Denver investor buys Sportscaster; plans minor changes in operations

FORT COLLINS — A Denver restaurateur has acquired the Sportscaster Bar and Grill, 165 E. Boardwalk Drive, with hopes of pumping new life into the nine-year-old sports bar.
Jeff Johnson, who owns a Dairy Queen franchise in Littleton, said he wants to make minor changes to the operation, which was founded in 1995.
“I think I am going to try to clean it up a little bit inside,” Johnson said. “I am thinking of another big screen or projector screen. I would like to bring in some live music – things like that.”
Johnson, 39, acquired the business assets of Sportscaster for $150,000, according to documents filed with the Fort Collins Liquor License Authority. He bought the business from Hoffers Sports Bar & Grill Ltd. and Boardwalk Management LLC, an ownership group headed by Fort Collins businessman Tom Anderson.
The former owners continue to own the 6,793-square-foot building and have signed a long-term lease with Johnson, the Liquor License Authority records show. However, Johnson said he has an interest in buying the building, which was built in 1984.
Anderson was not available for comment on the sale.
Johnson is taking over a business that appears to be slumping. Johnson said Sportscaster has not been profitable.
“That was why they were willing to get out of it,” he said of the sellers.
Sportscaster was possibly hurt by the city’s smoking ordinance, which took effect last fall. The law banned smoking in bars and restaurants that earn more than 25 percent of their revenue from food.
From its founding in 1995, Sportscaster established a niche as a “non-smoking” sports bar. When the law applied the no-smoking rules to all competing restaurants, it caused Sportscaster to lose its exclusivity, Johnson said.
“That kind of hurt it,” the new owner said, referring to his research in the business.

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