🏟 Stadium & FC Deep Dive: Everything You Need to Know

The full breakdown of stadium upgrades, FC earnings and maintenance, as promised in our Season 17 announcement.

Season 17 introduces stadium progression and FC (Footium’s new in-game currency) for the first time. In the Season 17 announcement, we promised a deep dive before pre-season, and here it is!

This guide covers how stadiums work, how FC is earned and spent, and how your stadium now directly impacts your club’s performance at home.

🧱 How Stadiums Work

Every Footium club already has a stadium made up of four stands: two along the longer sides of the pitch (Long stands, East and West sides) and two along the shorter sides (Short stands, North and South sides).

Each stand has a size and a material. Size determines capacity and has a gameplay impact. Material is purely cosmetic, changing how your stadium looks but not impacting performance or earnings.

Stand Sizes

There are five stand sizes, from Extra Small (XS) up to Extra Large (XL). Long stands hold more fans than Short stands at every tier:

Your total stadium capacity is the sum of all four stands. A brand new club usually starts with all XS stands, giving a starting capacity of 1,500.

A fully maxed-out stadium (XL on every stand) reaches 70,000. That’s a proper fortress.

Materials

Each stand also has a material which affects the visual style of the stand. There are six materials: Wood, Brick, Stone, Metal, Dark Metal and Post-Modern. Within each stand size and material there are a few variations, slightly modifying the appearance of the stand. Not every material is available at every size, as larger stands unlock access to higher-tier materials:

When you upgrade a stand’s size, you can also change its material for free as part of that upgrade. So if you fancy giving your newly upgraded S stand a Stone finish instead of Wood, go for it.

📈 Stadium Impact on Matches

Your stadium capacity now has a direct impact on your team’s home performance through a banding system. This system has some similarities to how Chemistry already affects your team (however Chemistry impact changes incrementally, whereas Stadium impact is restricted to the bands). Your total capacity places you into a particular band, and that band indicates an impact on your team’s strength in home matches.

Capacity Bands

Most clubs will start in the Terrible or Bad bands with their default XS stadiums. This gives every manager clear room to progress and feel the impact of upgrades over time. The configuration of costs and FC emissions (alongside the initial bonus FC gifted to all active Season 16 clubs) has been designed to ensure actively managed clubs can progress rapidly up the initial bands.

Reaching Perfect requires a seriously large stadium. Think multiple L and XL stands. It’s a long-term goal, not something you’ll hit in your first few seasons. Your Capacity band multiplier stacks with your Chemistry multiplier. Both are applied to your base team strength in home matches.

We won’t be sharing the exact multiplier values for each band. Part of the fun is feeling the difference as your stadium grows. Home advantage is lower than the impact of the equivalent Chemistry band impact as only one team can receive that advantage each game. A big stadium helps, but it won’t carry a weak squad on its own!

💰 Introducing FC

FC is a new in-game currency tied to your club. It can’t be traded, sold or used outside of Footium. It’s earned through gameplay (or purchased in the store) and spent on developing your club. FC is tied to the club, just like coaching sessions. If a club is sold, its FC balance goes with it.

Every club that was active in Season 16 will receive some starter FC, depending on their division, to kickstart their stadium development journey.

How FC is Earned

There are three main ways to earn FC:

1. Home Matches

Every home match generates FC based on a simple formula:

FC per home match = Capacity × Result Multiplier × Division Multiplier

Result Multipliers (same for all divisions):

Division Multipliers:

Example: Say you've got a 10,000 capacity stadium in Div 5. A home win earns you 10,000 × 1.2 × 1.1 = 13,200 FC. That same stadium in Div 1? 10,000 × 1.2 × 1.8 = 21,600 FC.

The difference compounds as your stadium grows. A default 1,500 capacity stadium earns 1,980 FC from a Div 5 home win. Upgrade that to 46,000 capacity and the same win earns 60,720 FC. Upgrade your ground, upgrade your earnings.

With 11 home matches per season, your stadium capacity and league position combine to determine a huge chunk of your seasonal FC income.

Important: If your club fields an ineligible team for a home match (e.g. missing players in a slot, or a suspended/injured player in the lineup), you won’t earn any FC from that match. Make sure your squad is properly set before kick-off. Don’t be that manager.

2. End-of-Season League Rewards

FC is also distributed at the end of each season based on your division and final league position.

