The Rise of The Playing Fields

Over the past 4 seasons Relegation Fodder have invested £28m in redevelopment of the club's stadium. Season 8 saw the completion of that work, following the unexpected sale of club legend Naldo to London Town. The construction team behind the project have revealed the goals that shaped the development, the Cloughite hopes our readers will find this information useful in their own endevours:

The stadium was designed with these goals in mind:

• Learn 4* Construction to save 20% off all costs, it only takes a week.
• Consider the long term reputation of your club; in this case the Stadium must remain sustainable for a club with 3.5* reputation, so no point having a 70'000 capacity behemoth. Thinking ahead to when stadiums affect home/away performances I don't want a half empty stadium.
• Minimize reliance on corporate fans, these are the first to abandon a team when you are not doing so well, so stick to Exclusif boxes to ensure that even at a lower demand you are still getting every last penny possible from the corporate crowd. 4000 Flauta capacity is no use when corporate demand is only 2000, whereas 2000 Exclusif bring in just as much income when demand is 2000 as they do when it is 4000. In either case, installing an Exclusif will return more income than installing Flauta in any given corporate block.
• Stadium income streams should be optimised for the reputation you think you'll settle at; for this project that is 4*, we're expecting to stick between a high 3.5* to a low 4* rep. Ensure that when we have a drop in demand we lose as little income as possible and that the stadium can accomodate for the change in the fan demographic -- principally Glory Hunters & Corporate fans -- as the club shifts between 3.5 to 4.5 rep.
• Keep maintenance cost as low as possible, so don't use three tier stands unless it is unavoidable -- due to their much higher maintenance costs, if the extra capacity is not bringing you more income than you'd achieve from a 2-tier stand you could end up worse off than had you constructed 2-tier stands.
• Do not contruct anything that will later be demolished, get it right first time.
• Dimishing returns begin to hit hard after 260k.
• Leave room (capacity and income wise) to expand with corner stands in the future when/if such options become available (We worked under the assumption that a 2-tier corner stand will seat an additional 1000-1500 Di Lusso and that it is unlikely that they will allow for more corporate boxes to be installed).
• Don't drain the bank balance all at once. Having saved up £26m before end of season taxes were introduced it would be very tempting to blow all of that in one go on the stadium, however saving back up to whatever balance you had before you begin construction will be much more difficult because the end of season tax that really begins to bite once you go over £3m profit per season.
  
• Plan an initial development to bring the stadium to the mimimum needed to sustain the club (in this case £10.5m, all on the West Stand), spread all further development costs over a long period of time with the goal of achieving £3m profit per season whilst the stadium is being constructed, this way all construction acts as a "tax dodge", further reducing the real cost of construction (last season I saved over 1m in tax by bringing forward construction planned for the season after).

The result:

• Stadium Value: £36.5m
• Capacity: 46'420 (14'300 Astilla, 16'110 Pieghevole, 14'070 Di Lusso, 1'940 Exclusif)
• Predicted Income at 3*: 213k (16'000 demand)
• Predicted Income at 3.5*: 254k (26'000 demand)
• Predicted Income at 4*: 274k (40'000 demand)
• Predicted Income at 4.5*: 285k (60'000 demand)
• Predicted Income at 5*: 290k (85'000 demand)

Three identical Two-Tier Ospitalia II stands were contructed at a cost (undiscounted) of £8'456'750 each, with the following blocks:

• 2 * Block of Pieghevole Seating
• 5 * Block of Di Lusso Seating
• 1 * Electronic Ad Boards
• 2 * Block of Exclusif Corporate Boxes

In addition, a Three-Tier Aziendale II was constructed in the West Stand with the following blocks at a cost (undiscounted) of £11'154'000:

• 5 * Block of Astilla Seating
  
• 4 * Block of Pieghevole Seating
• 3 * Electronic Ad Boards
• 1 * Block of Exclusif Corporate Boxes