Salary Cap & Budget

Managing a club means managing two very different pots of money. Keep them straight and you’ll never get caught out.

The salary cap (wages)

Your salary cap is the total wage bill your roster is allowed to carry:

• Team salary cap: $1,200,000 across your whole roster.
• Highest individual wage: $192,500. No single player can earn more than this.
• Lowest individual wage: $24,000.

Senior players count against the cap. Sign a player and his wage is added; release or trade him and it comes off. Youth players do not count. A player on an injury list frees a roster spot, but his wage still counts against the cap.

Stay under the cap to play

You must be under the salary cap to field a team. If your wage bill is too high, the Schedule will warn you and you won’t be able to play your match until you get compliant — usually by moving a player on. Don’t let it sneak up on you.

Because no one player can earn much more than a good regular’s wage, you can’t simply stack your roster with superstars — the cap forces you to balance quality across the whole squad.

The transfer budget (your war chest)

Your transfer budget is completely separate from wages. It’s the cash you spend on transfer fees to sign players from the market:

• Every club starts with roughly $1,100,000 to spend — the exact figure varies a little from club to club, so no two rivals begin with the same war chest.
• Whatever you don’t spend banks and carries over into the next season.
• Your banked budget can grow up to a ceiling of $1,500,000.

Wages come out of the cap; fees come out of the budget. A player you sign hits both pots — a fee now, and his wage against your cap for as long as you keep him.

Earning money

Your budget isn’t just topped up for free — you have to earn it at the gate. At the end of each season, when you enter the offseason, your club’s income is credited to your transfer budget:

• Ticket sales — the biggest lever, and the one you control. It scales with your total home attendance, so a winning side that packs the stands earns far more than one playing to empty seats.
• Sponsorship and other income — a steady floor every club banks regardless of results.

You can see the breakdown any time on the Finances card on the Season Overview: ticket sales, sponsorship, other, the total headed for your budget, and your average home crowd.

Winning pays the bills

Because the budget carries over (up to the ceiling) and gate income rewards a full stadium, success compounds: win, fill the ground, bank the gate, and reinvest it in the squad. A frugal, winning season sets up a big move later.

The two pots at a glance

	Salary Cap	Transfer Budget
Pays for	Player wages	Transfer fees to sign players
Limit	$1.2M total roster	Up to $1.5M banked
Refills	As players join/leave	Season gate income, credited each offseason
Must stay under it?	Yes — to field a team	Yes — a fee can’t exceed your balance