Capacity and economy: before and after the new stadium system

When we on Monday switch to the new stadium system, you'll receive a number of Stadion Credits. You can read more about this payout in these blog posts:

• The transition to the new stadium system
• Improved calculation of Stadion Credits

You can use your Stadion Credits to build your new stadium with the new system. Since the new system is fundamentally different from the old one, some clubs will not be able to purchase as many seats with their Stadion Credits as they had before.

This might sound a bit unfair at first. But please consider, that is primarily due to the fact that seats are more expensive for larger stadiums in the new system. If we just gave people the same number of seats, larger clubs would get an enormous advantage because they got to buy seats at a far better price.

In addition, it is practically not possible to just transfer the number of seats directly because the new system introduces a "hard maximum" for how big stadiums can be. We could leave out this maximum, but that would introduce new problems:

• If we were to spread the 7 stadium levels out evenly across 0 to 500,000 seats (the largest stadium is currently at approximately 500,000 seats), only a very small percentage of clubs will ever get to level 3 or 4.
• It is very unrealistic to have a stadium with 500,000 seats. Manchester United have room for "only" 76,000.
• In Virtual Manager the maximum number of spectators for one match is around 190,000 (which, by the way, also should be lowered in the future). Capacity beyond this number would be of no value and thus make no sense at all. It would be very counterintuitive if the two most expensive upgrades would yield no benefit at all.

You still think the transition is a bad idea? Consider the fact that all stadiums still have the same purchase price as they've always had. Admitted, some larger clubs will see a slight decrease in their profits, but it has become equivalently more expensive for smaller clubs to reach their level (in terms of stadium capacity) because seats have become more expensive for larger stadiums.

Below, you'll see an estimate of how the new capacities will turn out. On the left side of the arrow you'll see capacity from the current system, and on the right side you'll see the estimated capacity you are likely to achieve by using all your Stadion Credits.

• 1.500 => 2000-3500
• 2.500 => almost 5.000
• 5.000 => around 6.000
• 10.000 => a little more than 10.000
• 25.000 => a little more than 16.000
• 50.000 => about 31.000
• 100.000 => about 51.000
• 200.000 => about 73.000
• 500.000 => about 120.000

The list should be read as an estimate - not the final capacities. The actual new capacity depends on how you spend your Stadion Credits.

Effect on the individual club

There is no denying that this change will affect most clubs' finances. If we look only at the profits generated from ticket sales, small clubs will likely see a little increase while larger ones will see a minor decrease.

The small clubs should not celebrate too soon however, because the prices for upgrading your stadium has generally become more expensive. More money will be required to get a large stadium.

Some larger clubs will observe that they cannot meet the ticket demand because their stadiums are smaller. This will reduce their profit. However, this drop can be somehow minimized by just increasing ticket prices.

Aggregately, the clubs that are hit the most will of course still be able to earn more than their fixed expenses.

Effect on the game's economy in general

There will be generated less Credits. And while that might sound a bit depressing, we believe it is a nice side benefit of the new stadium system. It helps fight the inflation we have in the game (decreasing value of Credits, increasing player prices).

Some managers are nervous that this might give the clubs who trade a lot an advantage since their income is not directly hit be this change. We're sure they won't. The money that these so-called "trade clubs" earn come, when all comes to all, from the same source all other Credits come from: ticket sales. A certain reduction of the general production of Credits will thus hit the trade clubs just as hard as clubs that do not trade so much.

I really hope you agree with us when we say this change is awesome for the game even though it might feel a bit dull for some.

PS: Please also read this blog post concerning the new manual page for the new stadium system.