Last night, I enjoyed watching the Portland Timbers dismantle the vaunted offense of the David Beckham/Landon Donovan LA Galaxy with 18,000 of my close friends. I could go on and on about the game--my man Jorge "Lightning" Perlaza showing his speed on the game's second goal, for instance--but this is a post about beer.
I'm always interested in not only what beers are on offer at sporting events, but what sells (of course, it's a business so there's lots of overlap). The Widmer Brothers and Budweiser share honors as sponsors, and at the first game, I was surprised to see beer guys walking through the crowd with what appeared to be full buckets of Bud. Closer inspection revealed that there were a few Widmers in the mix.
Last night, it was the opposite. I struck up a conversation with the vendor, who had two Buds and maybe a case of Widmer. How much Bud do you sell, I asked. "Bud? Here? You gotta be kidding."
The crowd has spoken: don't try to sell Bud at a Timbers game. Almost makes you get a little misty, doesn't it?
There's also the Beer Here stand behind Section 108. Ninkasi, Ft. George, and Bridgeport are all available there, along with some crappy imports like Stella.
ReplyDeleteCraft beer is slowly but surely creeping into sporting events... I know I'm responsible for a few of my friends to never spend money on cheap beer cause now they know what beer should really taste like...
ReplyDeleteYeah I work beer carts at Timbers games, most of which have two options- a random Widmer or Bud Light. I can tell you most nights if we are selling anything other than Hefeweizen, we do about 2x the amount of Widmer as Bud.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm coming to a Timbers game, they better have barley wine or something strong. This IS soccer, after all.
ReplyDeleteLeave it up to Portland to try too hard at all things all the time.
ReplyDeleteOut in Des Moine, Iowa a Court Ave. Brewing Co. Has been breaking sales records since they teamed up with the local minor league team. Things, they are changing.
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