Opening a Sports Bar

eire25

Hi,
I'm thinking about possibly opening a sports bar in a popular town in Ireland. The rent plus rate is €51,000 per year. Not much competition in relation to sports in this place. Just wondering is opening a bar a good idea these days? I've read in places bar only make out €1.50 per pint that is sold. I know Sky & BT would set me back about a further 2k a month. Anyone have any experience in running a bar? Any advice you be appreciated.

emeldc

Whats your experience in the trade. Have you worked in pubs?

eire25

Only experience I have is working behind the bar myself for a few summers. Other person involved has more bartender experience than me.

emeldc

What research have you done in the other pubs in the town. €1k per week might be a good deal if it's in one of the cities but if its in a small 'popular' town where pubs are two a penny, then maybe not. Does the premises you want already have a license or are you starting from scratch.

eire25

Bar comes with license and is already to go except for some decor that would need to be added. Id put in around 10k to jazz it up a bit, but it is a very nice bar already. Would need a lot if tvs etc. The town does very good trade all year round but there are plenty of bars about. Only thing is the place has nowhere decent to go watch a game. Lease is 5 years. The bar would do sports bar grub like you would see in states like wings, pizza etc. I figure the general running cost might be around 180k a year excluding buying the alcohol. That includes wages, rent,rates, utilities, tv package, food supplies, internet, music license, insurance, other expenses. Im only basing this on stuff ive read around the internet but could be totally wrong

Mrs OBumble

Seems very odd to find a popular town with no sports bar in this country. What local research have you done to find out why this is - eg did local soccer thugs fight wars in the last one?

eire25

There are a few bars who show games but they are terrible and most people go to one place for games which is very poor. Screens are small, volume low or music on over it, serving roast dinners on top of it. Just not a great experience for a game. Our idea is lots of screens, volume up high and only serve burgers, pizzas etc Fill the place with flags, jerseys, pictures etc a proper sports bar, not others that are a bit of both. Thats the idea anyway, think its a good one

jimmii

180k seems a very conservative estimate on running costs unless its quite a small place and you won't have many staff.

What general business experience do you and your partner have? How much bar experience does your partner have?

Have you done any local market research to see if there is demand for what you are planning on showing? Maybe Sky Sports subscription % for the town is just crazy high and people watch at home or maybe its just a place with a strangely low sports following.

What percentage of the existing bars in the town shows sports daily? Not many bars are TV less these days how are you going to convince drinkers who fancy watching a spot of football on a Saturday afternoon to head to your new sports bar rather than their regular where they know the barman and most of the other people there. Is it a town where you're going to be targeting the regulars or is there a decent tourist trade?

EDIT: was typing while you answered a few of my question good timing!!

jimmii

eire25 wrote: »

There are a few bars who show games but they are terrible and most people go to one place for games which is very poor. Screens are small, volume low or music on over it, serving roast dinners on top of it. Just not a great experience for a game. Our idea is lots of screens, volume up high and only serve burgers, pizzas etc Fill the place with flags, jerseys, pictures etc a proper sports bar, not others that are a bit of both. Thats the idea anyway, think its a good one

Are you going to do anything for families at all? Maybe have an area with the volume off so that Dad can watch the football while Mum is able to have some food in peace. My wife hates football so if we're heading somewhere on a Saturday during the football then we go to one of those bars with the volume turned down so she doesn't have to listen to it.

EndaHonesty

eire25 wrote: »

Hi,
I'm thinking about possibly opening a sports bar in a popular town in Ireland. The rent plus rate is €51,000 per year. Not much competition in relation to sports in this place. Just wondering is opening a bar a good idea these days? I've read in places bar only make out €1.50 per pint that is sold. I know Sky & BT would set me back about a further 2k a month. Anyone have any experience in running a bar? Any advice you be appreciated.

A good rule of thumb is the rent should be approx 10% of net turnover so you would want to be turning over €500,000 per annum.

Do you have any turnover figures for the current operation?
Why is the current operator vacating the premises?

Tbh I don't think "sports bar" is a good niche to be aiming for.
IMO the growth is in the value end of the market (Wetherspoons) or the premium end (Gastro Pubs).

