Blue Seats Lose

As long as we are feeling sporty, Michigan fans looking for someone who had a worse weekend than themselves need look no further than the bowels of the Lower East Side. The early reports on The Blue Seats put it firmly in the pantheon of the debut-to-Deathwatch dining establishments. The initial gripe has followed with unanimous (so far) piling on. The biggest issue seems to be an objection to the idea of paying $50/hr for the privilege of watching football on television. Curiously, the enthusiastic preview from Strongbuzz made no mention of the seat rental policy.* Perhaps hiring Lloyd Carr as maitre d' is what Blue Seats needs to turn it around.
*The details of this policy are tricky to piece together from the comments. What is not tricky is that very few bars seek to be identified with a "100% Murray Hill" clientèle.

Comments

[J.R. Knight]

Sure, they may not say it'll cost 50 small to sit but by the looks of that picture on StrongBuzz you can tell. For basketball season they're moving to a dollar a point.

[Fesser]

Something must be terribly akilter for a reference to the blue seats in the Madison Square Garden not to bring a particular response from one commenter known as BK.....

[lesmiserables]

You don't pay $50 to sit just anywhere. That is a rental fee for the booths or the private rooms. So to get a booth for 2 hrs. min up to 4 hrs is $200, that gets used towards food & drink (food to come next week). After the $200 is used, everything else gets added on. The booths can hold 8-10 ppl. That is not bad at all. The concept is that they can get any sports program that is playing anywhere in the world at that time. So people from out of state who want to watch their almamatter can. Which you really can't get anywhere else in NYC. Get your facts together before you bash the place.

[lesmiserables]

You don't pay $50 to sit just anywhere. That is a rental fee for the booths or the private rooms. So to get a booth for 2 hrs. min up to 4 hrs is $200, that gets used towards food & drink (food to come next week). After the $200 is used, everything else gets added on. The booths can hold 8-10 ppl. That is not bad at all. The concept is that they can get any sports program that is playing anywhere in the world at that time. So people from out of state who want to watch their almamatter can. Which you really can't get anywhere else in NYC. Get your facts together before you bash the place.

[Fesser]

Uh, but you can get that exact experience at any one of the dozens of sports bars in NYC that have a dish/ESPN Gameplan/Sunday Ticket, and not pay for the privilege. Indeed, many pubicans have found it to be a profitable business model to cater to fans who are remote from their schools (can't remember how to pluralize "alma mater") in that they become a gathering place in NYC or wherever for that school's alumni. Conceivably, I suppose, one might be a fan of a team so obscure that it would be impossible to find enough other fans to gain critical mass to get even one monitor turned on that game at a sports bar, (though a kind word and a generous tip on the first drink works for me) but then it would be unlikely that the game would be broadcast at all.

[bigbangtheory]

If 6 people can't handle spending $200 on food and drinks during a three and a half hour game then there are plenty of other places for them to go. For 6 to 8 people that think that they can spend $200 during the course of a game and want to watch in style then The Blue Seats is for them.

[lesmiserables]

Well apparently a lot of sports fans agree with me, because that place was packed on sat. 9/15, sun. 9/16 wed. 9/19 and thurs 9/20. Both of their private rooms were rented out on thurs. 9/20, and 3 of their booths, so I guess not to many people are bothered by their prices!!

[Fesser]

http://eater.com/archives/2007/09/deathwatching_t_1.php#more