Asunto: Sponsorship

If not done already, I would recommend offloading anyone who is on top end salary (that isn't part of your trained players) that might be "too skilled" for ensuring you finish top. You don't need any heroes in div 2 outside your future trained players.
GK no higher than VG(9)....if you pull one from YS that is Solid/VG then that's good enough for div 2 & keeps salary down.
Positions outside what you're training probably only need main skills to be Solid-Formid (8-11).....possibly less if all other teams are BOTS.
If looking for additions should you offload overqualified players, go with 30yo + as you can find on the TM at minimal price. I saved significantly on salary last time in div 2 by following this plan.

Ordinarily I'd agree, but if you can hold on to the end of season I would take the hit because ideally you will want a team that can challenge for 9th place once you hit the A League so you can avoid relegating straight back down. I'd look at cutting expenses on either youth school places or coaching staff first or looking at your attendances at home and try to determine if your prices are set too high or low based on where you are filling out or getting low attendance figures.

As they guys will tell you, we've had some "brickwall" chats with the devs & Polish SK community...to the point where logic just doesn't get through & it's like falling down the rabbit-hole.

One of the devs is well aware of it and "understands" our issues. However, they strongly believe that by making "improvements" to the game they can they advertise to get more users and they want to see how advertising goes first before looking into merging countries. The point at the time if my memory serves was that when they start advertising countries will grow numbers and they don't want a situation spending effort merging only to unmerge countries as a result of advertising. I mean, that point is fair but the assumption that advertising is somehow going to revive user numbers sufficiently I think is a little too optimistic given what this game is.

I mean, that point is fair but the assumption that advertising is somehow going to revive user numbers sufficiently I think is a little too optimistic given what this game is.

Correct. This isn’t a growth niche of gaming. It’s the opposite. They are idiots.

Ordinarily I'd agree, but if you can hold on to the end of season I would take the hit because ideally you will want a team that can challenge for 9th place once you hit the A League so you can avoid relegating straight back down. I'd look at cutting expenses on either youth school places or coaching staff first or looking at your attendances at home and try to determine if your prices are set too high or low based on where you are filling out or getting low attendance figures.
I guess it depends on your model. I gave up higher wages & used the savings to then hit the TM once I was sure promotion was in the bag. I also had a couple of decent youth pulls that weren't future defenders, & managed to cash in, which paid for a couple of what are now misfiring strikers. :D

That's true, but you also were dealing with having to avoid 8th and then have a side solid enough to win any qualifier against a human user.

It really depends on how much more you have to push to be able to survive the A League. If you sell off key players you're going to have to buy them all back next season anyway and likely it will cost you more due to inflation. If you're not even close then I'd support the idea of trimming back especially if you have a high wage GK but if you're continuously building I'd simply look to booster what you have to try and get your average ratings to 50 ish. Obviously sell off the scraps but I suspect the main expenses at this stage will be coming from coach payments and youth school places and so I'd look there to make cuts. Do you need X places in juniors and can you get away with say max of 15/16 (enough to field a team in juniors leagues). Do you really need an incredible head coach if you're only training one skill or decent assistant coaches sucking up valuable resources etc. Then look to prop up your side and try and hold onto an A league spot.

The problem will be though and it's a reality for a number of us, every season there will be 3 users relegating and finding themselves in that scenario because the other users who dropped the previous season should win and come back up. That's probably the reality here that we might find the 3 dropping and the 3 coming up are going to yo-yo each season until such time as they can catch the next group of teams. So it's really going to be somewhat of a race between those under the line currently and those just above the line as to who can keep their squad and tactics above the others the longest. Will definitely drive competition at the bottom because I for sure do not want to be dropping 200k or more sponsorship a week. Would rather spend that to keep myself in the top league so depending on how close it gets later in the season I may end up splurging a bit (not really my ideal plan but if it keeps me out of that possibility of dropping then it's something I'd be silly not to consider).

Both options seem like good ways to deal with it, with pros and cons.
Not sure which is best, but I'm all for keeping your Youth School at 30 places with an Incredible+ youth coach, as not only are they gold for the NT, but if you can score the odd good pull, you will either save yourself from buying a player, or be able to sell off and use that money to buy one.

Yeah, both ways could work. Fantums suggestion will probably be the better option if you can’t catch up to the top 9 in a league as you will then yo-yo a bit but gain a lot during the a league season. However doing so basically requires you having to deal with that for a long enough time and it’s never really fun going backwards for a period of time in order to go forwards.

