Jared Hagmann was the first World Cup fan through the door at 8 a.m. last Sunday morning at the Publican, the downtown Windsor sports bar with eight screens providing a 360-degree view of the Germany versus Mexico match-up.
“Of course, I am first,” said Hagmann, Windsor resident and cabinet and furniture restorer. “Four years ago when Germany made it to the finals, I was in here every day and brought them good luck because they won the World Cup. Germany is my team.”
He said he has three family members, through marriage, that have played for the leading German city team Bayern Munich and is even related to the forward Thomas Muller. He also plays recreational league soccer on a local coed team.
The month-long World Cup is already a week old and local sports-oriented bars and restaurants are having some difficulty accommodating the schedule of games that puts most of the early contests in the early morning hours, some beginning as early as 3 or 5 a.m., Pacific Time.
Most bars in this area, including the Publican, don’t even open until 11 a.m., which is the hour the last of the day’s scheduled matches at venues start in Russia.
But Publican general manager Barry Riggins said his pub regulars have asked him if he’d open early for some games.
“We’ve got four or five regulars who follow the German team and we have a large Hispanic community that wants to see the Mexican team in particular,” Riggins said. “So we are opening early for any games with those two countries.”
That means the Publican, which usually opens 11 a.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. weekends, will open early for all games involving Mexico and Germany (June 23 8 a.m. for Mexico vs. South Korea and June 27 at 7 a.m. for Germany vs. South Korea and Mexico vs. Sweden).
Although Hagmann was on hand to see Germany lose 1-0 to Mexico, he said he was confident that both countries would make it out of the group stage. (In group stage play, four teams play each other once and the top two move on to a subsequent round of 16 knock-out stage that begins June 30.)
Every day through June 28, there are soccer matches among teams representing 32 nations, which is more than enough to attract the attention of niche fans like those who favor teams from Iceland or Senegal or the powerhouse favorites like Germany or Brazil.
This year’s cup — a quadrennial worldwide event that boasts of being the most watched sports contest on the planet — is even more disappointing to soccer fans and to sports bar operators as well, because the U.S. team failed to qualify. Neither did the Italian team, often the default choice for Americans. Even worse for the Publican, since the décor evokes an Irish bar’s atmosphere, Ireland didn’t make World Cup qualification either.
“Yes, it is a loss of business for us that the U.S. team is not playing and that is too bad,” Riggins said. “But many soccer fans will watch anything so we are opening early for the serious ones.”
Hagmann predicts that it will be Germany and Brazil in the final game scheduled for July 15. “Brazil lost 7-1 that game and I was out on a boat salmon fishing and had to listen on a radio,” Hagmann said. “This time I will be right here.”
Here are other spots in north county where you may catch World Cup games:
In Healdsburg:
Healdsburg Bar and Grill, 245 Healdsburg Avenue, opens 11 a.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. weekends and has eight screens on three sides of large room;
Elephant in the Room, 177 Healdsburg Avenue, opens 11 a.m. and has one screen inside and one on patio;
Bear Republic, 345 Healdsburg Avenue, opens 11 a.m. and has three television screens;
John and Zeke’s, 420 Healdsburg Avenue, opens 11 a.m. and has two screens.
In Cloverdale:
Railroad Station Bar and Grill, 236 South Cloverdale Boulevard, opens 11 a.m. daily and has seven screens inside and one on patio;
Papa’s Pizza and Café, 105 North Cloverdale Boulevard, opens at 11 a.m. and has five screens inside and one on the patio.
