THIS WEEKEND the FA Cup Third Round will be played. Over the years has seen some great David v Goliath clashes and shocks. The FA Cup is an ideal time to be maximising commercial revenue and sponsorship.

It is always a prime time for lower league clubs to make as much money as they can playing against top flight teams. For me, back in 2006 I was just starting off in football as Commercial Manager of Nuneaton Borough.

On the field, the club were going from strength to strength and embarked on a huge run in the FA Cup.

After winning our way through three qualifying rounds, against AFC Telford, Chelmsford City (via a replay) and Tiverton Town (with another replay) we found ourselves in the First Round Proper of the competition.

Dreaming of the big names

That season, Nottingham Forest were the plum tie everyone wanted, in the cup draw.
We sat down and waited for our ball to drop, would it be a nice away day? Or the possibility of TV? Then the name got drawn out of the hat. Nuneaton Borough will play ….. and then the next ball got pulled … Ramsgate!

Luckily we won 2:0 and the same thing happened again! It was unbelievably the fifth game we had been drawn at home and another delight – Histon! This ended up in a 2:2 draw only this time, we had one foot in with the big boys!

Just before Christmas 2005. The balls dropped out of the bag for the Third Round. Nuneaton Borough or Histon drawn at home again, will play Middlesbrough!

Veteran’s header secures windfall

We knew we had a tough replay to overcome yet the following week. However, for the winner was a massive prize.
A header from Terry Angus was the difference. The 39 year-old club legend came out of retirement as a favour to manager Roger Ashby (pictured below.) The goal fired us into the Third Round and a sixth home tie in the competition against Middlesbrough.

TV overlooked us in favour of Manchester United v Nigel Clough’s Burton Albion. But we maximised commercial FA Cup revenue in terms of sponsorship.

Our new chairman and owner was superb in working with me to develop commercially. We wanted to create ways of accommodating people to go and watch the game and dine in style. We could only accommodate 40 at the ground. However, over 150 were ferried around to venues in the area, before coming back to watch the game.

Virgin Money were signed as shirt sponsors. But by this time we had already launched our third shirt of the season!
Our old MD had agreed a kit deal and ditched the club’s iconic stripes at the start of the season. So trying to be creative, I approached the FA when we reached the First Round.

They agreed for us to put the FA 125 anniversary logo on the shirt as a “limited edition”. We then put the shirt out at a discounted rate. It proved popular.

The new Virgin shirts had the new logo on and were embroidered with a date and also went on sale.

Local and national limelight

The town was buzzing and we had every shop flying the flag for the club. Businesses were throwing money at us and TV and radio were all over us. Merchandise was selling like hot cakes and we even had a shot drink commissioned. The Boro Blaster was blue and white. Basically, just a rebadged Corky’s shot but the pubs in the town all agreed to stock it!

We commissioned a one-off programme at £5 for the game. It sold thousands in the run up as over 6,000 were packed into Manor Park for the big game. We were maximising commercial FA Cup revenue everywhere.

The players were making the most of the limelight. Appearances galore on quirky features for sports shows. I ended up with a bleached lightning strip haircut by celeb barber Adee Phelan.

Fairytale finish

The day before the game, we were all ready to go home.

Suddenly one of the volunteers who marked the pitch came banging on the window of my office. He told me that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was stood on the pitch with manager Steve McClaren.

We all raced out to see a coach leave the car park and head with pace up the road.
Middlesbrough clearly didn’t fancy our facilities. They didn’t train at our ground before as they were entitled to. They opted for Coventry City’s facilities down the road instead!

The day of the game came and it was the stuff of dreams. Mendietta gave Middlesbrough the lead through a first half free kick. The lads didn’t give up and battled to the very end. And a fairy tale finish saw Boro awarded a penalty on the final minute.

Cool as a cucumber, Gez Murphy stepped up and slotted it home. It gave Nuneaton a draw.

But above all the back page headlines and again we were maximising commercial FA Cup revenue.

Virgin Money came back and gave us more money, we all had a free holiday to Magaluf. TV again ignored us in favour of yes you’ve guessed it … Man United v Burton – the replay.
We negotiated a deal with Virgin where we got more money every time the logo was seen. And also if we scored a goal in the replay. We took over 5,000 fans to the replay. We scored two goals and you’ve guessed it, launched a replay shirt to shift the last of the kit!

If we won, we would have drawn our Football League neighbours Coventry City, but a 5-2 defeat meant the end of the road.

The tale of six shirts in a season

Now back to the tale of the shirts. You count them!

At the beginning of the season we had a new home and away kit. We then launched a limited edition FA Cup shirt with the FA 125 logo on it for the cup run. Then add in a Virgin Money shirt for the initial with special embroidery. Another for the replay. Then in the final game of the season preview the next season’s shirt – that makes it six in a season.

Is that some sort of record?

Overall we received amazing profile for the club. We maximised every opportunity possible. We created memories to last a lifetime and generated almost £250,000 in revenue from the cup run.