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When David Beckham turned 50 in May, he didn’t go on just any old bender – he flew his family to Bordeaux for a private tasting at Château Pétrus, followed by dinner in Paris washed down with a £6,000-plus bottle of Pétrus 1961.
It’s a far cry from the beer-soused heroics that used to characterise football (though George Best preferred white wine spritzers, by all accounts). And while lager may still be first choice for most fans, it’s no longer the only option in the UK’s Premier League clubs.
Fulham recently unveiled a £100mn Riverside Stand at its Thames-side Craven Cottage ground, billed as “the most luxurious experience in English football”. The 2,303-seat complex has menus by two-Michelin-starred chef Alex Dilling and a wine list that – while not quite on a par with Pétrus – is full of crowd-pleasing luxury brands including Cloudy Bay and Whispering Angel (both owned by LVMH). There’s also a cocktail list that changes four times a year – think Mimosas and Margaritas – on the panoramic Sky Deck. On non-match days the Riverside Stand doubles as a private members’ club complete with swimming pool. Sky Deck seasonal memberships – which include all food and drink – start at £7,750 plus VAT.
Sodexo Live!, which manages more than 500 events and sports venues worldwide, including several Premier League clubs, says per-head spend on food and drink in its stadia has increased 70 per cent in the past five years. “The drinks offering, in particular, is where some of the most exciting innovation is happening,” says CEO Claire Morris. Recent innovations include self-service “e-bars” that pour pints in seconds and drinks stores powered by AI. Younger match-goers also prefer more “experiential” bars, says Morris, inspiring outlets like The Terrace, a new fan zone at Brighton & Hove Albion that offers craft food and drink from local suppliers and live bands. At Tottenham Hotspur, meanwhile, all the Beavertown beer comes from a micro-brewery actually in the grounds.
“The kind of person that goes to a match is evolving,” says mixologist Simon Thompson, who was brought in to revamp the cocktail service at Newcastle United. “They’re being introduced to good stuff in other settings – football’s got to catch up. Even if only 10 per cent of the crowd are fussed about what they’re drinking, that still represents a huge amount of revenue for a club.” Cocktails on the new Newcastle menu include an Old Fashioned with Brown Ale syrup and a house sour with calvados and crème de pêche.
The rise of women’s football – and the diverse crowd it attracts – has also been a catalyst for change, says Maggie Murphy, former CEO of Lewes FC, the first UK club to offer male and female players equal pay. “The crowd includes old people, young people, families, women in hijabs and guys in baseball caps, so you need a more diverse drinks offering.”
Alcohol consumption in sight of the pitch has been banned in the top five tiers of the UK men’s game since 1985 (a measure introduced in the wake of the Heysel Stadium disaster). But the women’s game is exempt from these rules. And four clubs in the Women’s Championship are involved in a new pilot to allow drinking in the stands.
“Ultimately it’s about being able to give our fans choices,” said the chief executive of Women’s Professional Leagues Limited, Nikki Doucet, of the pilot launch. If it works, it could also help boost revenue for women’s football.
Arsenal recently appointed its first non-alcoholic beer partner, Athletic Brewing, in a rumoured seven-figure sponsorship deal. “We saw from our match days that people were demanding better non-alcoholic options and football culture was changing in that way, so we look to try and address that supporter experience,” says Arsenal’s global partnerships and ventures director Omar Shaikh. Guinness also recently completed its first year as the official beer of the Premier League – a four-year deal that encompasses both its full-strength and zero-alcohol beers.
Big clubs overseas are also upgrading their drinks. Paris Saint-Germain now offers guests in its top-end La Galerie lounge an “experiential” tableside cocktail service, complete with flavoured smokes and foams, as well as grand cru wine tastings with an in-house sommelier. And David Beckham’s own club, Inter Miami, has hired Miami bar Sweet Liberty to overhaul its cocktail list, bringing it in line with a culinary programme that now ranges from hot dogs to omakase dining. It can only be a matter of time before the cellars are stocked with Pétrus.
@alicelascelles
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