Accrington Stanley and Manchester United didn’t play this past weekend. That didn’t stop Accrington Stanley for selling 250 special tickets for a fake FA Cup game in just 36 hours.
What happened was that Manchester United was supposed to play away against the winner of the Accrington Stanley/Yeovil Town game. To lower league teams, hosting a top team like Manchester United brings a potential money and marketing bonanza that a low league team can desperately need.
When Accrington Stanley lost the replay against Yeovil Town, Accrington Stanley lost out on the chance to host one of the most popular teams in the world so they had to improvise. The team put 250 “special-edition” tickets at £20 each.
The team sold all 250 tickets in 36 hours as well as someone from Brazil buying 100 of them. While this sounds like complete nonsense, the £5,000 is going to go a long way for the team. Club chairman Peter Marsden said that, “the money generated will be used to help manager John Coleman and his assistant Jimmy Bell strengthen the squad.”
While it’s not as much as the team would’ve gotten if they were able to play the game, but this is better than nothing. The concept may sound rather insane but if fans are willing to pay for special tickets for a fake game against an EPL powerhouse, that doesn’t sound crazy at all. Accrington Stanley found a new revenue stream and that may keep them into the Football League.
(BBC)
