The partying Scots enjoyed themselves thoroughly and then showed respect to their host city.
Thousands of soccer fans from Scotland swarmed into Boston to march in their kilts to the stadium for the World Cup, visited a Boston Red Sox game, and then emptied the bars of beer.
“We’ve been here for over 30 years, and we’ve never seen anything like it,” Billy DeCain of the Sam Adams Boston Taproom said, adding that his bar had to place emergency calls for beer supplies.
“Pretty much everything. We ran out of everything,” Paul Morris of the White Bull Tavern stated.
“The White Bull Tavern, there was no beer,” Scottish fan Dave Orr said. “The Scottish fans just drank the place dry, and all they had was Bud Light.”
Hennessy’s Bar reported tripled sales for St. Patrick’s Day and completely ran out of beer Saturday.
“We’ve been here for over 30 years, and we’ve never seen anything like it,” Noelle Somers, Hennessy’s COO said.
The Tartan Army cheered on their team to victory against Haiti with a score of 1-0. Afterward, about 5,000 fans marched in a victory lap to Fenway Park, where they cheered on the Red Sox to win 6-3 over the Texas Rangers.
And then they cleaned up after themselves.
Boston Parks and Rec worker Dana Bell was astounded by the Scots’ drinking and their cleanliness.
“They deep, man! And they can drink too! What? Are you kidding me, man? They must not got no water over there in Scotland!” he joked.
“After they’re gone, I’m one person cleaning up after them, man, and it ain’t that bad,” he continued.
He added: “They came, conducted themselves with class, dignity, man. And they like our city, so … I’m happy they came, man.”
A Scottish fan named John told reporters they wanted to be respectful to their hosts.
One Scottish fan gently chided Americans for their lack of imagination in their lone soccer chant.
“Scotland’s got a million songs; we’ve got loads,” Brian Davidson said. “I think you need to get some new songs, though. You seem to only have one song, ‘USA! USA!’ You need some more imagination.”
Scotland will play Morocco in Boston on Friday. Hopefully the bars have prepared.
