ipfreely >> thursday february 18 - 23:08

Why do big clubs who routinely fill their 200k stadiums still have staff in their stadium and fanshop? Aren't they a (pretty small) waste of money?

Numpty >> thursday february 18 - 23:13, Edited thursday february 18 - 23:14

Good question.

I think they are needed for cup and continental matches as they get lower attendances. Not Champions league though. 

Taavi >> friday february 19 - 01:01

Without staff i wouldnt get 200k :D Unless i got vip

Numpty >> friday february 19 - 10:11, Edited friday february 19 - 10:12

Your popularity's not high enough Taavi.

With no staff - and 20% live attendance - I think you need nearly 11 million popularity to fill the stadium against bots and anyone else under 40%. So the top 50 clubs in the rankings could probably do it. 

Stephen >> friday february 19 - 11:34

You could have broken that to Taavi more gently, @Numpty :)

Stephen >> friday february 19 - 11:39

This is an interesting point though and I've never thought about it before. My fanshop staff member is retiring at the end of the season. Is it worth me replacing him or should I save a very small amount of money?

A fanshop staff member stops my decline of popularity a bit and there's supposed to be an upper limit of popularity. I don't know what that is.

Over to @Numpty for one of his famous calculations...

Numpty >> friday february 19 - 12:19, Edited friday february 19 - 12:33

That was me being gentle. :)

There will be an upper limit where the natural decline rate matches the seasonal gain. Where this comes will be depend on a lot of different factors, such as staff, popular players, win rate, ticket selling etc. and it would be a complex calculation even with making a lot of assumptions. 

So let's do a rough estimate.

Currently some of the teams at the top are still increasing their popularity by about 200,000 per season.  To reach the limit that would need to be matched by losing a further 4,000 per day to natural decline which would come from losing 160 extra fanclub members. Assuming staff level 10 that would require roughly an extra 6 miliion popularity to lose 160 extra fanclub members per day.

So the upper limit for popularity is probably somewhere around 18-20 million, although the rate of increase slows down as the decline increases.

As for retiring fan shop and/or stadium staff, I haven't calculated this but my instinct is to keep fan shop staff and retire stadium staff if you don't really need them. My reason being that fan shop staff are more 'powerful' than stadium staff with a 15% fan conversion rate plus 15% reduction in the natural decline. 

Stephen >> friday february 19 - 22:14

Well, when my staff member in the stadium retires, I might see how not replacing him works out. His wage might be chicken feed compared to some, but if it's a cost I don't need, it'd seem silly to pay it.

Numpty >> friday february 19 - 23:03

As I mentioned upthread, without staff there's always a risk of losing money in the cup or Europa league if drawn against a bot or other team with low popularity (under 40%). Although how likely that is will vary from club to club.  

A quick check with the attendance calculator suggests you would need nearly 15 million popularity for a cup match against a bot without stadium staff. 

Good bye >> wednesday february 24 - 03:06, Edited wednesday february 24 - 03:10

Hmm I still ask, how do you calculate all this?? :sunglasses::sunglasses:

Numpty

I will like to invite you to one of my mathematical exams in each semester, I will really make A's in my papers with your help. :grin::grin:

Numpty >> wednesday february 24 - 22:08

It's been a long time since I did any of those.

When I was a lad we had an abacus, slide rules and log books. Calculators were science fiction. 

Good bye >> thursday february 25 - 07:14

Log books and abacus i came across them 

davo >> thursday february 25 - 23:52

Staff in the Stadium will increase your popularity quicker as you sell more tickets.

I guess the issue is that most teams who regularly fill their 200k stadium, probably have a L10 office and, unless they want staff in the scout office, you might as well put one in the Stadium as only costs a couple of million dollars a season.

Numpty >> friday february 26 - 00:37

Those tickets don't count towards popularity @Davo. They are just extra bums on seats. 

davo >> friday february 26 - 01:01

I think "Tickets" and "attendance" are different. 

"Tickets sold" are part of the breakdown of fan increase:

https://rockingsoccer.com/en/soccer/facilities/fanshop/fans