11 minute read
FEATURE: SPORTS BAR ESSENTIALS
Game on
Immersive screens, modern designs, and exclusive content are just some of the ways clubs are attracting sports fans through the door, reports Aimee Chanthadavong.
NOTHING BEATS WATCHING a game in person: the atmosphere, the crowd, and the merchandise — all of which make for an exciting experience. But attending every live game is not always possible. Understanding this, clubs aim to recreate this similar experience in their venues.
Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL in Sydney’s inner-west, for instance, recently completed renovations on its sports bar, known as The Park.
Chief executive Dean Thomas described the revamped space as “welcoming, fun, and cheeky where members can feel at home while having a meal, catching up with friends and family in one of the booth seatings, or watching the games live and loud”.
“Holistically, we have updated the look and feel from your more traditional club members lounge to a space with a more modern sports bar feel,” he said.
“The area has been cleverly designed, using different floor finishes, booth seating, planters, and screens to break up a long rectangle lounge into several different seating zones without closing up the space.”
There is also a larger emphasis on watching sports in the new space, with multiple screens placedcarefully , including a six-metre LED screen in the main area, complemented with another five-metre LED screen in the TAB.
“Having a big screen is always a ‘thing’ for sports bars, then there’s how many other sports you can watch simultaneously, which is why creating different zones is important,” Thomas said.
He believes that for any sports bar, the point of difference comes down to how well a club can create an overall experience, especially for big sporting events such as State of Origin or Melbourne Cup.
A richer and livelier experience
“Creating a sports bar experience that is unparalleled with the at-home experience; that’s at the center of what we are focused on when we work with venues,” stated Mark Sturdy, managing director of Entain Venues.
Entain Venues, which supports licensed establishments with Ladbrokes and Neds sponsorships, as well as provide in-venue entertainment products to almost 1,500 venues across Australia, has recently launched a live sports broadcasting business, Entain Venues Live, that is focused on bringing global sports into venues at a competitive price point.
If you go back 10 or 15 years ago, no one had a big screen but now everyone has high definition at home, so you have to provide a higher level of service.
-Nathan Young, Club Yeronga GM
“Accessibility to sports has never been easier for consumers, whether that be on device, at home, compressed bites on socials, or in a venue. Consumers are now spoiled for choice and are more mindful of their discretionary spend. Creating value for customers is fundamental in influencing customers to choose a venue for their additional spend,” Sturdy said of current market trends.
“Upon entering the market, we quickly realised that merely focusing on outcomes isn’t enough anymore. Today’s sports bars need more than just screens for watching games, the transaction on a betting terminal or over the bar can’t be the focal point. They must offer a combination of essential features that create an inviting atmosphere, drawing like-minded people together to share in the communal joy – and sometimes heartbreak – that only sport can deliver.”
Sturdy added: “The critical role we play with venues is identifying points of difference that bring the atmosphere, social engagement, and immersive experience together. That is what defines a Ladbrokes or Neds venue as the standout choice for customers to watch their favourite sport or team.”
Creature comforts and fostering fan interaction
While there is always a place for high bars and stools in sports bars, Entain Venue also looks to how Ladbroke venues can elevate the level of comfort for patrons by bringing people together with seating booths, as well as low tables and chairs.
“Ensuring a comfortable environment for all can keep people in for longer,” Sturdy enthused. The trend of building fan interaction in sports bars, already a major hit overseas, and is now emerging in Australia, centres on crafting interactive sports experiences for customers.
Sturdy shared some examples of this, including F1 simulators, interactive darts, golf, and baseball experiences, which he said are setting a new standard for fan engagement.
“By making fans the star of the show, these innovations are transforming the ways that customers interact with their favourite sports and have become the drawcard for new profitable demographics into venues,” he said.
Sports broadcast access
The fragmentation of sports vision and fierce competition for broadcast rights are driving up costs for venues to showcase sports in their spaces.
Having a big screen is always a ‘thing’ for sports bars, then there’s how many other sports you can watch simultaneously, which is why creating different zones is important.
-Dean Thomas, Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL CEO
“We have heard venues paying more than double what they paid only a few years ago to have the same content for their customers, which is a real concern for business sustainability. This is why we launched Entain Venues Live as a vehicle to help solve this problem,” Sturdy said.
In May, DAZN signed on Entain Venues as the first broadcast partner to bring global boxing matches to venues for as little as $250 per fight.
“This is only the beginning. We will explore further opportunities in the market to continue to create new competitive tension on winning the business of clubs,” Sturdy said.
Form and function
It’s these same considerations that ran through the mind of Matthew Hewer, general manager of Palmerston Golf and Country Club in the Top End, when it came to building the new sports bar as part of its clubhouse renovations. For him, one of the priorities was to create a dedicated sports bar space that was both comfortable and functional.
“The old clubhouse was built a long time ago, and it was very small, and we never really had a dedicated sports bar there,” he explained.
