Marriott Bonvoy announces a Manchester United partnership – bid for experiences at Old Trafford

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• mutley says:

  20 Feb20 February 17:56

  Rob,

  Kmac said Highbury, he is correct in that the exec boxes then were behind glass, since Arsenal moved to the Emirates the corporate hospitality is as you say open from the diamond suite.

  Perhaps I’ve totally missed the point, but most footy fans don’t need heated seats as they spend most of the time standing anyway!

  • Alex W says:

    20 Feb20 February 21:24

    Yep I’m with Kmac, those in the boxes miss out on the real experience IMHO.

    • Spurs Debs says:

      21 Feb21 February 07:10

      Those in boxes are rarely footy fans, it’s all about “ being in the box” not the football.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    20 Feb20 February 21:55

    Away fans maybe. Home fans get told to sit down repeatedly at most stadia across the uk.

    • Rob says:

      20 Feb20 February 22:05

      Must admit, never seen much standing at Arsenal.

      • Spurs Debs says:

        21 Feb21 February 07:08

        Well that’s because there’s no standing at the Libary also no singing.

      • Shoestring says:

        21 Feb21 February 08:16

        Best supporters thing I saw this week was the Liverpool fans completely drowning out the annoying CL anthem at the beginning of their match with Bayern

        1:0 before the ref even blew his whistle 🙂

      • Crafty says:

        21 Feb21 February 10:33

        Yeah but it was 0-0…

• N says:

  20 Feb20 February 17:58

  Excellent stuff imo.

  Auction element is irritating but I’m sure we can get over it. I’m in Manc for weekend of 16/3 but no packages available for the MU/MC game that weekend – I suppose they’re being saved for Marriott’s real VIPs…!

• KMac says:

  20 Feb20 February 18:21

  Highbury exec boxes were 100% glass. And a terrible experience too.

  Appreciate that the Emirates is different. That said, it is hardly an authentic experience. My concern is more deep rooted in that the more corporates, the less affordable seats. I’m sure that 50k businessmen would make for a raucous atmosphere.

  Spot on with what mutley says – all events are sadly filled by the prawn sandwich brigade. Sooner or later it will all go bang….

  As for @waribai – are you looking forward to the ‘cheese room’ at the new Spurs stadium? I bet Daniel Levy hopes that you are.

  • Waribai says:

    21 Feb21 February 07:27

    @kmac At £30k for the season that was never going to rock my boat. Also, I have close ties to France so Daniel Levy’s selection of cheeses are unlikely to wow me! I do though admittedly like to occasionally go for hospitality but funnily enough not in the big games. I find for an FA cup tie against Rushden and Diamonds an evening in corporate hospitality is quite fun but for a serious game I want to be where the atmosphere is!

  • Spurs Debs says:

    21 Feb21 February 07:29

    unfortunately no cheese room, To say us spurs fans are “ cheesed” off at the announcement is an understatement. I will take my own dairy lea triangles to make up for the disappointment.

• Travelnotfootball says:

  20 Feb20 February 20:07

  Can’t decide if this or Emirates football tickets are the less exciting option – really did not need a whole urgent article for these sort of dreadful redemptions!

  • Rob says:

    20 Feb20 February 20:13

    We gave away Man City (thanks Etihad) and Liverpool (thanks Malaysia) tickets at the HFP Christmas party last year.

    • Nathan says:

      21 Feb21 February 08:14

      Gave away being the key for me. Sorry but I’d never pay, again, for such an, unfortunately these days, anodyne ‘experience’. The last match I went to was Dulwich Hamlet at home, had a cracking time. By the by, I’ve been in a few boxes in my time and my winner is … Sunderland. Excellent catering 👍

• Sussex Bantam says:

  21 Feb21 February 08:36

  I’m sort of surprised by the vitriolic response received to this article. The big Premier League teams are almost all a “tourist” experience now (except maybe Anfield) – this is just another way to buy into that. I actually think some of the behind the scenes options are quite interesting.

  You’re not going to get the “proper football” experience in the Premier League. If that is what you want then you should find a game in the Championship, League 1, League 2 or below…

  • Brian says:

    21 Feb21 February 10:01

    Or go to the Continent – Dortmund games are supposed to be good.

    • Sussex Bantam says:

      21 Feb21 February 10:32

      Dortmund games are indeed very good !

