Agitated Flora, a Madcarrot story

[boscorp]

More people should work out a budget

Not a bad idea, Keep in mind that wages are just about to be recalculated based on the skills they have gained this last season. It can have a big impact on youth wages. Plus its handy to keep aside some funds to improve the grounds and increase your potential income as you gain more supporters.

[Madcarrot]

More people should work out a budget

Not a bad idea, Keep in mind that wages are just about to be recalculated based on the skills they have gained this last season. It can have a big impact on youth wages. Plus its handy to keep aside some funds to improve the grounds and increase your potential income as you gain more supporters.

My main team doesn't have a budget like this

I don't think I'll use the entire $823k in my balance to buy the youth and senior teams so whatever I have left, if I keep to my budget should stay reasonably the same and be able to be used at the end of the season for ground upgrades.
Also I think with my gate tickets my estimate is pretty conservative. I expect that I'll get larger crowds in the mid-late season across the board as supporter mood increases from bot bashing.

In terms of Radars suggestion, I think in youths it looks like the road to div3 looks pretty simple. But not so much in seniors it could be more of a challenge. So I don't want to ease up too much and risk coming in 2nd place.

Also if I do manage to promote in senior and junior leagues then I will be getting a fair sum of money in prizemoney.

[GM-crowfan65]

lower skills, more exp. you will get more out of them for less wages

[vietd]

The budget is something I've been meaning to look into. Early on, I realised spending a substantial amount of money on a youth player was going slow my club's development as the seniors were the ones there were going to bring in the money (more tickets sold, better prize money, more supporters etc.). I found it was better to spend the same amount of money on a senior player.

Once I've set up a good base for my senior team, then I would start investing/spending more on younger players.

[Muff]

More people should work out a budget

Just did one for the affiliate and not counting prizemoney, I am expecting to lose $764k next season if i dont do anything.
Which equates to $54k in wage savings required

[boscorp]

I'm not sure that running a bottom div club with minimum academy investment, minimum squad size and minimum ground size with wages only leaving a 3k weekly profit is a good plan for a new club. It may be a successful plan to get a promotion but even after prizemoney you will likely struggle to remain competitive for many seasons. I found a couple of extra seasons in lower divs really helped establish a supporter base, ground and income to support me in the top divisions for a longer period. I don't think my bank balance has ever been much more than 1.5 million but i do try and plan a season or so in advance.

[Madcarrot]

I'm not sure that running a bottom div club with minimum academy investment, minimum squad size and minimum ground size with wages only leaving a 3k weekly profit is a good plan for a new club. It may be a successful plan to get a promotion but even after prizemoney you will likely struggle to remain competitive for many seasons. I found a couple of extra seasons in lower divs really helped establish a supporter base, ground and income to support me in the top divisions for a longer period. I don't think my bank balance has ever been much more than 1.5 million but i do try and plan a season or so in advance.

[Madcarrot]

I'm not sure that running a bottom div club with minimum academy investment, minimum squad size and minimum ground size with wages only leaving a 3k weekly profit is a good plan for a new club. It may be a successful plan to get a promotion but even after prizemoney you will likely struggle to remain competitive for many seasons. I found a couple of extra seasons in lower divs really helped establish a supporter base, ground and income to support me in the top divisions for a longer period. I don't think my bank balance has ever been much more than 1.5 million but i do try and plan a season or so in advance.

I think that there are some good 24/25 year olds on the market that could last a few seasons but I wouldn't agree at all about buying good 21 yr olds or youths and bringing them through the ranks. By the rime they are 26, 27 they are behind the other teams and I want to be trying to mix it with the best by that time.

If I'm going to struggle in the lower divisions, let it be in division 3 where at least half my games won't be against bot teams with small grounds and a smaller supporter base.
Geting to div 3 is an absolute priority and to do that I'll need something to give myself an advantage against my opponents. Assuming that they have a default academy, I think an extra 22k per week towards player wages is a decent enough advantage.

Besides this, I'm not playing so I can wallow in the lower leagues, I'm playing to win. As Ricky Bobby would say, "if you ain't first you're last."

Priority 1. Win
Priority 2. Set up for future wins.

[boscorp]

I'm not sure that running a bottom div club with minimum academy investment, minimum squad size and minimum ground size with wages only leaving a 3k weekly profit is a good plan for a new club. It may be a successful plan to get a promotion but even after prizemoney you will likely struggle to remain competitive for many seasons. I found a couple of extra seasons in lower divs really helped establish a supporter base, ground and income to support me in the top divisions for a longer period. I don't think my bank balance has ever been much more than 1.5 million but i do try and plan a season or so in advance.

I think that there are some good 24/25 year olds on the market that could last a few seasons but I wouldn't agree at all about buying good 21 yr olds or youths and bringing them through the ranks. By the rime they are 26, 27 they are behind the other teams and I want to be trying to mix it with the best by that time.

If I'm going to struggle in the lower divisions, let it be in division 3 where at least half my games won't be against bot teams with small grounds and a smaller supporter base.
Geting to div 3 is an absolute priority and to do that I'll need something to give myself an advantage against my opponents. Assuming that they have a default academy, I think an extra 22k per week towards player wages is a decent enough advantage.

Besides this, I'm not playing so I can wallow in the lower leagues, I'm playing to win. As Ricky Bobby would say, "if you ain't first you're last."

Priority 1. Win
Priority 2. Set up for future wins.

Don't let my comments put you off keeping us all up to date. Its an interesting adventure and i can't help but add some food for thought. I see your club has some rankings now which will no doubt improve greatly this season, And you look to have almost settled in a senior squad. Do you have the same approach with your juniors this season? Hope you get a bit of extra income with the MKMC.
Good luck with your season.

