Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The 2023 National Football League season will come to an end this weekend in Las Vegas with Super Bowl LVIII taking place at Allegiant Stadium between the NFC champion San Francisco 49ers and AFC champion, and defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
While the teams have been preparing for the Big Game in Las Vegas since early this week, many local bars and restaurants in Western New York are also making their preparations, though with mixed expectations for Sunday's contest.
Despite the Buffalo Bills missing out on another Super Bowl this season, some businesses are still expecting people to stroll in through their front doors come Sunday's 6:30 p.m. EST kickoff.
"We definitely plan on being full," said Hillary Collura, owner of Sidelines Sports Bar and Grill in Depew and co-owner of the location in Downtown Buffalo. "We've had several calls for reservations, and people are definitely planning ahead of time to get their seats so they can watch the game."
"Just like any other Super Bowl, there's a little bit of a sourness in the air without the Bills being it. Otherwise, we're still moving forward," added Michael Rizzo, vice president of operations at Sports City Pizza Pub in Buffalo's West Side. "We've got a couple thousand pounds of wings coming on through. We've got a full staff on for Sunday and the weekend leading up to it. Really, we're just getting ready for, what the nation is calling, the 58th version of the Big Game. This will be out 20th version."
However, some businesses are more so gearing up for the weekend that will be for takeout orders with people hosting Super Bowl parties at home, or just taking in the Big Game from the comfort of their own couch.
"Seems to be an incredibly large number of people that have house parties and gatherings, and we're all loaded up, staffed up for it. Looking forward to it," said John Bona, owner of Amherst Pizza and Ale House. "We also do OK for the bar business and the restaurant side to watch on our TVs, but it is very heavily skewed towards it being a house party-type of event. But we're looking forward to it. Unfortunately our team's not playing in it, but we do have some teams to root for or against in that game."
As for co-owner of The Byrd House in Orchard Park, Brendan Biggane, his expectations have more to do with Friday and Saturday, and the hours leading up to the game on Sunday than it does for the actual Super Bowl itself.
"It's a big weekend, especially with the weather cooperating the way it has been this week. We're looking to have to a very, very busy weekend, but the actual game itself is actually a little bit more low key than it used to be, as far as people going out to bars to watch the game," Biggane said in an interview with WBEN. "You might attribute that to the 6:30 p.m. start, the hour-long halftime or whatever. If the Bills were in it, it would be a whole different story. But the actually game itself is a little bit tamer than it used to be back in the day."
Over the last several years, the Bills have played well enough to get to the playoffs and compete for the chance to play in the Super Bowl. However, Buffalo's chance has yet to come with early postseason exits in each of the last five seasons.
Does the Bills' recent lack of success in the postseason leave Western New York football fans in a state of, let's call it "postseason depression", causing a disinterest in the Super Bowl and plans to take in the Big Game at a local establishment?
While there is a sense of fans being let down every year with the Bills not playing in the Super Bowl, most businesses feel that fans will still tune in and make plans to head out for the Big Game.
"Fortunately for us, we do fill up, it's still a great time," Collura said. "It is a little bit more relaxed, nothing like a Bills game. I do assume a lot of people would not like to see Kansas City win this year, but it is what it is. People just want to enjoy the game, I think they do look forward to the halftime show, believe it or not. But it is sad. You can definitely feel the difference when it's not the Bills playing."
"People are still going to watch this game. It's got the viewership like nothing else we've seen," added Rizzo.
What Bona has noticed more so than anything is talk of what Bills fans may have done had they punched their ticket to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1993 season.
"We have some people talking about how they would've gone on their 'once in a lifetime trip' to go see the game in person, or other people saying, 'I wouldn't have left town for anything. I would've wanted to have been right here to hopefully experience a victory,'" Bona said.
However, there may be one factor that could be a deterrent for many local football fans this Super Bowl, and it is something all too many people in Western New York are familiar with.
For several years, many Bills fans tended to grow tired of consistently watching Tom Brady and Buffalo's AFC East rival New England Patriots playing in Super Bowl after Super Bowl, and that came over the span of nearly two decades.
Now Western New Yorkers are gearing up to watch Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs play in their fourth Super Bowl in five years, especially after Kansas City was the team ending Buffalo's postseason run prematurely for the third time in four years. It's a matter of "Chiefs fatigue" that may turn many fans away from watching or even paying attention to the Big Game this weekend.
"I think in Buffalo, more so than anywhere, it's anybody but the Chiefs. Had it been a Detroit-Baltimore Super Bowl, it would probably be a whole different story," said Biggane. "But you have the whole Brock Purdy story here, 'Mr. Irrelevant', I think that's going to draw some viewers. It is the Super Bowl, and - I hate to say it - Taylor Swift is going to draw a lot of viewers as well, but it is what it is. It's less about the game these days than it is more about the peripherals."
There's only one way Rizzo can sum up this year's Super Bowl for many patrons at Sports City Pizza Pub.
"I think the only way I can answer that is everyone I know is rooting for the 49ers, followed by a game cancellation, followed by rooting for the Chiefs," he said.
As for Bona, he can seen see how the Chiefs rivalry mirrors the rivalry Bills fans had, or wanted to have, with the Patriots for several years. What's interesting for Bona is how his customers are rooting for Super Bowl LVIII to pan out come Sunday evening, but it's not to the level many would like.
"We did a poll question, two of them on Twitter this week. We asked our followers to give their vote for first, 'Who are your rooting for in the game?' The results were about 90% of the people wanted the 49ers to win the game. And then we asked, 'Who do you think is going to win the game?' And about 60% of the people said they thought the Chiefs were going to win the game. People were pretty honest in their answers there, and it's evident that people in town are rooting against the Chiefs."
Kickoff this Sunday between the Chiefs and 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII is set for 6:30 p.m. EST.