FA Cup fans first got carried away with the BBC back in Round One with Warrington Town becoming a household name overnight when they humbled League Two’s Exeter City in front of 2,400 fans at Cantilever Park.
Warrington beat Exeter City, live on BBC, in the First Round Proper
Since then, over 880,000 fans have been to FA Cup ties with 610,000 supporters attending Third Round fixtures when the Premier League and Championship clubs entered at the beginning of January.
Over 6m people watched The FA Cup Pointless Celebrities on BBC One while Songs of Praise are singing their way to Wembley for the FA Cup Final this May with an exclusive Abide with Me competition for fans who saw their clubs participate in the Third Round.
For more information on how you could be singing Abide with Me on the famous Wembley turf click here.
FA Cup television viewing figures have seen an audience increase of over 5m since returning to the BBC.
The Third Round ties also reached significant audiences with a 15 minute peak of 6.5m watching Arsenal v Hull City and 6.3m watching AFC Wimbledon v Liverpool.
BT Sport’s coverage of The FA Cup is also reaching new heights with an audience peak of 1.3m for their Third Round coverage of Manchester United’s trip to League One’s Yeovil Town.
The FA Cup has even got its own spin off competition this season, with the BBC and The FA partnering up for The People’s Cup which is open to grassroots players and teams across the country.
Over 1000 teams are signed up to The People’s Cup already with competitions for youth, adults, disabled and even walking footballers.
The People’s Cup Finals day will take place in Manchester on Bank Holiday Monday 25 May, with all the winners guaranteed a VIP day out at The FA Cup Final on Saturday 30 May.
