[FM2015] USA World Class MLS (8 levels)

[graaa]

I have a gift for you all before you start the work week...

Download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ahuyl5i1z81hxu8/USA_World_Class_MLS_0.91_Beta_3FE064D8-08EE-4ED1-A32B-F357C1E005A4.fmf

0.9 is finally here! This is the official Beta release.

I'm going to let it run for about 1 week. I'm not setting a hard end date on the beta just because I want to complete the things I've listed in the 1.0 plan before I release it and I'm relying on people to submit reports, which I'm sort of guessing people will have more time to do next weekend. The focus on this beta will be on playtesting. If you are creating logos or kits, keep on going with that and send me via private message an estimate of when you think you'll be done with what you're working on. Hopefully I can coordinate the release of 1.0 with the completion of the logos and kits people are making. If not, it's not a huge deal.

While playtesting, I want to focus on three main areas:

A) Financial stability of the clubs

B) Overall balance/experience

C) Typos

I need two groups of testers. (Instructions listed below)

- People dedicated to simulating the game and providing quantitative reporting on 'A',

- People dedicated to actually playing the game in a day by day fashion without simulating and providing qualitative reporting on 'B',

- and everyone reporting on 'C'.

Group 1: Financial Stability of the clubs

Everything from ticket prices to stadium rent, prize money, and the nation's average player wage affects the finances of the clubs. This is the first version where all these things are set. The bottom line is, I need to know if teams are getting bankrupted or in major debt after year 10, 20, and 30. I'm going to be simulating to those years, and if anyone else does so with me, I'd like a financial report on the clubs posted here in the forum.

Please include a report at year 10, 20, and 30 (Or however far you have time to spend):

Which teams are bankrupt or in debt from each league (levels 1-8) at each landmark (year 10, 20, 30).

- if they are in debt, please check and see if they have recently built a new stadium or expanded. If so, please note.

List THREE clubs' ticket prices from each league (levels 1-8) so 24 total. Alternatively, go to the club spreadsheet and look on the first page at the "Ticket Prices Guide" Do a cursory glance at all the ticket prices in a couple leagues, and let me know if they are still hovering around the prices I set.

List the the highest paid player in the MLS and his salary

List the average attendances of all 20 MLS clubs currently in the MLS at the landmark year (10,20,30, etc)

MOST IMPORTANT: All USASA teams should be amateur. All Subway teams should be Semi-Pro. All MLS Teams should be professional. Does this stay that way? When I was testing in FM14, teams automatically turned amateur when relegated to USASA and turned semi-pro when promoted to subway leagues. I had an instance where this didn't work in FM15. I need to know if I did anything to fix it.

This is the testing I'll primarily be doing so we can compare notes!

Group 2: Overall Feedback/Experience

For those of you brave enough to commit the next week to playing this day by day (you can simulate games but please don't simulate an entire year), I want to hear any and all feedback and suggestions from playing this. Please play it like you would play your serious long term saves. Is it PERFECT? If not (it shouldn't be), what needs to be changed? No matter how small the detail, please describe the positive aspects and negative aspects of your experience. Please post any ideas you have or things that you think need to be changed, no matter what it is. The worst I can do is say I disagree and ignore you . Just please don't comment on the club histories - that's still be worked on.

Some ideas to guide your report:

- Are regens of sufficient quality?

- What does the USA national team look like at year X?

- Did any teams get relegated from MLS that you were very surprised about?

- Are the appropriate caliber of players being signed from abroad for MLS teams?

- What type of transfers are going on?

- MOST IMPORTANT: All USASA teams should be amateur. All Subway teams should be Semi-Pro. All MLS Teams should be professional. Does this stay that way? When I was testing in FM14, teams automatically turned amateur when relegated to USASA and turned semi-pro when promoted to subway leagues. I had an instance where this didn't work in FM15. I need to know if I did anything to fix it.

Everyone: Typos

Selff expllanitory

Spreadsheet for reference:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cNvLw6-Z5SpFaufs8e6Bbu2Yx_nrvhcDwkU6Hcn4DWQ/edit?pli=1#gid=0

0.9 Changes

1) Removed U23 teams, added reserves as replacement

2) Club Attendances set

3) Club Training/ Youth facilities set

4) Stadium rent and ownership set

5) Ticket Prices set

6) Supporter Profiles set

7) Kit Colors set

8) Rivals set

9) Terminated Frank Lampert’s, David Villas, and Kaka loans so they are available at start of July 2014 season

10) Made the winners of MLS and MLN Championships appear in the "Past Winners" history of those leagues.

