Tynecastle Park Hotel: Income boost, Romanov, Taylor Swift

Seventeen years before Heart of Midlothian opened the doors to the Tynecastle Park Hotel, plans were unveiled for a new state-of-the-art Main Stand. It was part of Vladimir Romanov's plans to make the club self-sustainable. The stand would house 10,000 supporters and include restaurants, flats and, notably, a hotel.

"£51m is a big sum," the then deputy chief executive Pedro Lopez continued. "But we have funding in place, mainly from [Romanov's bank] UBIG, so it is not a problem for us. We want the club to be self-funding and self-sufficient in the future. That's why we are investing in facilities and the playing squad."

READ MORE: Why staying at Tynecastle Park was so important to Hearts

Despite a planning application, artist impressions and a model of the proposed stand sitting in the foyer of the ticket office, ground was never broken, instead the old Main Stand was allowed to decay until it was replaced in 2017. Now, more than six years since Hearts and Partick Thistle played out a goalless draw in front of the new Main Stand, it has finally been completed with the opening of the Tynecastle Park Hotel. 

Walking through the doors of the stadium's main entrance earlier this month for a press event and up to the second floor in the lift, Romanov's grand plans were never far from mind. The latest demonstration of how far the club have come since those worrying times of administration and the uncertain future of Heart of Midlothian.

"Someone else told that to me," chief executive Andrew McKinlay said after Hearts Standard mentioned Romanov's ambitous plans. "I think it was [hospitality operations directors] Graeme Pacitti, when he first arrived, he remembered a presentation that Fireworks Phil [Anderton) did, and it was all about the big plan, and this was the hotel.

"So apparently when [chairwoman] Ann [Budge] said 'I am looking at a hotel', his response was 'I've heard all this stuff before'. Here we are, we've been able to do it. Fundamentally, the fact that we've been able to do it and have such a wonderful Main Stand, we're still at Tynecastle given all the chat that we would have to move somewhere else to do it, I think it's brilliant."

It would be careless to look past the fact there were doubts about the finished product. The stories of windowless rooms, questions as to how it is possible to get a 25-room hotel on a second floor that has lay empty for several years and the difficulties that were encountered during the building of the Main Stand. But the hotel is an impressive facility.

Now, yes, there are windowless rooms. In those, there is the option of a live view of the pitch or the city skyline on HD plasma screens. Those staying on matchdays can even watch a game via a live stream of the pitch thanks to an agreement with the SPFL, albeit from a unique camera angle that sits high up in the Gorgie Stand behind the club's Ultras. Other rooms look onto Foundation Plaza. All are ultra-modern and controlled by an in-room touchscreen. Some can even become a family suite with adjoining rooms.

There are six new meeting and event spaces that can be adjusted in size to cater to a variety of functions, from stage exhibitions to trade shows, weddings to gala dinners and parties. Smaller and more intimate spaces also cater for exclusive boardroom meetings, private cocktail receptions and family gatherings.

It is a 24/7 operation.

That is reflected in the multi-award-winning Skyline Restaurant which has recently been renovated. It now has a more comfortable and restaurant feel and will be open seven days a week to cater for breakfast, lunch and dinner for hotel guests and the public in general.

Addressing the attendees from a variety of publications and staff, Budge spoke of the quality and standard of the hotel. It was something she emphasised in a conversation with Hearts Standard. Even as the project ran into slippage it was important not to scale back on the quality.

READ MORE: Hearts 'next big project': Future of training base and playing investment

"I am very, very happy, believe me," she said. "It’s been a bit like when we built the stand. You have a timetable and there is always slippage on a big project. It’s at what point do you say ‘no, it’s not allowed to slip any further, we are definitely opening’.

"The Main Stand was a construction project right down to digging way down, this one was a fit-out. It was very awkward to fit out, it wasn’t designed to be a hotel. There were a lot of logistical issues, the rooms were all genuinely different. The fittings are the same but the shapes of the room are different. It was a challenge.

She added: "It has been tight again. I am so pleased. I’m particularly pleased that we haven’t dropped our standards. It would have been so easy to say [because] you can’t get this, 'we’ll take something else’."

Prior to a tour of the different rooms by hotel manager Derek Paterson, club captain Craig Gordon took centre stage with a photoshoot for publicity shots. It involved being sprawled on one of the hotel room's beds that can make the 6ft4in goalkeeper look small, checking himself in a mirror, or feet up watching TV.

Walking around, two things stood out. Firstly, the scale of the project. It was difficult to envisage how the plans would fit within the second floor of a football stadium. It felt much bigger than expected without being cramped. Secondly, how easy it was to forget you were in a football stadium as you wandered the corridors.

