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Gary Neville: 'Hotel Football Makes Me Nervous'
Jill Burdett chats to the former-United star ahead of the launch of his new Old Trafford hotel
“DO YOU think £40 is too much?”
Gary Neville is on the rooftop five-a-side pitch of his new Hotel Football and wants to know if forty quid for a match day barbecue and drinks up there is too much.
"The five of us have put a lot of ourselves into this space and we really want it to work."
I personally don’t. If you're a Red, watching Old Trafford fill up and hearing the noise and atmosphere mount as you share a few beers and food with family or some mates, then £40 seems reasonable enough.
Still, it’s a touchy subject. Neville has come in for a lot of stick about the pricing at the new four-star hotel (a recent Daily Mail article called it 'scandalous'), and he seems genuinely concerned that fans will be priced out.
He’s even more worried about the reaction when the hotel launches on 2 March.
”I feel nervous because I want people to like it," Neville told me during a project walkabout. "I've been getting some stick about the prices but all I say is don’t judge it until you've been.
Hotel Football
"We’re throwing the doors open to fans on 28 February and want them to come have a look and tell us what they think.
“Most importantly," Neville continued, "I want them to tell us what they think of the new Supporters Club. That’s what I’m most nervous about because that's their space.”
The Supporters Club is at canal level, it's a big room with an 80 metre long bar serving beer at £3.50 a pint and pies (price tbc). The club - open seven days a week - will be drenched in United memorabilia dragged from the cupboards of Neville and co-directors, brother Phil, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt.
“When I had my testimonial my commitment was to build a club for Manchester United supporters in Manchester, this is it," Neville told me. "The five of us have put a lot of ourselves into this space and we really want it to work. To be a place the fans are proud of.
“On match day there will be about 1000 fans in the hotel - 700 of them paying £1 to be in the Supporters Club. It will be pure United in here, you will be surrounded by red and it should be a great atmosphere.”
Still, there are only 28 match days a year and the key to its long term success will be attracting enough punters to make the hotel pay the other 337 days. While other football fans may pay a visit to the Supporters Club out of curiosity, it’s the upper floors where the business has to kick in.
Gary Neville and Hotel MD Stuart Procter outside Hotel Football
Our MD @ProcterStu giving the owners Ryan and Nicky the grand tour, They were very impressed. #gghospitality pic.twitter.com/h5cILayRj0
— Hotel Football (@hotelfootballuk) January 7, 2015At street level will be a Cafe Football, a brand already doing well in London with an informal atmosphere and an accessible menu of popular dishes with footballing puns (The Goal and Zola, anyone? - 'didn't he play for Chelsea?' -Ed.) They are already offering Xmas 2015 packages at £35 a head with accommodation at £80.
The hotel entrance is off Sir Matt Busby Way with a drop-off area, you walk into a double-height lobby framed by steel goal posts so large even Neville could have scored.
To the left a staircase takes you up to the first of two levels of conference/banqueting/meeting/events spaces. The stairs will have a timeline of key footballing moments following its ascent (I’m really hoping George Best will feature). On match days this will be a corporate hospitality all-you-can-eat and drink space.
Both events spaces are better than your average with lots of light, good bars and great views of the Old Trafford stadium which looks within touching distance.
Hotel Football: better inside than out
It's six weeks until opening so while you get the feel of Cafe Football, stripped back with natural decor, and the hotel bedrooms with sharp colours, big beds, white linen (and a cuddly mascot), Neville is a perfectionist and was not happy for any photos just yet.
There are 130 bedrooms, the rate for which will vary like with any other hotel, on supply and demand. A Monday night in April, for example, starts from £85, but the same room on match day will cost you £250.
Stuart Procter, Managing Director of GG Hospitality (Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville's company), has been tasked with making all this happen. If anyone can he can.
He said: “We want it to become the easy place for people to meet. It’s accessible, there are 100 free car parking places, flexible spaces for work and great food and drink. We are bringing something new to the market.”
Hotel Football during construction
There’s also lots of community stuff which should be applauded.
The majority of the 180 staff being recruited are from Greater Manchester and the company has developed strong training links with Trafford College. Three different schools each week will be able to use the Supporters Club and roof top pitch and Neville hopes they'll soon be able to offer educational programmes too.
“It’s a different space for the kids to learn in,” he explains. “I hope it inspires them.”
A United fan has created all the art work for the Supporters Club while students from Salford College provided the art for the bedrooms.
“Each piece has a plaque giving contact details for the artist," Neville explained. "If Guests like it and want to buy it they can contact the artist directly. We want to discover the next big name.”
Neville and Giggs during a Cafe Football cooking demo
This is Neville’s first foray into hotels but a second is already on the horizon with plans to convert the former-Stocks Restaurant on Norfolk Street in Manchester city centre into a hotel and private club. Discussions with GG Hospitality are also on-going regarding the former-Bootle Street police station site.
Ignore the Twitter moaning about the price of a pint, Hotel Football is more about creating a different kind of hotel, a new business and delivering on a promise.
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He may have riled supporters of rival clubs in his playing days, but I think almost everyone will agree he's been brilliant on Sky. And with what he is doing here plus other projects in central Manchester and also with Salford City Football Club, he has a real desire to give back to the area that gave him so much. And he puts an emphasis on giving young people a chance to get on and achieve. I like the way he gets the local colleges and schools linked to a scheme. Well done Gary. I'm sure it will be a big success and I look forward to having my first pint. Really hope we have some locally sourced ale, not the crap you get in the ground?!
Awwww...giving back? Is he giving money away here and not making a profit or benefiting in other personal ways? The bloke kicked a leather bag around a field for a living and made far more than the mugs that paid to watch him [or any premiership team] would in several lifetimes.
