How Early Bar Closures Will Affect The College Football Season

COVID-19 Restrictions Will End The Party After Night Games

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Bars & Nightlife Blogger

Picture this scenario, college football fans.

Your team is playing a night game, it’s fourth-and-1 with less than a minute left and everything is on the line. You’re in a bar, but you can’t stand up and pace in your space because COVID-19 restrictions stipulate that you have to be sitting down at all times.

The teams come out of a timeout, you’re taking a deep breath and…

…the bar turns off the TVs and tells you that you have to leave. That’s because the business has reached its 11 o’clock closing time and if it goes one minute past then it is subject to heavy fines and even a shut-down order by the county.

Let’s fact it, this could happen. In fact, if everything stays the same as it is now in August, then no doubt it will happen.

This is a side effect of the COVID-19 era in which we are living now. And not only that, but one of the great elements of college football – the pre-game tailgate parties – are not likely to be allowed this year. Other traditions such as fans lining up to greet the team as it walks into the stadium are most likely sidelined for the season, as well.

But it’s the early bar closings that are likely to have the biggest impact on fans.

And it doesn’t even have to be your team playing; there could be a critical game on the West Coast that would affect the rankings, thus being important to SEC or Big-10 fans. And then, suddenly, the TVs and the bar goes dark.

Or, let’s say you are one of the lucky ones that actually went to the game. Or you’re a student and are on campus, or just happen to live in one of the college football cities or towns such as Columbus for Ohio State or Knoxville for the University of Tennessee. And you want to go to a college bar after the game either to celebrate a win or drown your sorrows after a bitter loss.

Well, you had better hope the game doesn’t go into overtime and regardless, sprint directly to the bar. That’s because you won’t be able to even get into a bar after 10 and of course, you will be asked to leave at 11. Heck, if you’re at the game you may have to act like an LA Dodgers fan and leave after football’s equivalent of the seventh inning, that being after the third quarter.

The COVID-19 bar restrictions will end the party after night games. Even if the game is not yet over, it’s fourth-and-1 and the game is hanging in the balance. The early bar closure will leave fans hanging, as well.