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How Does an FA Cup Run Help Non-League Clubs?

How does an FA Cup run help non-league clubs? Prize money, TV fees and new fans can change a season; keeping the benefits takes careful choices.

By Brett Hanson · Underdog Podcasts · November 9, 2026

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Seung-woo Yang works as a property surveyor. On November 8, 2026, he also curled a ninth-minute shot past Crawley Town’s goalkeeper. By full time, seventh-tier Wimborne Town had won 2-0 and reached the FA Cup’s second round for the first time.

An FA Cup run helps non-league clubs through prize money, television fees, ticket sales and a burst of public attention. Wimborne’s televised win brought in £97,750 before gate receipts. That is real money for a small club. It is also a one-off payment that must cover real costs, with no promise that the next crowd will be as large.

In “The FA Cup: What Is a Football Dream Worth?,” an episode of The Beautiful Game: Unfiltered, host Chris Horwedel keeps coming back to the people who must make the day work. Yang’s goal gave them a fine problem to have: deciding what the win should pay for.

How does an FA Cup run help non-league clubs?

The clearest benefit is cash a club could not count on when it set its usual budget. Each round offers prize money. A match chosen for live television can add a fee, and a well-attended tie brings in ticket income after costs and the other club’s share.

Then there is the audience. Wimborne hosted Crawley before a crowd of 3,300 at the Wyatt Homes Stadium, with the match shown live. Some viewers had never heard of Wimborne. Some people inside the ground may never have visited it before. Giving those people an easy way back to a league match could be worth more over time than another busy afternoon at the bar.

None of that income arrives by itself. Horwedel notes that Wimborne had played through four qualifying rounds to get this far, including replays against Portishead Town and Weston-super-Mare. Its scheduled league game against Berkhamsted also had to move. For players with jobs outside football, an extra fixture takes another evening out of the week.

The Cup pays most when a club keeps winning. Ordinary weeks still have to work.

How much money did Wimborne’s FA Cup win bring in?

The figures need separating. The Football Association paid each club selected for a live first-round tie a £50,000 broadcast fee. Wimborne earned that fee when its game was chosen, whatever the score. Beating Crawley added £47,750 in first-round prize money. A defeat would have paid £15,800, so the win itself made a £31,950 difference to that round’s prize.

Wimborne had already earned £20,625 for its four qualifying-round wins. Add that to the broadcast fee and first-round prize, and its published Cup payments stood at £118,375 through the first round. That figure does not include ticket receipts. Nor is it a profit figure: staging the games costs money.

Gate receipts follow a separate rule. In the first two rounds proper, the clubs split the net gate equally after tax and permitted match expenses. From the third round through the quarterfinals, a non-league club facing a Football League or Premier League side gets 55% of the net gate.

That explains Yang’s wish after the game. Horwedel recounts Yang telling the Dorset Echo he wanted a second-round match Wimborne could win, followed by an away trip to a Premier League club. Such a draw could put a small club’s share against a far bigger bank of seats.

The word could matters. Wimborne still had to win another match to reach that third-round possibility.

Why can a sold-out FA Cup match be expensive to stage?

Wimborne’s home game against Crawley sold out. The club also had to provide extra bars and toilets, arrange parking for both sets of supporters, and set up a fan zone with a 30-metre marquee. New standing space went in behind the dugouts. Those were jobs to finish before kickoff, whether Yang scored or not.

A packed ground needs stewards. The club’s call for volunteers shows the less visible work: guiding people to the right place and keeping routes clear for emergency vehicles. A visitor might remember the winning goal, while the person directing cars has to think about how everyone gets home.

“I just want you to think about how many people had to do their jobs well before Yang could do his,” Horwedel said. It is a fair request. A full ground needs more than a full team sheet.

Some match expenses can be taken from gate receipts before the clubs divide them. Other work still uses staff time and volunteer hours. A one-day crowd can leave useful ground upgrades behind, yet the club must look after anything it builds.

Can one FA Cup match bring in lasting supporters?