11) Added USASA regional championship to get USASA winner for each conference to appear in "Past Winners" history.

12) Added all winners of US Open Cup and US Amateur Cup (named USASA Winter Travel Cup in this file) dating back to their creation.

13) Began organizing USA Soccer history in database

14) Replaced some fictional clubs with actual amateur clubs

1.0 Plan

1) Implement suggestions/bug fixes from 0.9 beta test

2) Logos/Kits

3) Add NASL (1968-1984), APSL, A-League, and USL First Division history to clubs. Connect histories to existing clubs where appropriate and fictional clubs where plausible.

4) Create some new derbies where plausible.

5) Remove failed changes from file

Download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ahuyl5i1z81hxu8/USA_World_Class_MLS_0.91_Beta_3FE064D8-08EE-4ED1-A32B-F357C1E005A4.fmf

[ScotchWhisky]

I see you are pretty much done adding new teams (at least as a high priority), but I would like to see a few more teams added at the lower levels for smaller states. Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota each only had one team. Also, is there a way to make it so the board can choose to move a team to a new city or else be able to make a board request that the team name be changed? I don't know if those things are hard-wired or can be modded..

[wkdsoul]

Damn, i better get a move on.

[graaa]

I see you are pretty much done adding new teams (at least as a high priority), but I would like to see a few more teams added at the lower levels for smaller states. Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota each only had one team. Also, is there a way to make it so the board can choose to move a team to a new city or else be able to make a board request that the team name be changed? I don't know if those things are hard-wired or can be modded..

I can't add any more teams without taking away teams - at this point, every new team needs to replace an older team. That being said,here's a couple steps you need to do if you want to add a custom team and I'll make a guide when I release version 1.0 how to do it.

Just out of curiosity, what teams did you want to see? Which cities are those teams from and what are the names were you thinking of? Did you find some actual amateur teams from those states?

As far as boards relocating the team and changing names, Football Manager has not gotten that advanced yet. I know it happens all the time in the USA but we're stuck with what we start with...

Damn, i better get a move on.

Lol =)

[graaa]

I'm starting a beta test notes list - whatever issues are found that I'm going to fix I'll list on the 1st post of this thread.

The first thing I'm adding to this list - There are a couple hundred teams without managers at game start and not much less at season start. Add (as many) managers to teams (as possible).

[graaa]

I have all 8 levels loaded and I've checked "add players to teams" and the game freezes on Friday, August 15th 2014 for me. I have a really crappy computer so maybe it's that - or maybe it's a rules issue. I didn't have this issue in 0.8. Anyone else have this issue when having 8 levels loaded and "add players to team" on this date?

[wkdsoul]

i'll d/l and check gimme 15 mins

[wkdsoul]

crashes at 16th August for me.

[graaa]

I'm at the computer performing stress testing on the league - first test with only top 2 leagues (MLS and MLN) loaded works fine past that date. It still could either be a rules issue or a computer memory issue. EDIT: It crashes on Saturday October 4th for the bare bones test.

I'll have to look through my rules and see what falls on those 2 dates - Saturday August 16th and Saturday October 4th. this sort of thing happens all the time with big files using advanced rules. Usually there's a rule issue that the editor doesn't pick up on even if it's verified. It's strange that 0.8 worked fine... I didn't make any huge changes to the rules for 0.9.

[wkdsoul]

just had to

[graaa]

Lol, that just lifts my spirits

[graaa]

I've done three tests with different levels loaded and here's what I've found

With top 2 levels loaded, game crashes on Saturday 10/4/14

With top 5 levels loaded, game crashes on Saturday 9/20/14

With top 8 levels loaded, game crashes on Saturday, 8/16/14

This did not happen in version 0.8 so I'll have to go back and look at all the changes I made to see what it is. My first suspect is that it might be the reserve rules. It could also be the USASA championships, but it's unlikely since those don't come up until April, 2015 and this crashes well beforehand. I don't know why there is this weird pattern where it crashes later the less leagues are loaded.

[graaa]

Good news everyone.

