Bristol sports programmer ESPN this week closed its sports-themed restaurant/retail store in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor along with four others, leaving only two remaining on the West Coast.
The Baltimore location was the first ESPN Zone when it opened 12 years ago as part of ESPN’s experiment with sports-theme restaurants, The Baltimore Sun reports.
The Walt Disney Co., ESPN’s parent, also shut, effective Wednesday, four other Zone venues in Chicago, New York, Las Vegas and Washington D.C. The company previously closed locations in Atlanta and Denver.
“The overall economics of continuing this operation were very challenging,” Rob Tobias, vice president of communications at ESPN headquarters, said Thursday.
Two Zone sites in Los Angeles and Anaheim, Calif., remain.
The dining rooms feature tiered seating flanked with TV screens, game-arcade areas and retail shops.
