Why do you think so many Romans went to the Colosseum? To watch some Christians get fed to lions, as fun as that may or may not be? No. The social aspect (and getting uproariously drunk on wine) was a huge factor. Part of the fun of watching sports is watching them with other people — the social aspect of the experience increases our enjoyment of the event.
Stadiums are our modern-day Colosseum, but in this century, we can’t always travel to the stadiums of our favorite teams. Plus, I’m pretty sure it’s much more expensive to go to a game now than it ever was during the Roman Empire (they aren’t giving away Bears tickets for goats’ milk). That’s why sports bars are great. You can go to a local Buffalo Wild Wings, get a meal and some drinks, meet up with other fans and really watch any game you want. Places like this are awesome for people living far away from their teams’ local market since they allow fans to catch their favorite teams’ games live.
Too bad Evanston doesn’t really have a good sports bar, or at least not one any reasonable distance from campus.
Tommy Nevin’s is probably a student’s best option, but it’s a fair distance from campus. It’s really more of a traditional pub than an actual sports bar. What’s great about true sports bars like Buffalo Wild Wings and similar venues is that they have pretty much wallpapered the restaurant with television sets so, as a general rule, whatever game you want to watch is already on -– and if it’s not, you can just ask that it be put on and your wish is their command. For big sporting events, like the Super Bowl or Final Four, the atmosphere at these restaurants is like a party.
“Some of our biggest days of the year are the Ohio State or Michigan games,” said Max Bartz, Tommy Nevin’s general manager. Events like the Bears, Super Bowl or college football games can bring in a capacity crowd of more than 200 people, said Bartz. “Even if they don’t have tickets to the game, they come to Evanston to watch the game here.”
Unfortunately, that means that much like at our own stadium, Northwestern fans are outnumbered in their own bars.
For some reason no one has been willing to take the risk of opening a sports bar in the downtown area — I have no idea why. I know Northwestern hasn’t always been the most amazing at sports, but there’s a sizable portion of the student body that really enjoys watching them and would likely gladly patronize a sports bar. As NU’s revenue sports continue to improve, more and more students will be interested in watching games (and considering the chilly Chicago weather, even home games might gain viewers if students had a fun, casual place close to campus to gather and cheer on the Wildcats).
For those who are less-than-interested in NU sports, but rally behind professional teams, a sports bar would offer a convenient place to gather with other pro-sports fans. During the exciting Celtics/Bulls series, for example, there was a group of 20 or so students watching game four on a Sunday afternoon on the couches at Norris. Norris isn’t exactly the average sports fan’s ideal viewing venue; you could probably attract even more people with the fun atmosphere provided by a sports bar. Hell, the old Barnes and Noble’s has sat unused since I came here as a freshman, and there is still no business in there. It’s also in a great location relative to campus, so maybe I should recruit some investors.
So let’s say you’re not buying this. “I’m not a sports fan, why do I care?” you say. Well, there is also the fact that a sports bar is a sports BAR. When has a bar ever done bad business in a college town? (Besides that cereal bar, Cereality, but that doesn’t count because you couldn’t get your Cheerios with whiskey). All these whippersnappers do is drink nowadays, so there should be plenty of money to be made. And yet the closest true sports bar is the Skokie Buffalo Wild Wings about 20 minutes away. You could drive there, but how many students are willing to do that?
There are a lot of mythical Evanston laws supposedly forbidding activities and establishments from skipping to bowling alleys, but I’ve never heard even rumors alleging a ban on sports bars (and my search of the Evanston zoning laws didn’t turn up anything to suggest such a ban exists). So until someone decides NU students would frequent a real sports bar, I guess we’ll all just have to live with cramming into a dorm room and watching NUTV, because who needs food, fun and flat screens when you’ve got that?