As I write, my game is simulating through November - well past the crash dates. I'm going to run it until season update day (June 14th, 2015) just to be sure before releasing version 0.91 to resume beta testing.

It was the reserve rules after all - the Reserve and U18 games were all being scheduled on Saturday at 3pm. The game is very bad at scheduling games that take place in the same stadium and on the same day - it doesn't know how to offset the games to different times in the day automatically. So when the game scheduled 3 games at the same time in the same stadium, it just crashes if it's not told what days or times to offset it to. I simply set the reserves to play on sunday, the U18s to play on Friday, and the first team games take place on Saturday like normal.

Hey look - my game is simulating into January now. Things looking good! Stay posted for 0.91 in an hour or so.

[graaa]

http://www.mediafire.com/download/ahuyl5i1z81hxu8/USA_World_Class_MLS_0.91_Beta_3FE064D8-08EE-4ED1-A32B-F357C1E005A4.fmf

This file has been simulated in the game for an entire year - it will not crash.

Now please review the instructions on the previous post titled: "Version 0.9 beta" and test test test! I expect reports to come in throughout this week and the weekend. Once I'm satisfied there are no issues (again, see previous post) I release version 1.0, hopefully in a week.

[Joseph R. Cooper]

Getting a bunch of Work Permits Needed with Toronto FC, doesn't seem to be happening with any of the other teams with foreign players as far as I know, so I'll just use the IGE and edit my way around that for now, but I figure it will be an issue with the 1.0 releases or anybody who will be playing with them since WP's tend to be a pain in the ass to get sorted.

EDIT: Looked through it again, has something to do with the sides being from Canada as only Vancouver, Montreal and TFC had these issues, safe to assume that the MLN teams should have the same problem.

[graaa]

Getting a bunch of Work Permits Needed with Toronto FC, doesn't seem to be happening with any of the other teams with foreign players as far as I know, so I'll just use the IGE and edit my way around that for now, but I figure it will be an issue with the 1.0 releases or anybody who will be playing with them since WP's tend to be a pain in the ass to get sorted.

EDIT: Looked through it again, has something to do with the sides being from Canada as only Vancouver, Montreal and TFC had these issues, safe to assume that the MLN teams should have the same problem.

Oooo you found something I'd missed this whole time - the work permit rules for the USA were the only ones I had set. I need to set it now for Canada and puerto rico I think.

Congrats on being the first person to test with a Canadian team! lmao

[wkdsoul]

Woo hoo! glad it sorted so far so good.. will test more when i get home.

Will boston be reverted to new england etc in version 1.0? Only a few cups left to go, so might start on the team logos. Some of the usasa leagues are awash with teams in blue.. lol.

EDIT : did you create Boston or overtype New England? i presume create or the NE would still work.. might have to redirect that one.

[graaa]

Woo hoo! glad it sorted so far so good.. will test more when i get home.

Will boston be reverted to new england etc in version 1.0? Only a few cups left to go, so might start on the team logos. Some of the usasa leagues are awash with teams in blue.. lol.

EDIT : did you create Boston or overtype New England? i presume create or the NE would still work.. might have to redirect that one.

I created Boston to replace New England. It's an entry with a unique ID in the editor that's different from New England - is that what you're asking?

[wkdsoul]

yeah, thanks.

[dim13]

graaa,

Just a thought, would it cause any problems to change the North American Champions League final from 5/16 to maybe 5/30 ?

MLS Prime Cup final is 5/20, which is only 4 days after the NACL final.

If a team is lucky enough to play in both, would prefer a full squad available for both finals.

[graaa]

graaa,

Just a thought, would it cause any problems to change the North American Champions League final from 5/16 to maybe 5/30 ?

MLS Prime Cup final is 5/20, which is only 4 days after the NACL final.

If a team is lucky enough to play in both, would prefer a full squad available for both finals.

I agree with you. I placed it there without much thought because I knew I needed to avoid scheduling it too close to the national team friendlies that occur at the end of May before world cup/ gold cup tournaments in June. I've done some closer inspections and I've placed it on Saturday 5/26 - this is the saturday after the Prime cup match on Sunday 5/20.

I've been going off the national team 2014 and 2015 friendly matches that were scheduled in the game - the closest ones took place on the Tuesday at the end of May - so there shouldn't be any conflict (I hope!). Will have to keep an eye on this.

