Increasing Revenue - BSN - Eastwood Town

Hello,

I am struggling finding ways at increasing Revenue at Eastwood Town in the Blue Square Premier (as you would expect). I cancelled all of my pre-season friendlies and replaced them with all bigger reputation teams* earning between £12-15K for these. I have also reduced the wage budget as much as possible although the wages are is at around 80% of the budget.

I am not looking for ways to make some quick cash (would be nice though!) instead I am looking to ensure that I have a good stream of revenue in the coming seasons in order to create a youth academy going, although I don’t know how much this costs to set up and might be a few promotions off? We have about £30K in the bank at the minute with a Wage Budget of £2.5K and I am spending just over £2K with £0 Transfer Budget.

The only ways I can think of getting more money for the rest of this season is either by having good cup runs, selling players or obviously doing well in the League and increasing attendances. If anyone could also shed some light on how to organise a fan day, or if this is chosen by the chairman as and when.

Many Thanks

Sometimes there just isn't a way. It's a struggle down there. I lose £35,000 a month with my Stockport BSP side. I try and get back towards a £0 balance in the pre-season with some friendlies against the likes of Rangers/Celtic and Everton/Newcastle.

Fan days are decided by the board, but it's hard to tell if they are successful in the long-term.

As far as I know, fan days are chosen by the board. Last time I played in BSP I was losing money fast, but I got a good cup run in the FA Cup and got to the 3rd round. Got drawn away against Man Utd and that gave me all the money I wanted. Another source of income is friendlies as you did. I've found that arranging them away often gives you more than playing at home, since they often will pay you quite handsomely. This is especially true if you have a small stadium.

Not sure if anything of this helps you out, but it was my two cents.

Fan days are decided by the board, but it's hard to tell if they are successful in the long-term.

You usually get a message from the board after the match where they say if they think it was a success or not. I've gotten both, when I won quite big they claimed it to be a grand success, but a boring 0-0 match turned it the other way.

I've found that arranging them away often gives you more than playing at home...

Generally most boards refuse to allow your team to travel far for away friendlies.

You usually get a message from the board after the match where they say if they think it was a success or not. I've gotten both, when I won quite big they claimed it to be a grand success, but a boring 0-0 match turned it the other way.

Yeah I know about the message - but I mean success after the Fan Day. Apart from checking your attendance every game, there is no way of telling if it is successful or not.

Generally most boards refuse to allow your team to travel far for away friendlies.

Yeah, but as a Eastwood is pretty close to Nottingham he should be allowed to travel to bigger teams close. And that can often give more money than home matches due to stadium capacity.

Yeah I know about the message - but I mean success after the Fan Day. Apart from checking your attendance every game, there is no way of telling if it is successful or not.

Yes, but it's often a good indication of what's the outcome in long term.

You can attempt to get yourself a parent club, they will pay you an annual fee depending on the kind of deal you sign up to.

You can attempt to get yourself a parent club, they will pay you an annual fee depending on the kind of deal you sign up to.

Board agreed to the request but couldn't find anyone, despite the fact Nottingham Forest, Notts County and Mansfield Town are all local and would be ideal for both parties!

I managed Boston for 2.5 years from BSN to BSP and arranged home friendlies against Championship teams for £30-£55k usually. Have to pay them £7-£10k but I find you get double/treble for this rather than travelling to get a £10-£15k away fee.

I would like a good cup run to get some extra money in that way though.

I deliberately don't arrange friendlies as it tends to be a bit of an exploit if you pick big revenue generators. I let my ass man do that instead.

My philosophy when I'm at a club with *really* bad revenue is that I just focus on staying within, or close to, the wage cap. I don't care if it's bleeding money. I worry about the football and let the board worry about the finances. I always know that the other AI clubs are - usually - struggling just as badly and I back myself to make better use of my resources, and fight my way up the ladder

I managed Boston for 2.5 years from BSN to BSP and arranged home friendlies against Championship teams for £30-£55k usually. Have to pay them £7-£10k but I find you get double/treble for this rather than travelling to get a £10-£15k away fee.

I just select which ever teams are available on the tabs "Larger Rep Teams/Smaller Rep Teams" ect. What would you say is the success rate of selecting your oppenent yourself IE a Premiership/Championship club to come to Eastwood? And what % of the match fee should I offer?

It may also be worthwhile looking at reducing your outgoings, rather than increasing your incomings.

