More financial controls - ticket prices, month-by-month views etc

[lckyby]

I just got promoted twice in a row to Serie A and sell out every game - shouldn't I be able to raise ticket prices to make more money? This is quite a basic thing that is available in sports sims with a small element of management like NBA 2K for example.

There are probably more ways to be in charge of the finances but that's the first thing I'm thinking of right now.

Also the income and expenditure screen is quite basic - only this month, last month, this year.. Can't we see month-by-month and match-by-match to see the income differences?

[CFuller]

7 minutes ago, lckyby said:

I just got promoted twice in a row to Serie A and sell out every game - shouldn't I be able to raise ticket prices to make more money?

No, you shouldn't. Football managers never have to concern themselves with raising or lowering ticketing prices. That's a job more suited to the chairman or another club executive.

[forameuss]

while it should never be up to us as players, there probably should be a bit more transparency around this, and a bit more work gone into how the decisions are made.  Ticket prices do rise, but I'm not sure they do so quite in line with how they should.  Obviously it's hard to balance, and I'm not sure the fans really have AI in the sense of having any kind of reaction to ticket prices, but it's maybe something that could be looked into.

Basically it's another thing that doesn't quite handle how quickly people can rise up the leagues or boost their reputation.  I managed Lincoln Red Imps in Gibraltar and by 2050 I had won the league every year since the start of the save and the Champions League twice amongst other trophies.  By that point, ticket prices had risen from £6 a game to £33, and from £36 for a season ticket to £243.  Only 2355 season ticket holders too in a stadium that held a little under 18000, selling out every week.  Now it's debatable whether it's sustainable to jack the prices any higher in a nation like Gibraltar, but I don't think those prices are rising quite in line with reputation and success.

[ilkork]

9 hours ago, CFuller said:

No, you shouldn't. Football managers never have to concern themselves with raising or lowering ticketing prices. That's a job more suited to the chairman or another club executive.

Sure, but if you really think about it, we shouldn't be able to negotiate player contracts in the first place, we shouldn't make offers for players, etc. I mean, which manager does that irl?
Since we are able to do things we shouldn't, being able to adjust ticket prices, really, isn't the worst idea.
I understand that it's time consuming if you do it for every match, but SI could add 3 options at the start of every season and you could adjust the prices, examples:
(of course, the prices I use are random)

-vs lower reputation teams   Min:£5  Max: £25
-vs similar reputation teams Min:£15  Max: £50
-vs higher reputation teams Min:£25 Max: £100

-something similar for season ticket prices.

Or you could leave that responsibility to the director or whoever (in the Staff Responsibilities screen).
And I am sure SI could include messages like "Supporter spokesperson said the fans think ticket prices are way too high", "Supporter spokesperson said the fans are happy with ticket prices" etc. Like irl.
Really, not a bad idea. And as @forameuss (we agree in something!) said:

23 minutes ago, forameuss said:

while it should never be up to us as players, there probably should be a bit more transparency around this, and a bit more work gone into how the decisions are made.  Ticket prices do rise, but I'm not sure they do so quite in line with how they should.  Obviously it's hard to balance, and I'm not sure the fans really have AI in the sense of having any kind of reaction to ticket prices, but it's maybe something that could be looked into.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, forameuss said:

while it should never be up to us as players, there probably should be a bit more transparency around this, and a bit more work gone into how the decisions are made.  Ticket prices do rise, but I'm not sure they do so quite in line with how they should.  Obviously it's hard to balance, and I'm not sure the fans really have AI in the sense of having any kind of reaction to ticket prices, but it's maybe something that could be looked into.

Basically it's another thing that doesn't quite handle how quickly people can rise up the leagues or boost their reputation.  I managed Lincoln Red Imps in Gibraltar and by 2050 I had won the league every year since the start of the save and the Champions League twice amongst other trophies.  By that point, ticket prices had risen from £6 a game to £33, and from £36 for a season ticket to £243.  Only 2355 season ticket holders too in a stadium that held a little under 18000, selling out every week.  Now it's debatable whether it's sustainable to jack the prices any higher in a nation like Gibraltar, but I don't think those prices are rising quite in line with reputation and success.

TBH that's probably all down to a league edit file that triggers too many bugs in the game code.

[forameuss]

52 minutes ago, Barside said:

TBH that's probably all down to a league edit file that triggers too many bugs in the game code.

If it was, it was on SI's stock one.

I'd be inclined to believe that it's more down to the old issue - the reputation system often lags behind where you can be when you achieve "unrealistically".  Ticket prices rise in a fairly linear fashion - fair enough when you're just achieving the normal, but shouldn't it rise slightly more as demand rises?  When you win a major trophy for the first time?  As it is, it rose roughly £3 every couple of seasons.  

[santy001]

This is a bit of a grey area for me. I feel perhaps it needs to be added as a board option. While its definitely not in the managers remit it seems to be similar to training facilities and stadium expansions. It needs, or at least benefits from, prompting the board to re-assess/re-analyse the situation. I don't think it should be down to the manager to set the thresholds, because that would instantly become a gamey system in which you exploit the limits of game AI to make as much money as possible. As a periodic request (I certainly wouldn't say every season, but similar to ground mechanics, there is a cooling down period (although not close to 20 years, maybe 3-5) and it'd work well and be quite beneficial to the game.

[ilkork]

18 minutes ago, santy001 said:

I don't think it should be down to the manager to set the thresholds, because that would instantly become a gamey system in which you exploit the limits of game AI to make as much money as possible.

You could have an advice with "recommended limits" for ticket prices. If you choose to override it (for example set £25 instead of £15 for low reputation teams), then your supporters would be unhappy and wouldn't come to watch your matches, thus less income...

Besides, there are still ways to exploit the game in order to make money:

Spoiler

Team X wants £20m for Player Y, but I can buy him for: £5m upfront, £5m after 50 league games and £10m after 50 league goals. After one year I sell him for £25m without having paid the league apps/goals clauses because he never reached them...

 

[santy001]

I'm speaking with some knowledge of knowing how we set parameters within the admittedly limited knowledge of having done research though. 

Further to that, the fact you can exploit the game in other areas, isn't really a valid argument. You can just add yourself as the manager of another club and sell your reserves for 100m a pop. 

I think its a solution as a stop gap until SI develop a more organic AI system that requires no input from the manager/player into this side of the club, but considering its still there for training facilities, youth facilities and the stadium it suggests its not there yet. In the future the aim surely has to be to remove these options from players, but only when a better solution that works consistently is able to be implemented. 

[ilkork]

1 minute ago, santy001 said:

In the future the aim surely has to be to remove these options from players, but only when a better solution that works consistently is able to be implemented.

Couldn't agree more.
SI, improve the AI !

[Chinook2000]

The financial controls Managers currently have in FM are there as some players have an interest in it.  This is a game after all and thats why there are many things you can do and see that real Football Managers wouldn't. We regularly see threads wanting more control on the Board aspects of the game. Personally as it's a Football Manager game I want more control on the Football & Coaching side. The balance is OK but if it's realism players want then the balance sheet & construction area would be phased out as few managers would ever get any involvement in that area of a club. I doubt there is a Chairman in the World who'd allow his Manager access to the clubs finances.

 

[Neil Brock]

Reviewed so locked.