[graaa]

Getting a bunch of Work Permits Needed with Toronto FC, doesn't seem to be happening with any of the other teams with foreign players as far as I know, so I'll just use the IGE and edit my way around that for now, but I figure it will be an issue with the 1.0 releases or anybody who will be playing with them since WP's tend to be a pain in the ass to get sorted.

EDIT: Looked through it again, has something to do with the sides being from Canada as only Vancouver, Montreal and TFC had these issues, safe to assume that the MLN teams should have the same problem.

I want to make sure I'm addressing the right issue so I need a few more details - you're saying that the existing players already on the Canadian teams are being required to have Work Permits to stay on the teams? If so, is this for the existing Canadian players or for the existing USA players on the team.?

Or are you saying that any non-USA non-Canadian (foreign, like a Mexican) player you try to sign requires a work permit if being signed to a Canadian team but doesn't require one if signed to a USA team?

[graaa]

Part of what I'm trying to figure out in this beta test is how the attendance (including min/max attendance), ticket prices, and season ticket holders that you set in the editor translate in the game, especially over the course of years and after promotions/relegations.

This is a Year 5 report and I've summarized my findings at the bottom.

I'm going to present 4 teams - 2 professional and 2 semi pro - to demonstrate what I've observed in the year 2020 (about 5 years after game start)

Miami

- promoted 2015 and remained in MLS. Was first place team in 2016 and 2020. Currently in MLS

Original Attendance - 10000 (Max 20000, min 7000)

New Home Attendance - around 25000

Original Season Tickets - 2500

New Season Tickets - 8000

Original Ticket Price - 44$

New Ticket Price - 64$

Conclusion = Everything is worked as expected with this club. Cannot tell if max attendance has increased or is still 20000 because attendances in a game could include visitors.

San Jose

- relegated from MLS in 2015, promoted in 2016, relegated again 2020. Currently in MLN

Original attendance - 16308 (Max 30000, min 7000)

New home Attendance - Around 5000

Original Season Tickets - 4000

new season tickets - 3100

original ticket price - 53$

new ticket price - 37$

Conclusion = Drop in attendance seems rather drastic and fell below minimum attendance setting... perhaps influenced by supporter profile? (Loyalty = 11 patience = 9). Ticket prices and season tickets fell as expected.

Toronto Lynx

- promoted from A1 2016, promoted from AA 2017. currently in AAA

Original attendance - 1250 (max 2500 min 500)

New home attendance - still around 1250. (further investigation revealed that actual attendance when in A1 league was around 750, so it actually went up)

Original season tickets - 350

New Season tickets - 533

Original ticket price - 10$

New Ticket Price - 10$ (remained the same)

conclusion - The attendance you set for the team doesn't always translate in game to the attendance you get. It was set at 1250 but in the first 2 seasons of A1 play, it was closer to 750-900. After the team was promoted to AAA, it went up closer to the original setting and season ticket holders went up. Significantly, the ticket prices did not change from the original 10$. There must be some sort of other factor affecting it's change, like the % of stadium that is filled up or the reputation of the league.

Fox Cities

- relegated from AAA in 2016, relegated from AA in 2018, currently in A1 league

Original attendance - 1250 (max 4000, min 750)

new home attendance - around 300. (in first AAA season, it was actually closer to 900-1000, so it was lower than 1250 original setting)

original season tix - 250

new season tix - 247

Original Tix price - 20$

new tix price - 20$

Conclusion - once again in a lower league team, we see that the real attendance doesn't match the set attendance. It might be influenced by the min attendance in some way. Real attendance in latest season (playing in A1 league) is closer to min attendance. Ticket prices again do not change.

------------------------

I needed to see if ticket prices ever change for a lower league team. It seems like they only change once the team goes from Semi-Pro to Professional (or promoted from AAA to League 2) and vice versa (relegated from League 2 to AAA). Here's an example -

Reading United

- Promoted from AAA in 2015, currently in League 2

Original Ticket price - 20

new Ticket price - 27$

--------------------------

Regarding attendances, one final case to look at -

Los Angeles

- Winner of prime cup in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020

- reputation = 4 star continental

Original Attendance - 20000 (max 68000, min 12000)

new home attendance - around 20000 (In 2015, attendance was around 10000. In 2020, it's around 20000)

Original season tix = 9000

New season tix = 12000

Conclusion - Despite setting the attendance at 20000, the real attendance in home games is actually around 10000. It doubled after multiple prime cup wins. Despite max attendance is set to 68000, I've never seen the attendance actually approach this number - even in prime cup games.

