SOCIAL MEDIA: What Sports Bars Can Learn About Social Media from Leagues & Teams
Since the social media was fully embraced by the sports industry, the management of teams, leagues, and associations began to use them as a tool to promote their growth and connection to the fans. And while you’re not running a sports league team, you’re still running a sports organization. Your roster is your staff and, like pro teams, you’re trying to generate interest in your organization by marketing yourself to sports fans. To that end, sports bar operators should use social media like pro teams and leagues do — to enhance the fan experience.
DID YOU KNOWS…
The Champions League's Global Appeal Pays Off
When the UEFA Champions League group stage kicks off this week, soccer fans from all across the globe will be tuning in. After all, it is the biggest club competition in the world, where fans get to watch star-studded teams such as Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain face off for European glory. For UEFA, Europe’s soccer governing body, the competition’s global appeal is paying off big time. Over the past 14 years, the broadcasting rights for the Champions League have more than tripled in value. In the 2016/17 season, UEFA made $1.7 billion selling the broadcasting rights, up from just $451 million in the 2003/04 season.
ANIMATION: US Brewery Openings
Brewing is big business in the US. In fact, by the end of 2018, a record 7,000 breweries will be operating in the US. It’s almost hard to visualize that many breweries opening up. But Bart Watson, chief economist of the Brewers Association, did just that in a recent tweet which is an animation showing every brewery opening since 1900. The recent explosion is insane.
LA Legalizes Street Food Vending
Starting in 2019, LA will legalize street food vending. That doesn’t mean that LA hasn’t had street food vendors already; it just means those operators have been working, technically, illegally without any real legal protection. And it’s led to some unnecessary confrontations over the years. However, starting next year, cities can establish their own licensing systems for vendors. A win for the food industry.
DRAM SHOP OF HORRORS
Why it matters to you: Your entire team is liable when a guest is overserved.
Every bartender’s greatest fear is the consequences of overserving a guest. In the case of two bartenders in Texas, that fear has become a reality. A woman that was overserved at The Island Pier Club in Galveston subsequently killed a man on his bike as she was driving while under the influence of alcohol. Now the two bartenders that served her have been charged with, “selling an alcoholic beverage to an intoxicated person.”
We are in a unique situation in our business. Restaurants and bars are trusted to serve a potential dangerous product (booze) to people they cannot control beyond what they offer them for purchase. You simply don’t know where they were before they arrived and where they are headed when they leave. However, you should know how they are behaving and other signs they may be intoxicated. This story should serve as a potent reminder that you must train your staff diligently and continually remind them of this responsibility. Otherwise, you could end up complicit in the death of an innocent person that neither you, nor the intoxicated guest, have never met.
[Source: Yahoo!]
THE MAX FOR THE MINIMUM
Why it matters to you: This lawsuit demands operators pay servers full minimum wage for all of their side work or job-related functions.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District has overturned a lower court decision that said tipped-employees are NOT doing two jobs when they do prep and side work. The lower court’s ruling allows employers to pay staff only the tip credit minimum wage for those efforts. The Ninth District says in fact that employees that both serve and do the associated side work should be paid the full minimum wage for that work. The Department of Justice guidelines do not currently require a special wage for non-service related responsibilities.
This is gonna be very expensive for those operators already defending against a lawsuit demanding back payment for the non-service related work that these servers do. For small chain and independent operators, your prior liability is likely pretty small, but if this Ninth District decision stands you will likely be required to pay a premium wage for some portion of your server/bartender/busser activities. It’s going to take some time to work its way to a definitive decision, but stay tuned this is a fight the industry is going to vigorously pursue. The stakes are just too high for them not to fight back.
[Source: Restaurant Business]