What I found helpful in Wales was to decline invitations to the reserve and u19 leagues and scrap my youth setup (you are unlikely to produce anything worthwhile at that level anyway) which saved me a fair bit each month, and also resulted in my having a smaller squad overall helping me stay under my wage budget.

I started in the BSN, got promoted to the Conference. Chalking up massive losses every month despite keeping my wage bill down to 60-70% of what I'm permitted.

Then, having stumbled into the FA Cup 4th round, got drawn away to Man City. Away gate, TV money, 18 months of losses wiped away in an afternoon.

Even better, we parked the bus and managed a heroic 0-0 (admittedly City sent out a couple of 16 year olds, fringe players and Tevez and Balotelli on abysmal morale). Back at our place, 5,000 sell-out will see us break even this season (lost 0-2 btw).

I hope we'll progress through the leagues, keeping losses manageable, not selling too many bright young things, getting another lucky cup draw or two until we reach the Premier League and then start making money. In other words, exactly as in real life!

phnompenhandy has hit the nail on the head. Big away days in the cup is what are needed. And unless you've got a gem you can sell for six figures that's probably the only way.

It may also be worthwhile looking at reducing your outgoings, rather than increasing your incomings.

What I found helpful in Wales was to decline invitations to the reserve and u19 leagues and scrap my youth setup (you are unlikely to produce anything worthwhile at that level anyway) which saved me a fair bit each month, and also resulted in my having a smaller squad overall helping me stay under my wage budget.

Yeah I've looked at doing this, unfortunatley I do not currently have a Reserve or Youth Team and only have a squad of around 18 players so not much budging on that front. I guess it's just perform as well as I can in the League and get a Cup run or two going. Going to be a tought few seasons ahead if I can't get near the Play-Offs!

Two words...

Investment signings.

There's always lots of players available on free transfers, some of whom are immediately worth good amounts when signed. Keep them for six months, then sell them for a profit.

If you think this is exploitative, read up a little on Udinese in Italy and Granada CF in Spain. Udinese especially, have used this method to generate revenue, as they've neither the fan base nor the means to generate large sponsorship or TV deals, like the bigger Italian sides.

On the flip side, a little luck with a good parent club (as per the Granada relationship with Udinese), can get you players good enough to propel you up the divisions, with next to no outlay. Granada now emulate the Udinese model and have their own feeder club, Cádiz CF.

Does anyone know how much the rough cost of entering a reserve or youth team is? I figure it's got to be a bit when you factor in all the travel and whatnot.

I Just RUINED my save by worrying about this. i was Basingstoke town got promoted first season via play offs. and was punching above my weight. losing money left right and center so decided to let my 3 best players go and stay within the wage cap. my highest paid player was £350 pw other teams had £1500 pw. i was bottem 2 points after 10 games and have lost all fun with it i just wish i did what others did and let the board deal with the money and i deal with on the pitch and try to make it back pre season

I just select which ever teams are available on the tabs "Larger Rep Teams/Smaller Rep Teams" ect. What would you say is the success rate of selecting your oppenent yourself IE a Premiership/Championship club to come to Eastwood? And what % of the match fee should I offer?

You don't get a % per se, more that the game says you will have to pay Birmingham £15k to appear in this friendly but will receive £50k for hosting it (ticket sales etc). Some teams won't appear on various dates so it is simply a case of check through each date to see who is available (I only select very high reputation teams for home friendlies). Can take a bit of time if you want to look through each one but I tend to have a friendly every 5 days so whichever team is available then is who I choose to play.

Away teams match fees can also vary - sometimes a sneaky £50/55k can appear, which means you get all of that rather than £50k-£15k.

... i just wish i did what others did and let the board deal with the money and i deal with on the pitch and try to make it back pre season

I would be surprised if a number of clubs don't already do this in real life. Barnet v Arsenal every summer, Stevenage v Spurs, Preston v Wigan etc.

Also, anyone know of any good training schedules for BSN/BSS teams that don't overload your players too much but are still reasonably effective?

There's too many features in FM12 for me, It's like watching Inception all over again!!

I just had a wonderful cup run that culminated in a third round FA Cup home defeat to Arsenal 5-0. Beat L1 Wycombe and L1 Hddersfield away in rounds 1 and 2 respectively. The Arsenal and Huddersfield matches were on the box for £140k and £70k respectively. Now sitting with a healthy £500k in the bank (I'm sure that will reduce come May/June) and 3rd in BSP.

Come on you Pilgrims!