Prime Cup attendance - reputation 160/200

2015 LA vs Chicago - 18000

LA original attendance - 20000 (max 68000 min 12000)

Chicago original attendance - 15000 (max 29000, min 11000)

2016 LA vs Orlando City - 18000

Orlando City original attendance - 12000 (Max 32000, min 3000)

2017 LA vs NYFC - 37000

NYFC Original attendance - 28000 (max 35000, min 21000)

2018 LA vs NYFC - 30000

2019 LA vs Toronto - 30000

Toronto original attendance - 23000 (max 45000, min 13000)

2020 LA vs NYFC - 35000

By comparison -

US Open Cup consistently sells out 100,000 tickets every year. It's reputation 140/200.

conclusion -

Despite being played in a 105,000 capacity stadium and being the highest reputation cup in the USA (160/200 reputation), this cup still has lower attendances than the NACL final which routinely has 100,000 attendance and US Open Cup with same sell out crowds.. It seems that attendance to this match is definitely tied to the attendances of the two opposing teams (higher when LA played NYFC, lower when LA played Orlando City and Chicago). The attendance never comes close to LA's max attendance of 68000, which I had thought it would because this is the most reputable game that LA plays in (NACL is only 140/200 reputation, prime cup is 160/200). In editor, the Prime cup is set as a "Domestic Cup" while US Open cup is set as "Domestic Main Cup" and NACL is "Club Champions cup". Maybe this is the reason attendances for prime cup are so low.

Final conclusion -

1) Something is causing ticket prices to remain stagnant in lower leagues despite relegation and promotion. They only change in upper leagues.

2) Attendances for all teams tend to be lower than what you set them as and trend closer to the minimum attendance setting.

3) Dynamism in professional leagues, but not lower leagues, tend to work correctly over the years - ticket prices are dynamic, attendances very dynamic with growth and decline.

4) season ticket holders are appropriately dynamic in all leagues.

5) Prime cup attendances seem to be tied to the cup type setting in editor and to the opposing teams' attendances, not necessarily the reputation of the cup.

Course of action -

1) Will raise minimum attendances of all clubs.

2) will raise base attendance of MLS clubs to represent fictional increase in popularity (Game importance already has been set to Very Important in USA nation)

3) Will raise USA nation attendance for national league games from 25000 to 80000. MAYBE this has some affect on league games (no evidence for this).

4) Will change Prime Cup type from "Domestic Cup" to "Main Domestic Cup". Maybe this is what's causing attendance to be so low.

Unresolved -

1) How to make ticket prices dynamic in lower leagues. Ideally, A1 team ticket prices should be around $10, AA team prices $15, AAA team prices $20

2) What does Max Attendance do? Does it affect club attendance growth potential? How should I set it - close to normal attendance setting or at maximum value?

[Joseph R. Cooper]

I want to make sure I'm addressing the right issue so I need a few more details - you're saying that the existing players already on the Canadian teams are being required to have Work Permits to stay on the teams? If so, is this for the existing Canadian players or for the existing USA players on the team.?

Or are you saying that any non-USA non-Canadian (foreign, like a Mexican) player you try to sign requires a work permit if being signed to a Canadian team but doesn't require one if signed to a USA team?

The latter, 2 Brazilians, 2 Brits and a Scot need a WP with TFC, 8-9 separate nations with Vancouver and just as many if not more with Montreal, all nations that are represented on American sides without a need for a WP.

[graaa]

The latter, 2 Brazilians, 2 Brits and a Scot need a WP with TFC, 8-9 separate nations with Vancouver and just as many if not more with Montreal, all nations that are represented on American sides without a need for a WP.

Need more details... I sent you a private message

[graaa]

Hi all,

I've managed to simulate and take notes on years 5 and 10... my computer is so slow it takes a day to simulate about 3 years with this league lol.

I just want to leave some notes of what I've found and what i'm going to do with regards to financial balance.