[Madcarrot]

I'm not sure that running a bottom div club with minimum academy investment, minimum squad size and minimum ground size with wages only leaving a 3k weekly profit is a good plan for a new club. It may be a successful plan to get a promotion but even after prizemoney you will likely struggle to remain competitive for many seasons. I found a couple of extra seasons in lower divs really helped establish a supporter base, ground and income to support me in the top divisions for a longer period. I don't think my bank balance has ever been much more than 1.5 million but i do try and plan a season or so in advance.

I think that there are some good 24/25 year olds on the market that could last a few seasons but I wouldn't agree at all about buying good 21 yr olds or youths and bringing them through the ranks. By the rime they are 26, 27 they are behind the other teams and I want to be trying to mix it with the best by that time.

If I'm going to struggle in the lower divisions, let it be in division 3 where at least half my games won't be against bot teams with small grounds and a smaller supporter base.
Geting to div 3 is an absolute priority and to do that I'll need something to give myself an advantage against my opponents. Assuming that they have a default academy, I think an extra 22k per week towards player wages is a decent enough advantage.

Besides this, I'm not playing so I can wallow in the lower leagues, I'm playing to win. As Ricky Bobby would say, "if you ain't first you're last."

Priority 1. Win
Priority 2. Set up for future wins.

Don't let my comments put you off keeping us all up to date. Its an interesting adventure and i can't help but add some food for thought. I see your club has some rankings now which will no doubt improve greatly this season, And you look to have almost settled in a senior squad. Do you have the same approach with your juniors this season? Hope you get a bit of extra income with the MKMC.
Good luck with your season.

Oh no not at all, I welcome all discussion and feedback and I'll try to take some of it on board.

I've already got 11 senior players and most of them are under the average wage that I set for the seniors. I am looking at an all rounder which would be nice to have but not essential, and then that will be it for the senior team. I'm playing a friendly against my main teams development squad tonight when I'm sleeping but they should be evenly matched and will give me an idea of what my rating is.

I have bought a couple of youth players and as I am nearly done with senior team I can shift focus and try to recruit harder for juniors now. I still have $780k in the bank so money is not an issue but as you say I want to keep it for a rainy day in case I find myself with a must win match at the end or I need to upgrade my ground or something like that.

[Madcarrot]

First squad.

After spending a considerable amount of time this week on the market, I managed to secure a full 12 man squad ready for round 1.

I didn't really plan it this way, but it turned out that the players we were best looking for and fit our budget constraints were in their mid-20's. This means that most of them will probably play 2 or 3 seasons or more which is good. Most are pretty low power, but fortunately power trains quickest at this age.

I played 2 friendly games against my main team's development squad, and the Flora completely dominated both times despite being equally rated. And we rated at 192k.
I expect this rating to decrease slightly as some players have higher form but against bot teams this will go back up again.

I also allocated $171,588 per week for the senior team budget, and we ended up with a total wage bill for the senior team coming to $146,333, so we were under by about $25k which is great.
It means that if my opponents are stronger then me I still have space to upgrade some of my players, or I can keep it as it is and keep the profit for next season.

I am still looking for a youth team, have made a couple of purchases but still have a bit of work to do. I'll keep the youth budget as it is despite the senior surplus.

[Madcarrot]

So here we are with the end of the 1st week.

I played against 3 bot teams and had 1 human team in youth one day format. Who I managed to beat by 8 wickets.

I wanted to take a moment to compare the competition in their ratings this week.



It looks like in the One Day format the Flora are head and shoulders above everyone else.
This is really the most important one as OD games bring the highest sponsorship, prize money, the biggest increase to supporter mood which will bring larger crowds later in the season. We can be happy with this.



In T20 we are almost equal to IndigoGreens-II and have a slight edge over Ace's XI. In T20 upsets happen so I can't be complacent even with a 20k advantage.
I play against Indigo in round 5 and Ace's XI in round 6 and if I play smart I think I can beat them.



In Youths there is still a little bit of work to do on the market, and since this game was played I did purchase 2 more batters which will increase my ratings but not enough to match them yet.


And the same with YT20, I am equal to my opponent and with a few more transfers I can surpass them.

Other ways to improve ratings
I have 1 main strategy to help improve my chances of success and that is when playing against the bot teams, I set a flat pitch at home grounds, and I bat first no matter the conditions for home and away games.
At this stage with the bot teams at their current levels (which will change very soon) my teams are scoring over 10 runs an over and I'm winning by 300 runs or more.
What this does is firstly it gives me a massive NRR advantage on the ladder which could be the difference between finishing 1st and 2nd.

And the other benefit is that it also gives more fantasy points to my players, who will get larger increases to my batters form. Bowlers form doesn't change because whether I get them all out for 30 runs in the 1st innings or in the 2nd innings it doesn't matter.
When I get to round 5 and 6 on T20 ready to play the tough human teams, my players will have higher form than they would if I bowled first every game.

The only thing I need to watch out for is fatigue, which can be managed by rotating my batting order around or resting players during training if really necessary.

[CraigFisher]

So you basically get a free pass into senior division 3. My SOD div 4 has 2 200k+ rating teams and my Senior 20/20 has 1 200k+ rating team.

[Madcarrot]

So you basically get a free pass into senior division 3. My SOD div 4 has 2 200k+ rating teams and my Senior 20/20 has 1 200k+ rating team.

Tough draw. But you've made a good argument for doing your research and joining the lesser populated countries.

[CraigFisher]

It is a very tough draw. So if you didn't get such week opponents and were in my shoes, how would you boost your ratings over 200k to get the "win at all costs" team you are building?