Sports Bar in Georgia: Business Plan Essay

Sports bars in the US have become a lucrative business. Even in the recessionary phase sport bars like Buffalo Wing (Walkup, 2008) or Greene Turtle (Licata, 2009) has been on the rise. Therefore, a sports bar franchisee at such time is a lucrative business proposition.

I intend to open a sports bar franchise in Georgia. Even though there are number of sports bars in Georgia, there are multiple avenues for the franchise to succeed. The sales in restaurant industry are expected to rise 2.5% percent and the estimated sales in 2009 in the restaurant industry in Georgia are expected to be $14.2 billion (National Restaurant Association, 2009). According to the National Restaurant Association restaurant pewrformance index in April 2009 was the highest in last 11 months. Therefore a restaurant franchise is a lucrative option even in the present the economic slowdown in the US.

The goal of the business is to provide customers to have fun while watching sports with the crowd as well as enjoy their meals. The sports bar will have separate televisions for different sporting events. However, with increasing competition in the sports bar business, it is very important to curve a competitive edge and provide additional value to customers in order to have sustainable competitiveness (Wolson, 2001). Thus, it is important to provide more than just a number of giant television screens in a sports bar. Therefore, our sports bar will provide a bar, restaurant, shopping arcade, multimedia games, and other facilities. The offerings of the bar will include everything that a conventional restaurant offers along with being a great place for sports enthusiasts. The offerings will include the following listed below:

1. Giant television screens for the sports fans that can enjoy their meal as well as enjoy the game. This is a basic offering in all sports bars. Apart from the giant screens, the restaurants will have flat screens in every booth. Therefore, all seats will be the best seat in the house.
2. The menu that we will serve will consists of conventional American grill food as well special kids menu, and more. The dining hours will include breakfast, lunch, lounge, dining, and late-night dining.
3. For those who enjoy a warm and happy place to dine, but is not a sports enthusiast we will provide additional offerings like pool tables, video games parlor for children, and lounge and disco fro music enthusiast. Thus, it will create an inviting neighborhood appeal.

Given these primary specifications, I researched on various sports bars, which has attained national acclaim. There are 10,000 sports bars in the US and not all of them are specifically sports themed: “Approximately 10,000 sports bar establishments in the U.S. are currently in the playing field. That number includes old-fashioned sports bars that offer little or no food; bars and restaurants that only show major sporting events, sometimes pay-per-view; sports bars attached to restaurants that may or may not be sports-themed; or complete sports entertainment restaurant/bar complexes.” (Wolson, 2001, p. 67) ESPN Zone or Champp’s Americana or Fox Sports Grill is a new age sports bars. Champp’s had posted a net loss of $1.6 million in first quarter of 2007, which made it a less lucrative business option (Fair Disclosure Wire , 2007) and got sold to Fox Entertainment in 2007. Therefore, we decided that ESPN Sports is a better brand as they are associated with a bigger entertainment house and are sports oriented.

The location of the business will be Roswell city in Fulton County, Georgia. The city has a total population of 101,851 in 2007 (American Community Survey, 2005-2007). The city has more than 35 thousand households with a mean income of $ 104,170 much higher than the state mean of $ 65,227 and the national mean of $ 67,799. The per capita income of the city is $38,318, which too is higher by $12000 than that of the national per capita income. Therefore, the city’s household earning is higher than the mean of the nation as well as the state, making it a good place to open a restaurant business. Further, the city does not have any big branded sports bars, thus making ESPN Zone a novel concept in the region.

Our target customers would be families, which have an annual income higher than $75,000. This will cover 50 percent of the total number of households in the city. Apart from the city, the Fulton County too is a rich county, which has 348,215 households and a mean household income of $ 91,205. Therefore, Roswell city is the right choice for the development of a sports themed family restaurant like ESPN Sports. There are sports bars in the city but not specialty branded sports bars like ESPN Sports bar.

The sports bars franchise I choose for my business is ESPN Zone. ESPN Zone has a sports bar in Atlanta. However, the location for my franchisee will be Roswell city, Georgia. The reasons for choosing Zone are the following:

1. ESPN Zone comes with the brand that people easily associate with sports entertainment. The Zone provides a standard of 160 high definition screens for sports viewing. Apart from that, they have small screens, which are available even at the bathrooms (ESPN Zone vs. Fox Sports Grill, 2007).
2. The Zone serves American cuisine like burgers and entrees. They serve American grill food.
3. ESPN Zone is a combination of sports bar, restaurant and retail store. It comprises of the screening room for hard-core sports fans; a dining room called the Studio Grill full with 500 seats and the arcade, which provides game zones an attraction for the family and non-sports enthusiast crowds (Spector, 2001).
4. They provide free Wi-Fi facility in their restaurants attracting people who would like to stay online when they are dining or enjoying a game (ESPN Zone, 2009). Apart from that, the zone has an arcade of interactive games. Zone provides free membership to customers, which provide added advantage to the members like prior reservation of booths.
5. For opening ESPN Zone, there are two options available – joint venture or franchising. Further, until date, there are only 8 units in the US of ESPN Zone and therefore there exists a lot of scope for expansion.

For opening, a food and beverage establishment in Georgia we have to attain the following licenses:

1. Food service license to be acquired from the local health department
2. Sales Tax registration needs to be done using a CRF-002 form and a sales tax registration additional ownership relationship with form CRF-004.
3. A liquor licenses filed through the Liquor Control Commission. Restaurants and bars pay $600 a year for a liquor license.
4. Then we have to get an alcohol permit (Form ATT-15), brand and label registration (Form ATT-15), State Beverage Alcohol Personnel Statement Liquor License (Form ATT-17), and brewpub license (Form ATT-66).
5. The state has posed smoking ban in public places. Therefore, the establishment must take necessary precautions to deal with the situation.
6. A local license has to be taken out in order to start business by payment of $1000 and inspection charges of $100 from Georgia Department of Revenue.

References

1. American Community Survey. (2005-2007). Data Profile – Roswell city, Georgia.
2. ESPN Zone. (2009). Home.
3. ESPN Zone vs. Fox Sports Grill. (2007). Atlanta Vol. 46 No. 11 , p. 254.
4. Fair Disclosure Wire. (2007). Q1 2007 Champps Entertainment Earnings Conference Call – Final. Fair Disclosure Wire (Quarterly Earnings Reports),.
5. Licata, E. (2009). Greene Turtle strives for flexible design as growth accelerates. Nation’s Restaurant News , p. 69.
6. National Restaurant Association. (2009). Georgia: Restaurant Industry at a Glance.
7. Spector, A. (2001). ESPN Zone. Nation’s Restaurant News , p. 44 & 46.
8. Walkup, C. (2008). Profit surge by Buffalo Wild Wings shows strength in sports bars. Nation’s Retaurant News , p. 4 & 81.
9. Wolson, S. (2001). Sports Bars , Vol. 37, Issue 5. ID, Vol. 37 No. 5 , p. 67.