United Managing Director John Nixon spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria on Friday evening as he talked about the preparations off the field for the big game coming up against Leeds United at Brunton Park tomorrow afternoon :
" As of tonight we've topped 16,500, about 16,530, we've got 138 tickets left and they'll go on sale at 10 'o' clock in the morning down at the ticket office. We expected Leeds to be a good game and we expected Leeds to be a good gate but of course they have only taken 3,250 tickets. So if you take into account our normal crowd then we should have been in the region of 10,000, so to get 16,000 plus is fantastic.
" I wouldn't like to put a figure on how much it is worth, financially of course we'll be better off than we are in normal league games. We have got additional policing costs though, we've got additional stewarding costs, we've got additional bar costs and we've got additional costs really all the way around the stadium. So yes we'll do well out of it but of course we do have some additional costs to go with it, but it's probably going to be the best pay-day we have in the league this season.
" We've been working really for the last five or six weeks, closely with the Police and the Millwall game was a dummy run for the Police. They brought Police horses to that game to try to simulate what would happen at the Leeds game because they knew we would have a bigger crowd. So literally we've been working for four to six weeks closely with the Police, and then monitoring and seeing how things were working out. So it's been a bit of extra work but of course what we are trying to do is see what would really happen if, and when, we get to the Championship.
" This really is a bit of a learning curve for us. We are using it as a learning curve and every time we have a match, we sit down on a Monday, we analyse everything that went right, everything that wrong and we make notes and we try to amend it the next time. It's all part of trying to improve the whole atmosphere and the whole experience that our fans get at Brunton Park.
" I think we're generally on a bit of a high to be honest, tomorrow I think the atmosphere in the ground is going to be really electric. I think when you get there and when you feel something like 16,668 people in there tomorrow then it will be really electric. Of course then we are looking forward to Grimsby, we are looking forward to Stockport and hopefully to Nottingham Forest the week after.
" I think as long as we play good and attractive football, and we've been doing that for most of this season and last season, then we've got every possibility of at least retaining some of those fans. Some people of course will just come for the experience, some will just come to see Leeds because they haven't lost a game this season, some of them though - let's hope that we can keep them at Brunton Park.
" I think generally the message is through now on the smoking ban, it's something that has spread and not just throughout football. I think now it's generally accepted that Brunton Park is smoke-free and I think that the fans have got used to it, and the emphasis has gone away from that.
" Obviously we say to the fans to get down early, we've got signage out and the RAC have got signage out to ensure that fans coming off the motorway at Junction 43 can go into the free car-park at Rosehill. We have a car-park, our own car-park now is open and that will hold over 500 cars, but get down early, enjoy the atmosphere and enjoy the build-up to the game, and hopefully enjoy a great result as well. "