Fan Central
With the NFL playoffs just around the corner, football-loving Members describe what catching a game at Traders’ Bar adds to the expat fan experience.
Not even a move halfway around the world could keep Bryan Norton from his beloved Buffalo Bills.
“I had to beg my parents to tape games on VHS and send them to me here,” says Norton of his NFL-viewing strategy following his relocation to Japan in 1989. “I’d have to wait two weeks to a month just to find out what happened.”
Newspapers like The Japan Times published box scores back then, but Norton, 58, avoided them for the same reason he steers clear of on-demand gameday updates today (live broadcasts of NFL games usually air between 3am and 6am in Japan).
“There’s always drama within the game,” says Norton.
Doubly so when there’s an in-game atmosphere any Member can enjoy.
“What’s the difference between the Buffalo Bills and a dollar bill?” quips New England Patriots fan Denis Duran, 51, repeating a joke he shared recently at Traders’ Bar. “A dollar bill’s good for four quarters.”
“Watching games at Traders’ has the camaraderie, the ribbing of other fans,” says lifelong Dallas Cowboys follower Ken Hoofard, 62, of the Club’s hub for televised sports. “It kind of transports you back home.”
“There may be fellow Patriots fans or there may be Patriots haters,” says Duran of his polarizing hometown team, “but everyone can take a joke. It definitely improves the fan experience to have someone in the seat next to you to root with or against.”
Following an unprecedented 2020 and a 2021 spent adapting to the new normal, both the NFL and the Club are once again drawing crowds. At Traders’, partitions are gone, hours have been extended and Members are free to dine and drink with as many fans as they please.
With wild-card matchups starting January 16 and the climactic Super Bowl on February 14, the stage is once against set for Norton, Hoofard, Duran and every other gridiron fanatic at the Club to don their team colors and mix it up with one another—both friend and foe.
“If the Cowboys are leading in the fourth, I’m loud and proud,” says Hoofard. “It’s fun that way, especially around a bunch of rival fans.”
Even for devotees of less successful franchises, just the promise of postseason glory is sometimes all it takes to represent your team.
“After decades of losing, I never go in with much pride,” says Norton, who remembers Buffalo’s heyday in the early ’90s. “But the atmosphere at Traders’ is definitely something I try to show up for.”
NFL Playoffs at Traders’
Wild-card round: January 16–18; divisional round: January 23–24; conference championships: January 30
Super Bowl at the Club
February 14 | New York Ballroom, Traders’ Bar
Words: Owen Ziegler
Top image of Ken Hoofard and Denis Duran: Yuuki Ide
