Lines of hundreds of people extended up Sixth Street on July 5, wrapping around the roundabout that connects Walker’s Point to downtown Milwaukee. Donning green, red and white, these fans were there for one of the most thrilling matches of the World Cup: England versus Mexico in the round of 16 knockout stage.
The fans were waiting to get into Zócalo Food Park, 636 S. Sixth St., a hot spot known for international food trucks that has become the site of the biggest parties of the summer during the World Cup.
Rudy Montoya, who has managed the food truck park for the past four years, said he’s seen nothing like it. On a non-World-Cup but busy Saturday night, Montoya said Zócalo will have close to $10,000 in beverage sales. But during the Sunday-night Mexico-England contest, Zócalo had more visitors and made more money than any night in the past.
“We had about 1,000, 1,200 people, and I think we hit about 35K in sales,” Montoya said.
He had to stop letting people in after Zócalo hit capacity, but those in line remained just to be part of the excitement, while watching the game on their phones.
World Cup delivers a business boost like no other sports event
Zócalo isn’t the only Milwaukee business that has gotten a boost from the World Cup, which now heads into its final weekend. With heightened interest in the soccer tournament and game times fit for the U.S. audience, business owners said the World Cup has been boosting venues across Milwaukee like no other sporting event.
Bobby Greenya, who owns Champion’s Pub at 2417 N. Bartlett Ave, said Team USA’s run — which was stopped short July 6 in a 4-1 rout by the Belgians — brought new patrons to the pub and increased its sales by at least 25%.
“When the U.S. plays, it’s like having an additional weekend,” he said. “We were so busy that we were probably doing weekend business on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – which, to have an extra weekend in the middle of the week, really helps out a small business.”
“It’s a lot better than the Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup, because it goes on for a month,” Greenya said.
Major Goolsby’s, a 54-year-old sports bar at 340 W. Kilbourn Ave, has also “seen an uptick in traffic,” said Drew Olsen, one of the bar’s managers. Without the Bucks or the Admirals playing, and without Marquette students in the area, summer is usually quieter for the bar. But the World Cup has provided a timely boost, he said.
Having the games played during the bar’s regular hours — instead of like other World Cups when games were in the middle of the night — has definitely attracted a bigger crowd, Olsen said, especially when it was a U.S. game.
“If Messi scores a goal, people flip out because he’s the greatest of all time, but that’s nothing compared to the USA,” he said. “ [For U.S. games,] everybody is living and dying on every kick and fall.”
And Major Goolsby’s has reciprocated fans’ enthusiasm: during Team USA’s first group match, the bar gave out a free keg of Miller Light. And every time any World Cup game is on, it sells $3 beers and $10 pitchers. The bar’s exterior also has a new mural that blends dozens of countries’ flags into the shape of a soccer ball.
Bars draw fans from all over
Xavier Pilsudski, 59, a French native who now lives in Wauwatosa, brought his nephew, who was visiting from France, to Nomad World Pub, at 1401 E. Brady St., to watch the quarterfinal match between France and Spain on July 14. They were among the more than 100 patrons who showed up at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday to “Brady Beach,” where the pub closed off a street to set up stands, decorations, speakers and a big screen.
Watching a soccer match outside with a big crowd is nothing like watching it indoors, the elder Pilsudski said.
“You tease each other, you scream at each other, and then at the end, you hug each other, you know?” he said. “It’s just very friendly, and it’s warm.”
Jorge Reyes, 36, who was at Nomad for the France-Spain game on July 14, also said it’s fun to see other people celebrate and commiserate with.
In South Milwaukee, Moran’s Pub, 912 Milwaukee Ave., hosted a block party outside for each U.S. game, and it drew unusually large crowds for the city.
Owner James Moran was at Nomad in 2010 for the England-U.S. World Cup game. The Birmingham, England, native watched the game draped in an English flag. He said he wanted to bring that experience to his pub.
“You don’t really think you can [do that in South Milwaukee], because we’re a smaller community. We’re not a soccer community,” Moran said.
Yet Moran’s has drawn fans from Waukesha, Racine and as far away as Waukegan and Libertyville in northern Illinois. More than 1,000 people gathered at the bar for the knockout game against Belgium that ended Team USA’s run.
Moran said the turnout for the U.S.-Belgium game block party was “unbelievable,” and that the block parties have “been some of the best days of my life.”
The pub was struggling when Moran took over ownership in the ’90s. Moran said it’s hard running a small business in a city like South Milwaukee, which has minimal foot traffic. But this World Cup provided the pub, and the rest of the businesses on Milwaukee Avenue, an opportunity.
For the games on June 19, Moran’s offered half-price drinks with the purchase of any item from local bakery Bakehouse 23, about four blocks west. That day, the shop sold out in an hour.
The pub didn’t host block parties for the Mexico games, but Moran said fans still showed up in big numbers. The England-Mexico match was the busiest sporting event they’ve shown inside the pub, he said.
So many Mexico fans showed up that the Irish pub showed the games in Spanish.
“There was a review we got on a U.K. and Irish Facebook page, and he said, ‘We had a great time at Moran’s. It was a great crowd, but it was different listening to it on Telemundo,’” Moran said.
The business brought in by the World Cup also brought Moran the unique opportunity to attend the Argentina versus England game in Atlanta with his daughter, who’s been helping run the bar. He wouldn’t have been in the position to accept the tickets if not for the extra volunteers and revenue from the block parties, he said.
“This is the kind of stuff that you’d think would happen in Chicago, New York, L.A., where you can pull this many people in for a block party,” Moran said. “It’s not happening in the small working-class city. … And here we are doing it.”
Milwaukee World Cup watch parties for championship game
Moran’s will be showing the championship game between Argentina and Spain on its jumbo screen July 19, its last block party for the World Cup. Food will be catered by South Milwaukee Mexican restaurant Azteca.
Zócalo Food Park also will host its final watch party July 19, while Major Goolsby’s will still have $3 beers and $10 pitchers, and Champion’s Pub will invite a local chef to offer Argentinian and Spanish food.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee sports bars see boost from World Cup crowds
Reporting by Jaeha Jang and Joey Schamber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jaeha Jang and Joey Schamber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
