810's Weekly Sports Flop

It astounds me every single week how much 810, self-proclaimed sports bar, irritates the hell out of those that come in to watch the games. I've ranted about a similar instance before which you can read here. This weekend totally took the cake...

It started well when I walked in a little bit before noon with all of the games already slotted into the televisions. The first set of games went well and then the insanity started.

For a full half-quarter, none of the 3pm games were being broadcast on any TV anywhere in the bar. Half of the TVs were blank, in fact. There were 5 games in action.

One of the larger big screens is split into four games. I lost count after those 4 games being shown had been moved around 8 times in 30 minutes. For most of that time, there were duplicate games being shown on the big screen. They never broadcast the Falcons/Vikings game on any screen the entire afternoon. When I asked for a TV somewhere to be changed to the Falcons game my server said that her manager was TOO BUSY to make the change (The place was maybe 33% full).

When I asked again and complained about all of the games being moved from TV to TV, my server said that she would have a manager come talk to me and we could figure it out.

NO MANAGER EVER CAME TO CHAT WITH ME.

To top it all off, three of the five afternoon games came down to the last few minutes... the Eagles/Skins, Broncos/Bills and Falcons/Vikings... when those games where in the throes of outcome, they flipped the big screen from a four game split screen to a single game forcing everyone to frantically look for the other games elsewhere. Fortunately, I had the Falcons on my table TV so I only had to search for the Broncos on another TV.

810 absolutely blows as a sports bar. I've been to many in my life and it is absolutely the worst one that I've ever attended.

EVER.

810 Sports, Eat My Shorts?

Man, rough day in 810 yesterday... I just have a hard time with their reactive vs. proactive television station policy.

[Photo via ArmyofMom]

Every single time that I sit in the 810 location to watch NFL games, I have to ask them to change the TV's back to the channels I was watching... at least three times per day. I'm a fantasy football guy, so I admit that I'm high maintenance (thanks, Nan) and would like to see as many games as possible. I walk around the bar when I arrive and figure out the best place to sit and see as many games as possible.

Per their regional manager, Mr. Doyle (who called me this morning to apologize and talk about how they can do a better job):

"Our policy is to change the station for new arrivals, but if someone was already watching a game on that TV, then we'll change it back."

Although I see Mr. Doyle's point--they are trying to accommodate everyone--I ultimately think that it's a lazy policy. I'm proactive about where I should sit. Why can't the hostesses be proactive about asking patrons what games they are interested in watching, then take the time to find them a location where that game is already on rather than sit them and then change the channels around on everyone else?

It was exacerbated greatly yesterday when a group of guys (who were really cool guys once we began conversing) wanted to watch the CFL's Super Bowl, aka The Grey Cup, and the hostess sat them in the middle of the room and changed one of the central TVs that had the Bronco/Raider game on.

Come on, already.

I offered the guys an olive branch, because I didn't feel like being an ass for the third time of the day, by flipping my table TV to the Grey Cup... which, at least, prevented 810 from changing the channel on more TVs.

810 Sports, don't you see the point here?

In Mr. Doyle's defense, he offered to send me a $20 gift card for my next visit.