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Super Bowl a big deal for area fans, sports bars, too

Restaurants and retailers  do brisk business ahead of and during game day.

Charles Caperton

ENLARGE PHOTO

Charles Caperton

ENLARGE PHOTO

Charles Caperton

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer Updated 10:59 PM Sunday, February 5, 2012

Super Bowl Sunday is an important day for NFL fans, as well as the restaurants and retailers that provide football party staples such as chicken wings and beer.

“It’s the last of the great football days,” said April Baker, a regional manager for the Miamisburg-based Fricker’s restaurant chain.

Area Fricker’s locations were expected to be busy during Super Bowl XLVI, which was played Sunday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Baker said about 65 percent of Fricker’s business Sunday was carry-out food for home Super Bowl parties. Customers started calling with orders as soon as the restaurants opened and would continue through halftime, she said.

“We ramp up staffing, we ramp up our inventories. We are ready,” Baker said.

The National Restaurant Association estimated that 48 million Americans ordered takeout or delivery food while watching Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI.

In addition, 12 million were expected to visit a restaurant or bar to watch the big game.

“The Super Bowl definitely is a great time for us,” said Greg Saul, general manager of Buffalo Wild Wings in Kettering. He said crowds typically are best when a team with a local following such as the Cincinnati Bengals or Pittsburgh Steelers is playing.

It wasn’t just food that fans were consuming while watching the Super Bowl.

Sunday beer sales were “fantastic” in advance of the big game at Arrow Wine & Spirits in Washington Twp., said Charlie Marsh, an assistant manager. “It’s probably the busiest Sunday of the year,” he said.

The Super Bowl ranks as the seventh-highest occasion for beer sales, according to The Nielsen Co., a research firm. In the two weeks surrounding the event, 49.3 million cases of beer are sold, compared with 60.1 million for Labor Day, a Nielsen survey said.

This year’s Super Bowl contenders both featured players from the Dayton area, New York Giants tight end Jake Ballard from Springboro and New England Patriots left tackle Matt Light from Greenville.

Phil Peterson of Kettering remembers watching Light play football for Greenville High School. “I am pulling for him, naturally,” he said. “He has had such a spectacular career.”

Tim “DJ Bear” Bignell of Dayton said Indianapolis “really has met the challenge of hosting a Super Bowl.” The city benefitted from the region’s unseasonably warm weather this week and has attracted large crowds, he said. Indianapolis is about 117 miles west of Dayton.

Rob Otis of Oakwood, a Boston native and Patriots fan, visited Indianapolis last week with his family to see the city’s Super Bowl Village. He said they watched a live broadcast of ESPN’s “Sports Center” and his sons ran a 100-yard dash in a giant hamster wheel.

“Hopefully, they will do it again in Indy. It was a lot of fun,” Otis said.

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen @DaytonDailyNews.com.

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