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Bills games at night or day? Which is better for bars?

Danny's South owner says business booms regardless, while one downtown bar owner says it depends on kickoff time

Danny's South
Brayton J. Wilson - WBEN

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Do you like Buffalo Bills games to kick off at 1 p.m. or 8 p.m.? For some business owners, they face the same question each football season.

No matter the time of kickoff, Mark Ebeling opens up Danny's South early on game day Sunday.


"We're opening our lot at 8 a.m. It's actually insane. I can't believe that people come so early for games like that. They're long days those kind of games," said Ebeling, referring to the Bills' prime-time game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.

From a business perspective, Ebeling has no preference, but personally, he prefers early kickoffs.

"When it's a later crowd, people just hang around and they don't get rides home, stuff like that. It's crazy," Ebeling said with WBEN." The 8 o'clock game, it gets over at midnight. The Ubers don't show up, the taxis don't show up. It's hard for these people to get out of there. But I don't mind them all. They all make money."

He does say later kickoffs mean longer days where he's more tired come Monday.

Jay Manno of Soho and Frankie Primo's 39+ says prime-time games almost always help, especially if they're away games. But which restaurant has more success? He says that depends.

"We might lose a little bit Sunday night, because nobody's going to a 7pm dinner at Frankie Primo's, but we'll do better on Saturday night, Sunday day, because of the amount of people that are in town for the game to the action that's downtown," Manno said.

Overall, he doesn't mind prime-time games.

"It's the price of being good, and I think good over bad all day long," Manno added.

The Bills have four more prime-time games this season after Sunday night's season opener.

Danny's South owner says business booms regardless, while one downtown bar owner says it depends on kickoff time