CFB in London

Submitted by WildcatBlue on

Can anyone recommend a bar/pub in London, England that is likely to show the Western game? This came up earlier in the summer, but with kickoff just around the corner I thought I'd seek the wisdom of the MGoExpats.

The two options I've so far discovered are:

http://www.bodeansbbq.com

and

http://www.thesportscafe.net/london.cfm

The consensus is that the Sports Cafe is hell on earth, but I'd do it if it's the only choice. Anyone know anything about Bodean's? Any other suggestions? I'm terrified I'm going to miss the game, so any help at all would be much appreciated.

bigstick

August 21st, 2009 at 12:05 PM ^

In my experience, the Maple Leaf Pub, one street south of Covent Garden shows college football every Saturday. I can't promise they'll have the Western game, but if you're there you can stop by, have a pint, and discuss it with them.

Brodie

August 21st, 2009 at 12:28 PM ^

Maple Leaf is, as if it were hard to figure out, a Canadian expat pub. I'd give it a shot, I only went there to catch hockey (which is harder to find than football) but it's a nice place with a good crowd... we all know Canadians are easy to get along with.

As we discussed once before, Sports Cafe is hellish but is likely the best option for catching the game. There are some other pubs that cater to Americans, if you're willing to pick up a multizone travel card (8 pounds for the day) and go searching all over the city for one.

Expatriate Duck

August 21st, 2009 at 1:06 PM ^

Sadly, I think your best bet will be the Sports Cafe. I wouldn't hold your breath though. If the game isn't being shown on ESPN American (formerly NASN) then you may be out of luck.

You could always pay for ESPN360 and hope that it is working properly that day, something I found to be a problem last year. I know it isn't the perfect solution. I've found that college football is far more difficult to come across in the UK than the NFL (triple header on Sky Sports every Sunday), NBA and MLB.

If you do happen to find a place that will be showing the UMich game, please let me know.

Thomer

August 21st, 2009 at 1:39 PM ^

I did not see this exceedingly relevant topic when I made my maiden post a short while ago..

I'll be in Galway for week one and Barcelona for week two. Surely there are other MGoReaders who have watched (or tried and failed to watch) college football games in these cities. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

mtzlblk

August 21st, 2009 at 1:50 PM ^

As for the pubs, go there ahead of time and drink an get to know someone behind the bar and it helps you to get your game put up when they choose. Whatever you do, don't order any american beers, that will help also.

If you want a fallback plan, when I lived there I used Orb on a PC in the states to stream the game to my PC in London. It worked back then and networks are far more capable now, so i imagine it would be a better experience. You will need a freind in the states with a TV card in their PC and a set-top box that decodes the channels pre-PC. If they set the software up on their PC and give you sign-in info, you can log in from your PC and have the game streamed into your home/hotel. www.orb.com

To anyone else, you can set this up here to stream out to your mobile phone also, assuming you have a decent phone and an unlimited data plan, of course.