I ran my own bar for 10 years, rented it out for 10 years, and recently sold the licence.

jjll

Pubs are tough business to run these days

listermint

I'm not convinced a sports bar itself could open and thrive in the current market .

OP I would actually be looking at the type size and locations of bars that are opening up nationwide in the last 12 months.

They don't come in the sports bar variety it feels you need to complete a market survey before proceeding a genuine survey and cost analysis.

listermint

Off the wall idea here but barbering is booming what about pub with barbers incorporated could lease the barbers out or run direct.

2 sectors booming barber and pub industry.


But have to find the niche on both and has to be done right.

eire25

Thanks all for your replies. To answer Enda, I have a few years experience running a consultancy company which was sold for a nice for quid a few months ago. I always wanted to run a bar in this town. I know Sky and Bt is about 2k a month. I have done zero market research, just going on word of mouth from a lot of people I know around the town. I would be targeting locals and tourists. I don't have any turnover figures unfortunately. Would be nice to see an annual return of some bar around the country to get a general idea alright.
The bar is pretty big and has a upstairs area which we could use for private events or a chill out area away from the sports for families. This bar has closed down a few times over the years. It has always been a bar restaurant but this town is literally crawling with them already so not surprised. woolshedbaa in Dublin would be a similar feel we would be going for. Some ideas to get people in, we would have Xbox for people to play Fifa, host quizzes, comedy nights etc through the year. After sports finish on Friday and Saturday night would put music videos on the screens and put on music or live band. I've been to America a few times and have seen a lot of the bars do this. I general how much profit does a bar make from a pint? I've heard about 33% is profit from each sale.

EndaHonesty

The gross margin on a pub is around 50%.

Allowing customers to play a games console in a pub is pretty much the same as a dodgy sky box. Games consoles are not allowed to be used for commercial purposes only domestic.

Basing your business plan off the profit margin from a pint is amateur hour.

If you're serious talk to an accountant experienced in bar/ restaurants.

Running your own bar is not fun. It's hard work at unsocial hours. If you have young family it's especially difficult.

Bars in America are vastly more profitable than bars in Ireland.

Atlantic Dawn

Could be a good time on account of the Euros in the Summer especially with Irish involvement. You will make a far higher margin on food than on alcohol, as you mentioned stick to the basics, go with chunky fries, burgers, pizza etc. The €2k Sky/BT sub may be considerable more if you wish to have multi channel viewing and your premises is large.

The fitting out of the sports bar will be expensive, there's no point in doing a half ass job and having a brutal SD picture on the TV's, if you have the best picture in town you will get customers from the other bars. Each TV could be a grand plus if you take in to account cabling, brackets and installation. You might need to zone off areas of the bar so differing sports or matches can be shown at the same time, this is more expense.

Axwell

Mod Note: Lads no talk of illegal streaming and dodgy boxes thanks.

jimmii

If you watch bar rescue the magins for US bars is insane! Publicans here can only dream of getting the margins they get!

What is the towns demographic like? It sounds like its going to be a bar aiming for the 20-35 male crowd is there a reasonable population for that group?

pedroeibar1

The bar has opened and closed a few times by your own admission. You have nil experience in running a bar, have grossly underestimated the legals and staff costs, you see no future in higher margin products / business models and expect an annual t/o of 500k in a country town? What am I missing?

Bandara

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

The bar has opened and closed a few times by your own admission. You have nil experience in running a bar, have grossly underestimated the legals and staff costs, you see no future in higher margin products / business models and expect an annual t/o of 500k in a country town? What am I missing?

Just the bit about renovating it to the required standard for ten grand !

pedroeibar1

Yeah, I ignored the huge amount for capital investment because the lease is just for 5 years!;)

Graham

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Yeah, I ignored the huge amount for capital investment because the lease is just for 5 years!;)

I'd almost be willing to give odds the lease is just under 5 years.

eire25

Investment wise for decor 10k was just an estimate but the bar is very nice already and would need to invest in TV and some sports memorabilia. Bar already has a sound system hooked up. So its basically nearly ready to go. The bar would have to be done right or I wouldn't bother with it. If its 20k so be it. Will try to speak with local accountant to get some numbers together

Graham

Assuming you work everything out, the figures stack up, you work your ass off and you end up making a roaring success of your sports bar. What happens in 5 years when your lease ends?