I think the new franchise and thread in the discussion area being done by Shadow is a great idea. If you haven't seen it check it out New Franchise

Shadow asked to discuss it in a separate forum to keep the thread clean and easy to read for new managers later, so that's what I'm doing here.

Setup:
Shadow stated the franchise's timeline goals. Personally, I would have pushed being competitive to season three instead of season two. But, most managers don't have that patience, so I completely understand the decision made as it will more closely reflect what most will try to do. However, those early seasons are the best for acquiring draftees and building a bank so I'd suggest extending those as long as anybody has the patience to do it for. But, for the purposes of this thread I'll relegate my thoughts to Shadow's stated goals and timeline.

Day 1: I like all the decisions made. But most importantly I like the decision Shadow made to NOT do something. That is to not hire a coach. Dear new players: do not hire a coach right away.

There are a few minor things that I would do differently/also mention.
Look at the schedule for the new team. If you joined mid season you'll potentially be playing SC away games vs bots. Switch the venue to be the home team in those games.

Stadium upgrade: absolutely dump all the money in right away. There are a bunch of minor ways to maximize the revenue from ticket sales. Look at the schedule, look at how long it takes to build. Plan out when you will have money to upgrade stand portions that already have seats and try to maximize when you can upgrade those without losing ticket sales. In Shadow's situation, it didnt particularly matter as they have away games Sat and Mon so can use the initial money and that mediacentre bonus in a variety of ways.

I probably would have upgraded both existing stands now because it will be ready by the time the next game is played. But, I didn't fully plan it out and know what the bank account looked like. It's not a big deal, and this paragraph is probably the exact type of comment that Shadow didn't want polluting the original thread. But, if you enjoy planning things out you can do some fun stuff with the stadium upgrades. Especially once you get over 100k seats, maintenance kicks in but not on seats under construction. A team can avoid that cost a little bit each time and be super happy about "gaining" 50k, but that maintenance fee is not "worth" the time investment in a vacuum for most people who have limited time to spend already. But, you can do something like reward yourself by spending those savings on a new TM guy or something.

Speaking of Roster and the TM: This is tricky, because so many new managers get burned adding expensive weekly salaries right away for no benefit. Don't do that. Really don't do that.

But, I would trim the roster of all the players that won't be useful at all. Realistically anybody over 23, maybe even younger. As an existing manager I'd know what to look for and would cut to the minimum, and supplement the roster with 5k to 50k transfer market guys that have the same or better physicals than the starting roster but also are usually like three years younger (and sometimes cheaper salary anyway, making it no actual cost). I would keep trimming this way until basically a roster turnover has happened and all the players are young enough to be contributors when their skills reach competitive levels. But I would only be buying guys with very low weekly salaries. Look at the starting salary, and replace with guys with close to similar salaries to that. There really isn't a difference between the current skills of a bunch of readily available 25k and under transfer wire 20 year old (or younger) players and the starting roster 25 year old players. A big note, though, is that a new manager who doesn't know what to look for on the TM, I would advise to avoid the TM at first but to still cut all the oldest players until they hit the minimum. There is no need to pay these oldies any (admittedly small) salary for no long term benefit. And, the best thing about a tiny roster is the experience to be gained in games won't be wasted on players being cut instantly. Established teams regularly sell players with too low of experience who might otherwise be worthy of an elite roster eventually but simply won't get that experience on an Elite bench. With a new team, this is the perfect landing spot for this type of player.

Things not mentioned that existing managers know but new players might not: Say hi on the forum, ask for advice, get a link to the mentioned jack6's blog, (hopefully) read this Shadow thread once completed. That is, try to familiarize yourself with the game mechanics, and get a mentor or something like that in an experienced player to bounce ideas off of and ask questions to. Loads of managers are willing to correspond with others, especially if a new manager shows an interest in doing so.

Love reading the updates and also see your thinking on your decisions. The get competitive as fast as possible is an intriguing prospect as the normal thinking is that it takes a lot of seasons to get competitive buy then Willemstad Bridges (and others in the past) have happened

Will you also cover making a playbook?

Yes, this will be the main part in season 2, when playing in a competitive league.