Yippee! Premiership starts August 16!
Our Saturday and Sunday mornings are about to fill up with the best excuse to drink Guinness before noon, ever …English Premier League soccer.
Yep, we’ll proudly open our doors early each weekend for the next 9 months to show live EPL matches. We also offer prizes with weekly predictor games, a full brunch menu, & drink specials. Football is our thing! We also have set up our own private fantasy league through the Official Fantasy League of the Barclays Premier League ...because we know that this is your thing too.
And, despite the fact that Luis Suarez has made his move to Barcelona and La Liga (a bummer really, he was fantastic to watch last season), there’s some pretty exciting stuff to look forward to no doubt!
**Man United have an impressive new boss, Louis van Gaal.
**Alexis Sanchez transferred to Arsenal
**Cesc Fabregas is now at Chelsea
**Tim Howard remains at Everton (ok, so this isn’t news, but he’s a Legend and I just like talking about him)
And, off the heels of the World Cup summer, we are anticipating some pretty exciting changes at the Pub too. I’m talking about all the new fans …which actually kicked off last year when NBC bought the television rights to EPL. We wrote about it on our blog in the Fall. Point is, NBC did a helluva job educating the average American sports fan and converting them to soccer this past year. The commercials and stories the network produced appealed to hardcore Premier fans and seduced newbies too. Remember Coach Ted Lasso? He’s back. It’s great.
The ratings from last year show you hard results but the fans, the guys and gals who adopted English club teams and became regulars at our Pub each week …are all the proof WE need.
Take for example, four hockey fans out of the Fadó Pub in Chicago. Story goes like this (as told by American sports fan and new Everton F.C. supporter, Jack Young)
“We picked the team after having a few beers watching the NHL playoffs last year on NBC sports and decided to adopt a Premier team to call our own. Since we had no loyalty, we put all the teams in a hat, and to add suspense, we removed one team in the hat at a time. That last team picked would become Our Team. As it turns out, the last two teams in the hat were Chelsea and Everton. Fate chose Everton for us. We were thrilled because we didn’t want to become the classic American Chelsea “bandwagon” fans. Watching games at Fadó has allowed us to pick up the game more quickly. Since day one, we’ve watched most of the games with a long-time regular and Welshman, nicknamed Taff. He’s an Everton fan and has helped us enjoy the game even more.”
The Everton boys, affectionately nicknamed by the bar staff, may be NHL fans at heart, but the cool thing is they are freaking dedicated and they really know their stuff too …like exactly what almost happened last year and what is at stake this year for their beloved Club.
Sure, the new generation of American soccer fans may not all be so savvy. That’s ok. 150+ years of culture, stats and history is a lot to cover for a newbie, no matter how many pre-show round ups you watch. I say, make room at the bar and have a little natter. There’s always someone “who was there when” and its this kind of banter that makes game day at the Pub great …so, the more the merrier.
Best part, starting September NFL fans will be doing the schooling. Expats and Americans, together in an Irish Pub eating brunch, drinking coffee [beer] watching both kinds of football- on the same day- is what we call a symbiotic relationship. It’s kinda like those little fish that swim side by side with whales. They both really do need each other. So, to those jumping into EPL this season …go on and pick a team (pick your fantasy team too) and gear up!
Pre-Season Checklist:
1) Gear up (check out our EPL tees from our fancy new store!)
2) Join our Fado Irish Pub Private League http://fantasy.premierleague.com *Just use code: 1077511-256954
3) Sign up! If you sign up for our newsletter and/or follow us on Facebook, we’ll remind ya when the big games are coming up too.
4) Watch this short clip of the top 6 goals of 2013-2014 season ...just to wet your whistle.
And, remember ….regardless of whether or not you know who won the League in 1993, you just need be able to answer this 1 question on the 1st day of the season ...who are ya?
