You are not alone at that stage, most of the young teams have a hard time gaining ground.
Some who start in micronations(my first team) can build a team quicker, but most of the teams are in large nations, and a lot of active people in Utopia.
You should keep your salaries low, and upgrade the arena as much as possible, but there is no need for full tanking, you should try to win as much games as you can(against teams similar to yours). That will make the start more fun, and give you more attendance money.
Basically, as someone said, "semi-tank", that's what I'm doing with my Utopia team(I started in 4th season).