Watching sports in Provo is genuinely harder than it is in a comparable American city, and almost every guide explains that with one word: culture. That is not wrong, but it is not the mechanism, and the mechanism is more useful if you are trying to find somewhere to sit down at 6 p.m. on a Saturday.
The mechanism is licensing.
Why There Are Almost No Sports Bars Here
Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services issues different retail licenses for different kinds of room, and the differences decide who is allowed through the door.
A restaurant with a liquor license can serve you a drink, but it has to confirm you intend to order food first. You do not have to order before the drink arrives, but you have to signal you are eating — and complimentary bread or chips do not count as a food order. Restaurants are family-friendly and everyone is welcome.
A bar establishment can serve without any food purchase. Food has to be available the whole time the bar is open, but there is no required proportion of food sales.
A tavern is beer only, has no food requirement at all — and this is the decisive part: no one under 21 may be employed by, or be on the premises of, a tavern. Not seated in a separate section. Not with a parent. Not at all. An approved ID scanner is required for anyone who looks 35 or younger.
Now apply that to Provo. This is a city whose population skews dramatically young because of two large universities, where the default social unit is a group that frequently includes someone under 21, and where a big share of the population does not drink at all. A room you can only enter at 21, whose economics assume people drinking through a three-hour game, is a hard business to run here — not because the city forbids it, but because the addressable market for that specific room is small.
So the format that survives is the restaurant with screens. That is not a compromise, it is a rational response to the license structure. The rest of Utah's alcohol rules — including the state's 0.05 per cent DUI threshold, the lowest in the country — are covered in our Provo nightlife guide.
A Correction Worth Stating Plainly
There is no Buffalo Wild Wings in Provo. Earlier versions of this guide said there was, on University Avenue, and named it as the city's default sports venue. Both halves of that were wrong.
The nearest full-service Buffalo Wild Wings is at 575 E University Parkway, Orem, in the University Place complex — a different street and a different city. There is a second full location in Lehi, and two counter-service Buffalo Wild Wings GO outlets in Lindon and Payson, which are built for takeaway rather than for sitting through a game.
If you were driving to a Provo BWW on our advice, that is on us.
Inside Provo
These are the realistic options within the city. Where a place is a restaurant that happens to have televisions rather than a venue built around them, this says so, because that distinction determines whether they will have your game on.
Wingers Restaurant and Alehouse
1200 Towne Centre Blvd, Provo — near Provo Towne Centre
The most straightforward answer inside Provo city limits: a bar and grill with an alehouse license, wings on the menu, and Sunday afternoon hours, which is rarer here than it sounds. It is a chain and it is not trying to be anything else, but it is open, it is in Provo, and it serves the food you want while a game is on.
A Beuford Giffords Libation Emporium
190 W Center St, Provo
Known universally as ABG's, and genuinely one of downtown Provo's long-running bars — neon, pool tables, live music on Fridays. It keeps late hours Tuesday through Saturday and opens Sunday evenings, which makes it one of very few Provo rooms available for a Sunday night game. Being a bar, expect the 21-and-over reality that comes with the license.
Slackwater
4801 N University Ave, Provo — at The Shops at Riverwoods
Worth stating because people get it wrong constantly: Riverwoods is in Provo, not Orem, despite how often it is filed under Orem. Slackwater is a pizzeria and pub with a very deep beer list and one of the better patios in the valley, and it is open seven days including Sunday. It is a restaurant first and a screen venue second — go for the food and the atmosphere, and check before you count on a specific broadcast.
Station 22
22 W Center St, Provo
A good downtown restaurant with screens, and two things to know before you plan a game around it. It runs split hours — a daytime service and a separate evening service with a closed gap in between — so an early-afternoon kickoff can collide with a mid-afternoon close. And it is closed Sundays. Treat it as a Saturday-evening option, not an all-day one.
