Customers to take timeout from sports bars this winter

by Adam D’Andrea

Local sports bar owners may be seeing a bit less ice time with customers this winter.

The end of the 2012 Major League Baseball season Oct. 28 combined with the ongoing National Hockey League lockout could be a burden on some bar owners in Windsor. Derek Farrugia, owner of The Dugout Sports Lounge, said he expects the lack of action to negatively impact his business.

“There’s gonna be a lot of dead time for a sports bar. With the hockey lockout all that’s really going on right now is football, which is really a two or three day a week sport,” said Farrugia. “Whereas hockey or baseball are really good because you get five or six days a week with those sports.”

Farrugia also said the quick loss suffered by the Detroit Tigers in the World Series added to the troubles of sports bars in the area.

“We were all pretty excited in this area, in the hospitality industry in particular, about the Detroit Tigers making it to the World Series,” said Farrugia. “But them getting swept in four games, that’s hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in the hospitality industry in this area and Metro Detroit.”

Vince Liburdi, 23, is a self-professed sports fanatic who stops by a sports bar at least a few times per week. However, during the NHL lockout he said this may drop to once a week at best.

“I was in a sports bar like every Tigers playoff game,” said Liburdi. “With no hockey I won’t be going too often, other than a Sunday if some football is on.”

Liburdi, a bartender at Beach Grove Golf and Country Club, said he thinks the lockout will not only hurt bar owners but employees as well. Without a decent sized crowd on weeknights, Liburdi said it is difficult for servers and bartenders working in sports bars to make decent tips.

“It’s not the regulars you have to worry about but the casual fans looking to watch the game somewhere fun,” said Liburdi. “Bars do well on the weekend, but with no hockey it makes it hard to keep them full during the week.”

Although the National Football League and National Basketball Association seasons are currently running as scheduled, Farrugia said these sports draw less frequent and smaller crowds. With NHL games cancelled until Nov. 30 and no end to the lockout in sight, sports bar owners may need to depend on other ways to attract customers this winter.