Prepping Your Sports Bar for Outdoor Entertainment

Summer is here – finally! And with that comes warmer weather and increased interest in hanging outdoors.

Having an outdoor seating area is great for any restaurant, but it can a truly unique experience for sports bars. Who doesn’t like the idea of sitting outside, enjoying their favorite beer or frozen drink, while watching the big summertime games with friends?

An outdoor sports bar area can make for a unique and memorable experience for your guests, but it does take a little extra legwork than your run-of-the-mill outdoor restaurant patio. You’re not just seating guests and dropping off their food and drinks; you’re trying to create a magical place to watch sports.

Here are some things to consider as you prep your sports bar’s patio for outdoor entertainment.

You Need Plenty of TVs

We’re starting with the no-brainer. Your guests visit you for one main reason – to watch sports. So, if they’re sitting in your outdoor section, they’re still going to want to watch sports. That means you need enough TVs so folks from every angle can catch the games.

Of course, electronics and water traditionally don’t mix well, so you do have to take your local summer weather into consideration. A few ideas for weather-proofing your outdoor TVs:

Weather-resistant LED TVs. You can go the high-tech route and buy made-for-outdoors TV setups, such as weather-resistant LED TVs. This means they can handle a little rain as well as the sun. You’ll want to decide if your bar needs partial sun or full sun TV installation, however.

Creative Covering. Even if you get weather-resistant TVs, giving your TVs some shade and cover isn’t a bad idea. It’ll help the TVs from overheating, plus it’ll be easier for your guests to watch the games. Overhangs to keep the worst of the weather is a good start, but you may also want to build little TV cabinets to hour your TVs should the weather get real bad or to lock up for the night.

Solid Game Sound

The debate on whether your bar should use game sound or not comes down to what sort of experience and ambiance you’re trying to provide your guests. But if your location does want to give guests the game audio, it needs to be good. Unfortunately, outdoor acoustics can be a cruel mistress, making it be difficult for your guests to hear anything but noise.

Here are a few ideas to make sure your outdoor audio is top-notch:

Individual Sound. The high-tech route would be to purchase individual sound units for the various tables in your outdoor seating area. This lets your guests choose what game they want to listen to (or choose peace and quiet), while making it easier for them to hear. A win-win.

Enhanced Outdoor Audio. Your other option is to just build an audio setup using outdoor speakers and soundbars. Like your TVs, you’ll want these devices to be weather-resistant. The key here is making sure there are enough speakers and are angled correctly so your guests can easily hear what’s happening without overloading their ears in decibels. It can help if you have a few structures in the area to help the audio bounce off, improving the local acoustics.

Don’t Forget About Lights

You’ll have sunlight during the day and your TVs will give off some ambient lighting at night, but you’ll probably still want some outdoor lighting.

Lighting is as much about setting ambiance as it is a functional tool. So, find lights that fit your budget and brand. Don’t be afraid to have a little fun with it. Fun lighting setups are instantly remarked upon by guests and are a nice driver of social media photos and user-generated content.

What About Outdoor “Climate” Control?

We know. The point of being outside is being outside. But, depending on where you operate, the heat and humidity can get brutal during the summer months.

You can’t completely climate control the outdoors. If guests want full AC, they should take refuge in your main bar and dining area. But you can find small ways of making sitting outdoors more bearable for your guests, so you make full use of that eating area, even when the heat gets rough.

Here are a few ways of keeping guests cool outdoors:

Shade. Your cheapest and lowest-tech option is overhead coverings, such as shade sails, canopies, awnings, or umbrellas. You may even consider vertical sunshades if the sun hits you at the right angle.

Outdoor Fans. Just like you may use outdoor heaters for the cooler autumn and spring dining months, you should consider weather-resistant fans for your outdoor sports bar area. These are your cheapest tech option and come in a variety of styles – such as wall-mounted, ceiling-mounted, and free-standing. Just make sure you get enough to cover your entire outdoor patio.

Evaporating Air Coolers. These are similar to portable AC units but use less electricity to operate and work off pretty basic science. Evaporating air coolers produce water vapor that is released via a fan and then is evaporated, cooling the air and people around it. The larger units can cool down 2500 sq/ft between 10-25 degrees, so you can get a lot of mileage out of one cooling unit.

Misting Fans. These operate similar to air coolers, but create mist that directly cools guests instead of using evaporation. While definitely refreshing, your guests may not want to get that level of wet while watching the game. If you go this route, you’ll want quality misting fans that create more of a cloud of fine cooling mist and not water droplets.

Similarly, if the nights can get chilly in your area, you may want to consider outdoor heaters to keep fans comfortable when the sun goes down.

Bring the Indoor Experience Outdoors

We’ve often written about how to bring the outdoors inside your bar or restaurant, but you can also do the opposite. Bring your indoor bar experience outdoors! If you got the right TVs and audio systems in place, you’re well on your way. But there are other ways you can bring that indoor feel to your sports bar’s patio.

For example, build a full bar setup outdoors. Have a fully stocked bar, bar top, stools, and decor. Ideally, it should look and feel like they’re enjoying their visit at your indoor bar, but with fresh air and more natural light.

More than Just Showing the Games

Lastly, remember that your sport bar’s outdoor patio can be used for more than just watching summertime games. You can use it for a whole slew of events such as trivia night, dance parties, live music, and private functions. It all comes down to what you’re built for and what you and your team can pull off.

Have fun this summer!

Hero Image Source: The Deck at Moonshine Flats (Facebook).