Man City tie 'worth up to £1m' to Plymouth Argyle

BBC News

11-02-2025

Plymouth Argyle chairman Simon Hallett says their FA Cup fifth-round tie at Manchester City could be worth up to £1m to the Championship club.The Pilgrims booked their place in the last 16 by stunning Premier League leaders 1-0 on Sunday - a win Hallett described as one of the best ever at Home Park.Their trip to Etihad Stadium next month to take on the Premier League champions will be Argyle's third against top-flight opposition, having won 1-0 at Brentford in January's third round. "We've yet to work out the exact figures, but I am going to say it's going to be somewhere between £600,000 and £1m to Argyle," Hallett told BBC Radio Devon.
"When we played Liverpool eight years ago Anfield had a capacity of just over 50,000 - we made about £700,000."So I think we should do a little bit better this time. The Etihad I believe has a capacity of about 62,000, so we think it should be somewhere between £600,000 and £1m."It won't mean as much as it did when we played Liverpool, though."When we played Liverpool eight years ago that £700,000 represented about a third of our football budget, but today our football budget is many multiples of what it was then, so it won't be as significant."Much more important than the money - and the money will be nice - is that it's going to be a great day out for at least 15,000 of our fans."
But it is a day out Hallett may not be able to make. The Plymouth-born businessman is based in the United States and has a holiday in Argentina booked during the fifth round. If he does cancel it, it will not be for the first time."When it [the draw] did come out as Manchester City, which was the one I was hoping for, I yelled in anguish," he said. "I'm actually booked to go on a fishing trip to Argentina leaving on 27 February, so we'll see what is going to happen."I've already cancelled it once because of the manager hire in January, so I'm not quite sure - it'll cost me a fortune to do so again."And while it may well be that his fishing trip will have to be postponed again, Hallett says this season's cup run has put his club - who are close to adding extra investment - in front of a worldwide audience. "We're looking to develop a global fanbase and if we can be in the spotlight against Liverpool and then against Manchester City, as well as let's not forget against Brentford," he said."One of the commentators doing the draw said that there was a chance for a second giant-killing - let's not forget that we knocked out Brentford who are hardly minnows these days."