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To add a couple of things I think you need to finish building your arena, way to small to compete in III div. In my opinión at least 12000/3000/500/40 and for the time you want to really push for promotion you need to have your arena fully built that means around 14-15000/5-6000/500/50 depends if you prefer more or less bleachers. The arena is the number one priority because when you promote you can take advantage of the fan boost and really make some decent money.
Also if you plan on playing the game for a long time you can think about the arena design but it's not a priority until you finish to build all your seats.
Another things, from what i see of your players on sale they lack a lot of defense, nowadays defense has a lot more value over shooting. I would prefer a guard with 14 jump shot and 17 outside defense over a guard with those numbers flipped.
If i were you, for this season i would pay the Minimum salary and focusing on building the arena. And Next season when draftees come out buy 3 "guards" of 18 years old with superstar-mvp potential with decent starting skill point (something around 55 sos) and another 3 with all-star/perennial all-star potential and just rebuild from Scratch.
It Will be a long way (at least 4/5 season) before you see the resulta but you Will be in a way better position from what you are now

He is not a newbie manager, so I think he doesn't need to start with 18 year olds. That is a team strategy for newbies, managers of U21/NT farms or those who want to take a break from ultra-competitive team management and go full rebuild. Sure, like you suggested, if he want to wait 4-5 seasons then hit the restart button and go with six new 18 year olds (in D4). But I suspect he wants to start competing asap, so why not set the starting point little higher? I'd say, if he wants to compete in 2 seasons, instead of starting with 18 year olds 60+ TSP, go for 19 year olds with 70+ TSP but only if he goes with Youth coach (and training facilities). If he don't want to employ youth coach, then why even bother with 18/19, go for 20 year olds at 85ish TSP and MVP+ potential (and that would mean 3 players, not 6). The remainder of the strategy stays the same: keep your team within salary floor, invest in the Arena, but fight to stay in D3.

Tough's analysis is pretty good, a few nits I would pick

1. Merchandise comes from four main sources: league standings and performance vs TV/rival games (the Team Sales category), what % of your salary is from home country flagged players with self-drafted counting 2x (the Homegrown & Local category, which is a multiplier of Team Sales), a % of the salaries of your players with top league/division/country/world rankings in the big 5 stats + rating (the Jersey Sales category, which also gets boosts from players having an international cap the prior week and small boosts for all star selections in the second half of the season), and fixed income from the Arena Design upgrade and Merchandise Store. It's expected/described in the manual that the TV & Radio station reduces the impact of losing streaks on your Team Sales component but I haven't really seen data trying to estimate how big or small that effect is.

The big differentiator for merch in most divisions is Jersey Sales (with HG&L being second biggest). One big star that can be the focus of your offense is the easiest way to "hack" Jersey Sales.

Staff wise, you should be able to have solid staff for under 30k. I agree with having a level 4-5 trainer, but would advocate for a level 2 doctor (solely for the massage specialty), a level 1 PR manager or maybe level 2 for a specialty, and a level 4-5 sports psychologist.

The primary reason to go with a higher level doctor would be as insurance - the doctor's level has a larger effect on reducing the length of an injury when it happens, rather than trying to hire a high level doctor after the fact to speed the recovery up. If you're tight on budget, you can run naked and pray to the BB-gods instead.

I've had a very hard time trying to quantify the impact of a PR manager. My assumption is that it has a small impact on your Team Sales merchandise and arena attendance, but both effects are dwarfed in magnitude by your team's performance, especially below division 1.

And yeah, the most important part of contending is training well, and lining up your training cycle with your contention cycle, so that your trainees are getting their big, expensive pops on the season you're promoting (which makes your end of season team +$50k in value compared to salary paid, for free).

Last edited by Azariah at 10/31/2025 9:34:48 PM

One thing you need to understand is this is a mature game in the sense that a lot of managers have been playing a long time.

I've been here over 35 seasons and never made it out of D3. Had some good teams and either ran into better managers, bad luck or a combination of both. The important thing is to learn why you lost. Otherwise you are just meandering.

It is a manager game so tactics don't matter as much as managing the team in all aspects. That means building the infrastructure to support the team. Part of that is building out the arena. Part of that is adding arena upgrades. Part of that is the staff. And part of that is learning how to buy, train and sell players to add to your coffers. It's a lot to take in.

Teams go up and down the divisions all the time. I ran into Bananahorns one season when he was on his way (ultimately) to the NBBA. It's hard to compete with teams that have fully built out arenas and many more seasons of knowledge. But it also tells you that success is hard to sustain.

A couple of managers have given you the advise you need. All I can add is that it takes a while to get to where you want to go. You kind of have to enjoy the ride. Because at most, only 2 teams promote out of D3.

Know when to held 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away. I'm going to relegate for the 5th time next season. I'll come back stronger. But there's no guarantee it will work this time either.

One thing you need to understand is this is a mature game in the sense that a lot of managers have been playing a long time.

I've been here over 35 seasons and never made it out of D3. Had some good teams and either ran into better managers, bad luck or a combination of both. The important thing is to learn why you lost. Otherwise you are just meandering.

It is a manager game so tactics don't matter as much as managing the team in all aspects. That means building the infrastructure to support the team. Part of that is building out the arena. Part of that is adding arena upgrades. Part of that is the staff. And part of that is learning how to buy, train and sell players to add to your coffers. It's a lot to take in.

Teams go up and down the divisions all the time. I ran into Bananahorns one season when he was on his way (ultimately) to the NBBA. It's hard to compete with teams that have fully built out arenas and many more seasons of knowledge. But it also tells you that success is hard to sustain.

A couple of managers have given you the advise you need. All I can add is that it takes a while to get to where you want to go. You kind of have to enjoy the ride. Because at most, only 2 teams promote out of D3.

Know when to held 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away. I'm going to relegate for the 5th time next season. I'll come back stronger. But there's no guarantee it will work this time either.

I very like your post!
Good luck