Pros and cons of turning pro?

[dalenichol]

Alright, 

Couple of quick questions as it's been a while since I've managed at semi pro level. 

I'm currently managing Racing Luxembourg in, well, Luxembourg funnily enough. Approaching the end of season 2 and looking to retain out title, we have around £4m in the bank, give or take, and thanks to punting all the stupidly overpaid staff we had at the start of the game (we spent almost 300k on staff wages season 1, compared to 120k on player wages). We've no massive outgoings and I don't plan on having to spend much on players. 

So I'm considering going pro but I'm trying to figure out if there's an inherent value in me doing that just now. We're going to get a little bit of money from Europe each year, even if it's just a few hundred grand for getting knocked out in the qualifiers.  So here's what I'm loosely thinking just now:

Pro:

• More players willing to sign - but is this needed in Luxembourg yet?
• Ability to employ more staff - See above
• Ability to at least request a wider scouting network
• More willing to increase facilities - Could be an easy way to lose all my money though
• Maybe a chance of better sponsors? Increased attendances/ticket prices?
• Pro contracts in theory means more training and more development

Cons:

• Players and staff on full time contracts will want more money?
• Professional status is likely going to incur general costs?
• Board might use the money, turn pro and still not give me any improvements

 

How far off the mark am I with these? I'm less than 2 seasons in to what I plan to be a long term save to build up the nation, so nothing has to be done quickly, but I also don't want to miss out on any early kick starting advantages whilst I have the money to implement them.

[DarJ]

Another pro. Is that your players can now train full time so they will now develop a bit faster depending on your facilities of course 

[jcp1417]

I think you about nailed it. Turning pro isn’t going to turn around your fortunes overnight and there will be growing pains. It’s simply the first step in a long journey towards relevancy.
 

Though it begs the question, what is your goal? If it is to perpetually improve your club’s reputation and continental standing, then you absolutely need to go pro. If you’re only happy to just compete for Luxembourg titles, you probably don’t need to go pro considering that more staff, training time, better scouting is pointless at that level. 
 

good luck, I love lower league saves!

[phnompenhandy]

As a lower league manager, I find it a tricky moment when my club goes pro. Everyone's gonna go greedy, and we're going to lose money hand over fist, undoing much of what I've achieved incrementally. However, without going pro you hit a glass ceiling, so in the long term it's a necessity. It's a 'two steps forward one step back' kind of a phase.

[dalenichol]

Thanks lads. 

Ended up playing into the wee hours last night, so asked about turning pro and the club accepted and some of the benefits very quickly became apparent.

We turned pro and I was instantly able to increase my scouting range beyond Luxembourg (which is great if you can go to whole world scouting, even if just for a month to scope out players), used the increased scouting range and some tips I'd picked up from youtube to find some foreign amateur players to bolster the squad, and the board agreed to both training and youth facility upgrades. 

Obvious downside of player and staff greed has set in, with some of my best players wanting as much as a 5x increase in wages, which they absolutely wont be getting, and an increase to the cost of things like 'youth setup' fees etc. I think the advantage of being in Luxembourg and being one of the better teams is that I should be able to offset most of this with prize money and if we keep getting favourable draws, we could be heading for our second conference league group stage appearance, which again is about 2-3 seasons worth of income to not worry about.

 

4 hours ago, jcp1417 said:

I think you about nailed it. Turning pro isn’t going to turn around your fortunes overnight and there will be growing pains. It’s simply the first step in a long journey towards relevancy.
 

Though it begs the question, what is your goal? If it is to perpetually improve your club’s reputation and continental standing, then you absolutely need to go pro. If you’re only happy to just compete for Luxembourg titles, you probably don’t need to go pro considering that more staff, training time, better scouting is pointless at that level. 
 

good luck, I love lower league saves!

 As for your specific question, the goal is absolutely to raise the clubs rep and continental standing, as well as that of the nation as a whole. If this save goes on with out any major issues then ideally this might be my save until the new game comes out, or at least until I've achieved everything I want to. If that takes 40-50 seasons then fine. I want to win the Champions League and have Luxembourg consistently make it to the Euros and the World Cup if possible.  Basically, I want to build Luxembourg up to be one of the best leagues in the world. 

[Weston]

Been wondering the same thing. I am currently on pace to win promotion from the Finnish second division in which 10/12 of us are semi-pro. In D1 every club is professional, so I assume I should make the switch as well if the decision isn't automatically made for me upon arriving anyway.

I have a solid squad of players in their prime, but am currently about half a mil in the red, which will only get worse in the half a year to go before making the jump presumably brings in more cash. I'm guessing I won't make enough to renew them all next year if they'll ask for as much as 5x more as you say, and will likely have to sell a fair few to reinvest their transfer fees in some new free agents?

I don't have as long term a goal as you, though. I'd be satisfied to win the top league once and take whatever measly reputation boost that gives me to greener pastures.

[dalenichol]

22 hours ago, Weston said:

Been wondering the same thing. I am currently on pace to win promotion from the Finnish second division in which 10/12 of us are semi-pro. In D1 every club is professional, so I assume I should make the switch as well if the decision isn't automatically made for me upon arriving anyway.

I have a solid squad of players in their prime, but am currently about half a mil in the red, which will only get worse in the half a year to go before making the jump presumably brings in more cash. I'm guessing I won't make enough to renew them all next year if they'll ask for as much as 5x more as you say, and will likely have to sell a fair few to reinvest their transfer fees in some new free agents?

I don't have as long term a goal as you, though. I'd be satisfied to win the top league once and take whatever measly reputation boost that gives me to greener pastures.

I think I was in a somewhat unique position as being a semi pro club in the top division of a nation. We had already won the league in season 1 and made the Conference League group stages in season 2, 3 and 4. This afforded us the chance to push the boat out with some wages and improve facilities.  If we didn't have that money, I'd have been pretty screwed. 

The 5x wage increase wasn't across the board, but 4 or 5 best players started asking for big increases, from 150-200pw beginning to want as much as 1.2kpw and I just wasn't willing to do that at the time. I was fortunate that I was able to bring in some replacements for some and play the waiting game with others and not give in to demands. 

I think semi-pro to pro will be difficult with a promoted club, and you'll need a few million in the bank before the board will entertain it, unless they enforce it upon promotion. I wouldn't worry too much though, especially if you're planning on leaving after some success anyway

[Weston]

20 minutes ago, dalenichol said:

I think I was in a somewhat unique position as being a semi pro club in the top division of a nation. We had already won the league in season 1 and made the Conference League group stages in season 2, 3 and 4. This afforded us the chance to push the boat out with some wages and improve facilities.  If we didn't have that money, I'd have been pretty screwed. 

The 5x wage increase wasn't across the board, but 4 or 5 best players started asking for big increases, from 150-200pw beginning to want as much as 1.2kpw and I just wasn't willing to do that at the time. I was fortunate that I was able to bring in some replacements for some and play the waiting game with others and not give in to demands. 

I think semi-pro to pro will be difficult with a promoted club, and you'll need a few million in the bank before the board will entertain it, unless they enforce it upon promotion. I wouldn't worry too much though, especially if you're planning on leaving after some success anyway

Interesting... yeah it looks like we could be a cool mil in the hole before we go up. I assume we'll be making some more money up there, but I'm not sure how much more, so I really have no idea how to plan ahead.

[2feet]

Pros: you get paid lots of money

Cons: people will talk about you on the FM forums