Top Sports Bars in the Country

[ethanm]

This week's SI has an article on the top 25 sports bars in the country. Playmakers in Fargo is # 23. Other bars that made the list: Joe Senser's at # 15 and State Street Brats (Madison) at # 13.

23. Playmakers

Fargo, N.D.

Located deep in the heart of the Red River Valley, Playmakers is part of a sports and entertainment complex that draws crowds from many miles away. Patrons feel as if they're in the game as soon as they walk through the door, as the entire floor is tiled to replicate a football field, complete with hash marks and goalposts. Fargo is Vikings and Packers country, so Playmakers is the place to be for Minnesota and Green Bay's biannual clashes. And if Vikes versus the Pack isn't intense enough, fans can step right next door to the Pavilion for the regional qualifiers of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

15. Joe Senser's

Bloomington, Minn.

Senser, A former Vikings tight end, is the owner of an obscure piece of Twin Cities sports trivia -- he dropped the final pass thrown at Metropolitan Stadium and caught the first TD pass at The Metrodome. In business since 1988 and now in three locations, Senser says he spends more than $45,000 annually to get every available sports TV package and it pays off with crowds like the nearly 400 Nebraska alumni who gather every Saturday to root on Big Red. Come Sunday the place is split between Vikings and Packers fans, which makes NFL games between the Black and Blue rivals as spicy as Senser's waffle fries.

13. State Street Brats

Madison, Wis.

Simply the best sports bar in the nation's best college sports town. This is where the Grateful Red and alums have been gathering since 1953 to do what Wisconsinites do so well: drink and root. They eat grilled red brats (sausages to you) and beer-boiled white brats, chow on cheese curds (if you're not from Wisconsin, don't ask) and toss back pints of Spotted Cow or Leinenkugel's amid the Badgerphernalia. State Street also boasts the best drink special in the land: Flip Night on Tuesdays. On every drink poured, the bartender flips a coin; if you win, the drink is 75% off; if you don't win, it's full price. You can't lose.

[jimdahl]

Here's a complete list of top 25 (to get the text/descriptions, you need to be an SI subscriber).

I'm feeling like quite a sports bar afficianado, having been to:

1. (?) The Fours (Boston)

4. Major Goolsby's (Milwaukee)

13. (+) State St Brats (Madison)

15. (+) Joe Senser's (Bloomington)

16. Three Dollar Cafe (Atlanta)

20. (+) Crystal City Sports Pub (Arlington)

23. Playmaker's (Fargo)

? = I'm only about 50% certain this is the place I think it is, just South of Fleet Center

+ = Five or more visits AND watched at least one Sioux game there (whereas others were places I got lucky and stumbled into while traveling)

Nice to see so much regional (Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota) strength on the list. A lot of that has to do with the quality of fans, because I don't necessarily think of State St Brats has having a better sports-watching setup than Crystal City Sports Pub (or even Playmaker's), for example. When you take into account fans/game-time atmosphere, then I agree overall with the relative rankings of those to which I've been to watch games.

[IowaBison]

Happy to see Crystal City made the list, my wife and I spent most of our Sundays during the Fall of '02 watching Packers' games in the basement.

[NDSU grad]

I don't think I'd even rank Playmakers as the best sports bar in Fargo, that honor goes to Tailgators. Tailgators has the NHL Center Ice package, Playmakers doesn't. 'Nuff said.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Probably not this year.

Seriously though, I dont' think Playmakers is that great, but I've never been there on a gameday. I was at Joe Senser's a long time ago when there was a Nebraska game on, and the atmosphere was awesome. It's probably hard to compare different sports bars if you're not there during main events.

[Fedorov]

What makes a good sports bar? Does it need to be in a city where sports are happening, does it need to be a certain atmosphere, or does it need to show the most games possible? I have my own large HDTV and I would prefer the atmosphere of my own place. However, until I can afford sports packages and a dish, I would only go to a sports bar to see a game that I can't see at home. Thus, the best sports bar that I have been to would have to be Harpo's Sports Cafe in the Cleveland area (I think there are two locations). There are around 100 TV's in the place. They have three rows of TV's above the bar alone. They have front projection and rear projection TV's on the sides, as well as some plasma TV's. They have extra TV's for those upstairs and on the walls by the booths away from the bar. I went there last year on the night of the Sioux-Gopher Final Five game. The channel was not on any of the TV's as they had several Final Four games and other college hockey championship games on. I simply requested FSN and then the game was on approximately 10 TV's throughout the bar. After the game I was also able to see the Red Wings. That is what I consider the ideal basement....I mean sports bar.

[Smoggy]

What is needed to make a good sports bar?

Great WINGS!

I'm a little surprised to see any Cali listings on there. This state isn't great for bars numero uno and even worse for sports bars. I'll try to check out the place in Anaheim tomorrow.

[RD17]

I was in Kansas City in December and had lunch at Chappell's, which is number 10 on the list. The entire place has football helmets of different teams hanging from the ceiling. We were seated almost directly below a UND helmet (an old style one with a white shell and the green ND lettering). Very cool. The amount of sports memorabilia in that place was staggering and I encourage anyone who is interested in that type of thing to visit if they are ever in the KC area.

[ethanm]

I can't believe I missed the best comment the first time around.

5. McDuffy's

Tempe, Ariz.

The folks at McDuffy's have an impressive claim to fame: Since opening in '88, the bar has shown every NFL and NCAA men's basketball tournament game. Given Tempe's population of relocated citizens, McDuffy's goes out of its way to secure NFL preseason games, soccer and college hockey -- in particular the games of Minnesota and North Dakota, whose fans turn out regularly. Says manager Jeff Flaherty, "We are known as the bar that gets the most obscure games." McDuffy's also becomes a de facto home bar during the Fiesta Bowl: In '03 it set up a big screen in the parking lot for Ohio State fans which tripled the bar's capacity.

[jimdahl]

That's really cool that one of the top sports bars was specifically cited for carrying UND hockey. Living in the East (but NOT in the college hockey part), I'm still sometimes pleasantly surprised by the ubiquity of North Dakota hockey.