17. Seagram’s Whiskey Company predicted the evolution of sports bars as a popular recreational locale for future Americans
Today, watching popular sporting fixtures at a bar is so commonplace it is impossible to imagine life without it. Yet, it was not so very long ago that this was not just a technological impossibility, but the very idea of such an activity was non-existent. In 1946, Seagram’s Company, a Canadian manufacturer of whiskey, proposed in an advert the earliest known depiction of such an establishment: the modern Sports Bar. Claiming that “tomorrow’s box seats for the things you don’t want to miss can be your favorite restaurant, where, on full-scale screens, the game is covered in sight and modulated sound, play by play. Full-color television will bring you highlight news…the pageantry of parades… the performance of great stars. All on screens so placed that you can enjoy every scene without shifting your position.”
It was not until 1979 that the first modern sports bar opened in the United States: Legends, located in Long Beach, California. Founded by former NFL linebacker Dennis Harrah and surrounded by sports memorabilia, including an Indy racing car hanging from the ceiling, Legends claims to have been “the first establishment to use satellite technology to broadcast live sporting events”. Since then, proving Seagram’s accuracy, the industry has grown exponentially in numbers so that today more than 20,000 sports bars operate in the United States alone, truly becoming “tomorrow’s box seats” if not quite fully replacing the appeal of attending a fixture live.