Dick Monfort is Noel Hickey’s MVP.
“I think he’s every bar’s MVP,” Hickey, the longtime owner texted me Tuesday.
This is a story about foot traffic. And footie traffic. See, McGregor Square, which sits adjacent to the Rockies and Coors Field and is owned by the Monfort family, had been hosting World Cup watch parties in LoDo for free.
Last week, that … changed. McGregor Square is now instituting an admission charge for patrons to check out United States and Mexico matches, including Wednesday’s Mexico-Czechia tussle and Thursday’s U.S.-Turkey showdown. It costs $23.18 per head, including $3.18 in fees.
England-Ghana? Free. Panama-Croatia? Free. Norway-France? Free.
Capitalism 1, Community nil.
I asked Hickey if he had considered adding a cover charge whenever the Yanks or El Tri happen to air on TV. He laughed.
“Not even slightly,” Hickey replied. “This isn’t about the almighty dollar.
“It’s about creating an atmosphere. It’s about creating a culture that we’ve spent a long time (cultivating). It’s not about making a couple extra grand.”
Blasphemer! FIFA, the World Cup’s notoriously shady organizers, has made every decision regarding the 2026 Cup with dollar signs in its eye sockets. Does FIFA president Gianni Infantino, the patron saint of boot-licking opportunists, I asked Hickey, know that The Celtic dares to call itself “soccer bar?” I mean, what did you say to yourself when McGregor Square tacked on a fee in order for fans to watch its sexiest matches?
“I was delighted,” Hickey quipped, chortling beneath his native Irish brogue. “More people coming our way.”
Safety is the Monforts’ story here, and they’re sticking to it. McGregor Square officials on Tuesday emailed me this statement:
“The move to ticketing for this round was made in direct response to the large crowds that we saw at McGregor Square for the U.S. and Mexico games over the first weekend. Ticketing allows us to safely manage attendance and provide the best possible fan experience. We have brought in additional security personnel, Denver Police, ticketing staff, fencing, and other event operations measures, including bag screening, to help us safely and comfortably host thousands of guests in the plaza.”
Which you understand. Appreciate, even. If crowd capacity is one of McGregor Square’s primary concerns, couldn’t U.S. and Mexico matches be ticketed events at a friendlier price point? The CU Buffs, for example, It can be done.
“McGregor Square is a metaphor for what happens every World Cup cycle when corporate America and local bars in Denver realize, ‘Oh, wait, soccer is popular now, we can monetize it,'” offered Dave Wegner, former president of the Rapids’ Centennial 38 supporters’ group. “The fact they’re charging is kind of insulting to soccer fans who’ve been there a while. And it just goes to show that they underestimated how big a deal this is.”
I posed the same questions I had for Hickey to Kevin Tuohy, , another amazing downtown watering hole for footie fans. And one that’s got McGregor Square’s crowd concerns, times a thousand.
The Bulldog’s not a hole-in-the-wall, per se. But it’s darned close. The snug soccer bar has a capacity of just 66. Tuohy got permission to expand their patio out front to accommodate another 130-ish or so outdoors, which required additional screens, chairs, tables, et cetera.
This is America, baby — land of the free, home of the brave, and inventor of “dynamic pricing.” The latter says you charge more for the Dodgers than, say, the Marlins, because ChatGPT and the invisible hand of the marketplace told you to.
Only, like Hickey, Tuohy won’t.
“We don’t think about really raising prices,” Tuohy replied. “Because part of our ethos is to be a neighborhood bar that has good prices, is a place where you can go to and get a beer or a shot or something for a reasonable price. That’s not something that enters into our thoughts, just because we want to be that bar that has the affordable pint of Guinness, the affordable shot of Jack Daniels.”
Bulldog 4, McGregor Square nil.
“I mean, honestly, (when they did it), I thought, ‘You know, it, it can only benefit us,'” Tuohy mused. “I said, ‘You know, they want to get greedy and do that. They can do that all they want.’
“It’s one thing when it’s free and they’re still charging stadium prices for beverages for beers and whatnot. Now that they’re going to charge that cover, it just makes it harder and harder for anybody to go out as a group or if you want to bring your family out to McGregor Square.
“It seemed like one of their selling points might have been, ‘You could bring the family out here.’ But who wants to bring the family out if it’s going to cost them the same amount as it is to go to a Broncos game or something like that?”
I did the math over at the Square with Mike Corbett of Highlands Ranch, who’s got two soccer-loving kids and a wife who humors all three of them.
Corbett attended Nuggets watch parties at McGregor Square in 2023 during the NBA Finals, soaking in the tribal joy with thousands of his closest friends. For the Corbett clan, the U.S.-Turkey clash is $23.18 per person, times four, so…
“That would be $92.72,” Corbett said, shaking his head. “Plus everything else.”
Hard backheel pass.
“We’d mentioned coming down (for the U.S. matches) and then my wife’s like, ‘No, they’re charging,'” Corbett continued. “So I was like, ‘I’m not (going) down here for that.’ Because you have to pay for parking somewhere, too. Total money grab, for sure.”
“Which is very FIFA,” I said.
“It seems so Rockies,” Corbett countered. “It’s so Monfort … It’s frustrating because they built (the Square) for all this (gathering) to happen. Now you’re going to charge people to come into it? It’s like, ‘Come on, man.'”
MVP = Mad, Vindictive Pricing?
“Maybe Dick Monfort,” Wegner cracked, “is running for Infantino’s job.”
Hickey plans to keep the hard line in prices, even if the crowds start drinking him dry. What the Monforts see as a line on a spreadsheet, the crew at The Celtic sees as a marketing opportunity. A chance to grow a community.
“We had about 50 Norwegians (last weekend) doing the rowing thing on the floor,” he said. “We had a bunch of Vikings in for Sweden, about 60-70, so that was a pretty good showing.”
For Mexico matches, Hickey brought in a Mariachi band. For Scotland, he hired a piper. The computers project the two countries could very well meet in the knockout round if the Tartan Army don’t get their kilts torched by Brazil on Wednesday.
“I’ll tell you, that would be a lot of fun,” Hickey chuckled. “I’d have to order extra beer.”
