By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Bar Blogger
The NFL and college football are big businesses. They are big for the teams, the merchandise manufacturers, hotels, concession and stadium workers and also for bars.
All across America, sports bars are slammed on fall Saturdays and Sundays showing football. They are pre-game gathering spots for home games in college towns and NFL cities and “go-to” spots for away games. Some are general sports bars all around the country that show all the games while others focus on being “official” bars of specific teams. The latter is especially big in Southern California, which has many transplants from the East Coast, Midwest and South who religiously go to specific alumni or designated team bars to watch their team.
PubClub.com talked with several bar owners to get their input on just how much the NFL and college football season means to them, what they do to prepare for games and how it impacts their business.
“Football makes up about 30% of our business,” said Greg Newman, President/CEO at Baja Sharkeez restaurant group, a Southern California institution that has busy bars in coastal cities from Santa Barbara to San Diego.”If you don’t go after her Saturdays or Sundays, you’d be out of business.”
Tom Winn, owner of Duck Dive bar in San Diego’s Pacific Beach, said: “We are a Nebraska Cornhuskers bar, a team which has a great following not only here but all over the country. We hold a meeting with the alumni chapter president and local alumni to go over the food and beverage specials we will run that season as well as any ideas they have to make the Husker alumni feel at home for these games.
“We deck the entire restaurant with Nebraska flags, an inflatable Herbie the Husker and banners outside. The staff really enjoys the vibe during these games, especially when the team dominates with a win! Go Big Red!!!”
In Tuscaloosa, Tripp Rodgers, owner of Innisfree Irish Pub, one of the top bars at the University of Alabama, has one main concern above all others: ice. “You can’t run out of ice,” he said. “Ice is gold. If you run out of ice it’s the biggest problem you can have as a bar owner. We have three big ice machines and big ice storage bin outside.”
Innisfree has been featured on ESPN Game Day, on CNN and other media outlets and that adds to the buzz for the bar. “We’ve got a big patio with big TVs so if the weather is good it makes for a great atmosphere,” Rodgers said. “The first football game for new employees is kind a shock to the system. But after one game they’ve got it.There’s never a dull moment during football season.”
Bootlegger in San Diego is both a college alumni (Alabama) and NFL (San Francisco 49ers) bar, so it’s packed for games on both Saturdays and Sundays throughout the fall and into the early winter months.
“We have to hire new hands every year to meet the demands of the football crowd,” said owner Mark Huber. “We push the staff to wear outfits and the colors that match our official teams. The TVs are labeled with what game they will display so there is no confusion or arguing. The manager handles that and a DJ handles the sound.
“We have DJs during all big football days. They play music during the commercials and add effects when a team scores or makes a big play. Football season can add 30% more to our weekly sales.”
Robyn Spencer, Experience Director at Tavern + Bowl, an SEC bar in San Diego’s East Village, said that “football season drives our revenues up 20% a week.” That’s a significant amount of revenue.
“Without football season, our winter business wouldn’t thrive,” said Dave Jones, Verant Group’s Director of Operations of several bars in San Diego that show games (Hasta Mañana Cantina, barleymash, The Smoking Gun, Mavericks Beach Club, Tavern at the Beach, Sandbar and Bar Ella). “Football season brings us together and will forever remain a large part of our culture.”
Football Planning Begins In July
There is a lot more than meets the sports fans’ eyes that goes into getting a bar ready for the season. When the fan sits down on a Saturday or Sunday – or now a Thursday night, as well as on Mondays – the games are on, the TVs work, the specials are all set and the staff is ready to serve.
“We start preparing for football season in late July,” Newman said. “It takes that long to come up with the right plan. We meet the alumni of schools, with fans of certain NFL teams and we meet with the beer and liquor distributors to come up with the right promotions.”
For Sharkeez – and its sister bars Tower 12 in Hermosa Beach, CA plus the recently-opened Hideaway down the coast in San Diego’s Pacific Beach – that means setting up a Bloody Mary bar, food specials starting with breakfast and having the right staff on hand – “people who like football,” Newman said. “It’s about creating an enviornment that’s better than what the customers can get down the street. It has to be perfect.”
Buckets of beers or seltzers, coordinated with beer and liquor distributors, are big now because “customers tell us that they don’t like getting up from their seat to go to the bar so that’s a convenient way to serve them,” said Newman, who has been in the bar business for more than 30 years.
“A bar owner typically prepares for college and pro games by ensuring that the establishment is equipped with the necessary technology to broadcast the games such as tv’s and sound systems,” Tavern + Bowl’s Spencer said. “They also stock up on popular game day snacks and beverages, adjust staffing to accommodate increased foot traffic and promote game day specials or events to attract customers. Additionally, there is coordinating with suppliers to make sure that everything needed for game day is taken care of in advance.”
Another huge factor, one that seems a given, is showing the games. But that’s not as easy – or cheap – as it seems. Bars have to have subscriptions to the various sports leagues and, depending on the size of the bar, the NFL package alone costs $5,000+ a year.
That’s not an issue for college town bars, tho, and for a simple reason.
“We don’t have the NFL package,” Rodgers said. “Most of the kids in Tuscaloosa are worn out by Sunday.”
When The Team Wins, The Sports Bars Win
And of course, if the team the bar is showing wins, then that boosts the bottom line.
“When the 49ers win, we get a huge boost!,” Bootlegger’s Huber exclaimed. “If the 49ers and Alabama make the playoffs. It can add even more!”
“Wins result in higher sales of food and beverages as customer’s celebrate the team’s win,” Spencer said. “Revenue goes up if your team wins of course. Everyone wants to celebrate. It also goes up if they lose. They (fans) want to drown their sorrows.”
There was no drowning of sorrows, only a celebration that lasted well into the night at Innisfree in Tuscaloosa after one game in particular.
“The Auburn game last year (in which Alabama converted an improbable fourth-and-31 play to win at the end) was crazy,” Rodgers said. “All of a sudden we hit that pass and stuff went flying everywhere. It was fantastic. People stayed and partied all night. I probably gave away more shots after that game than any other night in our history!”
The expanded college football playoffs is new this year and that means potentially more revenue for certain sports bars. “Most people in Alabama are hoping for a top 4 seed but not me,” Rodgers said. “I’d rather be a 5-8 because that would mean a December home game in Tuscaloosa. And that would be wild! College football is basically a six-month season now.”
Sports Bars Profits Go Beyond Football Season
The sports bar business goes beyond football into other seasons, too. “You go from football to basketball and hockey, then baseball and soccer, which has gotten big,” Newman said. “Overall, sports makes up about 30% of our business.
“If you didn’t have sports, your business would drop off, so you’ve got to have it. Of course you’ve got to have good food & drinks, too, because if you don’t it doesn’t matter how many sports you show.”
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