Why is my overall balance so low?

[frank_olaf]

I'm playing as Manchester United and at the beginning of the save my overall balance was £216 million. Now, at the beginning of May, the balance is down to £39 million.

I understand that there are lots of expenses throughout the season like wages and bonuses and that the balance usually goes down during the season and then gets topped up in June/July when TV money (champions league), sponsorship and season ticket revenue come through but my income for the season so far has been £518 million and my expenditure has been £466 million, so I don't understand why my balance has decreased by £177 million when I've made a profit of £52 million. Shouldn't my balance be £268 million (216 + 52)?

Am I misunderstanding how the overall balance works?

Thanks

[santy001]

Since July you've been losing money every month.

I'm not sure where you've got £268m from as your supposed balance. Based on the numbers presumably at the very start the clubs balance was somewhere around negative £10m, you had the big swell of income in the summer and that was a part of your income. The incomes and outcomes have been at different times and the club started on a slightly negative balance, so the club being at around £40m cash in the bank at present time seems right for your overall income & expenditure with the negative starting balance factored in.

Over the summer months you get your prize money for the league position you finish in, you get prize money for European competitions and then later you get the season ticket money as you alluded to. Through the season you get much lower levels of money, the monthly instalment of the TV deal, gate receipts and so on but this for most premier league clubs is lower than their month to month outgoings. 

[Cause = Time]

You say the balance was £268M at the start, but if you look at the very beginning of the chart the balance was negative. That might have been before you took over, but that's the time period used for all of the totals on that page. If you've made a profit of £52M and have a balance of £39M, that works out to a starting point of about £13M - which looks about right for what the beginning of the chart shows.

[frank_olaf]

Thanks. For some reason I didn't notice the balance in June and assumed the balance I saw when i started in July was the starting balance.