WEMU's Hidden In Plain Sight has a new, fresher look with our podcast-format reboot of the classic segment. To kick off this next chapter, we're highlighting Conor O'Neill's Pub in Ann Arbor. Take a look at the unique sports-viewing experience it provides and the interesting people who passionately attend.
Joshua Nieman Soccer. The United States barely had any clue what it was until approximately two decades after the rules of the modern game were written. In 1884, the American Football Association was formed, and, for the first time ever, a bona fide cultural connection with the sport was formed in the U.S. However, if we trace all the way back to the inception of soccer, and I do mean inceptions, plural, we find ourselves in places like Greece, Rome, China, and Mesoamerica all at once. You see, the beauty of soccer is that it didn't just come from one place. Its pieces originated from all over the world, and that legacy as the world's game accumulates every four years into the tournament that spans the globe, the World Cup. Welcome to WEMU's Hidden in Plain Sight, the show where we shed light on some of the people, places, and things that help comprise who we are as a community. Today we'll be exploring the World Cup capital of Washtenaw County, Conor O'Neill's, or as the regulars call it, The Pub, located in Ann Arbor. Now, I didn't give a hoot about soccer for about 18 years after I stopped playing Little League in preschool. But then, all these years later, I start hearing rumblings of it throughout American pop culture. People start talking about it. People I'd never expect to talk about it start talking it. It comes to my attention that the Americas are hosting the World Cup for the first time since 1994. And apparently, there's a certain place to be in the area to watch it all go down. Conor O'Neill's opened its doors for the first time on April 17th, 1998, and eventually established itself as a hub for people from all over the world, particularly, though, the English crowd. On July 15th, I traveled to the pub to watch the match between England and Argentina and experience the magic for myself. As I waited outside for the establishment to open to the public for the day, I met my first two English pals, Robert and Andrew, both of which had been in the area much longer than I expected. Here they are, respectively.
Robert Well I met my now wife at Cedar Point in 2017, so I eventually got married to her and she lived in little old Hudson and we just recently moved to Chelsea and yeah the rest is history I guess in between.
Andrew For me, my family emigrated here in 1980. My father was a banker in England. And he came over here. We had some cousins in Ann Arbor, one of them was a dentist. My dad realized that he really wanted to move from England. We were young. I was 15. And I had a brother and a sister, a year younger and a year younger than my brother, my sister was. And so he got a job. And they held the job for him for two years while we got our visas. Our permanent resident cards and we emigrated. When we landed here we landed in Ann Arbor and we spent three months at the campus end while my dad looked for a home and we ended up in Dexter and I ended up doing my last year and a half of high school in Dexter.
Joshua Nieman When asking how they found their way to O'Neill's, I wasn't too shocked to find that they were craving a little slice of home.
Robert I only found it at the start of this World Cup and I was chasing a bit of British culture before that or just soccer fans in general but it's been hard but I come here and it's full of them, I love it. So, this is going to be my regular from now on.
Andrew I come here typically every four years for the World Cup, and I'll come here some other times for other sporting events when England's playing. But yeah, this is the place to be when the World Cups on.
Robert Like in England football ties people together and and when I'm in there, that's what it feels like again - it feels like we're all tied together just enjoying the love of football
Andrew Yeah, for me it's where just out of the woodwork it seems like all the Brits congregate for you know, England matches and then you got the food that goes with it and get good shepherd's pie while I'm watching the match and you know obviously the British beer. So it's like the closest you can get to feeling like an English pub with you know food and just being around a lot of English culture.
Joshua Nieman As we waited and continued to chat, I started to notice something a little peculiar. It was two hours before the game would begin, and already a crowd was starting to form around the front door.
Past Joshua Nieman I am here waiting outside to get into Connor O'Neill's pub. There is a little group of British folks waiting outside. It's very interesting. I'm really starting to see what my friend at the table is talking about.
