Sports bars get basketball boost

A steady stream of patrons filed into an upstairs room Thursday afternoon at Stats, a downtown Atlanta restaurant plastered with flat-planel TVs.

Swett & Crawford, an insurance wholesaler, had reserved space for a March Madness viewing party for about 200 clients and employees.

“It’s a great way to bring everyone together,” said Steve Sadler, Swett & Crawford’s chief operating officer. “It’s a common theme.”

Around the corner at CNN Center, attendees of a nearby dental convention were grabbing seats at Dantanna’s. For 25 years, Robert McLaughlin, a dentist from West Chester, Pa., has been attending the convention in Atlanta and sneaking in games at a local restaurant.

“I called and complained one year because they didn’t have the meeting during the first round of games,” McLaughlin said.

With the NCAA tournament cranking up and the national news dominated by a dismal economy, Atlanta sports restaurants and bars had reason to cheer Thursday. They were banking on basketball fans to provide a recession-proof sales boost.

Hooters, Stats, Dantanna’s and Taco Mac all said they anticipated more guests during the tournament and expected those guests to stay longer than usual.

Stats, owned by Concentrics Restaurants, had advance group bookings for Thursday at noon for about 400 guests, including the party from Swett & Crawford.

“People are working so hard now,” said Josh Zimmer, Stats director of sales. “If they can find a chance to recharge and relax, they need to take it.”

Hooters, an Atlanta-based chain with about 450 outlets, also was expecting a strong showing for the NCAA tournament.

“I think you’ll have a lot of people playing hookey, going to lunch at Hooters and never going back to work,” said Mike McNeil, vice president of marketing for the Atlanta-based chain.

Hooters starts its promos for college basketball as soon as the Super Bowl ends. Its biggest sales are during the summer as vacation business spikes, McNeil said, but March Madness is the second-biggest period.

“Using sports is a way to market to our customers and attract them to our restaurants,” McNeil said. “Once you have football taken care of, the next big opportunity is basketball.”

The first two rounds of the NCAA tournament have traditionally been the busiest four-day stretch of the year for his Buckhead location, Dantanna’s founder David Clapp said. The downtown location at CNN Center opened in March.

Some customers will spend nine hours at the restaurant, Clapp said. “People will go through two meal periods,” he said. “They’ll have lunch and then they’ll have dinner.”

Taco Mac, which has almost 30 outlets in metro Atlanta, expected a strong Thursday and Friday lunch crowd, said Bob Campbell, president of Tappan Street Restaurant Group, which owns Taco Mac. It will staff Saturday like a college football weekend.

Even with the recession, people are expected to show up for games, Campbell said. Sales were up during the football season despite a worsening economy, he said.

“What we’re providing is a great atmosphere,” Campbell said. “You’re still there cheering with everyone else. … Games are as much a social interaction as anything else.”

In fact, for the local restaurants, the primary concern in March Madness isn’t the economy. The big question is whether a school with a local fan-base will make it far in the tournament.

“If an ACC or SEC team can make it to the final game, that’s definitely a bigger impact,” Campbell said.