Marriott Signs Agreement With Sports Bar Chain
Hoping the American taste for the curve ball and the drop kick survives longer than it did for singles bars and discos, Marriott Corp. is spreading the sports bar theme at its hotels and resorts.
A new licensing agreement with Champions, a sports-oriented restaurant and lounge chain, will bring the chain into as many as 18 Marriott hotels and resorts nationwide in 1988, according to Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott.
The agreement was made after a pilot test in Marriott’s Copley Place in Boston turned out to be a rousing success.
‘Double the Business’
“We’re doing double the business we did there before,” said Karl Kilburg, Marriott senior vice president of food and beverage operations. “It exceeded all our projections. . . . We’re very, very satisfied, and we have great hopes for the future.”
Champions Sports Inc., now a publicly held corporation, began in 1983 as a sports bar in the affluent Georgetown section of Washington. Owner Michael O’Haro had successfully operated a singles bar in the late 1960s and a disco in the mid-1970s, but decided to strive for something that could stand the test of time.
“We looked all over and came to the conclusion that Americans are interested in two things: religion and sports,” O’Haro said. “I couldn’t see building a bar around religion, and to many (people) sports is religion.”
O’Haro, aiming for more than just an establishment with a few posters and a big-screen TV, decked the bar with sports memorabilia, including a car that ran in the 1933 Indianapolis 500, various team jerseys and thousands of baseball cards.
“From day one the bar has been has been a killer success,” he claimed.
O’Haro opened a similar bar in suburban Falls Church, Va., and in 1986 an outside group of investors joined him to license the Champions name. They say they hit the jackpot with Marriott.
‘Set Us Apart’
“I never thought it would get this big,” O’Haro said. “It just happened, and the key was Marriott. That just set us apart, that they would pick us from all the other sports bars in the country.”
Marriott liked the theme, and was convinced that such establishments would attract local sports fans as well as travelers.
“The whole concept is another way of meeting the needs and expectations of our clients,” Marriott spokesman Nick Hill said.
“Instead of ordering room service and sitting in front of the TV, (a traveler) can go down and enjoy a drink and something to eat without having to tolerate bright, swirling lights and loud music,” Hill said.
Also, sports bars attract patrons of both sexes, contrary to stereotypes that might indicate otherwise, said Andrew Oehmann, chief executive of Champions.
“We have found that we get a lot of women in here,” he said. “I think it’s because it’s not threatening. It is not your typical singles bar.”
Marriott will pay Champions a fee of between $30,000 and $45,000 for each of the Champions restaurants it opens, plus a percentage of the restaurants’ sales.
Champions helps design each new restaurant, provides up to 600 pieces of memorabilia from its stock of 8,000 items, sets up the floor plan and trains the staff.
Construction is already under way to build a Champions at the Marriott in Tampa, Fla., and Kilburg said officials are pondering Champions in Los Angeles, San Diego and Portland, Ore.
“If we continue to do well, we could continue to roll them out,” Kilburg said. “Major cities or small towns, it doesn’t matter.”
Kilburg thinks the format will be a lasting one.
“The decor is timeless,” he said. “It seems that mixing sports, food and drink is the right thing, and I think it will still be the right thing 10 years down the road.”
