For soccer fans, NYC pub Nevada Smith's is World Cup central
By Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — Jeff Alexander planned to attend the USA's pre-World Cup match in Connecticut against the Czech Republic last month. But he couldn't get away from his law firm job in time.
So he sold his ticket and headed to Nevada Smith's, a Manhattan pub where he joined hundreds of fans who alternately cheered or groaned every tackle, shot and goal at what many consider the nation's top soccer bar — and one of the best places to watch the World Cup matches that start Friday.
"It's the closest thing to being at the actual stadium," said Alexander, 27, a defender on Emory University's team from 2001 to 2004. "It's sort of an Everyman atmosphere in here, with very knowledgeable fans in general."
Very passionate, too.
Standing amid the 15 high-definition TV screens that line the bar's walls and watching the 12-foot projection screen in the rear, Alexander sported the jersey that former U.S. national team defender Frankie Hejduk tossed to supporters at a match several years ago. Across his shoulders lay an American flag bearing autographs Alexander gathered from U.S. players at a variety of international matches.
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That's precisely the kind of devotion Jack Keane envisioned in 1993, when the bar manager launched soccer broadcasts at Nevada Smith's, a no-frills pub that's named after a 1966 movie that starred Steve McQueen.
Starting with two English Premier League weekend games, Nevada Smith's today features more than 100 matches each week, pulled in by 16 or 17 satellite feeds. The volume and variety inspired the bar's slogan, which, unapologetically using the sport's international name, proclaims: "Where Football is Religion."
The bar will carry all 64 World Cup games, opening as early as 6:30 a.m. for fans eager to catch the action live from South Africa.
"You name it, we bring it in," says Keane, 42, a native of Ireland's County Kerry and a life-long Manchester United fan. "We get everyone's game. I don't care what time it's on or where it's from.
"The World Cup is the absolute pinnacle for us."
An estimated 118 million people — more than 42% of the U.S. population — watched the 2006 World Cup on broadcasts from ABC/ESPN and Univision, the networks estimate. That audience is expected to grow this year, as evidenced by ESPN's first-ever live broadcast of the U.S. team roster selections last month.
For the team's opening match against England on Saturday, Nevada Smith's plans to have 10 security guards on hand to help segregate an expected capacity crowd of 500 rival fans into separate cheering sections.
Keane expects the World Cup crowds will affirm the judgment of fans such as Raul Wikkeling, a Netherlands-born private equity executive and amateur player who proclaimed Nevada Smith's "the best soccer bar in the U.S."
"It's almost turned into Studio 54," said Keane, invoking the name of the world-famous New York discotheque of the 1970s and early '80s. "The only difference is that, unlike disco, football will never go out of fashion."
