From £175 to £13,550 - what a difference a year makes ...!
US Portsmouth’s memorable FA Vase run earned them over £13,500.
Their total prize money, from winning seven games and then cruelly losing a semi-final on penalties, was £13,550.
That’s a far cry from the £175 they banked in the 2019/20 FA Vase, when they suffered a first qualifying round home loss to Sherborne Town.
Had they beaten Binfield at the weekend and progressed to a Wembley final, USP would have banked at least another £18,775 ... and potentially £48,775.
The difference between winning and losing the semi was £3,775 while the runners-up in the final will collect £15,000.
USP’s round winnings started with the £725 they got from beating AFC Portchester in the second qualifying round, and progressed to the £4,125 they collected for beating Flackwell Heath in the last eight.
The 2020/21 FA Vase winners will trouser £30,000. In the FA Trophy, the winners collect £60,000 and the runners-up £30,000. The FA
Cup winners this coming weekend, in contrast, will bank £1.8m and the runners-up £900,000.
The bigger cheques will always be written in the FA Cup. While USP won a total of £11,825 from winning seven Vase ties, six against higher division clubs, Havant & Waterlooville earned £16,972 just by beating two divisions lower Cray Valley in the FAC first round last November.
But for a club at USP’s level, to earn £13,550 from a cup run is untold riches. Yet secretary Bob Brady admits they have probably spent £6,000 of it already.
Only last week, they shelled out over £4,500 on brand new kit and tracksuits for the players to wear at Wembley.
Due to the time it would take to turn around the order – there was only a fortnight between the Binfield tie and the final - USP had to order new kit before the semi-final took place.
The players will now be given the kit they would have worn in the final as a ‘thank you’ for their efforts in putting the club firmly on the non-league map.
‘The players deserve something,’ said Brady, ‘and we obviously can’t pay them.’
‘Glenn (Turnbull, manager) was telling me the tracksuits and kit were around £4,700. If we had got to Wembley we’d have bought new suits as well, that would have been another couple of thousand. But you could offset those costs against the £15,000 or £30,000 you’d have made.’
Turnbull hopes their Wembley shirts will be a constant reminder of what the squad have achieved.
‘Some of them probably won’t understand what they’ve done for years,’ he said.
‘It might hit home if they lose in the first round next season, or if they sit and watch the final later this month, or when they see Harry Kane walk out at Wembley in the Euros.
It’s been a great team effort from Carol in the tea room through to Glenn the manager US Portsmouth secretary Bob Brady