Vancouver bars hoping Mayweather/McGregor fight will bring a boost in business
Posted August 25, 2017 7:41 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Boxing fans are getting ready for the big showdown between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor tomorrow night. And bars in downtown Vancouver are looking forward to what they hope to be a boost in business.
As a general statement, pubs usually get busier on game or fight nights, but Ian Tostenson with the BC Restaurant and Food Services Association says this time, it’s hard to say how packed the bars will be.
“It’s a funny fight,” he says. “It’s supposed to be the fight of the century. And it’s really expensive. Yet, there’s a lot of people that aren’t even aware of it. So, I think we’ve got a certain part of the population here that’ll go watch it in a pub — in a bar, in particular.”
As for restaurants? Not so much, says Tostenson. “But I think what’ll happen is that you’ll see a lot of restaurants that do takeout do quite well, as people sort of nestle in to watch it at home on pay-per-view.”
“When a fight’s over, they go and have something to eat. So it will affect restaurants in a very indirect way, as well,” he notes.
Adding to the unpredictability of tomorrow night’s business is the fact that the fight is an expensive one to watch — $100 to watch it at home. That makes it difficult to say whether it will drive people to watch the fight at their local watering hole or perhaps forego the fight altogether.