Higher divisions receive significantly larger reward pools, and finishing higher in your league earns you a bigger share. This is designed so that a mid-table finish in a higher division is financially better than winning a lower one, discouraging tanking and rewarding managers who compete to stay up.

Alongside this, we will be adjusting the ETH reward earnings per position in Divisions 1 - 7, reducing the number of positions paying out ETH (and compensating those lost positions with more FC rewards).

Divisions 1-6 will now pay out only 6 positions compared to 8 previously, with rewards weighted heavier towards the top positions.

Division 7 will now pay out only 4 positions (similar to Division 8 currently) instead of 6 positions previously, with rewards weighted heavier towards the top positions.

3. Other Sources

FC can also be earned through competitions, community events, quizzes and other systems across the game. We’ll share more on these as they roll out!

Purchasing FC

FC will also be available to purchase through the store, similar to how coaching sessions work today. This gives managers who want to accelerate their stadium development the option to do so, while keeping the currency earnable through gameplay for everyone.

There will be different sized FC packages available, with discounts for bulk purchases.

🏆 End-of-Season Rewards: Rebalanced for Season 17

With FC now integrated into end-of-season rewards, we've taken the opportunity to rebalance how rewards are distributed across the table.

Why the change

Based on community feedback, a lot of managers wanted ETH rewards pushed higher up the table. We agreed, but we also wanted to wait until FC was in the game so we could properly compensate clubs finishing outside the ETH reward places.

So as part of introducing FC into the reward pool, we've made two connected changes:

ETH rewards now go to fewer positions, but the amounts are bigger. The top finishers in each division earn more ETH than before. If you're competing at the top of your league, you'll feel the difference.

FC rewards fill in the gap for everyone else. Clubs finishing outside the ETH reward places now earn FC instead, with the first position outside ETH places earning more FC than the last position inside them. Nobody walks away empty-handed, and there's still a clear incentive to climb.

The exact payout structure varies by division:

• Divisions 1 to 6: The top 6 positions receive rewards, with the top spots earning a significantly bigger share than before.
• Divisions 7 and 8: The top 4 positions receive rewards, keeping things focused at the lower levels.

The charts can be found within our Discord in the 'Season Info' channel!

FC Rewards by Division and Position

Here's how much FC you'll earn from your final league position. The difference between divisions is significant by design. Winning Division 1 earns over 1.4M FC, while winning Division 8 earns 15,625 FC. Staying up is always worth more than going down, even if you finish lower in the table.

These tables won't be visible in-game straight away, so the charts can be found within our Discord in the 'Season Info' channel!

🔧 Upgrading Your Stadium

Stadium upgrades are done one stand at a time. Pick the stand you want to improve, choose the material you want it built in, pay the FC cost and it upgrades instantly. Each upgrade moves the stand up one size tier (e.g. XS → S, or M → L).

How Upgrade Costs Work

Costs scale with the size you're upgrading to, with bigger jumps costing more. Long stands cost more than Short stands for the same size upgrade, since they add more capacity. However, Long stands are slightly cheaper per seat, so they offer better value for money if you're trying to maximise capacity efficiently.

The cost curve is steep at the top end. Moving a stand from L to XL is a major investment, while the early upgrades (XS → S) are quite affordable. This is intentional. Your first upgrades should feel achievable, while maxing out your stadium is a long-term ambition spanning many seasons.

Customising Your Stands

When you upgrade a stand, you also get to choose its material for free. This is a purely cosmetic choice, but it’s a nice way to put your stamp on the ground. As your stands grow in size, new materials become available, so upgrading isn’t just about the numbers. It’s about making your stadium look the part too.

Want your Short stands in Stone while your Long sides go Dark Metal? Crack on. Each stand’s material is chosen independently, so you can mix and match however you like. We’re also planning to add the ability to name your stands after retired players in a future update. More details on that soon.

🔨 Stadium Maintenance

Bigger stadiums earn more and provide a stronger home advantage, but they also come with maintenance responsibilities. You can’t just build it and forget about it!

How Maintenance Works

At the start of each season, every stand above XS has a chance of needing repairs. Think of it like a FFL ground inspection. XS stands are maintenance-free and will never degrade, so there’s no risk at the bottom tier.

