Sports Bars Scoring Big On Game Day

Business at sports bars is usually fairly slow after a huge sports weekend, like we just had, with the conclusion of the NFL regular season. But that was not the case Monday when the traditional New Year’s Day college football bowl games were played.

Thanks to Jan. 1 falling on a Sunday, they were a total of six bowl games on Monday’s schedule.

As far as local sports bar operators are concerned, the six games are a great way to ring in the first Monday of the new year. That’s because, college football fans eat and drink while they root for their teams.

Add it all up and sales receipts should easily outpace what sports bars normally see in the early part of a given week.

“Probably gonna bump us up where we’re looking more like a good compliment of college games every Saturday,” said Greg Daniels, owner of the 19th Hole Sports Bar in Palm Desert. “I think we’re gonna see a number more associated with that.”

Billy Sherman, general manager of The Beer Hunter in La Quinta, sees the busy Monday on the college gridiron as nothing but a boon for business.

“A day like today, we’ll probably double our sales from a typical Monday,” said Sherman. “It brings a lot of people out who would normally not be here on a Monday.”

There should also be a good turn out at sports bars next Monday. That’s when LSU and Alabama meet in the BCS National Championship game.