Check, please
If an NBA lockout drags on, businesses will cry 'foul'
Posted: Wednesday June 24, 1998 04:17 PM
| |
Businesses around NBA arenas are preparing to feel the crunch of the lockout as well (Jonathan Daniel/AP) |
ATLANTA (CNN/SI) -- On a nice cool November night in downtown Phoenix, when
the Suns are playing at America West Arena and people are streaming into
the city, A.J. Sulka can expect maybe 1,000 people in his bar and
restaurant on Second Street.
Without the Suns -- a possibility if the owner-imposed lockout stretches
into the regular season -- the restaurant pulls in maybe 200-250 patrons.
It's a scenario that could cost Majerle's Sports Bar and Grill, the
restaurant Sulka owns with former Suns player Dan Majerle,
several thousand dollars per game night.
"That would have a big impact," Sulka said. "When you have any business
downtown, you're relying on the Suns, the [NHL's Phoenix] Coyotes, the
[Arizona] Diamondbacks [of Major League Baseball], the [Arizona] Rattlers
[of the Arena Football League] and the [WNBA's Phoenix] Mercury. And
concerts. You pull any of them off the map, it hurts."
Losing the Suns, who average better than 19,000 fans a game for 41 home
games and the home preseason schedule, would especially hurt.
"You don't have those 41 gravy nights," Sulka said. "We can come up with
some pretty clever promotions. But I don't know if you can think of enough
clever events to make up for that."
Sulka doesn't envision the lockout, if it happens, affecting the staffing
at his business. And he still holds out hopes that it won't happen -- or,
if it does, that it will be short-lived.
"I just think that the NBA is such big business," he said. "But, I don't
know. Baseball is big business, too, and they messed up ...
"I'm hoping [the lockout] will be brief. If I find out it's going through
the preseason, though, that's when I get nervous." -- John
Donovan
The NBA Labor Talks
Next story
| 