If a stand needs work, you’ll be notified and you have the entire season to pay the maintenance cost. If you don’t sort it out by the end of the season, that stand drops down one size tier (e.g. an L stand that isn’t maintained falls to M). Nobody wants to see their ground crumbling, so keep on top of it.

Maintenance costs are currently 40% of the upgrade cost for that stand’s current tier. They’re designed to be meaningful enough that you need to plan for them, but not so expensive that upgrading feels punishing. Think of it as the cost of keeping the lights on and the roof from leaking! (Old Trafford is falling down… 🎵)

What This Means Strategically

Maintenance adds a layer of decision-making to stadium development:

• Don’t overextend. Upgrading aggressively is great, but make sure your FC income can cover the upkeep that comes with larger stands. If you upgrade too fast and can’t maintain, you’ll lose progress. Nobody wants a half-built ground with scaffolding everywhere!
• XS stands are safe. If you can only afford to maintain some of your stands, keeping others at XS means they’ll never degrade.
• Plan for the long term. Your division, results and capacity all feed into how much FC you earn. Make sure your stadium ambitions match your earning potential.

As the system is new, maintenance and degradation won’t kick in for Season 17. We want managers to have time to understand the system and start earning FC before maintenance becomes a factor. We’ll communicate clearly when maintenance rolls begin.

🗺 Progression Examples

To give you a sense of the journey, here are some example stadium compositions and roughly where they sit:

Starting Out (All XS), 1,500 capacity YOU’VE GOT NO FANS! You’ve got no ground. Your ground is basically four sheds around a pitch. Upgrading even one stand to S makes a noticeable difference to your FC income.

Early Progress (S across all stands), 7,000 capacity You’ve reached the Okay band. Your home matches are no longer penalised. This is a realistic goal within your first few seasons of saving and spending wisely.

Mid-Game (Mix of M and S stands), ~12,000 to 14,000 capacity You’re into Good or Great territory. Your home advantage is starting to feel real, and your FC earnings from home matches are significantly higher. The fans are making some noise.

Late-Game (L and XL stands), 30,000+ capacity Excellent or Perfect range. You’re generating serious FC and your home is becoming a fortress. Reaching this level takes sustained investment over many seasons.

🔄 How It All Connects

1. You earn FC from home matches and league rewards
2. You spend FC to upgrade your stadium
3. A bigger stadium earns you more FC per match and gives you a stronger home advantage
4. A stronger home advantage helps you win more and stay in higher divisions
5. Higher divisions mean even more FC per match and larger end-of-season rewards

This loop rewards long-term club building, exactly the kind of progression Footium is built around. Other ways to spend your FC and improve your club are planned for the future.. stadiums are just the beginning!

⚠️ A Note on Season 17

This is the first version of the stadium and FC system. We’ve designed it carefully, but we know that real-world usage will surface things we haven’t anticipated.

We’ll be watching closely how managers interact with upgrades, earnings and maintenance throughout Season 17. Expect us to gather feedback and make adjustments where needed, whether that’s tweaking costs, earnings or how maintenance is communicated.

Your feedback matters here. Let us know in Discord how the system feels as you start using it.

📋 Quick Reference

Stadium Basics

• 4 stands per stadium (2 Long, 2 Short)
• 5 size tiers: XS → S → M → L → XL
• 6 materials (cosmetic), with more unlocking at higher sizes
• Materials can be changed for free with each size upgrade
• Stand naming coming soon

FC Earning

• Home matches: based on capacity × result × division
• End-of-season rewards: based on division and final position
• Other: competitions, events, quizzes

End-of-Season Rewards

• Reward structure rebalanced for Season 17
• Higher positions now earn a bigger share
• FC rewards scale massively with division (Div 1 pools dwarf Div 8)
• See the tables above for exact FC amounts per position

Upgrades

• One stand at a time, one tier at a time
• Long stands cost more but offer better value per seat
• Costs scale steeply at higher tiers
• Choose your material when upgrading (free)

Maintenance

• XS stands: no maintenance needed
• S/M/L/XL stands: chance each season of needing repairs
• Pay during the season or the stand drops a tier at season end
• Cost is a percentage of the upgrade cost for that tier

Stadium Impact

• Total capacity determines your Stadium Band
• Band provides a multiplier to home match performance
• Stacks multiplicatively with Chemistry

We’ll see you in pre-season. Time to start building. 🏗

Forza Footium ⚽️