Orlando Bar Giving Away Free Beer During Games Until UCF Wins A Damn Football Game

Dan Regester10 years ago

I saw this promotion Monday night on Facebook and thought nothing of it.

After five years of being spoiled with some of the best drink specials in the damn nation at UCF and downtown Orlando bars, it didn’t even click in my head that this was anything remotely special.

“Free beer during games? Yeah, that sounds about right.”

It wasn’t until I saw this start to pop up on my Twitter timeline from other news outlets and in our TFM writers group chat that it finally hit me that the rest of the country just doesn’t work this way.

Wrong, Dorno. What you and most people aren’t factoring in is that this is a promo for free beer ONLY. This deal is simply to put butts in the seats, and yes, everyone will start out with a frosty brew at kickoff. But in order to watch this nuclear train wreck every Saturday, we UCF folks quickly switch to something much, much harder. I’d be shocked if anyone there will have a beer in hand by halftime, free or not. And Steve Holt, your favorite light beer will be flowing on the house, no cover, until that final whistle, which is an eternity during gameday.

Boosh, of all people, brought up a valid point, though. I’ll be making the trip to O-town for homecoming, which is October 24th. I plan on going to Memory Mall, Lake Claire, and the softball fields for tailgate but downtown to watch the game rather than witness Houston slaughter us in person as I sober up throughout. I refuse to let this team ruin my weekend. Now, The Basement was already in the downtown bar rotation, but if we still have a big ol’ goose egg in the win column come homecoming, Dirty Dan and the boys reunion tour will be taking the watch party there.

So, as an alum and maybe one of the biggest UCF supporters and boosters out there (pageviews are equally as good as money, guys), you can see the dilemma I find myself in. Two of the three games before that are winnable, especially if our starting quarterback, Justin Holman, returns, and one of those games is against UCONN in easily the most asinine rivalry in all of sports that they created without our consent, the “Civil ConFLiCT.” Part of me really likes the idea of free beer for homecoming, but the other part of me wants UCF to thrash the Huskies and for George O’Leary to take that stupid fucking trophy and break it over his leg as he walks out a hero, never to come back to the sidelines again. I love everything you did for us, Georgey, but it’s time for a new voice in the locker room.

This season has certainly tested my fandom, and adding free brews into the mix doesn’t exactly make it easier..