Local bars and retailers that cater to sports fans are enjoying as much as a 50 percent jump in business since the start of the National Football League season last week.
"Football is king of all the sports. That’s what we wait for all year long," said Nolan Uehara, owner of Champions Sports Bar & Grill, known primarily as a San Francisco 49ers bar. "This year the interesting thing is Marcus Mariota. People are just interested in watching him. They may not be Tennessee fans, but they are so proud a local guy’s in the NFL."
The closest NFL team may be 2,400 miles and a couple of time zones from Honolulu, but that doesn’t stop fans from packing sports bars at 7 a.m. on Sundays, snapping up NFL goods, and spending thousands on trips to the mainland to watch their favorite team. While it’s difficult to get an exact figure for the economic activity the NFL generates in Hawaii, anecdotally the impact appears large.
Sales at Champions typically jump 50 percent in September with the start of the NFL regular season.
The bar opens early on Sundays and adds an extra shift of workers to serve the roughly 50 to 60 football fans who arrive at 6:30 a.m. to eat breakfast before the games begin.
“We never open anything Sunday morning except for NFL football,” said Uehara, who shows all the games simultaneously on 15 largescreen TVs spread throughout the bar. “It’s pretty crazy because you have every TV with the sound up. That’s when we do the best.”
Between bar hopping, fan apparel and trips to watch his favorite NFL team, Nathan Jeffrey, 44, who was at Champions Monday evening watching the San Francisco 49ers beat the Minnesota Vikings, said he spends as much as $8,000 a year following the 49ers.
“It’s more than just football. I love my team. I’d do anything for my team,” said Jeffrey, adding that his love for the team started when his father took him to 49ers games at around 8 years old when they lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. “I grew up with football. I don’t like any other sports, just football. So that’s why during basketball season or baseball season, I don’t spend a lot of money. I save up for the football months.”
Giovanni Pastrami’s 200 seats are full every Sunday morning with a one-hour wait to get in, said manager Russell McGuire.
“When the football season comes around, our average sales increase by $7,000 to $8,000 per day or more on a Saturday or Sunday. That’s about a third of our sales,” he said. “Week in and week out, we see the biggest numbers during football season. We sell more alcohol than food.”
It was standing room only at Home Bar & Grill on Kalakaua Avenue during this week’s Monday night game, where at least 100 people were watching football. “We do pretty well throughout the year, but it does jump anywhere from 10 to 15 percent in sales during the football season,” said owner Chris Tai.
Walter Howard, area supervisor for Papa John’s, said the NFL season is the busiest time for the pizza business, but even more so this year as locals support Mariota.
“Every year when NFL football starts up, we get a nice little increase. Mariota specifically is helping,” he said, adding that Papa John’s hires an extra 30 to 40 delivery drivers for its 14 locations during the football season. “We had a busier-than-normal Sunday (between 10 and 20 percent) for sure with the Mariota game. It kicks off really with football.”
Best Buy has seen a double-digit bump in sales, and more customers purchasing 65-inch or bigger ultrahigh-definition flat-panel TVs to watch the games, said Terrence Ryan, manager of the Aiea store.
“We’ve definitely seen more traffic because of the football season,” Ryan said. “We’ve been pounding on traffic. It will be definitely a good start to the holiday season.”
Michael Henderson, owner of Star Apparel, which specializes in team jerseys for the major professional sports at Windward City Shopping Center in Kaneohe, said sales of Mariota jerseys, starting at around $100 each, have contributed to a 15 to 20 percent boost in revenue this year.
“That’s probably been our most popular. We’ve sold more of him than any other player this year,” Henderson said. “We’re on our third order from the manufacturer. We’ve got a local product, a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, second pick of the draft, who’s now in the NFL, and he’s also performing at a high level. That’s always having an impact on sales because we’re selling merchandise that would otherwise have not been sold.”
In addition, Hawaii fans heavily support about a halfdozen teams that include the 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers. “Whenever those core teams are doing well, that’s when you feel a surge in business,” Henderson said.
“It really is a week-byweek progression, so what I’m hoping is that the core teams win each week,” he said, “because when you have impressive wins, their fan base comes out to support by purchasing merchandise. When your team’s winning you want to fly the colors. That’s kind of how it works.”
Henderson is expecting at least a 30 percent increase in sales during the December peak for both the holiday season and the NFL playoffs.
“That’s the crescendo,” he said. “Obviously, this is our season. Football is huge in Hawaii. There’s so many people who follow and support the NFL. It’s phenomenal — but it always is.”
