United’s hospitality chief thinks ‘inside the box’ with investment plan
MANCHESTER United is planning to expand its facilities inside Old Trafford with the addition of a further 500-capacity hospitality lounge.
The club’s director of venue sales and marketing, Caroline McEleney, said the new investment was part of a commitment to deliver the best service to customers, and in response to strong demand.
The club is also going to start marketing its 155 executive boxes as meeting rooms for companies to hold private meetings, and will launch an online booking system to make this process accessible.
Mrs McEleney, who has driven and delivered a multi-million pound investment programme at Old Trafford since moving North in 2008, previously worked as head of sales at the Silverstone racing circuit.
The most obvious, and successful element of her changes was to persuade the club to remodel its 55 executive boxes by installing outside seating areas which allowed guests to sample the matchday atmosphere along with other fans in the stadium, rather than through a speaker behind glass.
She explains: “When I arrived here I just couldn’t get why the boxes were behind glass. I put a business plan forward to improve the facilities, and the Glazers accepted it.
“To begin with we did half of the North Stand, and all 16 of them sold out, so they agreed we could do more, and now they are all complete and we are 100% sold out and I think we could sell them 10 times over.
“It was a risk, I am sure they must have thought ‘who is she, coming here with these ideas?, but I am proud of what we have achieved for our customers. We now have a five star product as well as five star football.”
In addition to revamping the interior of the boxes by giving them a more contemporary look, WIFI and interactive touch-screen technology allowing fans to order drinks and merchandise from the club’s shop, have also been installed.
Another innovation, which Mrs McEleney says has come from responding to customers’ feedback, is the introduction of networking areas, allowing guests in different boxes to meet and mingle over a drink.
The additional suite will be created by converting a former storage area into a new hospitality area. Its name and theme have yet to be revealed, but it will be “very different” to the existing spaces, she says.
Looking ahead to the forthcoming season, the sales team is focused on getting to 100% capacity for the first home fixture against Chelsea.
Caroline McEleney says: “We’re at 98% now so we want to get to 100% for that match. We have to keep investing in what we do, and understanding what the client wants, how their business works, what they want to achieve and how our facilities work for them.”
