St. Louis Area Spots to Watch the FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup kicks off next week, and as everyone is well aware, the summertime event has been moved to fall because host country Qatar is surface-of-the-sun hot in the summer.

Now in addition to football and hockey, we can put soccer on TV to avoid talking to our families this holiday season. The games will be on Fox, but many will be shown on its FS1 cable outlet due to all of the other sporting events going on this time of year.

As with all international sporting events, if you want to catch a game live it will be at an unusual time, since Qatar is nine hours ahead of St. Louis. The U.S. Men’s soccer team will be playing at 10 p.m. in Qatar, which is 1 p.m. in St. Louis.

In Stage 1 of the World Cup, the U.S. is in group B, with the following matches:

• U.S. vs. Wales: Monday, November 21, at 1 p.m.
• U.S. vs. England on Friday, November 25, at 1 p.m.
• U.S. vs. Iran on Tuesday, November 29, at 1 p.m.

The biggest challenge to see the matches will be to get off of work if necessary (or to surreptitiously watch from work). But there are some games that will start at 4 a.m. St. Louis time, and some soccer fans not only want to see those games live, but they want to see them as sporting events were meant to be seen — at a bar. In St. Louis, bars must close at 1:30 a.m. (depending on the license, some bars can stay open till 3 a.m.) and cannot start selling alcohol until 6 a.m. (Some might question what the point of this 3 to 4 and 1/2 hour ban is… but we digress.)

Here are bars that will offer expanded hours for World Cup games. We were unable to find one that would be open at 4 a.m. but if you know of one, let us know.

Amsterdam Tavern
3175 Morgan Ford Road, 314-772-8224
You can watch all the reasonably scheduled games at Amsterdam Tavern. It’s a soccer bar, so it takes its World Cup viewing seriously, but it also can't legally open at 4 a.m. So the tavern will stay closed. Plus, when reached by phone, an employee pointed out that none of the 4 a.m. games are particularly important. (Sorry, Argentina and Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Croatia, Switzerland and Cameroon, and the other teams with the 4 a.m. slot… but I mean, he’s kind of right?)

CITYPARK Stadium
2100 Market Street
The stadium has officially been christened. And while maintenance there works on repairing the elevator St. Louis broke in its excitement on opening day, you can head to the stadium for World Cup watch parties. (You may need to take the stairs.) The Brew Pub and ULTRA Club will be open for screenings. Brew Pub is first come first served, and Ultra requires free ticket reservations. The schedule for Brew Pub watch parties is here, and ULTRA Club’s is here.

International Tap House
1711 Ninth Street, 314-621-4333
6217 Delmar Boulevard, University City; 314-553-9704
The International Tap House is going to be open for a lot of World Cup viewing. It will  open most days at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. for games. Check their instagram for details. The bar is even planning to open up on Thanksgiving morning at 10 a.m. so folks can watch the game (it will not be open that evening). The volume will be up for all U.S. Men’s Team games, and the bar will show repeats of the 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. games in the evening. Plus, they’ll have some special locally brewed craft beers on hand for the occasion.

Beffa’s
2700 Olive, 314-571-9367
Beffa’s will be open on Mondays and Tuesdays, when they’re normally closed, to show World Cup games.

9 Mile Garden
9375 Gravois Road, Affton; 314-390-2806
Starting Sunday, 9 Mile Garden will start showing FIFA World Cup matches on the big screen. There will be drink specials and a rotation of food trucks. They will also have a viewing on November 26 starting at 1 p.m., November 27, starting at 10 a.m., and through December. Check Instagram for more details.

Draft Kings at Casino Queen
200 South Front Street, East St. Louis; 618-874-5000
We thought for certain that Draft Kings at Casino Queen would end our quest to find a place that’s open at 4 a.m. and showing World Cup soccer games. Casino Queen shut us down. Draft Kings will be showing the games, but will not be open at 4 a.m. Draft Kings opens at 8 a.m. on weekends and 9 a.m. on weekdays.

Your home
Address and phone redacted
Hey, it's winter. And all of you overachievers who want to get up before 4 a.m. to catch a soccer game (or maybe stay up past 4 a.m. to catch a soccer game) may just have to do it from the comfort of someone's couch, where the liquor can flow anytime you want it, and you don't need a staff to keep the place humming.

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