I had the same concerns, but they turned out to only be an illusion due to misinformation in the finances screen. The problem seems to be that it doesn't really include your earnings for matches and for any winnings you will get for your league or cup position. Or, at least that info isn't regularly updated, i.e. not "live."
Unfortunately, bonuses for winning games aren't a lot (even if you count the bonuses you get for winning at home, getting into the last 16 in the Champions League, or winning the League cup, or merchandise sales). They probably amount to less than £25-30 million in total.
Sponsorship deals, I've found, is somehow capped to £30-33 million, even when you are on an annual winning streak. This doesn't make sense at all: Wouldn't more and more companies want to sponsor your team for an increasing amount of money if your team has won a treble every year for the last 3 years?
So match bonuses, plus sponsorship deals amount to something around £60 million, and that's already a rather generous calculation. Now, let's look at expenditures: Fan clubs, coaches, doctors, scouts, plus team salary. When you are playing as a top team, you'll probably go in the red already, because you probably end up shelling out £100 million annually without buying additional players. Compare your maximum annual earnings of around £60 million, assuming you've won everything. You'd lose £40 million annually.
Totally agree with that. Love starting with the default players and building up a team, but as an extra "Treat" I never edited the look of the team I choose so I start with 5000 fans and a very small budget.
It's funny hearing these people bringing 4 or 5 players in at the start of their 1st season where I could only bring in Youth Team players as I didn't have the funds for better, never mind a good Scout to bring in players.
This, I think, is down the issue of managing style. You happen to be the sort of manager who looks for opportunistic signings, investing on young players, watch them mature, and when their valuation is perfect, sell them off to make a huge profit and use that sum to invest more. No problem, that's how most real-life managers play it at small-medium sized clubs. I'd play like that too if I started with a small team.
The problem is, not everyone plays like that. Some people like to build their fantasy team with their favourite club, which happens to be a big team. And building a fantasy club does not involve selling your highest paid player to ease off the deficit in your budget. It involves patiently signing the players you want, selling the surplus players you don't need, and train them up. My current ML team, Real Madrid, is in it's 5th year. The team only has 19 players: the starting 11, 7 subs, and 1 reserve. The wages earned by my 7 subs and 1 reserves amount to around £10 million. No problem, as they are all youngsters or "resurrected" players. However, my starting 11, filled with stars like C. Ronaldo, Kaka, Casillas (May I stress that these players started off in Real Madrid, so no, I didn't buy them) earns a wage of £100 million. That is, on average, £9.1 million per player. Not too bad for a team filled with stars right? Here's the problem though, because Konami doesn't give me enough budget even if I won everything, I'd lose money every year. This year, my 5th year, is the first time where the comp has forced down my fan club to downgrade a level to prevent me from going in the red.
Complete respect to you mate - exactly how it's meant to be played!
I am sorry, but last time I checked, the
player decides how this game is supposed to be played. And when there are people, like me, who would like to build a fantasy team (and you used to be able to do that with older versions), and Konami doesn't give you enough budget to sustain this management style, it's a problem (currently, the default budget level given to you at the 1st year is not even enough if you start off with a good team).
tl;dr:
So, long rant aside, here's my solution:
The budget level should reflect on the team you are using. The problem does not reside on match bonuses, because they honestly amount to very little (£20,000 to £25,000 per sponsor per
home match, and maybe another £35,000 per home win streak). The problem resides in how much money sponsors give you at the beginning of every year.
EDIT:
I think someone already mentioned this, but adding an "owner budget" will be useful here. So, for your income, you get:
1. Match bonuses (same level as right now)
2. Prizes for winning cups/domestic leagues/championship league (same level as right now)
3. Company sponsorship (this should most definitely reflect on how good the team is)
4. Owner's budget (this is probably radically variable, as owners don't usually do massive annual fundings. I think this budget is more like a "bale-out", and is extremely dependent on which club team you chose).
Also, adding a TV sponsorship is good idea too.