THE GARAGE BHOYS-
TRUE CELTIC FC FANS DEDICATED
TO THE GREAT GAME OF FOOTIE!
Established in 1888, the Irish/Scottish rooted Celtic Football Club has become one of the best and most popular soccer teams in Europe and worldwide.
So popular, in fact, that the Glasgow, Scotland based team has several nationwide fan clubs included in the North American Federation of Celtic FC Supporters.
One of which is based right here near Fresno in Clovis, California!
Albeit small, The Garage Bhoys fan club (Bill Charters, Ian Mclean, Paul Timlin Dean and Leona McCluskey) have been broadcasting LIVE Celtic FC games for six years now.
Being a soccer/Celtic fan myself, I had to find out what this club was all about.
I visited the home of Bill Charters, president of the club, where he hosts every live game in his garage in which he turned into a real pub!
Complete with Celtic FC banners, autographed pictures with stars of the team, a full bar, comfy couches, a big screen T.V., AND super friendly people with British and Scottish accents...this was definitely a site to see! :)
Garage Bhoy/President-Bill Charters
So when did you start The Garage Bhoys Celtic Fan Club & Pub? Well we officially started it in late 1998.
What gave you the idea to do this? Actually, I went to the clubs and the pubs around here at the time to see the interest in starting a supporters club for the Celtic fans in this area and everybody said, YEAH. They were really interested! But when they heard that we’d have to broadcast the live games at 4 or 7 in the morning, they said, “you're crazy, we’d never get that going!” So, the next best thing was when my wife said to me, “why don’t you convert YOUR garage into a pub?”
Wow! So how many members do you currently have? We have four members at this time and we watch every single game live. In fact, there was a game this morning at 6 o’clock and three of us were here this morning.
How do you guys do it? How do you manage to get up so early to watch every game? Well basically I just set the alarm, get the tea on and wait for the other guys to come… dedicated fans.
I see! You said you have four members, has the club always been this small? At one time we had nine members. But unless people are really dedicated to coming to watch the games so early, it becomes a novelty and they fall away.
How do you broadcast the games? Through Setanta Sport (the home of live commercial international sports broadcasting). You have to be a member of the North American Federation of Celtic Supporters to get a special rate. Every club pays different prices depending on the size of it, etc. Us being so small, we pay the least, I think. We’d love to have more members as Celtic plays 40+ games a year and it can become really expensive!
I bet!
Ok. Say a person wants to catch a Celtic vs. Rangers (their longtime rival) game or any other Celtic match but they just can’t make it to the pub at 4 o’clock in the morning! Do you tape the games for the fans? For 10 bucks you can buy a tape of each game. That’s what keeps us going, really. Because if we didn’t have people buying the tapes to support us we would fold. Everytime that T.V. turns on to broadcast a live game it costs us 100 dollars.
Even if you're not a Celtic fan, watching an exciting sports event with good people is definitely worth getting up early in the morning!
For $50.00 dollars annually or $10.00 a game you get to watch one of the worlds best soccer teams on a big screen T.V. with the camaraderie of friendly and dedicated fans PLUS you will enjoy the atmosphere of a real British pub complete with a full bar for those of you who like your morning glass of wine or imported European beer...all provided The Garage Bhoys!
And if that's not enough to get you out of bed, breakfast is included with the price of admission!
So go to bed early the previous night, wake up early and bring your friends!
Enjoy the great game of soccer and see what the rave is all about!
If you are interested in joining the club or coming to a game contact Bill Charters at: garagebhoys@hotmail.com & for more information about the Celtic FC soccer team,
