Best Football Club Hospitality 2018

Arsenal FC

As part of our ongoing commitment to deliver world-class hospitality experiences for our fans, and following a successful refurbishment of the Royal Oak bar, it was decided to refurbish Dial Square, one of our largest restaurant facilities on Club Level.

Dial Square has always been a bar/restaurant space. Since the stadium opened it’s been the location of a carvery offering and, occasionally, an entry-level a la carte dining experience. With popular and established a la carte and buffet options already located across Club Level, we wanted to create a new dining experience.

Refurbished over summer 2018, Dial Square is a celebration of the club’s origins and we will welcome our first guests at our opening home match of Season 2018/19. Guests will be able to walk-up on matchdays without the need to pre-book, offering flexibility.

Following the refurbishment of the Royal Oak we saw an uplift of c.15% in per head spend on F&B in the facility and led to improved membership renewal rates for members seated in adjacent blocks. On the basis that the investment and improvement is as significant, if not more so, in Dial Square we would expect to see at least the same or better.

Brighton & Hove Albion FC

The 2016/17 Championship season saw sell-outs in hospitality across the season. Following promotion to the Premier League in April 2017, Brighton & Hove Albion set out to seize the opportunity to increase the dining capacity within the stadium and become one of the best hospitality venues in the UK.
Working alongside the club’s catering and events partner, Sodexo, the club already operated one premium matchday hospitality restaurant, HB’s Restaurant, which was launched in 2016. The matchday restaurant offers premium three-course pre-match meal with various drink packages and premium seating in the West Stand. The restaurant is hosted by former club legends and plays host to the man-of-the-match presentation post-match.

The target was to double the number of premium hospitality diners during the 2017/18 season, following a record-breaking season the year before. Many stadium improvements and operational refinements took place over the summer of 2017 to deliver this.

Promotion to the Premier League also created an opportunity to collaborate with our stadium-naming-rights partner, American Express, in delivering a money-can’t-buy experience to their clients.

Liverpool FC

First built in 1892, and significantly recently expanded to current capacity of 54,000, Liverpool FC’s iconic Anfield has positioned itself at the forefront of fan experience on so many levels, whether you are a Corporate Guest, Liverpool Fan or a Visiting Fan from another Club.

The Hospitality team at Anfield have succeeded in delivering something special, in all areas of fan engagement, they have benefitted from inter-company knowledge sharing and collaboration across all elements of the business, which has been the key to a sustained and enhanced customer satisfaction level.
In achieving top place in Visit Football, an audit of all Premier League Clubs, for the 3rd year running and driving revenue to a new high, they have shown a relentless pursuit of quality service, fan experience and business acumen that is never ending, all tied in to the Liverpool strap line of “This Means More”

Manchester City FC

Manchester City Football Club is committed to bringing world-class hospitality to supporters. New for the 2017/18 season it has introduced a one of a kind hospitality offering, The Tunnel Club. Never before seen in the Premier League, The Tunnel Club is an access-all-areas suite allowing supporters to get closer to the action than ever before. The highlight of the hospitality experience is the 250m² metre glass tunnel which enables guests to watch some of the world’s greatest footballers walk from the dressing rooms to the pitch – something that has traditionally been the exclusive preserve of players and the backroom staff.

First-class hospitality treatment does not stop at this unrestricted back stage access, as every single aspect of the user experience has been considered within this new offering, from the structure and interior design of the suite, all the way through to the individual guest car parking bays and USB ports in every premium match seat – promising guests an experience like no other available in world sport.

St Johnstone FC

We decided that we needed to differentiate our hospitality from every other clubs in our league, we wanted to charge a good price for it so we decided content was key. We wanted all guests to leave having had “a great day out” irrespective of the score.

We looked at every constituent part of the day other than the actual Football as we couldn’t unfortunately influence that.

Wolverhampton Wanderers FC

Molineux Stadium is the home of Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club.

One of the founder members of the Football League, Wolves are extremely proud of their history but also understand the importance of progression.

Our owners, Fosun International have not only invested heavily into our playing staff but also into the infrastructure of the Stadium and Training facility ensuring that we have a team and stadium that is fit and ready to host top flight football.

Our Boardroom was the brainchild of Jeff Shi, our Chairman who envisioned a step forward in our hospitality offering.

It features ‘a la carte’ dining in a superb environment with state-of -the-art technology such as IPTV, Video walls and cloud PA system.

The capacity of the Boardroom increased from 40 to 120 and sold out on architects drawings before any of the works had begun.

The whole refurbishment took 3 months from start to finish and the end result is a view of Fosun’s vision for Wolves in the future.