Some Thoughts On The FA Cup

If you're a glass half-empty kind of person then the focus of FA Cup Third Round weekend will always be on the empty seats that you can see but at Affordable Football I like to be positive (especially about The Cup) and it's worth reflecting that these are games that people have to actively purchase a ticket for which hundreds of thousands of supporters did, just a short time after Christmas and when a number of clubs had had two home games in the space of a few days.

Comparisons with Premier League attendances are almost always going to be unflattering but Norwich City, for instance, had a second meeting in ten days against Fulham, hardly a fixture to get the pulse racing and yet almost 22,000 went along to watch it.

Brighton marketed their game against Reading, an all-Championship affair, from almost the time the draw was made, reduced prices and drew a crowd of 20,696 to the Amex.

Replays at Watford (against Bristol City) and Fulham (against Norwich City) have been priced at £15 for adults while Sheffield Wednesday have pegged tickets at £10 for the match against Macclesfield.