Holy cr@p Kiwi, its nuts isnt it.  Will we ever be able to compete at that level without putting real money in?  do we need to given we dont play against other human opponents?  I dont know.

Rather than spend my 50k odds on an average player, I've done the same as you and developed a couple of extra stands.   Wait 24 hours roughly for those to be built.   What benefits do you get from that?  higher coin yield from matches?  sure as heck hope so.