“It was more of a combined space where you had the guys come around after work on a Friday or Saturday afternoon and they’d get a bit boisterous. At the same, we would have families coming in for dinner at five o’clock in the afternoon and walking through that.
The other important aspect for Palmerston Golf and Country Club was retaining the social characteristics patrons expect at a club sports bar. Hewer explained by introducing long tables, rather than small individual tables, punters can still catch up with friends without missing out on watching sports.
“The way we’ve done this is we’ve situated all furniture so that you could sit there either facing your mates and have chat, or you can turn your head to the right and you’re looking at a big five-by-two-metre screen, or you can rotate your head to the left, and you’ve got the TAB wall.”
Hewer also made the conscious choice to keep the sports bar at a 60-person capacity.
“We didn’t want to make it too big because if you’ve got a really big bar, it’s very hard to pack it out to get the atmosphere in there,” he said.
“The way this is designed is that you can stick 10 people in there and you’ve got an atmosphere; you don’t feel like you’re scraping.”
Over at Club Yeronga in south Brisbane, the sports bar takes on what general manager Nathan Young has described as a more upmarket look and feel.
“A lot of people think sports bars are all about cheap beers, lots of screens around the place, and shouting, but we’ve created a more sophisticated environment. The focus of the room, if you look away from the bar, we’ve got an LED screen, which takes up an entire wall – it’s eight metres long and resembles something you’d see in Las Vegas,” he said.
“The bar has got a range of products, which means a sophisticated taste. Everyone who goes to a sports bar these days wants boutique-style beers and cocktails; we’ve got plenty of that. We’ve also still got your typical TAB and pool table down the end, so it’s not your standard sports bar.”
Young acknowledged how times have changed and that a sports bar experience needs to be suitable for socialising and watching sporting events.
“There are times when big events are on, and all the yahooing is expected. But, on a week-to-week basis when you’re just going to watch your team play, you want a pleasant, secure environment that’s serviced quite well and you can get whatever drink you want,” he said.
“If you go back 10 or 15 years ago, no one had a big screen but now everyone has high definition at home, so you have to provide a higher level of service.”
Tim Fishwick from Stan Sports agreed that sports bars need to provide patrons with an all-encompassing experience.
“Dragging people out of the comfort of their homes, with big screen TVs and all mod-cons is really where you see venues that are getting it right succeed,” he said.
“Before Covid, the club was the hub of the community naturally. But post-Covid, people are more discerning with their choices when leaving home. A TV with no sound on is not good enough.
Customers want activations, along with the best comforts in your sports bar.”
With the Paris Olympics just around the corner, Fishwick emphasised it’d be a fantastic opportunity for clubs to get more punters through the door.
“Have as many streams of Olympic content as possible,” he said.
During the Paris Olympics, Stan Sport will offer four streams of live sports across 16 days, in addition to its venue-only 24/7 channel that will be curated to have all of the best sports.
“As your members are having dinner at the club, they won’t miss a minute of the Paris 24 Olympics. As it’s not perfect timing [given the time difference between Australia and France], Stan Sport’s 24/7 channel will have all the action and highlights non-stop during the day until live coverage starts again.”
Go large
According to AVI Projects managing director Roger Delmore, there are a few ways venues can optimise their sports bar space and their investment in large screens.
“The main thing about a sports bar is they’re trying to cater to everybody. They’re not just trying to cater to Steve who likes NRL, or John who walks in and he likes AFL and you’ve got to switch it to AFL,” he said.
“To combat that, venues are finding that if they can put more than one image on this screen then we can get more people in at once and we’re catering to more people.”
But it’s not just about the screen either. Sound quality is equally important, Delmore said.
“There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes technology that goes into audio designing. We have software that lets us map the venue or the space, and it will produce a map of where the speakers are needed so that everybody has a similar sounding experience, rather than just that one person at the front who can hear everything, and the people at the back who can hear very little.”
AFL winning the hearts of sports fans
The latest insights from CGA by NIQ has found that AFL not only tops the charts as the most-watched sport in venues for almost half of consumers when out for drinks, but it’s the overall preferred sporting choice in general, with 26 per cent favouring AFL over other sports. This is in contrast with Rugby League, where only 17 per cent of consumers watch when they’re out.
The study also showed that 44 per cent of consumers specifically go out for a drink while watching the AFL Men’s Grand Final, with a similar interest shown in AFL Men’s events overall.
At the same time, half of consumers surveyed admit to preplanning or booking their on-premise visits to watch live sports.
“The game is indeed changing when it comes to sports viewing, and the latest OPUS survey underscores the power of live sports, particularly AFL, in creating vibrant on-premise experiences,” CGA by NIQ ANZ client solutions director James Phillips said.
“For this reason, it’s now necessary for brands, operators, and suppliers to understand and cater for the nuanced preferences of sports viewers. While the market remains competitive, the hospitality sector can tap into new levels of engagement, loyalty, and growth by aligning their offerings with these insights.”
