Beyond the Game: How Non-Football Venues Can Cash In This World Cup

Let's get one thing out of the way. Not every venue wants to show football, and that's completely fine.

Maybe you don't have the licensing. Maybe your space just doesn't suit a crowd of people roaring at a screen. Maybe you run a restaurant, a café, a cocktail bar, somewhere that thrives on a different kind of energy. Or honestly, maybe you just don't fancy six weeks of shouting, standing crowds, and pints going everywhere. No judgement here.

But there's a mistake a lot of venues are about to make, and it's worth catching before the tournament kicks off.

They assume the World Cup only does anything for the places actually showing matches. And that assumption costs them.

Here's the thing people forget. During a tournament, thousands of people are out of the house for hours at a stretch. They're meeting mates, travelling into town, and spending money before games, after games, and in all the dead time in between. That movement, all those people drifting through your area looking for somewhere to be, is opportunity. And it doesn't care whether you've got the football on.

You don't need a single screen to benefit from the World Cup. You just need to work out where your venue sits in the customer's night.

The trap most venues fall into

It usually goes something like this. A venue decides, "We're not showing the football, so there's not much point doing any marketing," and then quietly waits for the tournament to end, hoping trade picks back up afterwards.

Meanwhile the venues nearby are heaving, packed with people who were always going to pass right by your door anyway.

That's the bit that stings. Because the World Cup customer isn't just a football fan. They're someone who's already out and already spending. Someone staying in town later than usual, moving in groups, hungry, thirsty, and constantly deciding where to go next. And every one of those things is a door you can walk them through.

Be the place they go before kickoff

Picture it. Someone's meeting friends to watch England at the sports bar next door at 10pm. They roll into the area around half eight. They've got time to kill and they want feeding.

That's you.

You're not competing with the football venue at all. You're the warm-up act, feeding the crowd before they head over.

So keep the kitchen open a little later on matchdays. Push pre-match food and drinks on social. Trim the menu down so the kitchen can move fast for big groups, and lean into the quick stuff people actually want before a game: sharing plates, burgers, pizza, a round of cocktails. Make group bookings dead easy. And plant the idea clearly: this is the place to meet before kickoff.

Or be the place they land afterwards

Now flip it. A game might finish around midnight. The sports bars are running on fumes, staff are itching to close, but the customers aren't done. They want one more hour somewhere a bit calmer.

That's where you come in.

Stay open later on the big match nights. Push post-match drinks or late food. And crucially, offer the opposite of what they've just left, somewhere with cocktails, decent music, wine, maybe dessert or a few sharing plates. You're not the chaos. You're where people go to wind down after it.

Be the escape from football entirely

This is the audience nearly everyone ignores, and it's bigger than you'd think.

Plenty of people have zero interest in six weeks of football. Some will actively swerve any venue with a match on, because what they actually want is conversation, a quieter table, a proper date night, normal service, a room that isn't vibrating.

That's a real crowd with real money, and almost nobody is talking to them.

So talk to them. Post something like, "Not into football? Neither are we. Come have a normal night out." Or, "No commentary, no screaming, just cocktails, food, and an actual conversation." The trick is not to apologise for missing the match. Make it the whole pitch.

Be the morning-after spot

Here's a quirk of this particular tournament: early-morning kickoffs and overnight fixtures. That creates a strange little gap in the day that most venues won't think to fill.

People are spilling out of venues in the wee hours of the morning, sometimes after sunrise, looking for somewhere to sit down, eat something, recover, and rake over the game. The sports bars can't help them, they've just emptied out. But cafés, brunch spots, bakeries, and casual places? Perfect.

Open earlier after the big overnight games. Run a breakfast deal, a coffee offer. Aim it squarely at the people stumbling out of the bars nearby. "Breakfast from 6am after the Scotland game." "Coffee and breakfast rolls for the post-match survivors." Become the recovery stop.

What you're actually building here

This is the part worth slowing down for, because it's bigger than getting through a few busy weeks.

You're not just trying to survive the World Cup. You're using it to pull in customers who've never set foot in your place, grow your database, and set up repeat visits long after the final whistle. By the time the tournament's over, you should have a genuine read on your local crowd: who turned up before matches, who came after, who dodged the football completely, who booked in groups, who spent big, and who's worth tempting back. That's intelligence you can build campaigns on for the rest of the year.

The real point

The World Cup isn't a win reserved for football venues. It's about foot traffic. It's about people staying out longer and moving through their town in a completely different rhythm for a few weeks, all of them hunting for somewhere to spend their time before, during, and after the games.

The venues that come out ahead won't necessarily be the ones with the most screens. They'll be the ones who understood where they fit into all that movement, and gave people a reason to come to them instead.

You don't need to show the game. You just need to be worth the detour.