“If this was the US Men’s Soccer Team, Fadó would have NEVER considered doing something like this”
This was a real complaint from one of our valued customers. We closed one of our pubs to the general public June 16, the night of the USA v Nigeria group round match, because of a private party and the uninformed customer was mad.
The complaint didn’t come on Facebook. It wasn’t a Twitter rant or even a Yelp review. This particular customer called a local paper to complain about our lack of support for the USWNT. Then, like it was 1980 or something, we actually got a call from a reporter who asked if we’d like to give a formal statement about this controversial decision.
So we made our completely non-controversial statement. We host a lot of private and corporate parties and one of our customers booked out the entire pub for a private party months prior and well before the FIFA organizers released the schedule for the USWNT game. FIFA-go figure. We couldn’t go back on our word. End of story.
A terrible way to conduct business, right?
The irony of it though. We got this complaint regarding one of our most beloved soccer bars where we’ve got real history. A pub that has been opening its doors early on the weekends 9 months out of the year for English Premier League matches since 2000. A pub that is home to an American Outlaws Chapter. A pub that hosts meet and greets with the local MLS team and buses fans to the stadium all season long. A pub that hosts fundraisers for our customers (who are our friends as well as soccer fans) who come into hard times. More importantly though, a pub that has put the TVs on for the US Women’s National Team games since it opened its doors to the public. Even when no one was asking. A pub that is committed to showing every 2015 Women’s World Cup match live. Oops. It seems that’s where we tripped up.
I’m a gal and I love soccer. Played it all my life and have been watching games at Fadó for years (long before I started working here or received a paycheck for saying so) …back when only 1 or 2 bars in any major city showed EPL and well before the women’s OR men’s US national team had the kind of following that they (Yay! Finally!) do now. So when a customer actually complained about our commitment to soccer and specifically women’s soccer, I gasped.
And then I smiled. A big, Cheshire cat – ”thanks for the validation lady” -smile.
Because at Fado Irish Pubs we couldn’t agree more. The US Women’s National Team deserve our full attention during their 2015 World Cup campaign. And, from where I am watching, they’ve always had it.
USA take on China next in the Quarters, Friday at 7.30pm ET
And if you’d like to host your next party at the pub, check out our party planning page and give us a shout. ;p
