BRAINTREE Town are set earn around £100,000 for making it to the FA Cup First Round proper for only the second time in their 114 year-old history.
The cash bonanza has been set up by ITV bosses who plan to show their home game with Tranmere Rovers, currently topping the npower League One, live on television on Sunday week (November 4) with a 12.30pm kick-off.
That television money will bring in a match fee to the Iron of £64,000 and with extra advertising and other revenue in and around the Amlin Stadium for the big game, plus their £12,500 prizemoney for beating Lowestoft Town 3-2 on Saturday in the Fourth Qualifying Round, it will give the club their biggest ever pay day.
Should the Iron part-timers pull off a shock result and beat Tranmere, who have just lost their last two consecutive league games, they will scoop another £18,000.
Club chairman Lee Harding admits the television money is an added bonus: "It's a great boost for the club, not only for the extra money but also for having the club playing in front of an audience of millions."
Harding also confirmed that some of the cup money will go towards the club's playing budget to help manager Alan Devonshire strengthen his squad.
"We've always said that any such money generated by a cup run will be made available to the manager who has done a great job in establishing us in the Blue Square Bet Premier," said Harding.
"But we've always stuck to our rule that we will never let this club go into debt so again any cup monies coming in will be used wisely and we shall always keep ourselves on an even keel.
"This cup match will not be all ticket after discussions with Tranmere and Essex Police because the game is a lunch-time kick-off and it's on television," he said.
"And our normal admission prices will remain and the only reserved tickets, which will be available soon, will be for the main grandstand."
He added: "There's obviously still a great deal of hard work to be done in preparation for what will be the biggest game ever in the club's history.
"Naturally, Tranmere will be favourites to win the tie but you never know," he said. "In recent years we've never had much luck in the FA Cup in terms of home draws or in making progress in the competition.
"But this is the big one for us and we want to make sure everything goes well on the day," he added.
Manager Alan Devonshire, himself an FA Cup Final winner with West Ham Utd in 1980, whilst thrilled for his players to be playing the highest-ranked team they could in the First Round, is more concerned with picking up points in this Saturday Blue Square Bet Premier home game against Wrexham.
"That's more important at the moment and I want us to win and pick up three more points towards our season target of 50 points," he explained.
"We'll get the players to keep their feet on the ground and put the cup excitement behind them for another week."
For the Wrexham game Devonshire expects both full-back Sam Habergham and winger Danny Sparkes to back from injury but Ryan Peters remains sidelined with a gash on his shin while recent signing, central defender Alan Massey, will make his home debut.
Devonshire though has admitted this week that he had already been looking to bring in at least a couple of new players to strengthen his squad.
"I have a couple of targets in mind and hopefully, I'll now be able to set about talking to those players and we'll have to wait and see what happens," he explained.
It will mean at least one or two current players will move on but Devonshire stressed that any new players coming in have to be able to improve his current squad.
The only downside at the Amlin Stadium is that central defender Dean Wells, who has been the Iron's most consistent player this season, will miss the cup game as he remains injured with a dislocated shoulder while his new defensive partner, Alan Massey is cup-tied.
