60 replies to this topic

[Oriole85]

BTW, somewhat related, but I was in Los Angeles about six years ago when the Terps were in the NCAA tourney and I had to find a bar to watch their 12:35 EST start (this was before CBS aired every game).  Man, was it weird sitting in a bar at 9:30 in the morning drinking beer watching live sports.

 

If I ever move west (which I want to do eventually) I'm not sure I'll ever get used to NFL games at 10 am.  Then again, my cousins who live in San Diego can't believe that late baseball games start at 10:30 pm out here "when do you sleep?"

It was kind of nice when I lived in Colorado and woke up to NFL games for the most part at 11 AM. Only thing I disliked was College GameDay coming on at 7 AM.

[Markus]

BTW, somewhat related, but I was in Los Angeles about six years ago when the Terps were in the NCAA tourney and I had to find a bar to watch their 12:35 EST start (this was before CBS aired every game).  Man, was it weird sitting in a bar at 9:30 in the morning drinking beer watching live sports.

 

If I ever move west (which I want to do eventually) I'm not sure I'll ever get used to NFL games at 10 am.  Then again, my cousins who live in San Diego can't believe that late baseball games start at 10:30 pm out here "when do you sleep?"

 

It definitely took me a little while to get used to this.  And college football, on Saturday's, starting at 9 am.  There have been times when by the time I've woken up and put on a Terp's game it's mid-way into the 2nd quarter.

 

First year we were out here I would go to a local bar to watch 1 pm (EST) football games and it would be packed with dudes all drinking at 10 am.  I always try to stick to a personal rule of no drinking before noon (sometimes I'll break it) and I'd just order a beer so I wouldn't seem like a huge leach and just nurse the hell out of it.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I think central time is the most ideal for sports watching -- you get the east coast games at 6 local, the latest any MLB game starts is generally 930 and most football is over by 1030 or so.

[Pedro Cerrano]

It definitely took me a little while to get used to this.  And college football, on Saturday's, starting at 9 am.  There have been times when by the time I've woken up and put on a Terp's game it's mid-way into the 2nd quarter.

 

First year we were out here I would go to a local bar to watch 1 pm (EST) football games and it would be packed with dudes all drinking at 10 am.  I always try to stick to a personal rule of no drinking before noon (sometimes I'll break it) and I'd just order a beer so I wouldn't seem like a huge leach and just nurse the hell out of it.

 

 

Hahah order a water with a lime in it and people will just think you're a massive alcoholic.

[You Play to Win the Game]

Sad as hell that we have to reminisce about that time, 6 years ago, when the Terps were in the tournament.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Yea, I remember they lost to Butler in Round 2 -- I watched that game on St. Paddy's Day in Las Vegas.

[mweb08]

I'm a BDubs regular. There, only the managers or shift leaders are allowed to operate the huge TV console area or whatever. It seriously is ridiculous, it takes forever. I'm usually there a couple times a week, so by now when I walk in, they know to put the O's game on for me.
 
But at a bar like BDubs, why in the hell isn't someone looking at the schedule in the morning and coming up with a general plan around the games? It is absolutely assinine how many times I've walked in there lately and at 8 PM most of the TV's are showing ESPNNews, CNN, FS1 UFC replay, etc. Meanwhile, we're in Gaithersburg mind you, and the Nats game isn't on, the O's aren't on, the NHL playoffs aren't on, etc. Totally mind boggling to me how dysfunctional a lot of these places are, it's seriously not rocket science.

Crystal City Sports Pub in Arlington has a good system where they plan out the whole day and what specific TVs the events are on. They have the print outs under the TVs as well. Every sports bar should do this.

Yep. There's really no excuse for a place that considers themselves a legit sports bar not to do something like this.

[DuffMan]

"Do we get that channel?"

[Oriole85]

"Do we get that channel?"

With the Pac-12 Network, which is the main reason I usually go to sports bars for the most part, only a handful of places do around here. I ran into the problem that the people on the phone would tell me they had it (and they didn't). So what I do is I usually ask them to double check as annoying as that is. 

[DuffMan]

Also, one of their famous moves is putting the SD feed on the HD TV's. That's always a good time.

Colts-Ravens playoff game in January of 07, my wife and I get to the Green Turtle in Fells point nice and early so we can snag a sweet seat right in front of the bar.   We were sitting right in front of one of the big TV's that was carrying the game in HD.  Sounds awesome except for one problem  a couple of the smaller TV's in the corners had the game in SD.  Problem with that was the SD signal was coming in a few seconds faster than the HD.  So for half the game I was spoiled of every play,  just hearing how half the crowd would react let me know if something good or bad would happen, it was awful!   And don't even get me started on that  game!