Joshua Nieman Occasionally, employees would pop out and remind everybody that the pub wouldn't open for another 10-15 minutes. That was amusing within itself, but then I started to notice something else odd. The amount of employees walking in. I've worked as a waiter before. I have some idea of how many staff members it takes to handle a rush. Or at least, I thought I did. People kept walking in for work. Bussers. Hosts. Waiters. Bartenders. I began to get nervous. Nothing spoke to just how crazy this building would get more than the volume of workers showing up.
Past Joshua Nieman All right, looks like everybody's going in.
Joshua Nieman Upon entering, I could see why this felt like home for the English. Vintage furnishings and antique-looking equipment filled the area. A host found me a nice small table in a corner near the front that seemed reserved for small groups of one or two. I watched as my new friends Andrew and Robert took no time finding their seats amongst a larger English group. I imagined how it must feel being so far away from where you were born and eventually finding a place that is tailor-made for bringing that experience to you. The pub was also deceptively big. Upon my first time standing up from my table and walking around, I realized that spaces for seating just kept going and going far beyond what I could see from my tables. I asked a handful of employees, Joe, Pierce, and Liam, what to expect, and they all basically had the same answer.
Joe It's just a great energy here, especially when there's a ton of people in here. Everybody's here for the same thing. So like, you don't get that in a lot of places for soccer, especially. Everybody's coming here specifically for this, so it's just a good energy.
Pierce This is about the craziest I've seen it in a while. World Cup is pretty nuts. Football Saturday is also pretty nuts during the school year. Yeah, it gets wild.
Liam I think another thing is that this is like a traditional Irish pub, it's a huge part of it. The energy is always over the top which is a lot of fun for us to be able to watch from behind the bar.
Joshua Nieman Shortly after, people really started streaming in, and eventually all the tables around me were full. I was lucky enough to get one of my table neighbors, Dave Edmonds, to explain his history with the pub.
Dave Edmonds Every four years we're here religiously for at least a few of the matches. I think with U of M campus, I've always been amazed that you see people from the actual countries sometimes. I remember when we lost to Ghana, 1-0, and there were three Ghanis, Ghanians, in this corner, sitting here with their flag and celebrating, and it was just amazing to be in Ann Arbor and watch people from Ghana celebrating their homeland. So that's what I love about Connors in Ann Arbor. If you didn't have to get a second mortgage for a pair of tickets, we would have gone to one of the games. But yes, it's very exciting to see this added enthusiasm with the matches being in the US finally.
Joshua Nieman That sense of erasure of international boundaries was something I would continue to see and delight in as the evening went on. Like Juliana, for example, a woman I met who isn't from either country represented in this match but still came to show her support anyway.
Juliana I'm from Brazil, so I was rooting for them, yes. And then they lost, and I kind of stopped coming, but I came today. Everybody knows that we have to come here to watch the games, and then we can get together here. And I think, especially for the Brazilians, we decided that that was our place, and we talked to them to tell them that we were gonna come, and that we needed space for everybody, and they were very open for it, yeah.
Joshua Nieman By this point, there was one hour left until the game started, and all the seating was already taken. To explore around and talk to people, I had to push through crowds of standing patrons. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. The energy and connection was infectious, and surprisingly humbling. I didn't know the chants, but I wish I did. I didn't have anyone to reconnect with. Many people seemed to remember each other from the last World Cup, and pick up exactly where they left off. You see the experience. It wasn't just a soccer game, it was reunions, date nights, family bonding. Just listen to these two, mother and son, Laura and Liken Vogel.
Laura Vogel It's our first time. We were sent here by the concierge at our Hilton over in Birmingham. We had to ask him where we could go and get an England crowd. And he said to come here. I explained that this is a once in a generation thing for a kid growing up in the UK. And I said, it's really important. I was going to go down to Thomas McGee's in Greektown. And he's like, well, you might be able to get in there. But if you come out here to Ann Arbor, you'll definitely be able to get, you know, get to see the game and there'll be about 400 England fans. So we said, oh my gosh and got in the car and drove out here.
