Bars pull out stops for World Cup revelry
- Source: Global Times
- [10:19 June 11 2010]
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O'Malley's on Taojiang Road, one of the venues that will show live games during the World Cup. Photo: IC
By Jonathan DeHart
Bars around Shanghai are ready to host an onslaught of soccer fans eager to watch their favorite teams battle it out in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off tonight at 10 pm Shanghai time.
Starting with the first match, between South Africa and Mexico, expatriates and locals alike will crowd into watering holes across the city, where themed decorations, drink deals and large TV screens have been arranged for the mega sporting event.
O'Malley's Irish Pub on Taojiang Road is preparing itself for the action. "We have created a small stadium on our patio for the World Cup and will have one of the largest outdoor screens in Shanghai, along with three other screens placed around the bar," Richard Evans, general manager of O'Malley's, told the Global Times Thursday.
Evans added that O'Malley's has hired a small security team of eight people to take care of crowd control and to make sure numbers do not exceed the bar's capacity of 2,000.
Other bars around town, such as Big Bamboo, Bulldog Shanghai, Sasha's and the Camel Sports Bar, have likewise braced themselves for this massively popular sporting event.
"For this World Cup we decorated our bars with world cup souvenirs and flags of the participating nations," Jonathan Cope, group operations manager for Big Bamboo, told the Global Times Thursday. "We will have drinks and food specials for the one month of World Cup football and give away T-shirts and footballs as prizes for our customers."
Viewing spots range from large venues like the spacious shared patio behind Sasha's on Hengshan Road, which will be decked out with a big screen for alfresco viewing, to smaller pubs like the Tam O'Shanter on Yongfu Road.
"This is a small bar where people come to enjoy quality Scottish malt whiskey, have a beer and relax," Tam Lang, owner of Tam O'Shanter, told the Global Times Thursday. "We have two 43-inch TVs, which are more than enough for a bar of this size."
Regardless of a pub's dimensions, fans are expected to arrive in droves, with key teams expected to boost turnouts. "The biggest games for Big Bamboo will be the Germany, Australia and England games," Cope said.
"I'll probably head to Bulldog to watch a few games," Stacy Li, a Shanghai-based account manager from Taiwan, told the Global Times. "I enjoy being in a bar where there are clearly-divided cheering sections."
Allan Air contributed to this story