[McNulty]

They don't get any money from it immediately, and they have trepidation about how to work the equipment. A lot of bartenders work at multiple places too. That's where the disconnect is coming from, but its unacceptable. Keep your customers happy and you'll get them to order many rounds. I was at a bar Tuesday to watch the Os, and at 6:55 the nba pregame was on. I asked them to change it, which they did to SD, and it changed every tv in the bar. Five receivers, but none set up right. Two minutes later some punk kid working there comes up and is trying to change it back to the nba. He noticed us and goes, are you watching this? I got my check and walked out immediately.

[Oriole85]

There should be some cheat sheet with all the sports channels, the numeric digits, and the teams that play on them. For example, you would have CSN (Wizards/Caps), CSN+ (overflow Wizards/Caps), MASN (O's/Nats), MASN2 (overflow O's/Nats), CBS (Ravens), Fox (Redskins). That way when someone asks, "Can you turn it to the O's game," they don't have to ask the following channels. If the game happens to be on ESPN or another channel, the customer will likely correct them, "It's on ESPN today."

[DJ MC]

There should be some cheat sheet with all the sports channels, the numeric digits, and the teams that play on them. For example, you would have CSN (Wizards/Caps), CSN+ (overflow Wizards/Caps), MASN (O's/Nats), MASN2 (overflow O's/Nats), CBS (Ravens), Fox (Redskins). That way when someone asks, "Can you turn it to the O's game," they don't have to ask the following channels. If the game happens to be on ESPN or another channel, the customer will likely correct them, "It's on ESPN today."

 

I would not be at all surprised if most places have something like that, either official or something that was made by an employee out of frustration. The problem is, it's never going to be right there when you ask someone to change the channel.

 

I know that once you get to a bar you tend to want to stick around, especially when you are there for a particular reason, but have any of you considered leaving because there is a chronic problem? If the bar owners/managers find out people are leaving over that, they'll probably do something about it pretty damn quick.

[Oriole85]

I would not be at all surprised if most places have something like that, either official or something that was made by an employee out of frustration. The problem is, it's never going to be right there when you ask someone to change the channel.

 

I know that once you get to a bar you tend to want to stick around, especially when you are there for a particular reason, but have any of you considered leaving because there is a chronic problem? If the bar owners/managers find out people are leaving over that, they'll probably do something about it pretty damn quick.

Some places probably already do have this. There's no reason this list can't be at a centralized place, taped to some wall or something. It should also be practically memorized by someone who works at a sports bar. If you work at the Greene Turtle in Owings Mills, you should know what channel the O's are on. If you work at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Rockville, you know what channel the Wizards are on. I'm not expecting you to know what channel the University of Dayton plays on or some obscure sport.

 

I've left places before that haven't changed the channel in a timely manner and have not come back. 

[Icterus galbula]

I think central time is the most ideal for sports watching -- you get the east coast games at 6 local, the latest any MLB game starts is generally 930 and most football is over by 1030 or so.

Amen my brother. CST kicks ass for sports.

[BSLMikeLowe]

BTW, somewhat related, but I was in Los Angeles about six years ago when the Terps were in the NCAA tourney and I had to find a bar to watch their 12:35 EST start (this was before CBS aired every game).  Man, was it weird sitting in a bar at 9:30 in the morning drinking beer watching live sports.

 

If I ever move west (which I want to do eventually) I'm not sure I'll ever get used to NFL games at 10 am.  Then again, my cousins who live in San Diego can't believe that late baseball games start at 10:30 pm out here "when do you sleep?"

 

You get used to the early drinking. If it feels weird at first, just have a Bloody Mary to start and ease into it....by mid season the bartender will have a double Patron sitting on the counter for you when you walk in.

 

Needless to say, I think PT is by far the best time zone for football season. The afternoon games are over before 5:00, and in the early part of the season you can still go out and enjoy a couple hours of daylight, DVR the SNF game, then skip the commercials. And the night games are over by 9pm.

 

I do miss the start of a lot of O's and Terps weekday games. But it's worth the tradeoff.

[DJ MC]

I can't even imagine being a Premier League fan on the West Coast.

[BSLMikeLowe]

With the Pac-12 Network, which is the main reason I usually go to sports bars for the most part, only a handful of places do around here. I ran into the problem that the people on the phone would tell me they had it (and they didn't). So what I do is I usually ask them to double check as annoying as that is. 

 

Even in the West, because DirecTV is the overwhelming choice for sports bars, not as many places have Pac-12 Network. In Oregon it is a little easier to find because DirecTV also doesn't carry Comcast SportsNet NW, which has had the Blazers since 2007-08, so a lot of places had already added a cable subscription for that.

[BSLMikeLowe]

I can't even imagine being a Premier League fan on the West Coast.

 

A what now?

[BSLMikeLowe]

[Rant]

 

The worst part about sports on the west coast is the Olympics. Even the handful of events you get live back east are still delayed out here. During the 2010 Winter Games, NBC hit an all-time low in Olympic broadcasting history when they showed weekend afternoon coverage on a 3-hour delay in the PST, despite the fact that Vancouver is in the same frickin' time zone!

 

[/Rant]