Packers fans drink free beer all game at Wisconsin pub because their team never scored
On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers lost badly. But, for fans at one Wisconsin pub, there was some consolation: free beer.
So many people ... actually apologized for drinking my beer, hoping the Packers would score.- Scott Bell, bar manager
The Bavarian Bierhaus offers free suds on game days until the home team scores. But in the Sunday match-up against the Ravens, for the first time in 11 years, the team failed to score a single point in the entire game.
Scott Bell is the bar's general manager. He spoke to As It Happens host Carol Off from Glendale, Wisconsin.
Explain how the promotion works when you're showing Green Bay Packers' games?
What happens is that people come to the Bierhaus to watch the Packer game and at kick off we start serving free beer to anybody who would like it ... We serve the first initial free beers and, typically, historically, we've been done serving free beer by the middle of first quarter. Sunday's game didn't work out that way.
So how long were you serving free beer on Sunday's game?
From kick off to the final whistle, so about 3 hours and 20 minutes or so.
Yikes.
Nah, it was fun!
Well, for them. I'm sure your patrons must have loved it.
I think everybody was having a good time ... There was Packer mania and a good time was had by all.
But you had a double whammy there, didn't you? First of all, there's free beer for the entire game and there's a pretty good reason to drown your sorrows in a cup of beer.
I have to tell you, Carol, that so many people, when they came back after the half time and in the third quarter, actually apologized for drinking my beer, hoping the Packers would score.
How much free beer did you end up giving away?
Between 275 and 300 cups.
You calculate that it normally takes how long before there's a score?
Statistically, we've looked at the last couple of years of Packer play, and, generally, it's on the first drive. I mean, Packer football with Aaron Rogers at the helm quarterbacking the team, first drive, second drive, usually a field goal or some sort of red zone activity into the end zone. So it was not quite expected that it would go the whole entire game. We did have a back-up quarterback in and all those kinds of things. But, in reality, you know, it was kind of a shocker.
Now there's a Packers game on Sunday again. They're playing the Steelers. What are you going to do?
We're going to have a whole lot of beer available, just in case the same thing repeats itself. But I'm confident that we'll have maybe addressed a couple things and put some points on board this week. That's my goal. And maybe even a victory. Who knows?
And what's that confidence based on?
Gut feeling? Maybe wishful thinking? All those things are potentially possible, aren't they?
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For more, listen to our conversation with Scott Bell.