Why get angry at people purely for being successful? He has made his wealth through his talent and dedication. Why not channel your anger towards the people in society who haven't earned their riches legitimately?
Who's angry, Ed?
Get angry at the Royal Family - www.youtube.com/watch…
I believe time is almost up for the British monarchy. There isn't any justification for them anymore.
@last two posts What has the Royal Family got to do with Neville's days at United?
'Hotel Football Makes Me Nervous'? Probably because you've never had a real job.
I've always thought that Gary Neville was one of the most grounded of football players. Given what some of them get up to, Mr Neville, the family man who has gone on to use his money wisely, putting something back into the city for the fans who paid his wages is a great role model. Good luck to him. And I'm from the blue side of town btw....
Always someone having a sly dig and finding fault.
No Nick. Football really doesn't matter. Life and work skills do for the 99%.
He earned a hell of a lot of money in a short space of time. If that's not a real job then I don't know what is.
@above So football is a job now is it? Grow up fanboy!
Of course it's a job you cretin! How thick can you be?
@above Do footballers have skills that help save lives, make, build, create? Outside of entertaining the population, are they productive members of society? So no...football is not a real job.
So, anon 1, what is your job?
@Callum Good grief! One of the ones mentioned above. Silly boy!
It matters to all the people who'll be employed because of this. It'll matter to all the kids at local schools and people learning at local colleges who get to use this. Likewise for the schools & colleges involved in his Salford City FC project. Can't you just be happy that someone who made a lot of money in football is doing something for the area he clearly loves?
Who is this Anon? What an utter fool, blind to virtue, stuck in a dark cave of resentment of his making. Honestly Anon, let's lose you as a reader, go elsewhere and fester.
I have no football team bias here and again, FOOTBALL DOES NOT MATTER. Not one of you posters have countered my statement that Gary Neville has never had what the 99% of the working population call a real job. Other than having a paper round, has he or the 'class of '92' worked in a factory, in retail or the service industry at least for a few years? Footballers are not men of the people and are poor role models. Resentment indeed!!! Shusssh now, Jonathan!
Neville is from humble beginnings he's hardly an investment banker from London. And he hasn't fcked off to some tax haven somewhere he's putting his time and money back into this city.
It matters to hundreds of millions around the world, as does sport in general, and music, film, art and all sorts of entertainment. You must lead a very boring life indeed. I have never worked in retail , a factory, or the service industry, but I have a job, I'll bet you don't.
'I have never worked in retail , a factory, or the service industry, but I have a job'? HAHAHA, you clown. What has that got to do with Gary Neville never having had a regular job like the 99% of us?
Anon, whether Gary Neville has never had a regular job DOES NOT MATTER. You are very strange.
You clearly don't know how much Neville has done and is doing for Greater Manchester. It's not about football. It's about taking the money he earned and how he's ploughing it back. He's involving young kids, schools and colleges. Just as he was given his chance as a youngster he wants the young people in the region to reach their potential, be it in cooking, sports science or the media. Stop being so negative. The likes of Gary & Phil, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Ryan Gigs will play a very important role in shaping Manchester's future. Watch the documentary on BBC about Salford City when it airs and tell me these lads aren't doing anything that matters.
You seem to have an extremely rose-tinted view of what they are doing at Salford City, Nick Name.
I'd have respect for him and his ilk if he was behind a company that made [let's say] widgets that employed [soon to be] feckless youth from rough parts of Manchester. They would be taught discipline in the work place and begin to know the true value of the £.
You could say that anon. I'd say I give credit where credit is due. It's not as if he hung his boots up and fucked off to Malta with his suitcase of money. Time will prove me right.
Malta? Who f***s off to Malta? That barren religion locked dull place? Clearly, you've never been.
Malta. Huge United fan club and a place Neville has been known to visit. Change Malta for Maldives, Barbados, Seychelles. Whatever. He took his millions and stayed in the north west. He is involved in sustainable construction, property, a football club, a hotel and he employs local people and tries to link it with the young people in schools and colleges. Would you be so passionate about as many things if you'd have been so successful or would you be on a plane off in to the sunset?
@above If I had the money and the ability, I would definitely invest in people local to me. I can't stand the term 'giving it back'. It sounds so false. It also sounds like an Americanism. It wouldn't be for my ego and it wouldn't be a hobby either.
So you saying what Gary and the other lads from united are doing is for their ego?
Anon above fool of 2015 so far.
@Nick Name Did Anon state that? In fact, where is that statement posted at all on here?
Erm? Yeah. ANONYMOUSAbout 3 hours ago. @above If I had the money and the ability, I would definitely invest in people local to me. I can't stand the term 'giving it back'. It sounds so false. It also sounds like an Americanism. It wouldn't be for my ego and it wouldn't be a hobby either.
It wouldn't be for Anons ego or a hobby. I'm asking is that what you think Neville is in it for.
To promote his post football image and business? He's an egotist.
"To promote his post football image and business? He's an egotist" And you know this because? Why can't people see the good in others on here? So small minded and negative its untrue. This website should be called Moanchester Confidential.
If it's taking money out of the Glazer's hands then that's got to be a good thing. If it's taking it out of their hands, saving supporters money and creating something that they value then even better. Good on Neville and Giggs for doing what the Glazer's aren't and actually putting something back into the community.
*sigh* such fanboy nonsence. Have you been talking to Terry Christian?
Yeah cos the £700m the Glazers took out of the club really helped???
He's a big ambassador for sustainable construction too, I've seen him give a very informative and in-depth talk on the issue. Many strings to his bow. He's alright he is.
I bet that was riveting! Get it?
Gary Neville's pretty cute I reckon. Seems to get sexier with age. Anyone agree?
As a gay man I disagree.
As a gay man I agree.