      • Spurs Debs says:

        21 Feb21 February 10:51

        Yep the last Dortmund game I watched was excellent 3-0 to Spurs.

      • Sussex Bantam says:

        21 Feb21 February 10:55

        Indeed Spurs Debs – that was very good. Going to the second leg ?

      • Waribai says:

        22 Feb22 February 02:08

        +1 The bars lining the walk to the stadium are something else and then you have the actual atmosphere in the ground itself!
        An amazing experience.

    • Spurs Debs says:

      21 Feb21 February 11:04

      No I can’t I’m off to NY in couple of weeks, I have been to rest of away CL games this season but just can’t do this one.

      • Sussex Bantam says:

        21 Feb21 February 13:12

        Hopefully its all over anyway and you can save your cash for the next round !

• Shoestring says:

  21 Feb21 February 10:47

  Time to fess up – I’m *not* a so-called real supporter and perfectly proud of it. I don’t get to waste huge amounts of money following ‘my’ team – which seems a random choice usually based irrationally on historic family affiliations or geography of birth. Think about it – anybody born in the South West or Wales doesn’t even have a decent team to choose from, even if they wanted to. Perhaps they should have blended Bristol Rovers & City to form a proper side in the only large town down here, nobody had the sense to see the commercial opportunity so far. I could yet make my fortune.

  So instead of your blood sweat & tears, every week I get to watch my top 6 teams that I support – plus every now & then I get a Leicester to support as well when we won the league in 2016. Think about it – one of my teams wins the league every year, you can’t boast that with your ‘real’ support for a ‘real’ team. I watch them on TV with a great live commentary that sure beats your atmosphere. Atmosphere = you’ll get beaten up, heckled rudely or jostled by rival fans who can’t take getting beat, mature or what?

  I’ve been to a few live matches in my time, we had an Exec box at Aston Villa for a few years when they were a force. Boy, those prawn sandwiches were tasty, I’d do that again in a flash if I got it for free.

  • Crafty says:

    21 Feb21 February 14:40

    I have never been beaten up, heckled rudely or jostled by rival fans.

  • xcalx says:

    21 Feb21 February 16:36

    Harry its a bit early for the red

• Sussex Bantam says:

  21 Feb21 February 10:59

  “doesn’t have a decent team to choose from”….

  Bristol Rovers and Bristol City and both decent teams. Hundreds of years of history between them, some great players and great games in their past, loyal and strong support.

  A team doesn’t have to win the Premier League to be decent !

  (And now I’m kicking myself for rising to the bait)

  • Sussex Bantam says:

    21 Feb21 February 11:01

    And Wales have a Premier League side in Cardiff and one who very recently won a major honour in Swansea plus Newport who have had a fantastic FA Cup run this year.

  • Jay says:

    21 Feb21 February 12:20

    You have to allow Harry to have those rants without responding. You should have stopped reading at “I’m *not* a so-called real supporter…” the rest of the three paragraph rant is just to bait you into a response 🙂

    • Flashman says:

      21 Feb21 February 13:05

      Harry/ Shoestring,

      The speccy kid at school who didn’t like sport, and got sand kicked in his face!!!!!

    • Sussex Bantam says:

      21 Feb21 February 13:12

      I know I know….you would think I’d have been around here long enough not to fall for such an obvious trick…

• ken tinsley says:

  22 Feb22 February 11:08

  The “its not proper football” has been done to death.
  The game is a world away from when I started going in the 1970’s and you could rock up and pay on the gate for almost every league match. Stadiums were literally crumbling and there was the threat of violence at many matches.
  I’m not sure I’d want my lad to ‘enjoy’ the same experiences as I had, despite some great memories.

  Liverpool were getting only 30k for some home matches while winning the league.
  The age profile of match going supporters is probably in the mid 50’s compared with mid 20’s some 30 years ago.
  The closest I got to luxury was hiring a cushion for 20p at Goodison, which then rained on to the pitch after a dismal match.
  Let’s face it – ‘we’ are never getting ‘our’ game back. It’s going to follow the money and be closer to an NFL ‘experience’ with most supporters attending a couple of matches (bar say Green Bay Packers) a season.
  The only comparable experience these days is to get the coach and go to an away match with ale smuggled on to the coach. Perhaps the only difference will be the smell of weed and pairs of blokes sharing a toilet cubicle to powder their nose.
  Face facts. Murdoch won, the people lost.

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