retired_burnandshine99

Obviously, getting home ties is crucial. Prize money's fun too, mind, but to cash in properly you need home ties. And in countries like the Netherlands, it appears that the amateur sides in the draw get home advantage, at least when playing pro sides.

retired_jmathias

Cups suck arse. Although money is good, I can't be arsed to lose my first teamers to injuries or let them play Sunday-Wednesday fixture. And if you have a run in the cup that is really really really long, just wait until the end of the season. In last 5 or 6 matches, when your first teamers have already played 40+ matches, they will decide that it is time for vacation. You have to rotate your players, which (except Ian) nobody have in abundance.

retired_priyaa_00

I can go either way!

If I have a full fit squad and back up I love cups. If my squad is small or there are loads out injured then they well and truly suck, they just make the leauge harder.

retired_tinkfaeree

I usually focus on the cups. Promotion usually is not even close for me anyway. Interestingly, those few seasons where I have success in the league, also brings success in cups. Has to do with having a decent squad in those years, I'd guess.

retired_nekh_20

I have always been an admirer of the cups. I like the idea of going on a good cup run not only for financial reasons, but for the morale it will bring if we win a few rounds.

And there is always the holy grail of cup ties, Manchester United Away....

AnThHh

I think that the cups are great, especially if you are winning higher league teams.
You also get prize money for them

retired_gouthami

Cups suck arse, Period.

Not because of injuries or the like; it's just that I keep losing against $hitty teams that I've never even heard of.

retired_mrsjb

What the indispensible one said. I'm pretty sure I managed to avoid relegation in one particular season based purely on the morale boost my team derived from a good cup run.

retired_galkey

Eastleigh?

Cups for me are more exciting than your league campaign, and more rewarding financially in the short-term. I tend to field an almost full-strength team, often including my back-up goalie and a couple of youngsters amongst my seasoned pros.

retired_merri13

IRL the amateurs have a home advantage only in the 2st round, from 2nd round their homeadvantage is gone. In the game they keep it.
But when I look at my favorite club and their approch to cupties... Last season (04/5) we reached 3th round. 1st Round away to amateurs, needed extra time to win 3-4 (in the 80th minute it was 1-3 and they had 10 men left on the pitch...) but there were around 400 people watching the game, so maybe 2k euro income.
2nd Round, homegame against another amateurside. We have a capacity of 8600, this game was watched by 1000 tops, who only paid 5 euro instead of the usual 10, so the gatereceipts were 5k max.
3th Round away to ADO Den Haag, watched by around 3500, that was the financial bonus I guess, tickets were 10 or 20 euro, so I think it gave us around 10k income.
So at most we got 17.000 euro on gatereceipts, we have a budget of around 2.5 million euro...

We as supporters don't care that much about the cup. Most games against amateurs are one way traffic (meaning, scores like 0-7, 0-11, 1-9 are normal in the first 2 rounds) and mostly played on tuesday evenings. If we, by accident, reach the round were the big clubs get in (the round before the quarter finals...) then it's getting intresting with possible awaygames to PSV, Ajax of Feyenoord.