Denver bar rated as most visited in the nation during World Cup

If you had to guess which city hosted the busiest World Cup bar in the nation, Denver probably wouldn’t be your first, second or tenth guess. It should have been.

Number 38 — a colossal bar situated in the heart of the RiNo Arts District — was named the top bar in the country visited by Lyft drivers for riders watching the World Cup soccer tournament in June, according to a monthly report from the ride-sharing company. This timeline includes the United States National Team’s romp through Group D and Mexico’s push into the top 16.

To Number 38 co-founder Spencer Fronk, the statistic comes as a shock, despite the bar being built entirely around sporting events and large gatherings.

“If you had told me we would be the most visited Lyft bar in the United States, I would’ve been like, ‘Yeah, no, you’re off your rockers.’ Maybe top 25, I could get behind that,” Fronk tells Westword.

The top 10 included other pubs and restaurants in cities like Boston, San Diego, Austin and Dallas.

But Number 38 does, in fact, have the largest area of any bar in the city, with an astounding 31,000 square feet (20,000 of which are outdoors). That’s by design. Its genesis in 2020 was rooted in the idea of creating a space for events like the World Cup.

“We always thought, when we opened, Denver can do better on the bar front,” Fronk says. “It was about creating a large indoor-outdoor space where you could come with your kids, you could come with your dog, you could post up on a patio, you could gather your crew before going out. A gathering place to support your community, support what matters to you.”

The patio also hosts a slew of other free, large-scale events surrounding events like Pride Month, sports and concerts — but the international soccer frenzy has taken the cake since it kicked up back at the beginning of June.

“It was more than we could have ever imagined,” Fronk says.

Is Denver a soccer city?

Pubs have been packed around the city for the last month (even in the middle of workdays) for each matchup. July 11’s bout between Norway and England saw soccer-themed locales like the British Bulldog and the Celtic on Market crammed to the sidelines with eager fans, all sweating through the mid-summer blaze.

For Number 38, a bit of marketing to the right people, partnering with local fan groups and providing a good experience has kept people coming back for each match.

But regardless of why, Fronk says the boost has been crucial for many bars in the city.

“It was at a time that (Denver bars) really needed it. Bars have been struggling and you’ve seen all these closures happen throughout the city,” he says. “The World Cup provided that brevity and that breath of fresh air and energy to our team, this industry, this city.”

But the World Cup hype and the nation-leading Lyft attendance at Number 38 aren’t the only soccer-related achievements the city has seen recently.

The National Women’s Soccer League’s new Denver team set the league’s single-game attendance record at its first home game back in March. At the match between the sparkly, new Denver Summit FC and Washington Spirit, 63,004 fans showed up at Empower Field at Mile High.

Around a month later, the Colorado Rapids’ match against Miami CF at Empower broke the city’s soccer attendance record with 75,824 people. It was also the second-highest single-game attendance in MLS history. Most of this was due to the appearance of the legendary Lionel Messi, though, to be fair.

With three big achievements under its belt, it’s hard to deny that Denver is climbing the ranks of a major soccer hub in the United States. If only the city had been selected as a World Cup hub after placing a bid.

The fun isn’t over, though. Number 38 is gearing up for a big finale this weekend with the third-place game on July 18 and the finale on July 19.

“We’ll go big and hopefully continue to create a great, safe place for the community to gather,” Fronk says about the finale. “And at this point, I think it’s more to celebrate the sport — not just to us at the bar, not just to Denver as a city, but to the country as a whole. It really lifted up an industry that really needed it.”