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Cultivate Alumni Groups for College Football Crowds

    Mad River Bar & Grille in Chicago, college football Saturdays easily are more popular than NFL Sundays. Though the obvious, no-brainer attraction is the game itself, setting the stage for it is important in edging out the competition.
    “Make it as close or similar to the live event as possible, whether you bring in local food or fight songs. Make it as familiar as possible,” says General Manager Matt Ochse, “We’re a big spot. We have a lot of TVs and we have the college football package, so we do show a lot of games other than the alumni clubs we have. But we just make it a fun, festive atmosphere that’s geared toward football. We do a brunch every Saturday for the games, and drink specials are dictated by whatever the (alumni club) is looking for.”
    At Mad River, it’s Chicagoland Michigan alumni who hold their group get-togethers there to watch games.

A Natural Fit
    San Diego, too, draws residents from across the nation, who find special spots to meet up and cheer for their alma maters. Whether it’s Auburn fans at McGregor’s Grille & Ale House, Ohio State Buckeyes at Moondoggies or Miami Hurricane fans at Canes Bar & Grill, San Diego’s watering holes become makeshift stadiums on Saturdays in the fall. And it’s no surprise that Notre Dame fans call Hennessey’s Irish pub home.
    Some 100 or so Fightin’ Irish alums and fans show up and get pretty amped, says Hennessey’s Assistant Manager Tom Winn. “They fill up the pub room and pour into the main room, too,” he says.
“We do both College GameDay and NFL Sunday Ticket,” Winn says. “We have four TVs, in each corner of the room. We get a good crowd.”
Drink specials such as $2 Bloody Marys help approximate the real tailgating experience.
    “We turn the volume up. It gets pretty wild in here, especially for the Notre Dame games. Even the opponents have a good time, going back and forth with each other.”
For the most part, fans show up at Hennessey’s near kickoff, but many do come earlier to grab a bite to eat and grab a seat at the bar.

Attracting Alums
    So what does the neighborhood bar with no obvious attraction to a certain alumni base (such as an Irish pub pulling Notre Dame fans) do to get fans to choose it as their favored venue?
    The best starting point is to identify small groups of fans of particular schools who already have latched onto you. It might be as small as four people who regularly watch games at your place, or even come there once. Talk to them candidly and tell them you’d love to invite them and other alums to your venue for all the games. You may want to give them some gift certificates to spread amongst other alumni they know.
    Or it may be that isolated pockets of alumni of a school in your large market don’t know each other. So, advertise your venue as game day headquarters for a particular school or schools (depending on your size and number of televisions). You can bet separated fans would love the opportunity to cheer for their team with fellow fans.           NCB