Regular football in pubs/your local. Love or loathe?

[Espressoandcroissant]

Hi,

As far as football in general is concerned, I'm in the take it or leave it, camp. However, I do understand the supply and demand argument and so if you live in an area where there are many football fans, then fair enough, have it on, celebrate it etc.

In my local though, it seems more of a self indulgent situation with the owner who is a football nut. Playing all their teams matches live and LOUD and always has it written on the board outside when they'll be playing. When I say loud, I mean loud! You can hear it from the other side of the road. I feel sorry for the people who live on the high street.

I've been in when a match is on and there are less people than there would be normally, by quite a lot. Just a handful of fellow supporters, so they can't be taking as much money, which should surely be their main objective 🤔

I just find it irritating that we have to reguarly give it a swerve and drive somewhere else, so no drinking, when you just fancy wandering down your local for a few drinks with the other locals for a chat or whatever.

It's quite clearly the landlords biggest passion, but they're alienating a lot of the other villagers. It's just turning into a "football pub". It could be so much more.

I'm not saying football shouldn't be shown in pubs. I genuinely enjoy watching some of the World Cup for example and there's definitely more atmosphere in a pub, but this is different imo. It's a constant running theme.

What do you think? Does anyone agree that this it is rather self indulgent and also alienating?

[Espressoandcroissant]

Just giving this a bump...

[EasilyDelighted]

Well, it depends. If it's only his team's matches that's twice a week max for a couple of hours with 2 months off in summer. He's letting you know when it'll be by putting it on the board outside. Not unreasonable. If it's every premier league game then that's different, assuming it's a small pub where you can't get away from the TV and it's too loud to talk over. Not great. But ultimately it's his pub and he gets to choose how to run it.

[Alloverthegrapevine]

My local is (in normal times) rammed when the football is on. I'm sure that's exactly the reason they show it. Are they showing very obscure matches that no one else locally is bothered about?

It's up to him what kind of pub he wants to run.

[thedancingbear]

His business, his choice OP.

[ComtesseDeSpair]

A pub is a business ultimately and to be honest they probably make far more money and get more frequent repeat custom from sports fans who come in for a full afternoon or evening watching the game and socialising afterwards and buying endless pints than they do families buying one or two “proper” drinks and a lemonade for the DC to share or two couples coming in to share a leisurely bottle of wine.

Around here some pubs specifically advertise as “sports pubs” in the sense that they have a constantly updated board outside listing what’s going to be showing on the TV that day / night. I’d think that unusual in a village with only one pub though, they usually try to cater to everyone. I wouldn’t choose a pub showing sport all the time but I also have no problem with pubs which show e.g. the World Cup or Six Nations.

[EasilyDelighted]

It seems to me there are two main ways to make money out of a pub, sport or food. I imagine sport is a lot easier.

[ComtesseDeSpair]

Off topic but I used to have a local which banned children indoors - it got loads of complaints from people with children but as the landlord said, he’d tried being “family friendly” and realised he simply couldn’t afford for all the tables to be taken up for hours on end by families who barely bought any alcohol (and often brought their own drinks for the DC!) and whose noisy children put off the people who would spend money on alcoholic drinks.

[Espressoandcroissant]

I completely get that it's up to him, but I know I'm not alone in feeling like this.

He asked recently on FB for customer feedback, as he wasn't sure why there had been such a slow start since lockdown. His tactic to draw people in was to have enormous stereos in the car park and blare out football anthems. We actually initially felt quite sorry for him when we read his post and had a walk down, but ended up walking straight past once we heard the ridiculously loud and grating music. It was so off putting!

I was tempted to be honest, given he was actually asking for feedback, but then we've only been here for little over a year and I didn't want to offend. Plus I genuinely do just think he's quite self absorbed -always refers to himself in the third person, which I think is rather telling.

[thedancingbear]

You’ve obviously already made your mind up OP, so I’m not sure what you’re seeking to gain from the thread?

[Alloverthegrapevine]

I think a lot of places have been slower than you'd expect since they reopened. Young sports fans are probably the one category that may be more comfortable than most going back so it was worth a try

[EasilyDelighted]

Well, the football season is nearly over so why not see what happens after that? You could always feedback that what you like in a pub is a relaxed atmosphere and meeting other people for drinks and chat and hoping he gets the hint.