Indy businesses experience boom from Super Bowl

Despite the recent nationwide economic slump, the Super Bowl provided a financial boost to many Indianapolis restaurants.

With the influx of visitors from both around the state and around the country, business owners experienced more business and
greater revenue.

Stuart Robertson, owner of MacNiven’s Restaurant and Bar located on Massachusetts Avenue downtown, said this was true for his business.

“Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty normal days, and things picked up a bit on Thursday night,” Robertson said via email. “Around 1 p.m. Friday was when it started to get busy, and it stayed that way all the rest of the day. We have a door guy on for St. Patrick’s Day, our busiest day of the year, and we had one on from 1 p.m. Friday until after the game on Sunday night. Most of the time, we could only let people in if we were letting people out at the same time.”

Several other restaurants — particularly those closest to the Super Bowl Village — did this as well. Doormen would lock the doors behind customers and then let several new people in every time people left. An official at one of these stores said the purpose was crowd control.

“I was here all weekend,” Robertson said. “The place was packed, the people were great, polite, well-behaved. The vibe was electric.”

Britni Fischer is the manager for the Starbucks located on Monument Circle. She said her store also experienced much more business.

“It was really exciting,” Fischer said. “There was a lot of energy, and customers were great. We saw of course tons of people from the suburbs of Indianapolis but also lots of people from out of town.”

She said her store also saw several celebrities during the week.
“We had Stephen Baldwin in the store,” she said. “There was a Conan O’Brien sighting. But I think that was about it.”

Although Fischer declined to give actual numbers for the increase in revenue or business, she said there was a definite increase. She also said they brought in extra help to handle the crowds.

“We were lucky enough to borrow a lot of different partners from
Indianapolis stores, and that helped us out considerably,” she said.

Data for the business overall during the week is not yet available, but Dianna Boyce, director of communications of the Super Bowl Host Committee, said anecdotal evidence of positive gains for restaurants abounds.

“Many of them extended their hours and made sure that they had staffing in order, made sure they had supplies and food ordered,” she said. “We really have gotten some very positive feedback.”

She said she believes the effects extend beyond downtown and even beyond the Super Bowl.

“Certainly it had a ripple effect that was beyond Indianapolis,” Boyce said. “I do think that the time and the sweat and the energy that most people put into that certainly will have long-term benefits. People will come back that maybe hadn’t been
here before.”

In the future, Boyce said it wouldn’t surprise her if Indianapolis was asked to play host to other large events.

“I think it opened the eyes of the world that Indianapolis is a viable location for a lot of things, if we can do a Super Bowl,” she said.

But for the event of the Super Bowl itself, Robertson said he was satisfied with how his business and staff performed.

“Before the recession, I would take my staff to the Rawhide Ranch for a night over Memorial Weekend,” he said. “We stopped doing it. It would be all my staff and their partners, we would rent the entire property and have a huge party. It was great fun. With the way the staff performed this past weekend ... I’ll be calling the Rawhide Ranch.”