Bears' Den: Hershey's New Sports Bar

Bears’ Den:
Hershey’s New Sports Bar

Late last month, Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company announced plans for the newest addition to their already extensive line-up of entertainment complexes — The Bears’ Den, A Sports Bar. Slated to open in January 2000 at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, the 5,000 square foot, 200-person capacity sports bar will be themed around the Hershey Bears hockey club and designed to emulate a hockey arena.

From ceiling to floor, the complex will resound with the elements of the Bears, hockey, and sports in general, with the focal point of the Bears’ Den being the 9’ x 12’ video wall above the bar. Capable of showing both one image or four separate images, the video wall is just one of 28 televisions that will be broadcasting sports from all areas within the facility.

In addition to the obvious electronic amenities — the television monitors and the tickertape-like screens that will be programmed to continuously display the latest in sports scores — the interior of the Bears’ Den will also draw heavily from the history of the Hershey Bears franchise itself. In fact, the Bears’ Den was named as such to create a direct link between The Bears hockey team and the Bears’ Den in the Hersheypark Arena which boasts a display of hockey memorabilia and autographs.

According to Ronald Lustig, AIA, ISHC, principal design architect at Earl Swensson Associates, the sports bar’s interior design group, the memorabilia-related concept was an obvious choice. "Memorabilia displays will progressively lead patrons inward toward the dining and bar areas, which have all the visual elements of an actual hockey rink. An ice effect will be achieved with special floor treatment." In addition to the ice-like floor, the Bears’ Den will also boast stadium seating, tabletops that look like hockey pucks, a fully functional broadcast booth and dasher boards along the bar that will add to the all-hockey theme.

Conveniently located at an intersection between the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, the Bears’ Den promises to become the perfect meeting place for sports-minded fans of all types — guests and citizens of Hershey alike.