HDTV redefining sports bars

CHICAGO — Now that the World Cup has kicked into gear, you can drop by the ESPN Zone for an early lunch to watch the games in high-definition.

In fact, whenever you drop by the sports bar and at practically every television screen you see, there is a game to watch in high-def. ESPN Zone, the sports bar and amusement centers found in eight cities across the country, recently completed an expensive overhaul of all its TV screens into high-definition monitors.

Sports bars are spending considerable sums to add the latest video equipment, buy new furniture to take advantage of the bigger screens and even pay carpenters overtime to rebuild the cabinets that house the big screens.

"You have to stay ahead of everybody, including what people are putting into their homes," said Ed Warm, a co-owner of Joe's Sports Bar, which will complete its high-def conversion in time for the upcoming football season.

Increasingly, potential patrons can watch a game from their couch in high definition. Sales of flat-panel monitors, the key component for high-def TV, are up 201 percent in the first quarter of 2006, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. Furthermore, the group found that half of all consumers plan to buy a flat-panel monitor for their next television purchase.

Adding the new televisions is "an opportunity to attract and keep customers," said Bob Goldin, an executive vice president for Technomic, a Chicago-based food industry consultant. "You have to make the venue appealing, otherwise why go out? The customer will stay home."

Fear of losing customers led to a recent renovation at Hi-Tops, a sports bar in Chicago's tavern-soaked Wrigleyville neighborhood. "Before adding the high-def televisions, we had some people walk in our doors and then turn around when they saw our TVs," said Jack O'Keefe, manager for the bar.

Hi-Tops had only two high-def TVs before it completed a six-week renovation that added 14 high-def screens in time for the NCAA men's basketball tournament in March.

"The TVs were at the center of the renovation," O'Keefe said, calling the costs "significant."

It appears to be worth it. "We saw an immediate change during March Madness. We had people stop by the first day to watch some games and then come back for the next three," O'Keefe said. "We saw a giant rise in our sales."

That includes the giant 16-foot-wide by 13-foot-high monitor.

"It's a multimillion dollar project across all the restaurants," said Guy Savage, the AV systems manager for the eight-store chain.

"When this ESPN Zone was built, it was on the cutting edge of technology," he said. "We lost our edge as technology advanced. Now we are back."

Rewiring an entire sports bar — across two levels — that also happens to be a major showpiece for a corporate brand is a demanding technical challenge. There were 273 video cables coming into just one of the two control rooms at the ESPN Zone before the makeover. Now there are about three times as many.

There's also 400 feet of cable going from the second control room to the satellite dishes on the roof, just part of the wires and other equipment needed to send a high-def signal 1,000 feet from the control room to a monitor on the wall.

Joe's Sports Bar began its high-def transformation two years ago, Warm said. But back then, the satellite provider couldn't supply enough of the high-def receivers at an affordable price.

"We're 90 percent done," he said of the transformation of its 140 TVs. But one big issue remains: "If we run some TVs that are high-def and some that are not, there is about a 3-second delay for the high-def feed."

That makes for awkward viewing if fans cheer a big play as others watching the same game — on better screens — must wait those tortuous seconds for the action to unfold.

He's eager to finish the job, which will be less costly for the remaining equipment than two years ago. More importantly, Warm said, "now we don't have a choice."