Games Take Priority Killing the Crowd

[Bigdog]

My policy for years has been a scheduled karaoke night is advertised and that is what should have priority over any other activity.

When the economy took a nose dive I started to rethink my postition. There were times when the crowd for the "game" was bigger than the karaoke crowd when the karaoke was scheduled to start.

Trying to not hurt the overall business by possibly chasing away the sports crowd by starting the karaoke with perhaps 15 minutes to a half an hour of the game left, I reasoned the compromise would help the bar maintain it's profits without causing a loss of business from pissed off sports fans.

The owner of the bar has gradually wanted to have the games finish even if that means 1-2 hours or more delay...now we are talking about both football and hockey.

This has caused a dramatic loss of the karaoke crowd because they now know sports takes priority.

Checking the sports calander for January, I find there are 4 nights (one each week) of hockey games starting at 7 which means they won't end until at least 9:30. My scheduled karaoke start time has always been 9 PM. So I talked to the owner about moving the start times to 9:30, which was OK.

One other issue has been he doesn't care to hear certain singers who always seem to be the first ones there. So he will make me wait until I have several more singers before I start.

With the shrinking entertainment dollars he has made mention of the smaller money intake of the karaoke night. Possibly leading to a cancellation of karaoke on one or both nights. We do not get a crowd after a Sunday football game anymore. I'm sure part of it has to do with the economy and people being selective about spending entertainment dollars. If they spend their money at the game or having a football game party at their house, their budget is blown for other activities for the day.

Also for the football crowd he puts out a halftime buffet. The football season is ruffly 18 weeks. Many of these people do not show up for all 18 weeks and they certainly don't show up for the entire year. Like the karaoke people. The karaoke crowd was screwed for every holiday including halloween which actually fell on a karaoke night.

The karaoke crowd has been totally ignored and disrespected for some time now. He has started talking about doing a karaoke contest to bring in a crowd.

I might add that part of my concern for the bar has been drivien by the fact that the bar was brand new and I wanted to make sure the bar would survive and I have since had two karaoke nights a week. So if the bar fails I need to find two jobs. But my concern went as far as playing 5 hour nights for my 4 hour price.

And he knew the bartender was not ringing up all the sales...causing the nightly total to be lower than it should have been and then wanting to pay less money to me. I didn't find out about the unrung sales for a good while.

Now to add insult to injury the bar owner just told me his sales just topped 1 million dollars...

Could have been even higher if all the sales were rung and if he didn't chase away the karaoke crowd. (my thoughts)

In my effort to keep both nights (because of the economy and the possibilty of not replacing these jobs in a bad economy) I have been working at less than my normal price on nights when the karaoke crowd has been visably absent.

The above story has been caused partly because of the economy and partly because I stopped or relaxed my business principals concerning how to have a consistantly successful karaoke night.

The bar owner is pretty much on the same mindset as all the other business killing bar owners. Karaoke started out to be a very successful night for him (and adding a second night.) His decision to cater more & more toward a part-time sports fan crowd and ignoring the fulltime karaoke crowd has created a monster that will probably died a slow painful death.

It's to the point right now that if I sit him down and explain what I think has caused the issue, I'm not sure his ego will be willing to except my logic.

Part of the lost karaoke income now also stems from the fact that the singers that do show up...spend very little money by drinking only pop and nursing one or two all night long. So he doesn't really care if they stop coming.

[djBe]

Work the room during sporting events, but make sure you approach people during the commercials, and make your announcements over the PA during the commercials. Instead of sitting around with your regulars waiting for the game to end, hand out some flyers, slips and pens and see if you can't get some of them to sing. For every one new singer you entice, they may each keep a whole tableful to stick around for a while. Sure it sucks if yu and the regulars have to wait, but within that wait si an opportunity - just be tactful about it, you'll get results.

[Bigdog]

This takes the cake....

I just read an internet bar review of a bar I play in.

Appearently there was a hockey game on one karaoke night.

Usually they end at or very close to 9:30 my start time.

I'm certainly not going to start a show if there is only 5 minutes left in the game.

Anyway the reviewer posted my generous act on the review.

The karaoke DJ waited for the game to end.


Like it's a good thing.

Not for the singers it ain't...

So the hockey fans (non singers and probably karaoke haters) think it's a great idea...