Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Thursday marks the return of one of the most popular and anticipated sporting events on the calendar every year: The opening of March Madness and the NCAA men's college basketball tournament.
The tournament's Round of 62 kicks off on Thursday with 16 games taking place starting at 12:15 p.m. ET and lasting all the way through the evening hours. The last game on Thursday tips off at 10:05 p.m. ET. Friday will also feature 16 games as part of the Round of 64 before the teams start to dwindle down and a champion of college basketball is crowned on Monday, April 3 at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
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As the teams taking part in this year's tournament gear up for a run at winning a national championship, many bars and restaurants across the country are also gearing up for an influx of people taking in live games and watching their favorite teams take part in the tournament. This includes several local businesses in Western New York.
"This is one of our favorite times of the year. One of the reasons we got into the sports bar industry was just for tournaments like this. We're prepared," said Paul Santora, owner of Santora's Pizza Pub and Grill. "We've got a ton of new 1927 Brewhouse beers, so we're ready to roll out a substantial beer list for [Thursday]. ... One thing we create, I think, in all of our sporting events, especially something like this, is energy. We really love the energy that the guests bring, and obviously the event itself, and we're really excited. It's one of those few moments like the Buffalo playoff, football, and it just brings a lot of joy to us."
"We're getting all ramped up. It's a great time of year," added John Bona, owner of Amherst Pizza and Ale House. "We've got extra staff on, we've got all of our coolers and stuff stocked up with all of everybody's favorites. We expect a lot of pizza, wings, finger foods. With all of the TVs we've got in our place, it's a real nice push. It's great to see everybody coming out. Hopefully the sun is shining, as people are going to their favorite place to watch the games, and the games never let us down."
For owner of Sidelines Sports Bar and Grill, Hillary Collura, she, too, is anticipating a large crowd, basically making things first come, first serve for customers.
"We have tons of extra beer coming in, a lot of foods being prepped. We do a lot of our finger foods homemade here, so we have extra staff in the kitchen getting that stuff ready," said Collura ahead of the tournament. "Just putting a game plan together on how to accommodate as many people as we can, because we are getting ear-fulls of [people] coming. So we're pretty excited about it."
This year's tournament will, once again, not be featuring any of the local Division-I college basketball teams, with the closest team to get a sniff of a conference championship being Niagara University in the Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference semifinal round.
Despite no local team playing for a NCAA championship this season, businesses still anticipate seeing plenty of people packing the bars and restaurants, while still supporting their favorite college program.
"It's a little bit better when we have some local teams to pull for, but they really seem to be competitive games and big surprising upsets," Bona said. "With the amount of TVs we got, we give everybody a way to watch them all."
"It seems like there is a group of people that kind of go towards the local community, as far as that program goes, but I think that overall, it's just the excitement of college basketball," Santora added. "It sums it all up, and I think everybody kind of roots for somebody, and then just enjoys that ability to watch them perform and watch the basketball games. I love them myself, and I'm not a huge basketball fan. It's so exciting to watch."
While the opening days of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament seem to be the best turnouts for the crowds, businesses can agree there are always a decent turnout for the games headed towards the end of March Madness.
"Especially the first couple days of the tournament, a lot of people, they have their brackets and they have a lot of time and hope invested into the teams," Collura said. "It's something that I think a lot of people do yearly together, so it's an event that they look forward to, to enjoy a day out with their friends. I think it's gonna be the same as if it was in Buffalo, like it has been in the past. People return with their same groups that they were here the year before, so I think it's gonna be just as big."
"We see better crowds coming right out through the entire tournament, but yes, there is a little bit more of a push the first four days," Bona added. "We do, like, 20% more in business every day the first four, and then even more than that during the daytime hours. There's a lot of people, groups calling up trying to get some reservations, making a day of. It's pretty fun."
The 2022 NCAA tournament was a significant one for local businesses in Western New York for a couple of different reasons. One being it was the first chance for people to enjoy the yearly tournament and celebrate with others since the COVID-19 pandemic complicated matters. Plus, especially in Downtown Buffalo, businesses were packed with fans from other areas of the country with some games in the tournament taking place at KeyBank Center.
If last year's NCAA tournament didn't allow for local bars and restaurants to feel a sense of normalcy again, this year's tournament certainly should.
"It seems like everything, as a whole, people getting out and enjoying the time and the restaurant culture has just been fantastic. Just this year and towards the middle to the end of last year, I think people are excited to be out again," Santora said. "I think that's going to be the difference between this year and even last year, where it was kind of still trickling in everybody's mind. Now everybody has the ability to go out and feel safe, and I think everybody, especially in the restaurant industry, has created a safe environment for everybody, and I think everybody enjoys that. So I'm expecting better than usual numbers this year."
"I think that obviously things were much different during COVID, and it did scare some people, but I think people have learned to adapt and they're careful in their ways, maybe they don't spend so much time in public certain times," Collura added. "People are ready just to get back to their normal times out."
As bars and restaurants make sure staffing, as well as food and beverage preparations are all in order before the busy couple of weeks ahead, there are other concerns that certain businesses have moving ahead.
For Bona at Amherst Pizza and Ale House, he says it's making sure the TVs in his business are always on the best games.
"It's really on one or two people on staff to try and switch the games that are super competitive, or an impending upset in the final minutes of a game to get it on that main TV for the last stretch run of a game so it's on with audio and all that," Bona said. "It's a good time, everybody has fun."
As for Collura, her main concern will be the ability to accommodate for as many people as possible.
"At Sidelines, when people come to watch the games, we don't ask anybody to have a timeframe or etc. I just hope that people are understanding that I can't take reservations, because the guests that are enjoying [their time], I would never want to ruin their fun," Collura explained. "That's really our only concern is that people are understanding of the fact that these are long days with these games, and we don't know how long people are going to be hanging out for. But all-in-all, people seem to really understand, so hopefully it just stays that way."