ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Local sports bars are expecting packed crowds and increased business as soccer fans gather to watch the United States face Belgium in a World Cup knockout match.<\/p>\n
“I’m really stoked for the game,” said World Cup fan Jovani Gutierrez. “I really hope that they advance to the next stage in the competition.”<\/p>\n
Businesses across Allentown say the tournament has drawn more customers through their doors, particularly during U.S. matches.<\/p>\n
“We’ve definitely seen a bump across all of the nations that are showing out for the World Cup,” said Zachary Karaisz, managing partner of Sports & Social in Allentown. The venue has hosted World Cup watch parties throughout the tournament, with Karaisz saying the atmosphere has translated into increased business.<\/p>\n
“The vibe is absolutely through the roof,” Karaisz said. “Everyone’s energetic, having a blast. We’re doing specials whenever there’s a penalty or a goal to really keep the energy up as well.”<\/p>\n
Big Woody’s has also experienced an increase in customers during World Cup matches, according to general Manager Alexis Leger. “They were here last week when the USA was playing, and when they won, the whole store sounded like we were in the stadium itself because they were all screaming,” Leger said.<\/p>\n
Gutierrez said the tournament benefits more than just soccer fans. “It’ll help the community to get together also,” he said. Local businesses hope the excitement on the field continues to translate into full dining rooms and lively watch parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Local sports bars are expecting packed crowds and increased business as soccer fans gather to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,102287,79132,99395,12629,102286,39827,2236],"class_list":["post-237555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-business-boost","tag-community-gathering","tag-soccer-fans","tag-sports-bar","tag-usa-soccer","tag-watch-party","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}