The new hotel attached to Manchester City's Etihad Stadium comes with a secret penthouse and 401 rooms, making it the largest hotel in the city centre.
The new hotel at Manchester City
The new hotel at Manchester City
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Perhaps the most striking aspect of the new hotel at Manchester City is the absence of anything to do with Manchester City. A club that certainly knows how to lean into parts of its history has consciously decided not to with this new collaboration with Radisson Blu.
There are of course plenty of references to what has made Manchester through the hotel, from the famous bands to have come out of the city to Vimto bonbons and Jaffa cakes on offer because they still come out of the city every day. East Manchester is a more specific theme, with greenery intended to give a feel of Philips Park and a contrast between dark corridors and airy rooms supposed to be a nod to the old Bradford Pit.
But anyone looking for Poznan-ing receptionists or blue ketchup will be disappointed - or perhaps delighted - not to find any. It might be literally attached to the Etihad Stadium but this is no extension of all things City.
Of course, you don’t have to go far if you do want that and a look outside the windows is all it takes to remind you that you are staying in the heart of the football club. The restaurant looks onto the fan zone and museum that will open soon, with a terrace that will also take in the atmosphere on a matchday.
Among the 401 rooms - making it the largest in the city centre - ten even have views of the pitch at the Etihad, with 12 seats beyond a sliding glass door that give a striking view. You can't get to the seats though unless it's a matchday and you've paid for a hospitality package for a dozen people, in which case the bed has been folded away to make way for a table and you can't stay the night.
There's a secret penthouse that isn't publicly available to book, complete with a champagne fridge and a secondary kitchen for a private chef to work in, that it is hoped will entice artists playing at Co-Op Live to walk across to once they've finished their gig. Not far away is swanky new bar Zadie's, which looks onto the pitch but doesn't want much to do with football and with opening times until 3am is surely designed to catch the crowds who have been to the gigs and want drinks before or instead of heading back into town.
It's hugely ambitious and City's biggest play yet to become a destination for people - Blues or otherwise - to come all year round and part with substantial amounts of money. That can be done without having to see or even think about the football club, but the owners will be watching closely to see if they can pull off their dream of turning the Etihad Campus into an entertainment complex.