Joshua Nieman And what's your experience been so far?
Liken Vogel It's been really good, there's tons of England shirts here, I'm loving it, it's good. The last bar I went to there wasn't too many England fans and I think anyone knew what was going on on the screen.
Laura Vogel Oh, so I grew up in Michigan, and we've come home for a last-minute family visit and unplanned in the middle of the World Cup, and so my son, you know, has to see these games. In fact, his sister is playing for the Women's Elite Rugby League, and we were able to get over to Chicago to see them, but her first game in the Women’s Elite Rugby League, he couldn't watch it because he had to go see England in the quarterfinals, which is going to go down in family history as a very contentious call there.
Joshua Nieman So if you ever want to experience a slice of another corner of the world, the pub has fashioned itself over the years into a one-of-a-kind sports viewing experience. And according to general manager Brendan Murray, the road up to this point has been remarkably straightforward.
Brendan Murray Since we opened in 1998, we kind of made ourselves a go-to spot for soccer just by being open and having the games on. In the late 90s and early 2000s, there weren't many places that would show Premier League games or La Liga games on the weekends, you know, opening up at 7 o'clock in the morning, 8 o' clock in the morning, to make just a space for soccer fans to be able to watch their games with each other. So I think... That was kind of the foundation and we just kind of continued to grow - continue to grow our own fan base and our own notoriety for being a soccer bar.
Joshua Nieman Connor O'Neill's, the Ann Arbor bar that soccer built. I'm Joshua Nieman, and this has been WEMU's Hidden in Plain Sight. Who knows where we'll shed light next? Thanks for listening.
Joshua Nieman I guess I’ll start with you. Would you mind telling me your name?
Robert Yeah, Robert.
Andrew Andrew.
Pawan Oh, my name is Pawan.
Ray I'm Ray.
Pierce My name is Pierce.
Laura Vogel Laura Vogel.
Liken Vogel Liken Vogel.
Juliana My name is Juliana.
Joe I'm Joe.
Liam I'm Liam.
Dave Edmonds Dave Edmonds.
Brendan Murray Brendan Murray.
Joshua Nieman Have you guys noticed an increase of interest in soccer or football over the last couple years in America?
Robert I think so, yeah, I have.
Andrew Yeah, I've noticed a lot of my younger friends or friends I work with, colleagues I'll say, their kids are a lot more into soccer than they are American football now.
Pawan More people are getting into the biggest sport in the world. So that's pretty cool.
Ray I mean, I would say the same, I think soccer is that one sport which like ends in like a two and a half hour window so it's like it's not even that long of a game you need to watch.
Liam I would say, yeah, especially with the World Cup being in the U.S. Right now, this is one of the busiest World Cups we've ever had, yeah.
Liken Vogel Like yeah, a lot more people are going to the games. It's because they had the Club World Cup and then they followed up by the World Cup. So they've had two tournaments in a row. So a lot of more people are getting into like football over here, which is good. I talked to other people over there. They said they've been to four games in Seattle. I haven't been to all of them, so yeah.
Juliana Wow, I don't know that answer. I think soccer is not the most popular sport in America, but I feel like in Ann Arbor we have so many people from around the world, and then it's just popular in that way. We have a big group of people that are fans of soccer, football, yeah, I dont know.
Dave Edmonds Absolutely, that was the thrill of it being in the United States and Canada and Mexico.
Brendan Murray Yeah, definitely. I think with every World Cup, it's grown more and more in terms of fandom and especially now this year with the World Cup being in the United States for the first time since 1994, I think we've seen a huge up kick across all the matches, not just the U.S. Matches.
Joshua Nieman Awesome, it was fantastic talking to you both, I appreciate it.
Music in this episode provided by Adam Plomaritas.
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