Harrogate Town's matchday hospitality experience offers a 'glorious' way of watching football in comfort
I was born on the terraces. Now this is clearly an exaggeration, though I was taken to my first big football match at the age of six or seven.
Times were in some ways more primitive back in the 1970s and the very concept of hospitality in the majority of football grounds in Britain was almost a contradiction in terms; a pie and a Bovril the only hint of luxury.
So when Harrogate Town FC offered me the chance to sample its matchday hospitality experience, it wasn’t something to say ‘no’ to.
Especially as it promised “a match day hospitality experience offering you the football you love, in a way you’ve never seen it before.”
Now, I'm not actually a season ticket holder at The Exercise Stadium on Wetherby Road.
No, it’s not because I’m a journalist living in a world of freebies.
It’s because I’m Scottish.
If you had watched Scotland playing football over the decades you’d understand why I no longer live and breathe football as I once did.
Not 52 weeks of the year, at any rate.
I am a genuine fan of Harrogate Town, however.
Nothing would make me happier than to see Simon Weaver’s men in yellow and black win every single time they walked on the pitch in each and every match against every single opponent.
I first saw ‘The Sulphurites’ in the flesh in 1985 playing at home against Goole Town in the West Riding County Cup when I was a 24/7 sports editor and the visitors were a bigger club than the hosts.
A lot has changed, obviously, since then, both for me and for Harrogate Town.
This is noticable not only in the standard of football Town play on the pitch as members of the EFL or in the highly professional set-up at every level of this most civilised of football clubs.
It’s also apparent in terms of the hospitality it serves up to guests in its swish-looking, specially constructed executive suite adjacent to the main stand on the east side of the 5,000 capacity ground.
So what was I in for?
On paper, this is what was coming in the hospitality package:
A pre-match meal in The LWC Hospitality Suite.
Reserved Seats in the Main Stand undercover close to the halfway line and, possibly, with soft seats.
Access to the suite throughout the match.
Wine and water on your table.
Complimentary team sheet for each guest.
Pre-ordered half time refreshments served at your table.
Tea, coffee, cakes and selection of cheese served at half-time.
Enjoy the pre-match build up including an interview with the First Team Manager, Simon Weaver.
Reserved parking close to the stadium.
Having sat down with a drink, there turned out to be three ways to enjoy the matchday hospitality experience.
The sheer enjoyment of being wined and dined in a relaxed and comfortable environment.
The opportunity to make new friends or network, even, with a broad cross-section of people you may or may not know, from super fans to corporate sponsors.
A golden chance to get closer to the club, the players and the action.
It has to be said, the whole experience was superb from start to finish with unfussy but excellent service and an abounding buzz of friendliness and good cheer.
Then it’s hard to knock a top quality pre-match meal prepared by Harrogate Town’s club chef.
Or the soft seats in a plum seat in the sanctuary of the main stand.
But the most extraordinary thing for me was being among the first to hear from Harrogate Town’s accomplished manager Simon Weaver, who joined us in the executive suite for a Q&A to give us his thoughts prior to kick-off.
And then to be still there at the end amid the post-match camaraderie and chatter of the people who run the club, from chairman Irving Weaver down, a few of whom I had even been watching a few moments earlier putting in a shift on the pitch.
Thanks to the matchday hospitality experience, for a brief but glorious few hours it felt like you were an intimate, valued member of Harrogate Town at the highest level.
It’s such a good feeling that I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone should try the hospitality at Harrogate Town at least once in their life.
But it also made me realise that, perhaps, I’m not quite as far away from my younger days of living and breathing football as I thought.
To book your place in hospitality, email [email protected]
For more information, visit: https://www.harrogatetownafc.com/commercial/hospitality/