1) Teams that are bankrupt (valued $0) at year 5 are mostly not bankrupt at year 10. This means there's a lot of fluid movement... only 3 teams that were bankrupt at year 5 were bankrupt at year 10. Overall, about 15 teams were bankrupt both years. All things considering, this is promising because it shows that it's rare for teams to go bankrupt (15 out of 588 teams) and when they do, it's not permanent.

2) A1 teams are typically doing a poorer job of staying afloat than the USASA amateur teams. This is probably because the cost of fielding a semi-pro team with an amateur level fanbase is crushing them.

3) MLS Teams are starting off with a low remaining wage balance.

Course of action

1) Doubled MLS team remaining wage balance - it will go up on its own in a year, but why wait?

2) Slightly increased league prize money for Subway leagues

3) Lowered the reputation boost on Subway league awards - this should lead to players asking for lower wages... I've seen a few part timers getting paid $40K a year. Not realistic I think. Trying to reduce that.

National Team News

Just a quick update on how the national team is doing in 10 years - this should show us how the level of regens are comparing to the rest of the world and if they are getting the experience they need to grow properly in the USA leagues.

USA won gold cup in 2015 and 2021, beating Mexico and Mexico B(???)

They lost in the world cup group stage in 2018 with a tough group of Brazil, Austria, and Algeria.

Lost in Copa America group stage 2016 with Canada (!) Peru and Ecuador

Lost in Confederations Cup 2017 group stage with Russia, Spain, and Ghana.

Ranked 12th overall in the world.

A slow and steady rise, I'm sure...

[Uncle_Sam]

graa, in CONCACAF teams that compete in the Confederations Cup field "B" teams in the Gold Cup that takes place in the same year. Mexico must have won the 2019 Gold Cup and therefore were playing in the Confed Cup in 2021, so they sent a B team to the Gold Cup in 2021.

[graaa]

Lmao, thanks for explaining it for me. You're spot on - they won the 2019 Gold Cup.

[fsquid]

this sounds great.

[graaa]

I've fired up a new game with the MLS/MLN, Liga BBVA, English PL, French Ligue 1, Italy Serie A, and German Bundesliga loaded.

This test is to see how the USA compares to other countries around the world when it comes to transfers, and how the editor settings of League reputation and Club reputation affect this. I'm going to make a few changes based on these findings and report on this again tomorrow.

Here is a picture of the world club reputations at year 3.

Analysis

Do you see a USA team on the list? No, because the top USA team is Los Angeles ranked 50th in the world (2015 NACL winner and 2018 Prime Cup Winner). Sporting Kansas City is next (2017 NACL winner, 2017 Prime Cup Winner). No other USA team is in this list (it is the top 75 in world list)

Competition Reputations for reference

For reference, I'm listing the reputations of the most important competitions to better understand what affects the club reputations and then the transfer markets. I believe it goes Competitions Reps determine Club Reps determine Transfer Market activity. Finances also determines transfer market activity with Club Rep, so I have a small report on that at the bottom.

Leagues

MLS = 168/200

Liga BBA = 180/200

EPL = 178/200

Bundesliga = 170/200

Serie A = 170/200

Ligue 1 = 160/200

Cups

Prime Cup = 160/200

Open Cup = 140/200

NACL = 140/200

Euro Cup = 165/200

ECC = 200/200

Goal

One USA team in top 25 by year 5

4 USA teams in top 75 by year 3,

8 USA teams in top 75 by year 5

Have this happen organically without boosting USA club reputations in editor, boost competition reps instead.

Course of Action

Increase Prime cup reputation to 170/200

Increase NACL reputation to 175/200

USA Transfers year 3

EPL

LIGA BBVA

LIGUE 1

ANALYSIS

The USA doesn't have the same transfer markets yet as other top leagues by year 3.

GOAL

I want USA to have comparable market by year 5, however I want the market to be better than it currently is by year 3.

Hopefully increasing the reputations of the continental cup and prime cup will bring about this result. Will repeat test and post results tomorrow.

A note on finances

No USA teams in top 25.

6 MLS teams make the top 100 list with a worth between 120-175 million.

The transfer budgets for MLS teams range from 25million - 50million

Wages are between 20-30 million

combined Transfer/Wage budgets are 40-80 million

By comparison, top teams like Chelsea, Man Utd and Man City have combined Transfer/Wage budgets of 200-400 million.

