Neville and Giggs’ hospitality company, GG Hospitality, is due to open its second venture Hotel Football in autumn this year, after the successful launch of its first project Café Football at the end of 2013.
Hotel Football is currently in construction at its site opposite Manchester United’s Old Trafford football stadium. The hotel will have 133 bedrooms and will host match day fans as well as business users, families and tourists. It will also have its own five-a-side rooftop football pitch and boasts a number of meeting and event spaces which can cater for up to 500 people. The hotel will be run by general manager Stewart Davies who has run Manchester hotels including the Mint Hotel and the Hilton Double Tree in the past.
In terms of catering, Hotel Football will also house Café Football Manchester, a venture which has been popular at Westfield Stratford City. The restaurant will offer signature dishes from its sister site in London, where two Michelin star chef Michael Wignall was responsible for designing the menu with group executive chef Brendan Fyldes.
Team support
As with GG Hospitality’s first venture Café Football, former Manchester United teammates Giggs and Neville have been heavily involved with decisions to do with the hotel and its features.
It has just been announced that they will also be joined by three others of their ex-teammates who are investing in the project, Paul Scholes, Phillip Neville and Nicky Butt.
Gary Neville said: “Ryan and I are looking forward to another new challenge, working with our former teammates again to create something special near to the stadium we all love. We want the Old Trafford Supporters Club to become a place United fans can think of as their own.”
Scholes said: “When Gary and Ryan mentioned the idea of Hotel Football and Old Trafford Supporters Club I was really keen to get involved - the hotel is our chance to create something special for the fans.”
Local jobs
Hotel Football will bring up to 200 jobs to the local area, and the GG Hospitality team will be working with the local Trafford College to offer its students work experience in the hotel.
Giggs said: “Through the hotel we are giving local people the opportunity to work in a great hospitality environment. We will also be working closely with local students to help them build their own careers as this is something we are really passionate about.”
Butt said: “Hotel Football Manchester gives us the chance to build something new and successful so close to Old Trafford, a place we all enjoy spending our own careers.”
Testing the pitch
On a visit to the site of the upcoming hotel, ex-teammates Giggs, Gary Neville, Butt, Scholes and Phillip Neville had a go on the rooftop five-a-side football pitch in a game against the hotel building team. The video can viewed below: