Selling Points at Bar Trivia Night is Bad Business
Some rather disappointing news was recently brought to my attention.
It seems that one of the Manhattan bar trivia nights I helped found has taken on a new tactic, in an effort to drum up business. Their new deal is simple: buy a pitcher of beer, and get a point added to your team’s score.
I understand where the bar is coming from, especially after three straight years of a lousy economy and bad business. Let’s not forget that the entire purpose of the pub quiz night isn’t to satisfy the needs of trivia lovers, but to get people into a bar on a typically “off” night – who will hopefully buy some drinks while they’re there.
To me, however, this new scheme just screams lack of integrity.
Think about it: pub quiz attendees are supposed to be enjoying a relaxed, friendly competition at the local watering hole, a contest of brains and memory among colleagues, companions and neighbors. While I strongly believe that people are playing not to gain a prize but to “win,” the fact remains that a prize is still up for grabs. How, then, can rewarding bar purchases with bonus points make for a fair game?
That’d be like giving extra points to the team that gets fans to eat the most Cracker Jacks at a baseball game.
Let’s play this out: you and your friends are at the local trivia night following a long day of work, and are having a blast because you’re ripping through every question. Suddenly, the team next to you, who’s been nipping at your heels all night, surges ahead- not because they knew answers you didn’t, but because they just bought 2 pitchers of Rolling Rock and 6 shots of Jaeger. Frustrating, right?
Very often, the prize for winning a pub quiz night is – you guessed it – a bar tab. How do you think it looks to everyone else in the bar when those who bought the most drinks and won the pub quiz based on purchases, rather than smarts, then get to drink those drinks for free?
I know that if it were me playing trivia, and the host was giving free points to the heavy drinkers, I’d be majorly peeved – even more so if the team who won did so by earning bonus beer points. I’d never come back to that bar, and I’d tell all of my friends not to, either- let alone sell points at our own NYC pub quiz nights.
If you are a bar owner or trivia host, do yourself a favor: don’t sell your quiz night’s integrity and reputation short for a few pitchers of beer.
Nice post, David. You make very good points.
However, I respectfully disagree that awarding a bonus point or two affects the integrity of the quiz.
After all, the first word in pub quiz is pub. We are not talking about a corporate team-building exercise, or playing the home version of Jeopardy! on the couch with your friends.
The spirit of the pub quiz is to “think while you drink”.
Your comparison to a baseball team awarded for encouraging fans to buy Cracker Jack is
not a fair analogy because baseball fans pay admission to the game. If pub quiz contestants stop patronizing a particular venue because they don’t want to buy drinks, then I believe both parties win.
Now, if contestants are are awarded bonus points for EVERY drink or pitcher, sure, that is out of hand. But a bonus point for supporting the host venue is not unreasonable. I am sure a balance can be reached.
cheers,
Murph.
Very fair points indeed, Murph – especially in this economic environment, bars have to ensure that their patrons are buying drinks during pub quiz.
I would suggest that venues reward pub quiz patrons for buying drinks in other ways that aren’t related to the game – buybacks, T-shirts, shout-outs etc. Once you start tying points to beer sales, though, it just isn’t a fair game anymore.
Since you for some reason can’t just come out and say that you’re referring to trivia night at the Gael Pub, we’ll go ahead and clarify that point first. Someone pointed us to this blog and was wondering if you were talking about the Gael, and yes, you are.
Secondly, the idea that you claim this smacks of a lack of integrity is a joke, and a very hypocritical one at that. To this day, the Gael Pub has positive Yelp reviews (in particular about trivia night) erased by Yelp staff members because when YOU were the trivia host, you offered free pitchers to trivia goers who wrote positive on reviews on Yelp, and someone stupidly mentioned that you were doing so in one of their reviews, thus getting the bar flagged by Yelp. Don’t ascend some condescending soap box when you’ve done the same sort of thing you’re preaching against.
Thirdly, we’d like to echo Murph’s comments about trivia nights being equally important as a business opportunity as they are an opportunity to entertain your crowd, something we do every week at the Gael, to the delight and praise of people who come in week in and week out. Offering up to a point per round for a pitcher or round of shots has hardly tipped the scales unfairly for anyone who’s attended, as everyone has the opportunity to do so, and most are happy to oblige. We’ve received no complaints about the idea.
Why we wasted so much time on this, only god knows. But next time, take a look at what you yourself have done before passing judgement.
Yikes- looks like I inadvertently ruffled some feathers with this post!
Not sure who left this comment, since you didn’t leave your name (nice way to start a rant about integrity, BTW.) I know it’s not the bar owners, whom I’ve known for 5 years, nor the bartenders who are all new – thus, I can safely assume it’s the trivia host who replaced me. Regardless, you took the time to write, and deserve a response- so here it goes:
1. I’ve helped start several pub quiz nights in NYC over the past 5 years, including The Gael Pub’s– one which I am particularly proud of, and have had nothing but good things to write about in this space. I had intended to use the above post to address a larger issue of selling points at pub quizzes, and because my blog attracts readers from across the country and abroad, I didn’t feel it appropriate or necessary to draw attention to the specific pub in question. However, since you’ve already mentioned it yes, the inspiration for this post was indeed The Gael Pub.
2. I fully respect your opinion in favor of awarding points in exchange for alcohol purchases at pub quiz night– you may notice I’ve acknowledged the importance of alcohol sales at pub quiz nights numerous times above.
3. You raise an irrelevant point about Yelp, however I’m happy to address. Back in 2006, The Gael Pub owners and staff – myself included – encouraged quiz attendees to write positive Yelp reviews, in exchange for beer. It was a move I’m not proud of today, and which I regret – so much so that I wrote this blog post about it earlier this year, in which I very candidly admitted to my role and took responsibility, chastising myself for my own lack of integrity:
I didn’t mention that post here, as it wasn’t relevant- there is a fundamental difference between altering a quiz night’s outcome by trading points for alcohol purchase, and rewarding positive reviews with beer. However, both moves are, in my opinion, lacking in integrity (incidentally, a casual look at Gael’s Yelp page shows plenty of positive reviews from after 2006).
Even if you haven’t received any complaints, selling points at pub quiz night is a valid issue to discuss, and one which we happen to disagree on.
Regardless, I wish The Gael Pub the best of luck on their quiz night.