Goal

I want 1 US team to have a combined budget of more than 200 million by year 10. I don't want to artificially pump a huge amount of money at game start. I have however increased funds a little bit at game start.

I think a realistic transfer/wage budget by year 3 should be 60-75 million on average

and by year 5 75-100 million on average, more in line with EPL teams like Reading, West Brom, Stoke, etc

All signs point to USA teams growing in budgets each year.

Heres the US transfer market in 2016 (compare it to transfer market in 2018, shown at top of page)

Next report tomorrow to observe the changes I made to comp reps

[dim13]

Don't know if this is a factor or not, but you may also want to play around with some of the settings for USA (Nation). Soccer importance, etc.

[wkdsoul]

Looks good, i might lower them myself put USA on a par with Holland/Italy in Europe and let them progress from there.

[graaa]

Don't know if this is a factor or not, but you may also want to play around with some of the settings for USA (Nation). Soccer importance, etc.

It definitely is - the Soccer importance is already set to Very Important. I also changed the Average Transfer and Wage requirements for USA/Canada/Puerto to be more on par with England's. They had previously been set to account for the weird MLS wage cap, but are no more.

Looks good, i might lower them myself put USA on a par with Holland/Italy in Europe and let them progress from there.

The only issue is that the competition reputation remains stagnant if you change it at all in the editor. I set it high (but not too high) because it will never change, even after year 2 or year 200.

I am taking your suggestion into account to let the clubs grow over time - I'm not touching club reputations. After years of playing in high reputation leagues and cups, they should eventually break into the top 75 list. They will never be top 5 however, because Europe will always have the ECC which has a dominating reputation of 200/200 and the teams that win that will always be the top in the world.

That's why I'm creating the new Club World Championship optional file for people who want to see a USA team eventually become a top 5 team. It will remove all current continental cups and make top division teams around the world play in a common tournament rated 200/200.

[Joseph R. Cooper]

That's why I'm creating the new Club World Championship optional file for people who want to see a USA team eventually become a top 5 team. It will remove all current continental cups and make top division teams around the world play in a common tournament rated 200/200.

Do this. Please. Please do this. A Worlds Champions League would be too perfect, would probably conflict with a lot of claassens league mods but thats mostly filler for me anyways to dump off problematic players

"Oh you wanna demand a new contract with 3 years left while you're not producing like you were at the start of the year with the top striker hurt and moan on about it to the press and get the board up my ass while you're at it? Well have fun in Qatar, see you in 2022." One of my favorite things to do in 14 was to get a Qatari team as an affiliate and send everybody who complains to work in the desert.

I love FM for stuff like that, and I would love nothing more than to beat the crap out of Real Madrid with TFC in an actual competitive situation instead of playing a B squad during my yearly European tour.

[graaa]

" One of my favorite things to do in 14 was to get a Qatari team as an affiliate and send everybody who complains to work in the desert.

LOL.

I'll make it shortly after the 1.0 release. Still no definite date on that yet, I still have a couple of things I want to do and a few tests I want to run. But otherwise I'd say, if version 0.9 puts us 90% of the way there, I am currently working on version 0.96.

[wkdsoul]

The only issue is that the competition reputation remains stagnant if you change it at all in the editor. I set it high (but not too high) because it will never change, even after year 2 or year 200.

I am taking your suggestion into account to let the clubs grow over time - I'm not touching club reputations. After years of playing in high reputation leagues and cups, they should eventually break into the top 75 list. They will never be top 5 however, because Europe will always have the ECC which has a dominating reputation of 200/200 and the teams that win that will always be the top in the world.

That's why I'm creating the new Club World Championship optional file for people who want to see a USA team eventually become a top 5 team. It will remove all current continental cups and make top division teams around the world play in a common tournament rated 200/200.

Thats fine i have an extended world fifa club file already, ALL league winners in a straight draw knock out over the season. I keep it to that so it works with files lie this and doesnt cause a fixture pile up when my teams usually start dominating.

Looking forward to your update and seeing how they progress, i'd like to keep the US within a reality level in the game, ie probably move within top 10 leagues in the world in time, but never top 5 really.

[graaa]

Thats fine i have an extended world fifa club file already, ALL league winners in a straight draw knock out over the season. I keep it to that so it works with files lie this and doesnt cause a fixture pile up when my teams usually start dominating.

