Patrons are flocking back to bars such as the James Street Pub with the return of the NHL.
Local sports bar managers say business will recover and boom while the Ottawa Senators continue their season after opening on Jan. 19.
"On the nights the Senators are playing, we’re going to have twice as much business as before," says Matthew Valentine, general manager of Real Sports Bar & Grill on George Street, which opened in the midst of the NHL lockout in November. "That’s just being conservative."
Players, team owners and league bosses resolved a dispute about revenue-sharing on Jan. 6, but lost 34 of 82 regular season games after more than 100 days of failure to reach an agreement.
Since the appeal of a new bar with a 27-foot television lured patrons to Real Sports, Valentine says the lockout didn’t harm its revenue as much as other bars.
The James Street Pub in Centretown, on the corner of Bank and James St., is aiming to recover from a revenue loss of more than 20 per cent between October and December this year compared to last, says Alex Munro, vice-president of business operations and development at Heart and Crown Irish Pubs, which owns James Street.
Though NFL games and Ultimate Fighting Championship matches still draw crowds, Munro says more people show up to buy food and drinks for Senators games.
That is especially true when they play rival teams such as the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs.
"Because we were making less money, we had staff working significantly less hours," he says. "Especially around Christmas time, that’s never good."
He would have laid off employees if the lockout had gone another couple of weeks, he adds.
Though he says sales and workers’ hours will return to normal soon, fans who plan to "boycott" NHL hockey could continue to threaten business.
Those who vowed to ignore the NHL may have a hard time if their friends are fans, though.
"I don’t really care about hockey right now. I’m still mad about the lockout," says Dylan Haggart, a Carleton University communications student. "But I guess I’m kind of a hypocrite, because I have plans to go to bars with friends to grab a pint and watch the game."
Haggart, a Maple Leafs fan, says last NHL season he found opportunities to catch his favourite team play and even watched Senators games at pubs like the Royal Oak and The Barley Mow most weekends.
During the lockout, he says he only went to the bars "once or twice."
"There’s not really a true replacement for NHL hockey," says Gyneya Dicks, manager of Hooley’s Pub on Elgin Street.
Last season "people would come in, watch the hockey game and stay after to have another beer."
As a condensed schedule sees teams play one more game than usual every few weeks, Dicks says she’s confident business will recover from the lockout since fans have more opportunities to watch a game.
But if the Senators can’t slip into the playoffs like last season, Dicks says revenue will tumble again.
For now, Munro says he’s looking forward to seeing the James Street Pub full for at least three months of hockey.
"It’s in our DNA – especially Ottawa being such a great hockey city – when Hockey Night in Canada is on TV, the pub is full and everyone is having a great time," he says. "It’s an incredible feeling, which we haven’t seen in a while."