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Cambridge to splash out on toilets after Man United FA Cup windfall

Cambridge United are planning to spend the cash earned from their money-spinning FA Cup run on upgrading the Abbey Stadium -- starting with the toilets.

Cambridge are thought to have earned in excess of 1.5 million pounds so far from reaching the fourth round and taking Manchester United to a replay at Old Trafford, with only 112,500 pounds of that coming from FA prize money.

The Us received a further 144,000 pounds for the first game against Man United being broadcast live on television, which may be boosted further if next week's game is also shown. Most of the rest of the windfall has come from their share of the gate receipts from the two matches against Louis van Gaal's side.

The club's chairman, Dave Doggett, has been putting a plan in place to modernise the ground to create "a hub of sports, education and housing facilities." That plan may now be fast-tracked, and he hopes to get additional support from the local council.

But first of all he plans to make life more comfortable for the supporters, starting with renovating the outdated toilets.

He told the Cambridge News: "There's a lot of speculation about how much money the club will be getting but it certainly looks like it's going to be in excess of 1.5 million pounds.

"We obviously need to take stock of where we are but our ambition for some time now has been to improve the stadium.

"It needs modernising and the facilities need to be fit-for-purpose, and I think it's fair to say Friday's performance has been a game changer for the club.

"It's certainly a far cry from the situation we found ourselves in a few years ago where we were reporting losses of around 400,000 pounds.

"It's fair to say our toilets are quite bad so we certainly should be able to provide everyone with better ones now.

"I'd like to think the redevelopment will be brought forward now, which is good news not just for the club, the players and the fans but the whole community really as our plan is to reach out even further into the community.

"What we need now is for the local councils to really support us so that this redevelopment can happen."