I heard about this thread on Saturday when I was in Aggieland and was debating over whether or not to reply once I got to read it, so here we go. I need to get rid of this rookie posting status somehow.
Personally, I think the beer's as good at Pub Fiction as it is anywhere. Service gets slow when it is crowded, so I just order from the bar more often than not. I like the food there. The place works just fine for me, and the crowd is generally pretty clean so I'm not worried about a bar brawl. I don’t have a problem parking on the street because it’s free.
I don't know about the tennis shoes, I've been in before with sandals and shorts on for early game watching parties and stayed late but felt really underdressed. I generally come from work and I'm usually wearing cowboy boots and slacks, so I don't catch any flak for the dress code.
Besides the apparent dress code upgrade, part of the problem could be that there are newer folks working the door. After the last GWP vs. t.u. the place filled up to capacity and I needed to get a buddy in late (who happens to run Houston A&M club). I've been there enough where most of the staff knows me, but there were two new guys at the door and they still wouldn't let him in even when I came and asked. I even pulled rank since it was a Howdy Club event and asked them if they'd like me to go get the manager to come up and let him in, and they didn't budge. We got him in through another way, but that was really beside the point.
We will most likely keep Howdy Club game watching parties there for one simple reason - Pub Fiction treats Howdy Club right. Most other bars give us trouble at one level or another, and we have never had any as an organization with Pub. The location is good for our members. The place has TVs everywhere except the head. The service gets slow, but it doesn’t suck near as bad as other places we’ve had the game watching parties in the past.
There have never been any yells after any game under my charge that I remember, but I was in Austin for the t.u. game last year so maybe I missed that particular episode. Personally, I think the War Hymn after a win is a nice touch since it is the official party location, but yells are a little much or you'd see me go up and lead them myself after a win. If a couple of folks went to the front and led yells, I wouldn’t have stopped them even if I had been there. By my figuring, that’s a lot better than you dirty *******s who don’t wash your hands after you take a piss, and when you do that wearing an A&M shirt some t-sip will just say that all Aggies were raised in a barn because they don’t wash their hands. Whatever.
You don't have to go to the "Official" location to watch the game – I’d like everyone to come out and have a good time, but I won’t lose any sleep if they don’t - but there are people in the world who don't know a lot of folks in town and want to watch the game at a central location. On the one side I hear, "Don't have an official location" and on the other side I hear that Howdy Club doesn't have their stuff together because they didn't make an announcement for where everyone is watching the big game. As they say, you can't please all the people all the time...