“I just want you to think about how many people had to do their jobs well before Yang could do his.”
— Chris Horwedel, on The Beautiful Game: Unfiltered

Marine found out in an odd way. In January 2021, the eighth-tier club hosted Tottenham Hotspur behind closed doors because of the pandemic. Marine lost 5-0. Supporters could not buy a seat for the match, so the club sold virtual tickets instead. It sold 32,202.

That support helped Marine spend more than £500,000 on a new artificial pitch in 2022. The club also improved rooms at its ground. The pitch gave local people another place to play, while the club gained a facility it could use beyond first-team matchdays.

Marine kept a route open for distant fans, too. It began selling virtual season tickets for 2024–25, and more than 100 people bought them. They included Tottenham supporters and people living abroad. A famous opponent had brought them to Marine’s door; the club gave them something to follow afterward.

Wimborne has a different chance. Its new visitors stood at its ground and watched its own players win. Horwedel suggests telling them when the next home game is and making tickets easy to buy. It sounds small because it is. At a club run with help from volunteers, small jobs need someone to do them.

What should a club do with an FA Cup windfall?

Lincoln City offers one answer. While still outside the Football League, it reached the FA Cup quarterfinals in 2017. Lincoln later reported a £1.28 million profit for the 2016–17 season, which included Cup income. The club reinvested money in its operations and put more than £1.3 million into a training complex.

A training ground can serve a team every day. Lincoln’s accounts also show why the Cup cannot carry the whole story: promotion, strong season-ticket sales and further investment helped shape what the club could afford next. Its later accounts reported a loss for the following financial period.

A manager could make a sound case for spending some fresh money on players. Horwedel puts the awkward part plainly: “The hard part comes when a good month puts your bills up for the next 2 years.” A new contract lasts after the Cup match ends.

Corby Town found out what happens when hoped-for income fails to arrive. In December 2023, its board disclosed a projected shortfall of about £70,000. The budget had counted on average gates of roughly 700 and successful cup runs, neither of which came through as hoped; the board also cited ground costs and lost investor support. Then came the cut. In January 2024, its management, players and backroom staff agreed to a 10% wage cut.

That does not mean every club should buy a pitch. Wimborne might get more use from fixing a stubborn ground problem or keeping cash for a hard winter. The test is less exciting than the draw: would the club still pay for this choice if next year’s Cup ends at its first hurdle?

Why do FA Cup replays matter to small clubs?

In 2005, supporter-owned Exeter City went to Old Trafford and held Manchester United to a 0-0 draw. The result gave Exeter a home replay. United won it 2-0, but Exeter says the ticket and television income from the two ties cleared the club’s remaining debt.

That route is now closed once clubs reach the first round proper. The FA removed replays from that point, citing a crowded calendar and the need for recovery time. Replays remain in qualifying, where Wimborne needed two to reach Crawley.

There is a fair case against adding another midweek game for part-time players. There is also Exeter’s case, sitting in the club’s history: its players earned a second fixture, and that fixture brought in money no one had budgeted. More early-round television coverage creates opportunities, but the broadcaster chooses which matches get the fee.

Most clubs leave the Cup before television comes calling. In the 2026–27 first qualifying round, winning paid £2,250; losing paid £750. Someone still had to arrange the match and cover the trip. Horwedel argues for more predictable help with those early costs. It would reach clubs whose Cup run never makes a highlight reel.

What happens when the Cup crowd goes home?

Wimborne already offers youth football and sessions for players of different abilities. Horwedel also mentions its entry into a local over-60s walking football league. Those people use the club in ways that do not depend on drawing a famous opponent.

Cup attention can still help them. A new volunteer may turn up. A local business may ask about backing a team. A family that came for Crawley may try a regular home game. None is guaranteed, and none turns into lasting support without a reply from somebody at the club.

Horwedel would like to go back after Wimborne’s run and ask how many of the people who came for it returned, a better question than guessing what one big crowd will mean next season. It matters. The volunteer steward will be there to direct the cars either way.

The full episode of The Beautiful Game: Unfiltered is on Underdog Podcasts, with the rest of the network's shows.