No more Cup TV money - but still plenty of cheer

By Albatross
December 9 2003

Hartlepool United's cup tie with Sunderland will NOT be on live television - but there's still a decent pay day in the offing. However, there's four important league games to play before we visit the Stadium of Light.

It's no surprise that the BBC and Sky have ignored our tie for live coverage; for starters, we've just been on TV, and secondly it's simply not glamourous enough for them. The "magic of the cup" will only really be displayed by the televising of the Yeovil-Liverpool match; two of the all-Premier ties and Watford v Chelsea may mean a few viewers, but some of the really interesting stories - Pools at Sunderland, Kidderminster taking on Wolves, Fulham against Cheltenham - can hope for extended highlights at best.

Even allowing for missing out on a big TV payout in the third round, it's still been a worthwhile experience for Pools. The TV money and prize money for our two wins have already made us over £75,000, and with the club due 45% of the net gate receipts from the tie at Sunderland that should increase to a total of well over £200,000 - and an attendance of say 30,000 at the Stadium of Light could push that closer to £300,000. Either way it's a considerable cash injection that will please Ken Hodcroft - it pretty much covers the whole operating loss at HUFC reported in the 2002/3 accounts as mentioned at the AGM.

The question in many minds will of course be whether any of this money will find it's way into Neale Cooper's budget. I suspect that the arrivals of Byrne and Porter - albeit on loan and short-term deals - are already accounting for some of the TV income, and although we may be a long way from the financial troubles that are at other clubs a tight rein still needs to be in place if that situation is to continue.

Cup Fever may be overtaking the town, but meanwhile we're coming up to one of the busiest times of the season. Saturday sees us pay a visit to QPR that we'd do well to take anything from, and there are also games against Colchester, Barnsley and Oldham to come before the end of the month; with the division tight, a good return is needed to keep us where we are - but anything more than six points will be a considerable achievement in my view.

The Port Vale match that had been scheduled for 3rd January will now take place on Tuesday 27th January, with a 7:45 kick off at Vale Park.