The football aspect was something Budge and the club were conscious of. She didn't want it to be "a football hotel" but also, she wanted to ensure there were touches to Heart of Midlothian. It was a balancing act.

"We can’t just rely on Hearts supporters to make this work," she said, "Remembering it is a football club, we are all proud to be Hearts supporters but some people will want to come here to visit Edinburgh."

There are a number of light touches that point to the football club. The hotel rooms are named Roseburn and Plaza, there are McLeod and McRae suites that are used for events such as conferences or hospitality with packages released by the club for the latter recently. Each room has complimentary Jammie Dodgers and pillows on the beds are the Hearts tartan. There is a Club Lounge that guests can upgrade to access. It boasts Hearts tops and memorabilia on the walls. But perhaps the nicest nod to the football side is the collection of Donald Ford's photography. It was a suggestion from Derek Ferrier the stadium manager to approach the club legend who was also his favourite player for the club.

"We were in a meeting and must have been talking about the artwork and I’m sure it was Derek who said ‘Donald Ford does photographs’ which I knew, he does calendars," Budge explained. "One of our supporters was incredibly generous, he wanted to provide all the bedding for the hotel. We were going up to his place to look at duvets. Donald stays in Carnoustie which wasn’t far away and I said we could go and visit Donald. He was absolutely delighted."

The addition of a hotel to the Main Stand has been an important project for Budge and the club. For fans, many may be keen to stay a night at Tynecastle Park (starting from £150 for dinner, bed and breakfast for two people), but ultimately they will want to know how it benefits the bottom line — that of what happens on the pitch and winning games.

It was a significant investment, McKinlay confirming the club "spent a good amount of money" on it. But there is the belief it will "be worth in the millions" for Hearts going forward, even if it is difficult to put a specific value on what it could be worth.

Already, however, there have been well over £200,000 worth of bookings, aided by the Six Nations at Murrayfield and the upcoming Taylor Swift concert at the home of Scottish Rugby. Those nights saw a surge in the prices of hotel rooms across the Capital. 

READ MORE: The making of Hearts' 150th anniversary kit: UEFA rules, release video, huge demand

"What's difficult, you will have the pure income from the hotel, it is the other extra income we get from everything else, extra conferences, extra events, extra weddings, etc," McKinlay said. "I definitely think it will be worth in the millions for us going forward.

"I've got to, as a CEO, look to the long-term future and the sustainability of the club. I can't just be in the here and now. I think I said similarly around the shouts of 'just give Lawrence [Shankland] as much money as he wants'. The point I made there was I'll bankrupt the club in the future because everyone will want that money.

"We spent a good amount of money but it becomes a really important income stream for a lot of years to come in the future. So that definitely is the message. If you look at the turnover it has gone up steadily and we want to keep it going up steadily which will allow us to put what we spend on the playing side up which will hopefully improve the playing side and we will continue to have success."

McKinlay was keen to stress the point "there's finite income". Hearts have been selling out Tynecastle Park, there is prize money from domestic competition that is relatively stagnant and the TV revenue in Scotland isn't bountiful. The club need to take advantage of the different income streams they can.

"Since I've come to the club, we've spent a lot more on the football side of things," he said. "That is seen quite clearly in the accounts. Let's face it, we'd just been demoted when I arrived and since then, we've come back up, finished third, fourth - we'll see where we end up this season - but that hasn't happened by not putting a lot of money into the team, the salaries, etc.

READ MORE: The beating heart of Gorgie: How Big Hearts is changing lives in the community

"We've sold out the season tickets, so you can't sell any more season tickets. You only get a finite amount of prize money from the SPFL. It might go up a little bit but not a huge amount. And you can't guarantee every year that you are going to have European group-stage football or do player trading. So you've got to look at other ways you can make money.

"We've got this brilliant asset here that is only used 25 days a year for football, roughly. So what are you doing with it for the other 340-odd days? We do have some events and we've got the restaurant, conferences, weddings, other things like that, but this just gives it an extra string to its bow. Not just about the hotel itself, but all the events and conferences.

"It's now more attractive to bring a conference here, a wedding here, so it should allow us to do a lot more on those days and make more money. And all that money goes back into the team. That's the philosophy behind it."

Seventeen years ago the aim was for the club to become "self-funding and self-sufficient" via the investment in players and facilities. Fast forward to the present day and Hearts are fulfilling that ambition that was never met under Romanov. 

The team are currently thriving on the field with now a focus on investment in the playing side after the final piece of the Main Stand jigsaw was completed, the opening of the Tynecastle Park Hotel.