Note there are two Station 22s in Utah County — this one on Center Street in Provo, and another on Main Street in American Fork. They are related but not the same room.
Just Outside Provo — Where the Real Sports Bars Are
Ten minutes of driving changes the picture completely.
Bout Time Pub and Grub
568 N Mill Rd, Vineyard
The closest thing in the valley to a conventional American sports bar: a proper pub and grub operation, open 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. seven days a week including Sunday, in the entertainment complex alongside the cinema. It is licensed as a bar, which means ID at the door and no under-21s, so it is an adults' outing rather than a family one. For an NFL Sunday or a late West Coast tip-off, it is the most reliable room within a short drive of Provo.
Buffalo Wild Wings — Orem
575 E University Parkway, Orem
The wall-of-screens option, at University Place. Open every day including Sunday, and late Thursday through Saturday. Reviews of this particular location are noticeably rougher on service and wait times than the chain average, so arrive well before kickoff on a big Saturday rather than assuming you can walk in at five to.
Callie's Cafe and Sports Bar
466 N State St, Orem
An unusual and useful hybrid — a long-running diner that is also a sports bar, opening at 5 a.m. every day. That early open is the point: for the 11 a.m. Mountain Time NFL kickoffs it is the easiest place in the valley to be sitting down with breakfast and the game already on. It closes early on Sundays, though, so it covers the morning slate and not the afternoon one.
Wing Nutz
1054 S 750 E, Orem
Fewer screens than the big chain a mile away, better wings by common local account, and open until late every night including Sunday. A reasonable answer when you want the game on in the background rather than in your face.
The Sunday Problem, Solved Properly
Sunday is the single biggest planning problem for sports in Utah Valley, and generic advice is not much help. Here is the shape, from verified hours:
Open Sunday: Bout Time in Vineyard, all day and late. Buffalo Wild Wings in Orem. Wing Nutz in Orem, until late. Slackwater at Riverwoods in Provo. Wingers in Provo, afternoons. ABG's in Provo, evenings only. Callie's in Orem, mornings only.
Closed Sunday: Station 22, Black Sheep Cafe, and a long list of other excellent downtown Provo restaurants.
The practical rule: for an early kickoff go to Callie's; for an afternoon game go to Bout Time, Buffalo Wild Wings or Slackwater; for a Sunday night game ABG's and Bout Time are the ones still open. For everything else, see our restaurants open on Sunday guide, which also covers the transport trap — UTA's FrontRunner and UVX do not run on Sundays, so "take the train up to Salt Lake for the game" is not a Sunday plan.
What Channel Is It Actually On
There is no Big 12 Network. Earlier versions of this page said there was; there is not, and there never has been.
The conference's media package runs through ESPN, FOX and TNT Sports, with the 2026 season being the second year of that arrangement. Individual non-conference games land elsewhere — CBS and NBC both carry Big 12 teams in 2026.
The change that matters most locally: the conference's second-tier rights now sit with ESPN+, where they used to sit with BYUtv. If your mental model is that BYU games are on a free local channel, that model is out of date, and it is the single most common source of "why can't I find the game" in this valley.
How the 2026 season opens for BYU, as scheduled at the time of writing:
- Utah Tech at BYU, 5 September, 6:00 p.m. MDT — ESPN+
- Arizona at BYU, 12 September, 1:30 p.m. MDT — FOX
- BYU at Colorado State, 19 September, 5:30 p.m. MDT — CBS
- Iowa State at BYU, Friday 9 October, 8:15 p.m. MDT — ESPN
That Friday night home game is worth circling for a reason beyond television: it is the one date where stadium traffic stacks on top of the regular Friday commute. Our BYU football game day guide covers what that does to the roads.
The rest of the season's networks and kickoff times get announced on twelve-day or six-day notice, which is why no guide can print a full-season TV grid. The Big 12 Championship is set for Friday 4 December at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, on ABC — BYU were the runners-up in 2025.
