Forget scoring an 8 p.m. dinner reservation at Carbone or the Corner Store.
Getting a table at popular NYC sports bars to watch the big game on Sunday is now just as difficult a play.
If you want a prime position to watch football, you have to reserve weeks and even months in advance, “know someone,” line up outside as though you’re trying to get into a hot nightclub or pay thousands of dollars for a VIP table.
“You have to book two weeks in advance, or you won’t get a table,” said Mia Firenze, a 28-year-old who lives in FiDi and works as a beer sales rep.
Her favorite viewing spot is Blue Haven South in FiDi, which has developed a fervent fanbase thanks to its fun scene — dancing and singalongs to Taylor Swift and other Top 40 during commercials, servers wearing jerseys and carrying megaphones — and a coed crowd that reflects the NFL’s growing popularity with young women.
“It’s the best place to watch football in the city ever,” Firenze enthused. “The vibes, the energy, the staff, the bartenders, it feels like home.”
Female support for the NFL has been growing steadily since 2017, and it jumped by 11% at the end of last year, according to analytics company Morning Consult. Thanks largely to Swift and Travis Kelce, 64% of Gen Z and millennial women now have a favorable view of the NFL, the most ever to do so.
And, they’re helping to fill city sports bars to the brim.
“I booked this table a month and a half ago,” said Joe Wernig, a 30-something who lives in the city, while watching the Jets play the Broncos on Sunday at Blue Haven South with 25 of his closest friends.
He started coming to the bar every Sunday during the pandemic and has seen the crowds grow and grow.
“It’s developed a cult following,” said Wernig, proudly adding, “I’m friends with the head manager. I text her personally to get a table.”
He’s hardly the only one texting.
The bar’s general manager/owner Abby Dowd said she gets as many as 50 texts a day from people asking for reservations, sometimes months out.
“I genuinely spend 80% of my day responding to reservation requests,” said Dowd.
Another hotspot to watch the game is Rocco’s Sports & Recreation, an upscale watering hole that opened in the spring of 2023 in the West Village attracting both sports bros and made-up women in crop-top jerseys.
This season the bar has implemented a minimum spend of $1,000 to get a table — cushy banquettes that are blocked off by velvet ropes.
“We had to do it because demand for tables is so high, and we only have so many,” said general manager Christine Correa.
She also noted that people have started to book tables far in advance. “I have people who have reached out to me about November [when it was still September],” she said.
The bar has even introduced a pricey season pass which guarantees the same table every week, plus bottles of champagne and a round of shots.
“So far we’ve had one person get it, but we get inquiries every week,” Coree said.
Roy, a 35-year-old corporate lawyer who was in town from San Francisco for his bachelor party and didn’t want to give his last name, said he was surprised by the minimum spend requirement — and how it jumped to $3,000 if you wanted to stay and watch a second game.
“We don’t have sports bars in San Francisco that have minimum spends,” he said, laughing.
But he and his friends ultimately met the minimum with ease, as they ordered multiple rounds of espresso martinis and bloody marys and chicken wings elevated with a trio of housemade sauces — Buffalo, mango-habanero and garlic-parmesan.
While Roy called the minimum spend a “necessary evil” for watching the game in comfort, he ultimately thrilled at the exclusivity of being in a cordoned-off VIP area.
“This is club adjacent,” he said happily.
Meanwhile, at other popular spots for watching the game — such as the Spaniard and White Horse Tavern in the West Village — it’s now become a common sight to see lines stretching out the door on both Saturdays, when college teams play, and Sundays.
“You can’t just walk into a sports bar anymore,” said Firenze.
