Owning a sports bar or tavern isn't as glamorous as TedDanson may have made it appear while portraying the character SamMalone on 'Cheers.'
Consider what life has been like this past year for Spokaneestablishments.
Sandwiched between the Seattle SuperSonics' first-roundplayoff face-plants of 1993 and 1994 were the Major LeagueBaseball and National Hockey League players' strikes.
For Steve Watkins, the owner of Fuzzy's Sports Buzz in theValley, it was not a good time.
'I'm probably the only person that opened a sports bar in themiddle of two professional strikes,' he said. 'It was a killer. Ifigured the strikes cost us about $10,000.'
Although Fuzzy's wasn't open for the Sonics' first flop, itwas for the second.
'When they got beat by the Lakers this year, the night theylost, we had 43 people in here. Two minutes after the game ended,there was nobody around,' Watkins said.
The following night, the eventual NBA champion HoustonRockets dumped Spokane native John Stockton and the Utah Jazz ontheir heads in the first round of the playoffs, as well. Watkinswondered what he had gotten into.
Disappointing performances by local favorites,work-stoppages, professional owners threatening to move franchisesand a parade of multi-million dollar prima donnas have all leftbitter tastes in the mouths of many sports fans.
Attendance and television viewership is down in baseballwhile the NHL struggles to regain the momentum it had last year inwhat was probably its most successful season.
'You're always going to get your diehards,' Brian Finnerty,co-owner of Finnerty's Red Lion Sports Bar & Barbecue said. 'Butwith everything going on in the world of pro sports, we havecertainly felt the effects. We're in a bit of a lull.'
Jack & Dan's hadn't counted on the Jazz losing in theplayoffs so early.
'This past basketball season was great for us because Johnset the NBA assist record, and it finally looked like Utah had achance at going to the finals before the Rockets got in the way,'said Jeff Condill, who co-owns the bar with Stockton's father,Jack.
The biggest basketball draws for most bars and taverns arethe NBA playoffs and the NCAA Tournament while college and profootball tend to be the most viewed sports. However, footballoccupies less than half a calendar year.
Like Fuzzy's, many establishments suffered financial lossesdue to fan displeasure. Tom Finnerty said bar business was down 25percent, making it tougher to pay the bills on the $35,000 theFinnertys have invested in satellite dishes, receivers andtelevisions.
So with the unpredictable nature of pro sports being what itis, those in the local sports bar business have been forced tomarket themselves as being more than just a place where one canwatch games.
Double Dan's sports tavern has the advantage of being locateddowntown in addition to having an extensive lunch and dinner menu.
'Our lunchtime crowds are great,' Dan Jeremiah Jr., co-ownerof Double Dan's, said. 'We can do more than be a sports tavern.'
Under Washington State law, taverns can't sell hard liquor oradmit children.
'I get a lot of teenagers who come in here with friends andorder food just to watch games,' he said. 'There's a definitedistinction between being a bar compared to being a tavern.'
Maybe the most complete non-sports sports bar in the area isThe Swinging Doors Tavern.
Bob Materne, who co-owns the tavern with his wife Barb, alsohas daughters Lisa, Yvette and Nicole assisting in the business.
And with four women involved in running The Swinging Doors,the Maternes have attempted to create an atmosphere in which womencan feel comfortable watching a sporting event.
'We don't offer the cheap thrills,' Bob said. 'We have a veryquality product. Forty-five percent of our business is generatedby the restaurant. It's not a pickup bar. We keep the place niceand clean.'
While sports bars tend to come and go, The Swinging Doorshas been in business for 12 years.
The tavern has five satellites, 12 televisions - three ofwhich are 50-inch big screens - and unlike any other sports bar intown, the Maternes have shown every NFL game played on Sunday inthe past two years.
But even while advertising themselves as sports bars, theseestablishments are trying to offer more to patrons than just sports.
The Swinging Doors is open 24 hours on Fridays and Saturdaysand serves breakfast in the early morning hours.'It's nothing tocome in here at 1:30 in the morning to see 50 to 60 people in theplace having breakfast,' Materne said.
The bars and taverns in the downtown area are also hoping toattract crowds from events at the new Spokane Veterans MemorialArena.
'I think that will be a bonus for everybody,' Finnerty said.'Live music, the (Spokane) Chiefs, with the potential to bringmore preseason NBA and NHL to town - that's more for everyone totap into.'
At Fuzzy's, Watkins produces activities within theestablishment for its clientele through shuffleboard, pool and dartleagues.
'Even with baseball back, the viewing interest doesn't pickup until closer to the playoffs,' he said.
At T.W. Fisher's - A Brewpub in Coeur d'Alene, owner ThomasWayne Fisher offers golfers the chance to work on their putting.
But the big excitement in the next couple of weeks will bethe bar's 'Bung Toss Competition.'
'It's the wood plug that fits in the side of the keg,' Fishersaid. 'Contestants will line up and take turns tossing the bung ina bucket.'
In the sports bar business, you do what you can to make abung, er, buck.
