BOX Sports Bar & Kitchen has partnered with Empty Chairs to launch weekly mental health and social connection meets across its seven venues in England.
Beginning on Monday 14 September, each BOX venue will reserve a dedicated Empty Chairs table every Monday from 7pm.
A member of the BOX team will host each gathering, welcoming attendees, making introductions and helping create an informal environment for people to meet and talk.
The events will be free to attend with no advance registration required, while hosts will be identifiable by orange hoodies.
The initiative will run alongside BOX’s Monday Night Football offer, although attendees will not need to be interested in football to participate.
The partnership has been developed around the role hospitality and leisure venues can play in supporting social connection and providing accessible places for people to meet.
The first gathering will take place on 14 September ahead of the Leeds v Newcastle United fixture, with BOX CEO Martin Wolstencroft joining the event at BOX Leeds.
Tom Mayer-Jones, BOX Brand and Marketing Manager, said: “Sports bars have always been places where people come together, but we wanted to think about how we can make that sense of community more intentional.
“Partnering with Empty Chairs gives us the opportunity to create a regular, welcoming space where people can walk through the doors on a Monday evening and know there’s a place for them to meet people and have a conversation.
“We know that hospitality venues can play an important role in bringing people together, and this partnership is about using our venues and our teams to facilitate those connections in a simple, informal and authentic way.
“We’re really looking forward to seeing how the meets develop across all seven venues and aiming to create something that becomes a meaningful part of the BOX community.”
James Hutt of Empty Chairs said: “Empty Chairs is built around a very simple idea: sometimes the hardest part of meeting new people is taking that first step through the door.
“By partnering with BOX, we can make that step a little easier by creating a regular, informal space where people can come along, meet others and have a conversation without any pressure or expectation.
“Monday can be a difficult night for people. The weekend is over, the working week has started, and for many people it can be one of those points in the week where you can really feel disconnected.
“Monday Night Football Meets allows us to meet people in a space that already exists, rather than asking them to seek out something completely new, so we’re really excited to be rolling this out across all BOX venues and to see how the community develops week by week.”
The weekly initiative will operate at BOX Piccadilly in London, BOX Deansgate in Manchester, BOX Brindleyplace in Birmingham, BOX Sheffield, BOX Nottingham, BOX Leeds and BOX Headingley.
The partnership forms part of BOX’s wider aim to use its venues as social spaces beyond their core sports viewing offer, while giving Empty Chairs a regular hospitality setting in which to develop its community-led approach.