Pub owners across England are hoping that the World Cup encourages a hangover for patrons that lasts the entire month, given the fact that pub patronage is not quite what it used to be. In fact, there has been a steady decrease in the amount of pub beer sales since the smoking ban went into effect in 2007.
Adding to the declining sales is the fact that now England’s supermarkets is able to offer much cheaper beer leading to Bloomberg News to report that only about 50% of all beer consumed in the UK is consumed in pubs which is a sharp difference from 88% back in 1979.
Punch Taverns Plc Operations stated that the World Cup without a question is the best way to get people back in the pubs, but in order to truly be effective England needs to make it to at least the quarterfinals so that people will continue to tune in at the pubs.
Directory of Punch Taverns, Kevin Georgel, stated that if England does not make it past the first round pub owners across England will be ‘cheesed off.’
Manager of Sun & Doves, Nicky Francey, stated that pub owners have a lot riding on the back of World Cup 2010 and after the horrible years in sales they are hopping for sales to pick up and help them survive just a little longer.
Watching football in a pub is the natural setting without debate, as British as eating fish and chips out of newspaper, of course that’s another tradition that has slipped away