Work out your footprint before you spend a penny. Screen placement, power runs, shelter, and the flow between bar, kitchen and customer all need thinking through up front. The outside space has to work as a proper service area in its own right, not somewhere you've bolted on at the last minute.

On a busy match day you'll shift more bottles, cans and draught than any normal session. Bottle coolers, glass chillers and back-bar fridges are usually where outside bars come unstuck, so this is the bit to get right before you worry about anything else.

Half time is 15 minutes. That's your whole window to turn tables, clear glasses and reset for the second half. A glasswasher placed properly outside is often the difference between coping and losing the room.

Sharing plates, loaded chips, burgers: the food offer matters as much as the drinks during a tournament. Work out what you can actually do at volume outside and kit the space out for that. Heated display units and compact fryers will do most of the heavy lifting.

These three always get forgotten until it's too late. Evening kick offs run well past sunset, so plan your lighting now. Power runs need to cope with screens, fridges and card readers all going at once without tripping. And ice. A busy outdoor bar will get through more ice in one match than on a normal Saturday, so factor in an outdoor ice machine from the start.