England’s most historic footballing competition, the FA Cup, is a popular sporting event in the diaries of most football fans. We often bear witness to the biggest Premier League teams in England going toe-to-toe with some of the smallest teams, in classic David vs Goliath battles.
This is what makes the competition such a spectacle, and what comes with spectacles is a high demand for tickets. So when do FA Cup tickets go on sale? In this detailed article, we take a deep dive into the competition and outline when tickets might go on sale for the most competitive domestic trophy in England. Read on to learn more about this topic.
When Do FA Cup Tickets Go on Sale?
Tickets for FA Cup matches can go on sale anywhere from a few weeks to a month before each round of the competition is scheduled to take place.
For example, in the 2022/23 FA Cup, Tottenham Hotspur drew south-coast club Portsmouth in the 3rd round of the competition. The match took place on the 7th January 2023, and tickets went on sale to Tottenham’s season ticket holders on the 12th of December 2022. This gave supporters just under 4 weeks to organise any necessary travel and accommodation arrangements.
Demand for tickets will depend on a number of factors, including which teams get drawn to play against each other, their respective stadium capacities, whether the two teams are rivals and more. Our advice would be to ensure that you’re receiving email communications from your beloved club, as well as following them on social media.
That way, you’ll ensure that you’re up-to-date with all ticket sale dates, including when their FA Cup tickets go on sale.
FA Cup Format
In order to further understand when FA Cup tickets go on sale, it’s worth understanding the format of the competition. The FA Cup is played in the following 14 different rounds of matches:
- Extra Preliminary Round
- Preliminary Round
- First Round Qualifying
- Second Round Qualifying
- Third Round Qualifying
- Fourth Round Qualifying
- First Round Proper
- Second Round Proper
- Third Round Proper
- Fourth Round Proper
- Fifth Round Proper
- Quarter-final
- Semi-final
- Final
In this format, Premier League and Championship teams don’t start competing until the 3rd round of the tournament. The earlier rounds in the competition provide an opportunity for any football club in the English football league system to make their way through to the later stages. This underdog element is what makes the competition so exciting.
Because there are so many rounds in the tournament, and so many teams competing, there are various different dates across the season when FA Cup tickets go on sale.
Time Between Rounds
Now let’s have a look at the time between each round in the FA Cup, as this is important for fans to understand in order to work out when they’re able to buy tickets for the club’s potential cup matches.
Here are the dates of the 14 rounds for the 2023/24 FA Cup:
| FA Cup Round | 20233/24 Date | Time Gap (Weeks) |
| Extra Preliminary | Saturday 5 August 2023 | - |
| Preliminary | Saturday 19 August 2023 | 2 |
| First Round Qualifying | Saturday 2 September 2023 | 2 |
| Second Round Qualifying | Saturday 16 September 2023 | 2 |
| Third Round Qualifying | Saturday 30 September 2023 | 2 |
| Fourth Round Qualifying | Saturday 14 October 2023 | 2 |
| First Round Proper | Saturday 4 November 2023 | 3 |
| Second Round Proper | Saturday 2 December 2023 | 4 |
| Third Round Proper* | Saturday 6 January 2024 | 5 |
| Fourth Round Proper | Saturday 27 January 2024 | 3 |
| Fifth Round Proper | Wednesday 28 February 2024 | 4.5 |
| Quarter-final | Saturday 16 March 2024 | 2.5 |
| Semi-final | Saturday 20 April 2024 | 5 |
| Final | Saturday 25 May 2024 | 5 |
As you can see from the table, FA Cup rounds range from having 2 weeks between each other to 5 weeks. If a team was ever able to go from the 1st round to the final (which has never happened), there would be 14 different ticket sale dates the club’s fans would have to monitor throughout the season.
For teams like Manchester City, who won the 2022/23 FA Cup, their fans had to monitor 6 separate ticket sale dates on their road from the 3rd round to the final.
When Do FA Cup Final Tickets Go on Sale?
FA Cup final tickets typically go on sale 3–4 weeks before the match takes place. The final is played at Wembley Stadium in London, whereby the ticket allocation is fairly split between the two sides competing.
There are typically 5 weeks between the FA Cup semi-final and final. For the 2022/23 FA Cup final, tickets went on sale to Manchester City and Manchester United fans on the 12th May, and this was just over 3 weeks before the match which took place on Saturday 3rd June.
How Easy Is It to Get FA Cup Final Tickets?
Due to the size of the occasion and the nature of tickets going on sale to season ticket holders and members of the competing clubs, buying FA Cup final tickets is pretty difficult.
If you’re not a supporter of either of the finalists, but are still keen to attend the FA Cup final, we recommend buying through official trusted ticket suppliers, and at Ticket-Compare we work with five of the best online ticket marketplaces.
FA Cup Final Tickets at Ticket-Compare
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