Hot Teams Add Business Sizzle

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Hot Teams Add Business Sizzle

It's not just the Bengals and Bearcats that are winning this fall.

From sports bars to apparel stores to television stations to grocers, local businesses are seeing unprecedented surges in business as a result of the dual success of Cincinnati's professional and collegiate football teams.

It's evident in the team-colored bagels now for sale at Marx Bagels in Blue Ash, the orange and black nonpareil candies at Graeter's, the Rey Maualuga and Kevin Huber jerseys at downtown's Koch's Sporting Goods and the trendy red and black Bearcats tees and sweats at the six area Victoria's Secrets stores.

Even restaurants in Washington, D.C., and New York City can thank our local teams for sometimes hundreds of Cincinnati fans congregating on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

"People are in a better mood," said Emily Hoyt, general manager of the Keystone Bar & Grill in Covington. "They come before the games, they come after the games, and they're more apt to buy rounds of shots for their friends when the teams score a touchdown."

This year's sports fever is based on both teams' top league rankings: The Bengals lead the NFL's North division, and the Bearcats are atop the NCAA's Big East.

The 7-2 Bengals have built their best record since 2005. Growth in television ratings for the team's games top the NFL at 38 percent. The Bengals' average local rating is fifth highest in the league.

The Bearcats, with a 9-0 record, played the No. 1 rated game this season on ESPN2 against West Virginia. After next Friday's game against Illinois airs on ABC, the team will have had two national television appearances for the first time in program history.

Excitement sells

The critical mass of fan support is driving businesses to more closely align themselves with these two top teams.

Gold Star Chili, an official sponsor of the Bengals, saw 20 percent more business on Oct. 28 when it offered 99-cent coneys in celebration of the Bengals' winning season, said Gold Star CEO Mike Rohrkemper.

Uncle Woody's bar and restaurant in Corryville has grown its business 25 percent in the past year, owner Lori Levy said.

"Fans want to be around the excitement, so they still come from the suburbs to Clifton to feel the buzz," she said.

Mount Adams-based Four Entertainment Group installed new flat-screen televisions at its six local bars to take advantage of the growing interest in Cincinnati football. It's seeing double the traffic at its bars on game days, and on its bus shuttles to and from Keystone and downtown's Righteous Room to Paul Brown Stadium, said Morri McDowell, the group's marketing director. To draw in more fans at Keystone, five Miller Lite bottles are sold for $9 on Bengals game days and $10 on Bearcats days.

Local Kroger stores are seeing high weekend sales of game-day food like party trays and chicken wings. Surges in beer and liquor sales happen before and directly after games let out, said Rachael Betzler, a Kroger spokeswoman.

So long Buckeyes

At the many retailers that sell officially licensed Bearcats gear, average sales are up more than 50 percent, said Marty Ludwig, the University of Cincinnati's director of trademarks and licensing. More than 80 new retailers have started carrying licensed gear this year including 60 local Kroger stores, five Target stores and the Victoria's Secret locations.

For the first time in recent history, Bearcats merchandise has a better position than Ohio State Buckeyes gear in local Meijer, Walmart and Kmart stores. It's even in the windows of the Cincinnati/Northern Northern Kentucky International Airport gift shop rather than buried deep in the store.

"Retailers were somewhat hesitant to make the buys and position us the same as Ohio State," Ludwig said. "We've proven we're not just a small city college."

Particularly helpful to sales has been the 'Buckeye State' t-shirt the college launched when the team overtook Ohio State in the polls, Ludwig said.

Downtown's Koch's is selling three times as much Bengals and Bearcats merchandise as last year, owner Chris Koch said.

If both teams keep winning, he expects business to meet 1988 levels, the last time the Bengals appeared in the Super Bowl.

"It was just crazy around here all the time then," he said. The store has performed so well that Koch started running commercials on WCPO for the first time in the retailer's 100-year history.

Beyond Cincy

Even beyond the region, Bengals gear sales are on the upswing.

Sales of Bengals merchandise on nflshop.com are up more than 30 percent through the end of October from a year ago, said Joanna Hunter, an NFL spokeswoman. The Bengals still haven't hit the league's top 10 teams as far as volume, but its growth is one of the most impressive.

"There is definitely a direct correlation between performance on the field and those teams selling well, especially the surprise teams like the Bengals," she said.

But even as individual businesses grow their business as a result of the winning teams, winning teams does not necessarily provide a big boon to the regional economy, said Elizabeth Gustafson, an associate dean and professor of economics at the University of Dayton, who has researched the economic impact of sports.

"If these things are bringing people downtown and they wouldn't have otherwise come, it's good for the core city but bad for the suburbs," she said. "They're substituting one form of entertainment with another."

Still, the UC's Economics Center for Education & Research calculated $15 million in additional economic impact in 2005 when the Bengals last made the playoffs, said Jenn Pitzer, a research associate with the center.

"The greatest impact may be longer term if they continue to have winning teams. It will generate more interest and attachment," she said.