One recurring trap: the Big 12 publishes many times in Central Time and Provo is Mountain. A game listed at 2:30 starts at 1:30 here. People miss the first quarter over this every season.
UVU, and the Team Nobody Tells You About
Utah Valley University is in Orem, and its Wolverines now compete in the Big West Conference, playing at the UCCU Center on campus. Tickets are cheap, the building is intimate, and for a Provo resident it is a fifteen-minute drive rather than a fight for parking. If you want live college sport on a weeknight without the BYU price or the BYU crowd, this is the answer, and almost no visitor guide mentions it.
Beyond Football
Football dominates the calendar, but it is a three-month window and the rest of the year has its own rhythm.
BYU basketball plays at the Marriott Center on campus, and it is the easiest big-time live sport to actually get into in this valley — tickets are cheaper than football, the building is enormous, and a weeknight game is a genuinely low-effort night out. Big 12 basketball runs across the same ESPN, FOX and TNT family as football, with ESPN+ again carrying part of the slate.
BYU volleyball deserves a mention that most guides skip. It draws real crowds here, it is televised on the conference's networks, and the atmosphere in the Smith Fieldhouse is closer to a football crowd than a neutral observer would expect.
March Madness is the one week a year when every screen in Utah Valley is showing the same thing and the venue problem solves itself — but it is also the week those rooms are fullest, so the reservation advice above applies double.
Utah's Pro Teams
The professional landscape changed substantially in the last two years and a lot of local advice has not caught up.
Utah Jazz — NBA, at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
Utah Mammoth — NHL. The franchise arrived as an expansion team for the 2024-25 season under the placeholder name Utah Hockey Club, and became the Utah Mammoth for 2025-26 after a fan vote. It shares the Delta Center with the Jazz, and it reached the playoffs for the first time in franchise history in spring 2026. If your picture of Utah sport does not include an NHL team, update it.
Real Salt Lake (MLS) and the Utah Royals (NWSL) have both been under Larry H. Miller Company ownership since 2025.
All of these are a drive north. For a Provo household, they are an evening out rather than a casual Tuesday.
Watching at Home
Given how thin the venue landscape is, a lot of Provo watches at home, and the setup question is simpler than it looks.
Get a live TV streaming service that carries ESPN, FOX and TNT, then add ESPN+ for the second-tier games. That combination covers the overwhelming majority of a BYU season across sports.
Bandwidth is not your problem here. Provo's fiber history means household internet in this city is unusually good for its size — see the best internet providers in Provo.
Apartment common rooms are an underrated option in a student city; many complexes have a lounge with a large screen that sits empty on a Saturday afternoon.
And the Obvious Point
For a BYU home game, none of the above beats being there. LaVell Edwards Stadium seats over 62,000, runs a no-bag policy rather than a clear-bag policy, and is a genuinely loud building on a good night. See the BYU football game day guide for tickets, parking and the bag rules, the Big 12 visiting fans' guide if you are coming in from out of state, and where to eat before or after a BYU game.
Related Guides
- BYU Football Game Day Guide
- Big 12 Visiting Fans' Guide to Provo
- Where to Eat Before or After a BYU Game
- Best Wings in Provo
- Provo Nightlife
- Restaurants Open on Sunday
- Late-Night Food in Provo
- Best Internet Providers in Provo
- The Provo & Orem restaurant directory — the Provo and Orem half of this list, with addresses, in one filterable table
Venue addresses, cities and opening hours verified August 2026 against current listings for each business; the Buffalo Wild Wings correction reflects that no Provo location exists in those listings. License categories and the under-21 tavern rule are from the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services' own published license descriptions. Broadcast details are from the Big 12 Conference's and BYU Athletics' own announcements, which cover only the opening weeks plus selected later games; the rest of the season is announced on short notice. Hours and broadcast plans change constantly — confirm with the venue and with the current schedule before you drive.
Frequently Asked Questions
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