SPORTSBARCENTRAL

New Summer Games: Live Sports 

Seeing is Believing

Sports bars may seem to be a dime a dozen these days, with one on every corner boasting a large screen or flat screen or plasma television. A patron can walk in any establishment and watch just about any sport on multiple TV sets, even keeping his or her eye on five games at once.
    Some sports bars around the country have discovered a way to tackle the dilemma of conquering their competition and are getting even more extreme by hosting live sports. That doesn’t mean live via your favorite sports network; that means live, as in players engaging in competition right before your patrons’ very eyes.
    It’s an old idea, but can seem new, and on a summer day can make the difference in a patron’s decision to come to your bar or chill somewhere else in the neighborhood.

Eating, Drinking and Watching
    Operators of The Stadium Sports Bar in White Bear Lake, Minn., call it a “fully interactive sports bar,” with interchangeable football, softball, volleyball and ball hockey fields outside. In the summer, they hold softball and volleyball tournaments, with eight teams playing six nights a week and bringing their friends to watch, and he offers the players specials on food and drinks with coupons.
    “We have about 150 a night between the players and the spectators,” says General Manager Brian Mularky. “They sit there and eat and drink and watch the game. It creates a good atmosphere. We try to give as good of an experience as we can for everyone.”
    New York City’s Town Tavern owners have taken a lighter approach to hosting games in the summer by organizing less strenuous play at their upscale Greenwich Village watering hole.
    Beer pong has become a favorite in the New York bar scene, and the Town Tavern takes advantage of its large space.
    “It’s something our competitors don’t have,” says Owner and Managing Partner Katie Niekrash, and that’s very important in the New York bar scene in the summer time.
    “We pull out all the promo stops in the summer,” she says. “Most of our clients have shore houses and go to the Hamptons on the weekends in the summer time. We have to work hard to get them in here.”
    They set up ping-pong tables with cups of beer forming a pyramid on one end of each table. Teams of two compete with each other to land the ball in the cup and force the other team to drink the beer.
    “The crowds are really great,” Niekrash says. “It’s their let-loose time. They work on Wall Street all week and come in here on the weekends.”
    The bar’s staff also hosts a guest bartender night every Friday during the summer called “War of the Shores,” during which patrons are divided into two houses, each with their own bartender and each house encouraged to bring in all their friends. Whichever house’s bartender rings up the most sales gets their weekend shore house stocked with alcohol from the liquor or beer company that sponsors the contest.
    “Our sales are 20 percent more than normal,” Niekrash says. “We’ll have 170 people during happy hour when we run this.”
    Participators know to come because of the 20,000-person contact list the bar keeps updated every week via e-mail.

Host a Monthly Party
    Karl Fernandez, general manager of Mullen’s on Clark in Chicago, brings in the crowds with his beanbag toss, a traditional Chicago sport that many fans play while tailgating for Bears or Cubs games.
    With a board paid for by the beer or liquor company sponsor, each team of two must toss a bag into the hole, scoring points according to how close they get to the hole. The first one to 21 wins.
    “People really enjoy it,” Fernandez says. “It turned out very well for us last year, so this year we’re going to start as soon as possible.”
    Whatever sport you choose for your establishment, Fernandez suggests getting a sponsor to help offset the cost, especially when it comes to advertising; and he recommends encouraging employees to talk it up and create hype, especially in advance.
    “If nobody knows about it, they’re not going to come,” Fernandez says.
    Besides getting the word out by requiring employees to sign people up, California sports bar chain Sharkeez advertises their monthly summer events with décor.
    “You can always tell when something’s happening at Sharkeez,” says Lindsey Richardson, director of marketing.
    The chain hosts parties once a month, complete with costume contests, hot dog-eating contests, wet T-shirt contests, flip-cup contests, and other games, each party moving 400 to 500 people through the door throughout the evening.
    A big draw for the patrons are the prizes, including barbecue grills, beach cruiser bikes, and surf boards.
    “They love it,” Richardson says. “People walk out of here with something and they say they got it at Sharkeez.” But it all has to do with fun, and that’s what the owner believes in.
    “The owner went to USC, and when he left he decided to bring over the games he’d done in college,” Richardson says.
    “He thinks it’s really important to entice the crowd to really get into and participate in what’s going on.” NCB