Signing a player for commercial reasons?

Hi all,

Random thought but I'd like to canvas for opinions on how worthwhile it is signing a player for commercial reasons? I.e I have the chance to sign a high profile Japanese player, and I've had a commercial link with a Japanese club for 2-3 years now.

The player is pretty good, good enough to be in/around the starting XI, and will cost 5m, but 50k a week in wages, which is high for me as I'm pretty tight on that (spending 850k a week at present). I'm Ipswich in 2021, we are a regular in the KO rounds of the champions league and a title challenger - looks like this season I will win the league for the first time (lost it in the last minute of the final game last year!). So rep wise we are fairly high now, prob in the top 10-15 in Europe.

Once the new stadium gets planned/built we should become even bigger I hope.

I wonder how much affect on the finances and other things signing this payer would have? I'm desperate to grow my finances and fanbase.

I've done it with a Chinese DC who I bought when he was 16 for 500k or so. He didn't arrive until 18 though.

By now (age 20) he is an absolut rock in the defense, every top club in Europe is after him, the rep is world wide, but he has yet to make it into my top 5 shirt sales.

I would have expected that half of the chinese football fans walk around with his shirt on, he is by far the best and most valuable chinese player, scores regularely (not only from corners, I let him join in attacking moves and last season he scored 11 goals out of open play (not even remotedly connected to corners!) and another 6 or 7 from corners and free kicks. I would expect to sell 100 million shirts or so...

EDIT: In short: I've not seen any notable effects on my finances (yet).

Superb, thanks for the reply! This has put me off signing this chap I think.

How much do you pull in from commercial revenue via these clubs?

I've done it with a Chinese DC who I bought when he was 16 for 500k or so. He didn't arrive until 18 though.

By now (age 20) he is an absolut rock in the defense, every top club in Europe is after him, the rep is world wide, but he has yet to make it into my top 5 shirt sales.

I would have expected that half of the chinese football fans walk around with his shirt on, he is by far the best and most valuable

chinese player, scores regularely (not only from corners, I let him join in attacking moves and last season he scored 11 goals out of open play (not even remotedly connected to corners!) and another 6 or 7 from corners and free kicks. I would expect to sell 100 million shirts or so...

EDIT: In short: I've not seen any notable effects on my finances (yet).

Where do I find my top five shirt sales?

Where do I find my top five shirt sales?

It's a news item at the start of a new season/end of season iirc

as above.

Also on the monthly board report thingy you can see finances and usually there is a line in it about shirt sales, i.e 50,000 shirts sold this month, 30,000 of which were non-domestic. (mine is around those figures for reference).

My japanese left winger always tops the shirt sales charts. But I'm not convinced that the revenue I get from that pays his wages. I don't actually mind - he's a good player anyway, but this thread might encourage me to do a bit of math tonight and try to find out exactly how much he's making for me in shirt sales.

It depends a lot on the rep of the actual player as well.

I signed Keisuke Honda early on in season 1, and even though he was only a rotation player (got about 20 games or so), but he ended up nr 3 in shirt sales for the season. Not sure if he earned the money back, but he did do something at least.

My japanese left winger always tops the shirt sales charts. But I'm not convinced that the revenue I get from that pays his wages. I don't actually mind - he's a good player anyway, but this thread might encourage me to do a bit of math tonight and try to find out exactly how much he's making for me in shirt sales.

Look at it that way: You need a left winger. He will want some salary (what a surprise...) and I assume that salary will be around the figure your japanese left winger gets. So if they are equally good statswise and agewise and whateverwise, take the one creating more shirt sales. It's not about paying the wages of the player, it's about getting a little (or a lot) extra.

If my chinese player sold as many shirts as I would expect (let's say 1 million) at a reduced chinese price of 5£ it would still be 5 million £...

I have two Chinese newgens, both internationals. Actually, now I have three. Anyways, I'm Rangers and both were in the top 5 shirts sales last season (2nd and 4th) and one of them didn't even play for the club (WP reasons). He had to be loaned out but still sold a tonne of shirts. My non-domestic sales where much much larger than the previous season.

Shirt sales are far too low for my club. The Old Firm clubs would sell hundreds of thousands of kits, yet I only get around 40k. My stadium of 64k sells out, so I wouldn't put much emphasis on selling merch.

For commercial things you're better off touring big countries every season. A Chinese tour, followed by perhaps a Brazilian one and finally USA, before back to China, will boost your overall sales far more than a single player. Plus they're free, as you have to tour somewhere anyway, compared to player+wages.

as above.

Also on the monthly board report thingy you can see finances and usually there is a line in it about shirt sales, i.e 50,000 shirts sold this month, 30,000 of which were non-domestic. (mine is around those figures for reference).

Yeah I've seen that bit but never what players shirts are selling the most. I'll keep an eye out for it though

Oh, you need a high status for the shirt sale list to come up.

Not sure what the precise rule is, but high end clubs get it all the time and clubs has grown into getting it too.

Oh, you need a high status for the shirt sale list to come up.

Not sure what the precise rule is, but high end clubs get it all the time and clubs has grown into getting it too.

Well I'm managing Bayern Munich at the moment and my previous jobs were Real Madrid, Arsenal and A.C Milan and I never saw it on any of them and they don't really get much bigger in football than those clubs.

Can you see the shirt sale totals from somewhere? I mean details about how many shirts have been sold and which players sell most?

I know some details come in the email messages, but are there actual statistics somewhere?

Can you see the shirt sale totals from somewhere? I mean details about how many shirts have been sold and which players sell most?

I know some details come in the email messages, but are there actual statistics somewhere?

Afaik, apart from that message which comes once a year, there are currently no details available.

Afaik, apart from that message which comes once a year, there are currently no details available.

That's what i thought also, have been trying to find the details, but no luck.

The reason i am asking is that i just bought a South Korean right back to my team and got the news item that he will boost shirt sales in South Korea.

So, would be nice to see how big effect that player actually has.

My chinese DC has now reached 4th place in my annual shirt sales. Just behind two local regens and my star striker. I still think that with a potential of 1.3 billion people in China, he should be in first place. Because if only 0.1% of the Chinese bought his shirt that would still make 1.3 million shirts... And he still is by far the most valuable and most sucessful chinese player world wide. He even scored 4 goals in the champions league, one of them being the decider in the final.

Replica kit sales figures are way off imo. I sell around 40k per season, meaning I bring in around €7m-€9m, whereas in reality my club makes double that. My figure is from continued success so I'd expect to make more than the figure IRL. Also, with a 64k stadium that constantly sells out, I'd expect more kits than 40k, especially as non domestic sales are high due to two Chinese players.

I signed two newgens from Japan and China, both ended up being starters for me. As was said the key is to tour those countries every summer, even if it's only for 2 games. My merch sales have jumped from 100k a month to 8/900k a month off the back of signing the two of them and touring their countries the past 2 summers. Can't get a merch feeder club though after 5 years of trying with the board, they constantly agree in principle but can't find anyone to link up with.

edit:

It's also to do with how good your Chairman/ Board are at the business side of things, I also got a massive jump after I got taken over and got a new Chairman a year ago. As well as the merch sales jumping I got several new sponsorship deals etc.