Tom's Watch Bar will stage more than 200 tailgates and pep rallies across 12 venues during the 2026-2027 football season, the sports-bar operator announced, expanding a partnership with event producer Xperience Hospitality that the chain says drove game-day traffic last year.

The 18-week activation runs through the college and professional schedules and culminates in a national-championship tailgate at all 12 venues in February 2027. The Inglewood, Calif., location sits steps from SoFi Stadium, the scheduled site of the 2027 Big Game.

Co-Founder and Co-CEO Brooks Schaden framed the rollout as a community play built on the chain's existing watch-party base. "We saw incredible success hosting tailgates with Xperience Hospitality on football gamedays in 2025, and we're excited to formalize our partnership for the 2026 to 2027 season," Schaden said. "Tom's Watch Bar is known for our community-driven atmosphere and stadium-like energy, where fans feel like they have a front row seat to watch their favorite teams compete. These pep rallies and tailgates extend that experience beyond our four walls."

How big is the footprint?

The activation spans 12 markets:

• Cincinnati
• Denver
• Houston
• Indianapolis
• Inglewood, Calif.
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• Minneapolis
• National Harbor, Md.
• Phoenix
• Pittsburgh
• Seattle

Most sit within a short drive of an NFL or major-college venue. Tom's Watch Bar said tailgates and pep rallies will spill into parking lots, plazas, bridges, and streets — in some cases adjacent to the host stadium — with cornhole, photo backdrops, step-and-repeats, watch-along zones, and live DJ stages running before, during, and after games. The chain runs Saturday pep rallies for college gamedays and tailgates every Sunday for the pro schedule.

What's the operator case?

The bet hinges on incremental weekend traffic. Tom's Watch Bar draws more than 4 million guests annually, and 68% of guests cite professional football as their favorite sport to watch, according to company data. The chain projects the series will bring roughly 145,000 additional guests across the 12 markets through the 18-week run — a figure that, if achieved, would translate into meaningful check-volume lift in the highest-revenue daypart.

Xperience Hospitality, a national event producer that specializes in high-energy sports tailgates, supplies the outdoor staging, activations, and on-site execution. For the operator, the model converts a Sunday sports-bar daypart into a multi-hour outdoor festival tied to the brand's central product: large-format game viewing.

"Tom's Watch Bar is known for delivering unrivaled, stadium-side gameday experiences, and this partnership will redefine the meaning of a tailgate," Xperience Hospitality CEO and Founder Scott McIntire said. "With our tailgate series, fans get a new way to enjoy and engage the 2026 football season, and we couldn't be more thrilled to bring this transformative concept to life in partnership with the Tom's Watch Bar team."

The chain's premium food and beverage program travels with the activation. Tom's Watch Bar did not release pricing details or break out expected per-visit checks or margin impact for the tailgate extension, leaving the unit economics of the off-premises add-on undisclosed.

The national-championship tailgate in February 2027 will pull the 12-venue activation into a single push, with the Inglewood location positioned as the anchor site adjacent to SoFi Stadium. Tom's Watch Bar's performance in that marquee market will likely shape whether the chain scales the tailgate series further or folds the activation into a permanent off-premise line for the 2027-2028 season.