in the top 5 eight seasons running getting £17M in the tenth season and Arsenal in season 2 with just 5000 more capacity getting £54M is'nt even funny?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by glamdring:

If buying and selling players is considered an exploit we're all up the swanny! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well signing (on a Free) and selling (almost instantly) was considered such an exploit SI changed how easy it was to sell players to overcome this. Now it's almost impossible unless they are a wunderkind.

I always thought one of the most amazing things about this game was the ability to take a mediocre team and turn them into a Big Club?, now however thats not the case anymore, just one more reason to add to the list of why FM08 has been such a let down!