Agree TM at the moment (& new format's impact to sponsorship) lends itself to Cometer's model, but let's hope TM settles down.
My change in operating was purely whilst in div 2 under the old league format, but I do advocate a strong YS as my "2 times" with SK has seen my YS forming most (if not all) of my defensive line....& I feel over time the YS can make a tidy profit (see last Sep/Oct as an example). Yes you can have barren spells, but patience is key -
2021-10-31 Loyd Turner Melbourne Mongrels Tropical Island 4 346 670 AU$
(68 800 AU$)
2021-10-23 Andrew Wilson Melbourne Mongrels Zabujcze Strzały 1 065 200 AU$
(103 200 AU$)
2021-09-27 Bob Deeley Melbourne Mongrels Cool Runnings 1 110 000 AU$
(101 200 AU$)
2021-09-05 Anton Boyd Melbourne Mongrels Pride Troopers 8 976 000 AU$
(121 200 AU$)

Yup, and as long as you are making approx 5M per year from your juniors (or saving that much with your own trainees), that's a straight up win, and most good youth schools cost approx 100k per week.

Even more important for those of us who struggle to access the transfer market due to being in Australia

My finances for the past 3 seasons excluding the current one:

Season 58
Income: 11 336 415 $
Expenses: 10 218 841 $
Profit: 1 117 574 $

Season 59
Income: 6 425 109 $
Expenses: 6 330 093 $
Profit: 95 017 $

Season 60
Income: 11 820 580 $
Expenses: 8 161 245 $
Profit: 3 659 335 $

Others who are interested can also post so that it will give us a better perspective of where we stand. While posting, just add the code for Australia like this: [money=6*]*paste amount without AU$ symbol*[/money], Remove the * after 6 while writing.
(editado)

Now this is my finance breakup in the last season:

Income

Stadium: 2 364 842 $
Sponsors: 3 056 943 $
Bonuses: 270 253 $
Temporary: 343 500 $
Total Operating Activities Income: 6 035 537 $

Transfer Income: 5 785 043 $

Total Income: 11 820 580 $


Expenses

Players Salary: 1 464 925 $
Trainers Salary: 2 761 600 $
Stadium: 504 000 $
Junior Academy: 385 000 $

Total Operating Activities Expenses: 5 115 525 $

Transfer Expenses: 3 045 720 $
Transfers Taxes: 30 000 $

Total Expenses: 8 191 245 $


As you can see, if I exclude transfers income and expenses and just include operating activities in the calculation, I'm still in profit: 920 012 $

Points to note:

Transfers by far has the highest proportion both in income and expenses.
Income from sponsors is slightly higher than stadium income.
Players salary is almost half of the trainers salary.
Both stadium and junior academy expenses are quite less. In fact, the returns from junior school are much more than its expenses so I would suggest any new user to open a junior school. Initially, it will be expensive for you but in the long run, it will give you great returns.

Obviously sell off the scraps but I suspect the main expenses at this stage will be coming from coach payments and youth school places and so I'd look there to make cuts.

Based on what I've posted above, I'll agree that coach payments has the highest proportion but youth school isn't very expensive relatively. Reducing junior school places won't lower your expenses as much as sacking an extra coach or buying a new coach with a lower level. It also depends on whether or not you have the knack of identifying decent youths by which you'll keep your junior school size at the optimum.

Do you really need an incredible head coach if you're only training one skill or decent assistant coaches sucking up valuable resources etc.
Agreed

Agree, coach wages can make a difference if you're paying bottom end of scale as opposed to top end.
My Outstanding Head Coach costs £38k which looks a good salary when comparing to other Outstanding coaches I've come across.
I'd have a lower level HC if training the one skill, but he allows me to train def/pace (16), stam/tech (15), & even passing (14)....key is keeper level being zero.
My Youth Coach is brilliant (14) with salary $41k (looks ok from what I can see)....still searching for a magical coach at decent salary. :)

I just bought 2 magical coaches in the mid 50ks which I was happy with.
It did lead to missing last week's youth training though as in my middle of the night dazed state, I must have moved my youth coach to assistant, but 1 week won't make a huge difference.

Keep an eye out, they are out there

Yes, need to hunt the TM again.....been a while...gave up on trying to pull one via the tool.

The sponsors paid into club`s account a total of 384 694 AU$.

Just about my best return since coming back to SK. :)