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WELCOME TO...
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UrbanTailgate.com By Mark Dau TheTailgater.com Publisher |
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Traveling to another city can be an exciting adventure. But if you are traveling for business and your agenda occurs during your team’s big game, you may feel a little anxious not being able to see your team crush their opponent. You’ll have that familiar longing for grilled meat and cold beverages with no place to go. Well, if you are in New York City, you can log onto UrbanTailgate.com and most likely find a bar where your team is the featured team. g
g Stefan Prelog, Todd Swedock and Chris Vanderpel are the team that created this site. They all live in New York and all met, where else -- at a bar. Todd and Chris, who have known each other for years, came up with the concept and hooked up with Stefan just as they launched in 2006, all agreeing there is a huge need for fans to have a gathering place to come together and cheer on their team.
The Concept
It all started in 2006 when Todd was tending bar. The managers continually told him to tune the televisions to the local game. But quite often out-of-town visitors came in and wanted to see their team. Yet the manager still wanted the Yankee game on TV. “There’d be a group of 20 people who wanted to see their home-town team,” says Stefan. “And we realized that there’s got to be a better way then sitting them in the corner with a small TV.”
UrbanTailgate.com hooks up fans of a particular team with a New York City bar where their team is featured. “There are a lot of sports bars around the country, especially with a city like New York,” says Stefan. “But with people being so transient, you have large groups of fans from different teams and they are all looking for a home away from home.”
The website has an e-mail capability to contact fans about new bars opening up that caters to their team. Team pages list fan contacts, team bars and reviews of upcoming team bars. Additionally, there is a form where fans can suggest a new bar listing. With over 3,400 registered users, the website averages about 5,000 hits a month. Like TheTailgater.com, it’s a membership site that is free to join. Fans simply fill out a subscription form to get access. “This helps us with statistics,” says Stefan.
“UrbanTailgate.com takes the guesswork out of going to bars,” says Stefan. “For example we have a large group of Chicago fans who gather in force to see their beloved Bears on Sundays. What’s interesting, more and more bars see the opportunity. If I am a New York bar and I cater to the local teams, that’s fine. But it’s diluted. Bar owners are interested in finding a team fan base and catering to them – the fans become so loyal, it becomes an event for them.”
Conduit between Bars and Fans
and will be serving Kansas City ribs during the game.
“We’ve become a conduit between the bars and the fans. Bar owners ask us to set up a team at their bar. But we also want to give the power to the fans. We help organize bars but we also like when fans organize it themselves.” The site has been so successful that Urban Tailgate has had to set up a “satellite” bar, or second venue for fans of the same team, because there are simply too many fans. “Bears and Steelers fans have such a large following for example, we have to work with more than one bar,” says Stefan.
Ex-Athletes
g Longing For Home? g “One story that I like to tell is about a bar loyal to the Steelers where a New York Times columnist enjoyed going to watch the Steelers games. When she moved back to Pittsburgh she missed the New York bar and all her Pittsburgh friends in New York! These sports bars are creating that type of environment with the fans. The passion is great. Fans walk into a bar and see people wearing their school’s colors and they instantly feel the camaraderie.”
Phase Two
Urban Tailgate has created a winning strategy to target sports fans. And just in time for football season, they are adding more functionality to their website. “Phase Two will be a little bit more accessible to the public,” says Stefan. “We are going to re-launch the site with the ability to verify team bars and top sports bars. We’ll have video reviews on game days where fans can see what the atmosphere is like. Also, fans will be able to pull up their iPhone or the web site to find a listing where they can find their local team. Being able to walk into a bar and know that your game is on is powerful information!” g Last Round g
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"When tailgating, we're all on the same team!" Tailgate Media, LLC, 252
Orchard Street, Westfield, NJ 07090 |
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