Football Focus Issue 81 | Page 63

“I joined the Rivers Hotel around a month ago so I’m quite new here. We officially opened last summer and are able to offer 28 bedrooms, an American diner and a bus that we’ve converted into a diner, meaning that it is quite a unique experience that we’re able to offer. During the week we train people that have disabilities such as autism or mental health in how the hospitality industry works. We’re committed to playing an important role in the local community and will look to grow the work that we do in that area. The hotel is a gorgeous place to come and we’re family friendly (including dogs!) with a lot of locals coming to visit us as well, making it a very welcoming atmosphere here. We’re going to be holding a number of events at the hotel and will also be relaunching the menu in January giving us a lot to look forwards to. We’re also launching an American afternoon tea so there is plenty for people to come and enjoy. My advice for anyone interested in visiting would just be to come along and let us look after you from there.” Sarah Gauthier, Rivers Hotel With a unique riverside location Rivers Hotel is more than just a hotel.  Featuring an American diner, diner bus, a fully licenced bar, indoor & outdoor riverside seating, an outdoor children's play area & a newly refurbed function suite suitable for any celebration. Serving fantastic breakfasts, burgers, hot dogs, shakes & more from 8.00am-8.00pm Monday to Saturday & 8am-6.00pm on a Sunday. Our bar is open until midnight Monday to Saturday & until 11pm Sunday.  Rivers Hotel, Green Lane, Gateshead, NE10 0SB | 0191 484 1421  Find us on Facebook @rivers_hotel | www.rivers-hotel.co.uk Integration Challenges/Ambitions “As well as youth competitions, our U19s team currently compete in the Northern Alliance Premier Division which is a respectable standard senior league in the region. This means any under-19 players looking to make the step-up to the first team already have experience playing senior football. In addition to this, we often send some of our more exceptional youth talents out on loan to mainly Northern League sides in order to give them experience at a higher standard than our under-19s currently play at. All three of our first team players who were previously part of our youth set-up enjoyed time out on loan last season and came back much stronger and ready for the starting XI.” “Attracting and maintaining a decent core fanbase in order to become sustainable will always be a big issue for a club of our size. Competing in the National League is becoming increasingly difficult for a club like Gateshead given the stature and resources of some clubs in the National League. Like almost any club in the National League, our ambition would be to be a Football League side within five years. In an ideal world, we would also be self- sustaining with a growing fanbase who are proud to be part of the club. Realistically, if solid foundations are put in place for the club to grow and succeed in the coming months and years then these ambitions certainly have the potential to become reality.” Community “We are absolutely a community club. We have an established community programme in which former players are employed as community officers and go around local schools and conduct events in order to promote the club to the community. We give our free tickets to kids and have various programmes that help the club engage with the community.” www.footballfocusmag.com 63