uRRRs blog Boutique football grounds

Posted: September 5th 2008
Click here to feedback

I’ve got a bit of a thing for ‘boutique hotels’.  Always have, always will.

Some are dead posh, designer-laden palaces of luxury that cost an arm and a leg (often both arms & legs) to stay in...but they can still be differentiated from the faceless chain hotels due to the unique flavour that only an independently owned / run operation can offer.

Others are far more modest, only just the right side of scruffy...but downright quirky, original and infused with the spirit of inventive, artistic souls.

I frequently pick a city I’ll probably never visit and google it’s name along with the words ‘boutique hotels’ just to get my fix. I devour the travel media for them, and am in danger of becoming addicted to Trip Advisor.

However, I’ve never really thought of football grounds in boutique terms...so when I heard our very own ‘wealthy but not like the Man City bloke’ benefactor, Flavio Briatore, had referred to our very own Loftus Road as a ‘boutique ground’ I was...well I think flummoxed is the word.

Our HQ is certainly on the small side, but that in itself doesn’t make it boutique. And if I’m honest, since it’s been covered and seated on all 4 sides, it lacks character (like most grounds that did away with the terraces that gave them their individuality).

I’ve tried to think of stadia that deserve the ‘boutique’ epithet. Huddersfield springs to mind of all the new ones – real originality at work, rather than the flat pack feel of the Riverside or St Mary’s. I was always a bit partial to the Racecourse at Wrexham with its four sides that clearly each dated from different eras, but I believe even that has now had an identikit makeover.

Sorry Flav, your brand speak doesn’t work here. Just be honest – we’ve got a small ground.

uRRRs!