Looking forward to your update and seeing how they progress, i'd like to keep the US within a reality level in the game, ie probably move within top 10 leagues in the world in time, but never top 5 really.

Here's a picture of the competitions by year 9 with the latest version of tweaks I've put into the game. Counter to what I expected, the USA starts off around top 5 and then eventually the reputation falls to 10th... lol

I think this goes to show that setting the reputation at 168 isn't a bad idea - it will always remain the same while the rest of the world changes around it and what my testing has shown is that all the leagues in the world eventually INCREASE in reputation to surpass it. If you still think it's too high, it's an easy fix in the editor before you start your game.

[wkdsoul]

Looks fine.

[graaa]

Transfers

Here's the transfer market summary for the MLS, year 6

Here's the summary for the English premier league, year 6

Analysis

As the years go by, the non-USA top-league transfer markets balloon to have huge transfers 60-90 million with the main curve averaging around 20mil. The USA by comparison tops out at around 30-40 million with an average of 10 million.

Finances

This time, I'm looking at the club TURNOVER in the finances. Not the estimated value. I think the turnover provides a more accurate look at the club's financial power.

Here's the top of the finances chart for year 10.

Here's the top 35 of the finances (where the USA teams start)

Analysis

By year 10, there are 21 USA teams in the top 100 list for turnover. 7 USA teams are in the top 50. By year 10, the richest USA team is Los Angeles ranking at number 35. I'm confident that the growth of the USA teams is going to be maintained as the years go on, so I'm happy with the finances as they are. By year 20, I believe it'd be realistic to see a USA team in the top 15 and many more teams in the top 50. With this projection, I think that the transfer market will pick up as well.

I think my tests are proving that the USA leagues see growth at a steady, moderate pace. Not too fast, not too slow.

[wkdsoul]

Yes, look like a great balance.. nice one

[wkdsoul]

All comp logos are done.

just put them into you MY DOCS/Football Manager15/graphics folder (i'd have 2 in prep for the icon size later so call it USA Lvl 9/normal) and clear cache and reload. Once people have give me, the ones/amendments they want i'll make the icon size as well.

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/2xxfe26c84jhp/

[Zupkuck]

Is there any way to disable pro/rel in this? I love the work you're doing, but I personally would prefer a more realistic rendition of the lower US leagues.

[graaa]

Is there any way to disable pro/rel in this? I love the work you're doing, but I personally would prefer a more realistic rendition of the lower US leagues.

This is a fantasy league. I completely re-did the lower leagues so even if pro/rel were disabled, you wouldn't have a normal NACL, USL, NPSL, USASA etc. There are a lot of fictional teams in here as well. Sorry =(

[Uncle_Sam]

Anyway of knowing what the Regens are like for the USA with this file?

I only ask because I experimented in the past with a new US pyramid in the advance rules, but the quality of regens was nowhere near as good as in a pyramid built with the basic rules.

[graaa]

Anyway of knowing what the Regens are like for the USA with this file?

I only ask because I experimented in the past with a new US pyramid in the advance rules, but the quality of regens was nowhere near as good as in a pyramid built with the basic rules.

Absolutely, let me put together a regen report for you from the my year 10 file. Stay posted.

[graaa]

I didn't save my year 10 but here's the next best one - year 8. It has enough regens who were created at age 16 in the year 2015 to now be 24-25 and have reached close to their max potential anyway.

First here's a picture of the USA national team - notice it's mostly made of regens by this time. Note their transfer values.

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Next here are the two of the top USA teams with their squads - it's sorted by age with their age, star ratings, transfer value, and nationality shown (to prove they are USA regens).

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Finally, here are 12 national team regens, age 18-24 for variety, from LA, NYFC, and Colorado

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Let me know what you think. Is this close to what you were expecting?

[Joseph R. Cooper]

121st minute, against Germany, World Cup Finals and it goes in.

Only in Football Manager, also 14 yellows, god damn that must have been a chippy game.

[fsquid]

looks good to me.

[graaa]

121st minute, against Germany, World Cup Finals and it goes in.

Only in Football Manager, also 14 yellows, god damn that must have been a chippy game.

Yup! Just cleaning the house before I release 1.0... nice of you to notice =)

[wkdsoul]

Yup! Just cleaning the house before I release 1.0... nice of you to notice =)

All logos and icons are done as well... just in time,