Game Time
Bar sports offer customers the thrill of competition
By Mario Sarmento
You can do more than just have a drink, talk to your neighbor or watch a sporting event at your local bar.
Some establishments promote bonding and participation through sports leagues, with everything from darts to pool to bowling and even shuffleboard available to their patrons.
At JB Locals, darts is the name of the game, where the season just started in the Broward County Darts Association.
Teams play every Tuesday and Thursday at the bar.
“It’s well worth it,” JB Locals owner Ed Telfer said. “They have a lot of fun with it.”
The proliferation of leagues isn’t all fun and games though, as in these times of shortened attention spans and a variety of new activities that weren’t available 10-20 years ago, bar owners are doing anything they can to drum up business.
“With the market the way it is, we’re trying to do whatever we can to bring people in,” Telfer said.
The big draw now at Pompano Bowl is open bowling, though there are still two leagues on Mondays and another Tuesday-Friday.
“They like the competitiveness,” bowling manager Robert Lugo said. “Some are big money leagues. Some have been doing it for 10-20 years.”
First place in the Monday Night League is $6,000, while first, second and third-place teams in all leagues get their original entry fee back plus additional winnings.
There is also an InTheBiz Night for bar and restaurant employees, where they can bowl for free and only have to pay for their shoes.
The biggest night for league bowling is Tuesday, when music and videos are in constant rotation. Bowlers pay $15 a week, with a portion going to a party fund for a postseason gathering.
Manor Lanes has an InTheBiz Night for local bars and restaurants each Monday, with 12 teams of four people each participating.
“Bowling is inexpensive entertainment,” said owner Dwight Matlack. “It’s also a good social sport to met people.”
The leagues are all handicapped to put bowlers on a level playing field.
A popular format at Manor Lanes is “Rock N’ Bowl,” where bowlers pay $15 for all-you-can-bowl sessions every Friday from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and Saturdays from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Manor Lanes also has featured drinks for bowlers, with a Heineken Light currently being the featured beer, available in buckets for $12 each. Smirnoff Flavors is the featured alcoholic drink, with shot specials for bowlers.
If there’s a sports league, chances are Jester’s has it.
“I just don’t want people to sit there and drink,” Jester’s minority owner Rosie Paiement said. “It gives them different things to do.”
In addition to a steel dart league, Jester’s also has teams in a soft-tip league and the Broward County Dart League.
There’s also a pool league and even a shuffleboard league.
Paiement, a former NHL player, actively participates in all these leagues himself.
“That’s why we have it,” he said. “Our bar is all about participation.”
Leagues bring in an extra 20-25 people at 7:30 each night, with Monday being shuffleboard night, Tuesday-Thursday devoted to the various darts teams and Thursdays for pool.
One of the darts leagues, which is Wednesday, has teams compete for a $2,000 prize.
The winner of the pool league gets a $1,500 prize, while the shuffleboard winners get $1,000. For those competing in the various leagues, they get a discount special on drinks at the bar.
In addition to those leagues, at one time Jester’s also had a trivia challenge at Happy Hour and a bowling league.
The time those leagues consume may be a factor in what has been a decline in participation.
Paiement said just two years ago he had almost 200 people participate in Jester’s various sports leagues, while this year he’s got just over 100 people.
He placed part of the blame on the current state of the economy, while Lugo thinks Texas Hold ‘Em poker has now siphoned off some participants. He also said people are more reluctant to commit themselves to the grind of a season as they had in the past.
But despite those factors, Lugo added, “Leagues are still a viable source of income.”
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