The Tigers are possibly within 90 minutes of ending a 104-year wait for top flight football after battling through to the Championship final on Saturday week when they will face Bristol City.

Victory at Wembley will be enough to book a place among English football's elite and ensure the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United will be visiting the KC Stadium next season.

City, who were watched by their third highest league crowd of the season when beating Watford in Wednesday night's semi-final second leg, are expected to sell out their 36,000 ticket allocation for the biggest game in the club's history.

Despite that, Duffen is not anticipating the Tigers benefiting from a cash windfall for being in the play-offs – unless Phil Brown's side triumph in the final.

The City chairman told the Yorkshire Post: "The play-offs are not worth anything financially to the club, unless we go on to win promotion.

"In fact, if we had lost in the semi-finals, the club would actually have lost somewhere in the region of £500,000. And if we lose the final, then the club will probably just about break even.

"There are costs that come with qualifying for the play-offs such as a player bonus scheme kicking in for the tremendous achievement of reaching the semi-final and then again for the final.

"To counter this, the gate receipts from the games also go to the Football League and that is why we would have been facing a £500,000 loss if we had lost to Watford.

"The other side of the coin is that the club now stands just 90 minutes away from earning a possible £60m, the sum that comes with winning a place in the Premier League.

"It is an amazing thought, though I should also say that the prospect of Hull City finally making it into the top flight after 104 years is something that a price cannot be put on."

Under League rules, all semi-final gate receipts (once the expenses of staging a tie have been deducted) must be paid into a central account. Fifty per cent is then paid into a League Pool Account with the other half distributed, on a sliding scale according to division, to all the clubs competing in the play-offs.

For the final, a similar procedure is in place with the two competing clubs sharing (after expenses) a half share of the receipts.

Such are the riches on offer to the victors at Wembley that recent years have seen several of the competing finalists strike an agreement beforehand that the loser keeps all the receipts from the game.

Leeds United and Watford struck this deal before the 2006 final, meaning the Elland Road club did at least claim some financial recompense from their 3-0 defeat.

When asked if the Tigers and Bristol City had already held talks, Duffen replied: "Not yet, but we will be speaking to Bristol City over just such an arrangement."

Duffen was, like the rest of Hull, still on a high from the events of Wednesday night when City romped to a 4-1 victory over Watford to book their place at Wembley

He said: "I was elated and humbled by what happened. It was a wonderful occasion and I feel enormously privileged to be the custodian of the club on its first trip to Wembley.

"It was a shame a few of the fans came on the pitch before the end, but I thought the referee was superb – not only for the way he handled the game, but also the way he handled the final whistle.

"I never wanted to come across as over-confident but when you have the belief I have in the people at the club then it is difficult not to confident.

"The final will be third versus fourth and that is, in my opinion, the right final. It will be a tough game but we are fortunate to possess such great strength in depth.

"There will be a lot of big game experience that possibly won't even make the bench at Wembley."

Tickets for Wembley will go on sale to season ticket holders tomorrow from 9am with the remainder of the allocation going on general sale on Monday.