Players Grille regularly hosts the Bills Backers, a Jacksonville-based Bills fan group. The plan to have a watch party was met with bad reviews from some Jags fans.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The battle between the Jaguars and Bills isn’t only on the field, it’s on Google.
The decision to host Bills’ watch parties landed one Jacksonville restaurant chain with a slew of one star reviews.
The owners of Players Grille want to set the record straight – all fans are welcome, and they do support the hometown Jaguars, too, even if some Google reviews beg to differ.
“If you ever see the Mandarin location, it’s painted Jags colors,” said Players Grille Corporate Manager Nick Dakuginow.
Dakuginow says when he opened Players Grille, he visualized it as a place for Jaguars fans to come together on game day.
“It just didn’t grow immediately for us,” said Dakuginow.
Then, a business opportunity presented itself from another local fanbase rooting for a not so local team.
“The Bills Backers reached out to us and we made that, ‘Yeah, we’ll support you guys, we’ll have you guys come in and its been amazing since then,” said Dakuginow.
Thus, it was a dream scenario of sorts for Players Grille when destiny pitted the Bills against the Jaguars in Jacksonville for the first round of the playoffs.
“Them being here, it’s the perfect storm,” said Dakuginow. “You can only imagine how many people have been wanting to come to Players Grille, so we decided to have parties here, at our Mandarin location and at our other spot.”
That dream scenario took a turn when Players Grille’s Google rating started to tumble, as several one star reviews poured in saying things like, “Local establishment that hosts and promote away fans instead of supporting the hometown team,” and “The best way to serve Buffalo is on a stick over the grill.”
“Nothing service related, nothing food related,” said Dakuginow. “It’s not like they didn’t have a good time because they didn’t come to our place. Just seeing about how ‘Jags don’t need your support,’ that’s disappointing and unfortunate for sure.”
Bills Backers got wind of the situation and answered back with a flood of five star reviews to cancel the one stars out.
Although the review battle rages on, Dakuginow says all fans are welcome all season long.
“We respect everyone. We love our Bills fans. We love our Jags fans,” said Dakuginow.
Perhaps the best way to end the war of reviews will be on the field.