When I was younger, there were two places to watch a game: at the stadium or arena, and at home on TV. Or, you might gather the gang at a friend’s house to watch the game on his TV. Bars typically did not have televisions, though if they did, it was generally a grainy 12-inch B&W one behind the bar itself.
Sometime around the 70s or so, sports bars were invented. Plenty of televisions upon which to watch the game. Even non-sports bars started getting bigger TVs and putting them in locations where more people (that is, not just the ones seated at the bar itself) could see them.
I was surprised the other night, during the Stanley Cup final, to discover that there are people who wouldn’t dream of watching a game at home–for them, it’s the sports bar, or not at all. Mind, a lot of them were younger single people, who had grown up with sports bars and who had no obligations (such as children) who might keep them at home, but their overwhelming attitude was that you go out to a game; you don’t watch it at home. I started recalling how “going out to a bar to watch a game” was something that was nearly impossible to do years ago, but these people accepted it as the normal state of affairs; indeed, it is expected.
Now, my ad hoc survey was completely unscientific, and biased (let’s face it, I was at a sports bar, so the people I was talking to were too). So I thought I’d throw it out for discussion here. Where do you watch a game? At home or a friend’s, at a sports bar, or at a mixture of both? Do you feel that if you don’t go out to a sports bar, that you’re missing something; or do you care?
For me it depends on the game. For football (pro, I don’t really follow college) I typically go out to the local sports bar. There is a really cool group of folks who are there for every game, nice friendly rivalries between fans of different teams, etc. For baseball, I prefer to watch at home.
Going to the stadium isn’t a convenient option, being as I live about 5 hours from the nearest one, and that belongs to a team I don’t like.
If I had the choice of anywhere other than the actual location of the game, it would probably be at the sports book of any major Vegas casino. It’s like a sports bar times 100.
That’s a good point, and one I hadn’t considered. Here in my little city, the nearest city with pro sports is Calgary (NHL hockey and CFL football), which is two hours away–not an impossible distance, but far enough away that attending a pro game in person takes a little more planning than if one lived there anyway. So maybe that also has an effect: if there is little to no way you can attend a game in person, but you still want to be surrounded by sports fans during the game, you choose a sports bar.
Sports bars aren’t an option for me, as a married guy with two kids.
I’d need to spend something like $50 to make it worth while, and that ain’t gonna happen.
Even when I was young and single, bars just seemed too impersonal a venue. I’d rather watch at home, or as you say, gather the gang at someone’s house.
For the 2010 men’s Olympic hockey final a friend’s brother booked the party room at his condo development: huge screen, BYOB and share potluck. That was fantastic!
The only exception is if I’m playing squash at my club and there is a game on. I’ll go upstairs to the bar (ETA: after I’m done playing!) and watch it with my racket swinging chums.
I’d like to try that sometime, but I decided long ago that in general sports bars are not for me. At home I can get a comfy chair, set my surround properly, the TV may not be better but it’s not that much worse, I don’t have to share the bathroom, and I can buy a whole 6 pack of good beer for the price of one or two drinks at the bar.
I used to watch the Steelers play (the only sporting events that I absolutely MUST see) exclusively at a bar, but that all changed last year for a variety of reasons. Now I watch it at home unless the pinheads at the local CBS station decide that this is the Baltimore viewing area (which they do around half the time), in which case I have no choice but to go to a bar.
I usually just watch at home, except on rare occasions when I go to a bar or house to watch with friends. A couple times, I tried going on my own to a bar where my alma mater’s alumni association was showing our game, but i found it very intimidating and impossible to start a conversation. It seemed like everyone else already knew each other and had their own cliques.
I used to prefer sports bars before I got my HD tv. Now, I watch most games at home. The local sports bar has an annoying habit of leaving the jukebox on for all but the biggest games.